Your favorite steak cuts & how you enjoy them

Cooking Discussions Cooking, Cookbooks, Ingredients
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My fairly recent discovery of the flat iron steak prompted this thread, and it may well end up knocking my previous all-time fave, the rib-eye, off of its #1 spot.

Flat iron is beefy, tender, and def more budget-friendly than rib-eye — minus the cray amount of fat I just can’t seem to process like I used to. Tri-tip is nice, too, but not as tender. I love hanger, skirt, and flank steaks as well. My least favorite is the strip steak. Never understood the appeal, especially with the lack of marbling and that useless fat strip on the side that serves no purpose. Meh.

If I had to rate my faves, it would probably be:

#1 flat iron
#2 rib-eye
#3 tenderloin / filet

I enjoy most steaks grilled over charcoal, or pan-seared in a CI pan, none cooked more than medium (rib-eye), but mostly rare to med-rare (any other steak), and seasoned with nothing else but salt (well in advance) and pepper.

Tougher cuts might take a bath in a marinade (balsamic, soy, garlic, s&p, maggi sauce) before hitting the grill, and thick cuts are almost always reverse seared.

The only steak I’d say requires a sauce is tenderloin, just bc it’s mostly … well, tender, with not much flavor on its own. Au poivre & béarnaise are faves, but I won’t kick a boozy shroom sauce out of bed, either :wink:, and a horseradish sauce can be nice with a London broil.

Let’s hear your favorite steaks and preps!

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At home I mostly eat rib eye and top round steak. Rib eye I typically sear in a copper pan to rare, and make a pan sauce with white wine or marsala, butter and shallots. It’s quick, easy and delicious. Sometimes I use flank steak for this instead.

As for top round steak, I use this for tartare de boeuf (raw tartare), handcut by my butcher. French style, so with shallots, gherkins, parsley, mustard, olive oil, capers, and a raw egg yolk.

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I love a good steak tartare. I think the last time I made it at home was with tenderloin.

Our favorite French bistro in Berlin makes a fabulous tartare with all the accoutrements :drooling_face:

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Perhaps not the expected answer but with sous vide you can easily make pretty much any cut very tender and flavorful like ribeye, flat-iron etc. and with a grill you still get the smokiness. We had for example a SRF top round steak which became with sous vide one of the best steaks we had for quite sometime

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Yeah, that may be more relevant to the sous vide thread than the steak thread.

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As a steak, my absolute favorite is rib eye. I stock up on top sirloin when it’s on sale because it is so freakin’ versatile.

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Bromelain works better and easier, and you can still create a mallard effect with a nice char without using two different cooking techniques.

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Meh. It’s not all it’s quacked up to be.

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If you’ve ever had steak at a restaurants (steakhouse or otherwise), chances are you’ve had steak with bromelain salt and not even noticed it.

I’d say there’s more “beef fraud” on the menu than there is “fish fraud”.

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Ribeye Cap
Coulotte (or Sirloin Cap)

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But not duck.

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I wouldn’t ever want duck to be tenderized.

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I’m quacking up over here :grin:

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Bavette, which used to be the least expensive cut but now it’s up there. It’s also hard to find. A client gives me a gift certificate to our local fancy butcher shop, and I pick up two pounds, let them wet age for a week, then portion them in vacuum bags for the sous vide machine and freeze.

Also, from Trader Joe’s, the ribeyes in the vacuum packs, cheaper than the foam tray ones and pretty good. Again, cut into portions and freeze.

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Isn’t bavette the same as flank?

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Funny, I just made a flank steak. I marinate in A1 (NOT AI :wink: EVOO, shallot, garlic, rosemary and a dash or two of hot sauce for a few hours, then broil on high for a few mins. Definitely needs to be medium rare. I do like a nice boneless NY strip. Just cooked simply on a grill pan and then with a sauce: either red wine and mushrooms or garlic and herb butter depending on mood.

If I’m dining out it’s usually a filet or a sirloin. Mainly because I prefer a 6 or 8 ounce steak and all the other cuts are too large.

Bonus for the flank (or flat iron): I cut about 1/3 off and freeze it for later use as stir fry. Before it’s marinated, of course.

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Bavette/onglet. Simply cooked to medium rare on a ridged griddle pan. Béarnaise sauce, of course.

That’s on the assumption that we’re talking about beef steaks here, cos my actual fave steaks are locally shot venison bought at the farmers market

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I don’t think so. Flank’s grain is tighter, if I remember correctly from when Mom made it. They are adjacent cuts, though. Another word for bavette is flap.

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You’re the one who brought up the mallard effect, not I!