The Non-Beef Alternative That's Perfect For Filet Mignon Lovers

Filet mignon may be one of the tenderest cuts of beef, but it's also one of the easiest to cook at home (it's what makes this one of the priciest cuts). If you're a filet mignon fan on a burger budget, you may have tried in vain to find an affordable replacement. Around the turn of the millennium, Anthony Bourdain described the pavé or filet de romsteck as a "poor man's filet mignon," but good luck finding that cut at Safeway. Even if you can, it probably won't be too cheap these days. Good news, though — Koji Fujioka, manager at The Local Butcher Shop (an establishment that only lives up to its name if you live in Berkley, California), suggested a non-beef alternative that's not only readily available, but also quite budget-friendly: pork tenderloin.

Fujioka listed pork loin and tenderloin among several filet mignon alternatives, including more expensive options like veal loin and lamb loin noisette. As he explained: "The loin and tenderloin (yes, they are separate muscles) of these animals are tender because they are not the primary muscles the animal uses to move around," Fujioka told The Takeout. "Compare these to cuts of meat from the neck, shoulder, or leg — muscles that are being engaged constantly to graze, root around, keep the head up, and to trot and run around." Loins and tenderloins don't have much in the way of marbling, but "more importantly, they don't have as much connective tissues to chew through" as those tougher cuts.

So, how can you go about turning pork tenderloin into a reasonable filet mignon dupe? "Since pork tenderloin is the same muscle in pork as the filet mignon is in beef, tenderness will certainly be a defining feature of the pork tenderloin," Fujioka said. "Of course, that muscle in a pig is going to be significantly smaller than that in a cow and that will impact how one might approach cooking it." There's also the silver skin, a membrane on pork tenderloin that needs to be removed before cooking.

Once you've prepped the tenderloin, slice it into medallions between 1½ and 2 inches thick. Tenderloin, like filet mignon, can be pan-seared and served with a sauce. "If one wanted to imitate the flavor of a beef filet in the cooking of a pork tenderloin, the most straightforward thing to do would be to cook the pork with certain ingredients that are commonly paired with, and that pair well with, beef. Garlic, rosemary, sage, black pepper, cumin, and red wine, to name a few, would impart an earthy richness to the pork."

If you weren't looking for a filet mignon alternative for money-saving purposes, Fujioka offered another option. "Perhaps a less practical way to get a beefy flavor out of pork would be to seek out cuts from certain breeds of pigs that tend to have a richer, more meaty flavor than commodity pork such as Mangalica, Berkshire, and Red Wattle."