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Filet mignon steaks — cut from the same tenderloin as lomo
A specific listing, not a search — check the weight and trim against the guide above before ordering.
Lomo is known in English as Tenderloin.
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Filet mignon steaks — cut from the same tenderloin as lomo
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Lomo literally means loin, but the exact English cut varies by country: tenderloin in some markets, loin or strip loin in others.
Also called
🇺🇸Tenderloin🇬🇧Fillet🇲🇽Filete🇫🇷Filet🇪🇸Solomillo🇵🇹Lombo🇧🇷Filé mignon🇮🇹Filetto🇩🇪Rinderfilet🇫🇷Chateaubriand↗🇺🇸Filet mignon↗
Rangermike at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons — Beef tenderloin.jpg
The tenderloin is the least-worked muscle on the animal, running along the inside of the spine, which makes it extraordinarily tender with a fine, buttery texture. It is lean with mild flavor compared to more marbled cuts. Individual steaks cut from this muscle are known as filet mignon. Best cooked quickly over high heat or roasted whole.
Which English cut does lomo mean?
Lomo is the loin or back area rather than one standardised muscle, so the animal it refers to changes with the country.
- Argentina, Uruguay
- Beef tenderloin — the cut this page is about. Also bife de lomo.
- Spain
- Usually pork loin. Beef tenderloin is solomillo.
- Mexico
- Usually pork; the beef cut is filete.
- Brazil
- The beef cut is filé mignon, meaning the whole muscle and not only the steak.
- Rule of thumb
- A fast-seared steak or a whole roast served pink is the beef cut; a cured slicing sausage or a slow-roasted joint is pork.
What it tastes like
Tenderness is the entire proposition. The tenderloin sits inside the spine and does almost no work, so the grain is fine and the texture is soft in a way no other cut matches. Flavour is the trade: it is lean and mild, and next to a ribeye or an entraña it tastes restrained.
That is why it so often arrives with something on it — a pepper sauce, a mushroom sauce, bacon wrapped around it. Those are not decoration. They are compensating for a cut that was bought for texture.
How to buy it
- Whole or centre-cut
- A whole tenderloin tapers, so the thin tail cooks faster than the head. Centre-cut costs more per kilo and cooks evenly, which is usually the better buy for steaks.
- Trimming
- Ask whether the silverskin is off. It is a tough membrane that does not render and will not soften with cooking, so it has to be cut away rather than cooked through.
- Thickness
- For steaks, thicker than you think — 4 cm or more. A lean cut this tender has no margin for a thin steak overshooting.
How it is cooked
Fast and hot for steaks, or roasted whole and carved. Both approaches exist for the same reason: the muscle has no connective tissue to break down, so slow cooking gains nothing and only dries it out.
It is lean enough to punish overcooking harder than a marbled cut does — there is no intramuscular fat to hide behind. Take it off before the temperature you want and let it rest.
Names by country
| Country | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 🇺🇸United States | Tenderloin | |
| 🇬🇧United Kingdom | Fillet | In the UK the whole muscle is called fillet; individual steaks are fillet steak |
| 🇲🇽Mexico | Filete | |
| 🇦🇷Argentina | Lomoprimary | One of the most prized cuts in Argentine cuisine |
| 🇫🇷France | Filet | |
| 🇪🇸Spain | Solomillo | |
| 🇵🇹Portugal | Lombo | Beef tenderloin in Portugal; lombinho is pork. |
| 🇧🇷Brazil | Filé mignon | |
| 🇮🇹Italy | Filetto | |
| 🇩🇪Germany | Rinderfilet |
What to ask for
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