Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Flip every two minutes.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

A butter knife cuts a decent fillet.

Are you sure you are being sold fillet mignon?

+100 I've never had a tough as leather filet, nor one wrapped in bacon.

I've heard of places wrapping steaks in bacon, however I think that a) they likely arent really filet, possibly baseball sirloin or tournedos. b) bacon and steak cook at drastically different rates. The bacon is either burnt and the steak perfect, or the steak perfect and the bacon raw and flabby. I also dont understand (and abhor) bacon wrapped around scallops. Scallops are overcooked to heck before the bacon even gets a smidge of color.

DP I attribute this phenomenon largely to the wrap-everything-in-bacon fad.

Another vote for Alton Brown's cast iron pan-seared steak recipe. You need to make sure your oven is clean though, because it can get smokey with the high heat.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

A butter knife cuts a decent fillet.

Are you sure you are being sold fillet mignon?

+100 I've never had a tough as leather filet, nor one wrapped in bacon.

I’ve heard of it.

It’s a food crime, but I’ve heard of it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

A butter knife cuts a decent fillet.

Are you sure you are being sold fillet mignon?

+100 I've never had a tough as leather filet, nor one wrapped in bacon.

I've heard of places wrapping steaks in bacon, however I think that a) they likely arent really filet, possibly baseball sirloin or tournedos. b) bacon and steak cook at drastically different rates. The bacon is either burnt and the steak perfect, or the steak perfect and the bacon raw and flabby. I also dont understand (and abhor) bacon wrapped around scallops. Scallops are overcooked to heck before the bacon even gets a smidge of color.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:how long each side for flier 1 1/2 inch thick. Oil also or just bare with the salt?

Too thick- At least for my cooking ability and to get the inside center cooked enough (medium) without turning the outside to burnt shoe leather. If you want your steaks cooked more than medium rare, try to stay around 1 inch thick, but not over.

This is where the reverse sear comes in helpful. If you cook it at a lower temp for a longer time, it has time to cook gently to the temperature you want w/o getting shoe-leathery. But it doesnt have the nice sear and crust and looks pretty meh, so it needs the sear at the end.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

Spoken like someone who has never eaten filet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

A butter knife cuts a decent fillet.

Are you sure you are being sold fillet mignon?

+100 I've never had a tough as leather filet, nor one wrapped in bacon.

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Might be too long in the oven?

- Start with decent product
- Place salt-coated in a sanitized half-covered container
- Leave out at room temperature, 45 to 90 minutes depending on cut
- When the meat is sweaty, get the heat ready.
- Cast iron searing hot
- Broiler on HI with top rack elevated directly under flame
- Sear each side 30-ish seconds
- Cast iron directly under broiler 120-ish seconds
- Flip
- Cast iron directly under broiler 120-ish seconds
- Rest

The cast iron + broiler simultaneously double sears your meat, with the added residual oven heat bringing the inside to temp. Adjust cooking times based on size of steak, or temp it prior to resting.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

A butter knife cuts a decent fillet.

Are you sure you are being sold fillet mignon?

Agree. I mean, it is literally called fillet mignon for a reason...

Filet mignon not infrequently has an off taste in and of itself. If it’s tough it’s overcooked and not adequately rested.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.

A butter knife cuts a decent fillet.

Are you sure you are being sold fillet mignon?

Anonymous wrote:how long each side for flier 1 1/2 inch thick. Oil also or just bare with the salt?

Too thick- At least for my cooking ability and to get the inside center cooked enough (medium) without turning the outside to burnt shoe leather. If you want your steaks cooked more than medium rare, try to stay around 1 inch thick, but not over.

Buy filet only from butchers.

Anonymous wrote:Tricks??? Mind always comes out leathery and this is even with filet. What am I doing wrong? I usually try to cook on cast iron and do two minutes a side and then oven and still tastes bad.

Not enough fat in your steak cuts obviously. Fillet mignon is notoriously tough as leather due to being so lean, so they wrap bacon around it to make it more palatable.