Eli5 if marbling is so important, why is filet mignon such a desirable cut of beef?”

Question

I like ribeye and stuff like that. Also can you grill filet and is that good?

In: 2

Answer 1

It was previously mentioned that filet mignon tends to be a much softer and delicate cut of meat, but I think that talking about the marveling itself is arguably more important.

The quality of the marbling has just as much of an effect on the meat as the quantity of marbling. Sure, a ribeye may have objectively more fat throughout. But in a good filet mignon, the bands of fat are a lot thinner and evenly spread throughout. This means that cooking it will result in all that fat liquefying and dispersing the flavor throughout all the meat.

With other cuts, you tend to end up with a few thick bands of fat that are hard to chew and very strongly flavored, as well as areas which really don’t have a lot of fatty flavor at all. Not the case with a good filet mignon.