Buying guide · Lean or marbled

Filet mignon vs ribeye

Filet mignon is cut from the tenderloin, the psoas major, a muscle that barely works and carries little fat; the ribeye joins the longissimus and its spinalis cap, the most marbled of the premium steaks. So the filet is the more tender steak and the ribeye the richer: filet comes off the heat at 48–54 °C / 118–129 °F, ribeye a little later, at 54–57 °C / 129–135 °F, so that its fat softens.

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Also known as: Filet mignon và ribeyeLast reviewed 25 Oct 20267 sources

What is the difference between filet mignon and ribeye?

They are different muscles: filet mignon comes from the tenderloin (psoas major), the most tender and leanest steak muscle, and the ribeye from the rib (longissimus with the spinalis cap), the most marbled.

The choice is essentially tenderness against flavour. A filet is soft, fine-grained and mild, and relies on what is added to it: a crust, butter, a sauce. A ribeye is still tender but has more chew, and its intramuscular fat, the seam between eye and cap and the cap itself give it a richer, beefier taste and more juice.

Where does each one come from?

The tenderloin lies inside the carcass under the lumbar vertebrae, from the hip to the 13th rib; the ribeye lies on top of the back, across ribs 6 to 12.

The tenderloin is a postural muscle that holds the spine rather than moving a limb. Removed whole it weighs 2–3.5 kg trimmed and has a thick head, an even centre and a thin tail; filet mignon is a round steak from the centre or towards the tail, 3–5 cm thick, and a chateaubriand is a thick piece of the centre for two. The ribeye is the long back muscle at the rib, the longissimus, with the thin, curved spinalis on top; the whole boneless muscle, a ribeye roll (IMPS 112), is sliced into steaks of 250–400 g. Behind the ribs the same longissimus continues as the striploin.

On a bone-in short loin both muscles of the loin appear together: the T-bone and porterhouse carry a striploin on one side of the bone and a piece of tenderloin on the other.

How do they compare side by side?

Filet mignon is usually served at 150–250 g / 5–9 oz and 3–5 cm thick, ribeye at 250–400 g / 9–14 oz and 2.5–4 cm thick. The table sets out the other differences.

Why is filet mignon more tender?

Because the psoas does almost no work: it has little connective tissue and a fine grain, and in shear-force tests it ranks among the most tender of all beef muscles.

Tenderness in beef depends mainly on two things: the amount and type of collagen, the connective tissue that wraps fibres and bundles, and the state of the muscle fibres themselves after slaughter and ageing. Locomotion muscles, such as those of the leg, carry more collagen and are tougher. The psoas, which only steadies the spine, carries very little. When Texas A&M researchers measured 40 beef muscles with the Warner–Bratzler shear test, the force needed to cut a cooked core, the psoas major was among the lowest, with the longissimus in the tender-to-intermediate group.

The ribeye makes up part of the gap with fat. Intramuscular fat dilutes the connective tissue and lubricates each bite, so a well-marbled ribeye is perceived as tender and juicy even though the longissimus needs more force to cut than the psoas. The spinalis cap, finely marbled, is often judged the most tender part of the ribeye.

Why does ribeye have more flavour?

Mainly because of fat: the ribeye is the most marbled steak muscle, and many of the aromatic compounds that make beef taste like beef dissolve in, or form from, fat during cooking.

The ribeye is the muscle on which most grading systems read marbling, the USDA between the 12th and 13th ribs, and a well-graded ribeye shows fine white flecks through the eye, a seam of fat around the cap and a cap that is itself heavily marbled. As the steak cooks that fat softens and renders, carrying flavour and keeping the meat moist; the browned surface adds roasted notes. The tenderloin, with little fat and little work behind it, tastes clean and mild. That is why the classic tenderloin dishes add fat and flavour from outside: bacon, butter, béarnaise sauce, foie gras, or pastry in beef Wellington.

How should each one be cooked?

Filet mignon is best taken off at 48–54 °C / 118–129 °F in the centre, rare to medium-rare; ribeye is usually taken off at 54–57 °C / 129–135 °F, because its fat begins to soften around 50–55 °C / 122–131 °F.

A filet, cut thick, is seared hard on all faces in a hot pan or over coals and finished gently, in the oven or on the cool side of the grill, then rested a few minutes. With almost no fat to protect it, it dries out quickly past medium, around 60 °C / 140 °F, and it gains nothing from long cooking. Wrapping it in bacon, basting it with butter or serving it with a pan sauce, such as steak au poivre or béarnaise, supplies the richness it lacks.

A ribeye forgives more heat. Steaks up to about 3 cm / 1¼ in go straight onto a very hot grill or pan; thicker ones suit a reverse sear, a gentle start followed by a hard sear. The cap and the eye finish at slightly different rates, and the steak is still juicy at medium. For both, a probe thermometer is more reliable than time; doneness targets are in Steak temperatures.

Which gives more steak per kilo bought?

The ribeye: across 61 boneless ribeye rolls the Steakpedia Field Kitchen recorded 83.9 % of the weight as usable meat and 81 % as steaks, against 72.2 % usable and 57 % steaks for 38 whole tenderloins bought with the side muscle on.

Per kilo bought, that is about 810 g of ribeye steaks against about 570 g of tenderloin steaks. The tenderloin is not wasted: a further 15.2 % of its weight was usable trim from the chain, head and tail, used for tartare, carpaccio or stir-fries, but it is not steak. What costs weight is everything around the muscle: fat, silverskin and the side muscle. The tenderloin’s yield also varied widely, from 31.5 % to 95.7 % steaks per piece, depending on how it arrived. Together with its higher price per kilo, this makes filet mignon considerably more expensive than ribeye per steak served.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

7

1. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications: Fresh Beef Series 100. Washington, DC, 2014. www.ams.usda.gov/sites/default/files/media/IMPS_100_Fresh_Beef%5B1%5D.pdf
2. AUS-MEAT Limited. Handbook of Australian Meat, 7th ed. (International Red Meat Manual). Brisbane, 2005. www.ausmeat.com.au
3. USDA Agricultural Marketing Service. United States Standards for Grades of Carcass Beef. 2017. www.ams.usda.gov/grades-standards/carcass-beef-grades-and-standards
4. McGee, Harold. On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, rev. ed. New York: Scribner, 2004.
5. Toldrá, Fidel (ed.). Lawrie's Meat Science, 8th ed. Duxford: Woodhead, 2017.
6. Steakpedia Field Kitchen. Butchery records, July–October 2026: 279 sheets, 1,604.6 kg of meat processed, weighed piece by piece on a calibrated scale and logged per cut. Open data, CC BY 4.0. steakpedia.com/field-data
7. Belew, J. B.; Brooks, J. C.; McKenna, D. R.; Savell, J. W. "Warner–Bratzler shear evaluations of 40 bovine muscles." Meat Science 64, no. 4 (2003): 507–512.

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