Food Urchins Featherblade of Beef Recipe
It's been a gradual (and on-going) learning process over the years to work out which cuts of beef are best suited to which dishes or cooking methods. Although I'm pretty confident about the cuts to buy for my favourite meals, I am still getting to grips with others and constantly on the look out for new ways to get the best out of them.
When I asked a few friends for their thoughts recently, it quickly became clear that choosing which cut of meat to buy isn't an easy task for everyone. And of course, buying the wrong cut for your dish often leads to disappointment, which makes people even more nervous the next time. Says my friend Matt Gibson, "I've never really got the hang of the cuts, especially for beef. Basically I just buy whatever looks nice in the shop without thinking too hard about it".
That comment spurred me on to create my guide to choosing the right cut of beef. The suggestions below are based not only on my own favourites but also incorporate recommendations from fellow bloggers, food writers and chefs.
Beef cuts diagram via shutterstock.com
First, Lessons from a Master Butcher
Having been a butcher since he was 14, Martin Eccles – Master Butcher at Quality Standard Beef & Lamb – reckons that memories of bad experiences in the past also linger; during a private butchery class he explains that "plate waste" was once common when buying a chop or steak to cook at home – that's the pieces of tendon or gristle left uneaten on the plate – but today's butchers are moving to reduce that by cutting meat differently.
A big part of Martin's job for Quality Standard Beef & Lamb is working with butchers to train them on adapting the way they breakdown carcasses to better suit today's consumer. He advises them on how to to optimise "carcass utilisation" and how best to create modern cuts and smaller roasting joints to suit singles, couples and smaller families. The organisation also works with farmers and supervises the Quality Standard Beef and Lamb marks.
What does Martin mean by modern cuts? He shows me a large rump of beef and explains that it consists of three distinct muscles. Because a steak is best when cut across the grain of the muscle, he separates the three rump muscles, completely removes the silver gristle and then cuts the muscles into individual steaks. Where traditional rump steaks consist of all three muscle types held together with connective tissue, the three new cuts – picanha (aka rump cap) steaks, prime rump steaks and bistro rump steaks – are each comprised of just one muscle. They are easy to cook, tender and with no plate waste.
Martin breaking a rump into different muscles and cuts of steak
Incidentally, here's a quick Kavey lesson for you: Raw meat is made up of muscle, fat and connective tissue – the muscle is what we think of as meat; the fat melts or crisps during cooking, adding flavour and moisture; collagen-heavy connective tissues (such as tendons and ligaments) also break down if cooked for long enough; but other connective tissues (such as cartilage and membranes) don't break down and are what we subsequently label as gristle. Note that while we have a preference to avoid gristle in Western cooking, the stretchy and chewy texture is prized and enjoyed in some cuisines.
Back to Martin's lessons on newer ways of cutting beef. Whipping out a long lump of meat from the shoulder blade, he tells me that this was (and still is) commonly cut and sold as feather steak. But the feather has gristle running right down the centre, meaning that every steak has a piece of gristle at its heart. Another option is to cut the long blade into two thin pieces, remove the gristle completely and then divide the two long flat irons, as they are known, into individual portions.
Martin cutting feather blade into two, removing membrane and creating flat iron steaks
Martin also tells me how butchery changed in the years following World War II; beef was far less readily available and animals were older and tougher too so butchers broke the meat down into smaller cuts, separating the tender ones from the tougher ones, to allow for different cooking. Now that we have access to top quality beef again, there are still cuts that benefit from long, slow cooking, but it is also be very straightforward to choose quick-to-cook, tender cuts.
Kavey's Guide to Beef Cuts & Dishes
Mince
Although it's not really a cut so much as (usually unspecified cuts of) beef ground through a mincer, mince is one of the most popular ways we buy and eat beef.
Restaurant chef Mat Follas often cooks mince at home as his kids love dishes such as "burgers, meatballs and lasagnes". Bloggers Alicia Fourie, Laura Scott, Karen Burns-Booth and Kathryn and are also fans, praising its versatility and adding dishes such as meat loaf, chilli, spagbol, cottage pie and keema to the list. My husband Pete makes a mean ragu, letting it cook longer for a more tender texture.
Alicia's recently purchased a mincer attachment for her stand mixer so may switch to making her own; I hope she'll share tips on which cuts are best for which dish.
Mince
Braising / Stewing – Shin of Beef, Ox Cheek, Brisket, Chuck, Oxtail, Short Rib, Flank
Everyone I spoke to loves braising beef – cooking it long and slow in liquid until even the toughest cuts become tender. Collagen is your friend here, as it breaks down into a gelatinous sauce that adds flavour and richness.
Blogger Sally Prosser (a Brit transplanted to Dubai) loves "slow-cooked casseroles with red wine, bay leaves and carrots or a beef stew with dumplings" at "any time of the year, even the height of a Dubai summer". Food blogger and journalist Neil Davey buys "the low and slow" stuff (listing several braising cuts) more than anything else as he likes "no fuss hearty cooking". At this time of the year, he uses the slow cooker a lot. "While these are no longer the bargain cuts they were, you still get a lot of bang for the buck". He uses these rather than mince for dishes like chilli, cottage pie and pasta sauces.
Food blogger Helen Best-Shaw recommends "shin of beef for long slow cooking, it is so rich and also very affordable". Laura agrees, telling me beef shin is her favourite "as it makes the most tender yet fully flavoured stew. It does need lots of cooking time" but she reckons its worth it.
Karen and Alicia favour brisket; Karen says it's her "number one cut for flavour" and recommends "Hunting Beef – an old English recipe where the beef is marinated for 4 days in a spiced salt rub". This cut is also a popular choice for making corned beef, salt beef and pastrami.
Alicia and Neil are the only ones to mention my personal favourite, ox cheek which is still an underrated (and therefore bargainous) cut. I adore it in dishes like beef cheeks bourguignon and Chinese-style braised ox cheek, but it also works beautifully substituted into recipes such as balsamic and red wine braised lamb or beef carbonnade with mustard toasts. Make sure you (or your butcher) remove(s) any remaining membranes before cooking cheeks whole or cubed. Incidentally, I'm really not sure why beef cheeks (and tails, liver and blood) are often labelled as ox – the term more commonly refers to cattle used as draft animals rather than for food. I guess it's one of those language hangovers…
Shin (bone in, boneless, cubed) and rolled brisket
Roasting – Rib, Picanha, Sirloin
When Martin told me that Brits roast far less than they used to, I didn't believe him and yet only two of the friends I spoke to listed a roasting joint in their top three cuts.
Neil, Karen and I are in complete agreement that the best joint for roasting is a (fore) rib of beef. As Karen points out, it would be her number one beef purchase if the cost weren't so prohibitive, and likewise Neil does a rib roast a couple of times a year. There's no question in my mind that beef rib is the tastiest choice – the texture of the meat, the marbling of fat through the meat, contributing to its superb flavour. But yes, this is an expensive joint. Cooking for two, I often buy a boned and rolled rib, but if cooking for more, bone in is gorgeous.
Topside and silverside are two very common roasting joints. Usually significantly less than half the price per kilo of rib joints, this makes them very popular, and a decade ago these were the joints Pete I usually bought; we took supermarkets on their word that these cuts were great for roasting. Eventually we realised we were more often disappointed than happy with their taste and texture, and decided we'd rather have really fabulous roast beef once every few months than mediocre roast beef every couple of weeks.
Another cut that I think makes a fantastic roast is the picanha (aka rump cap). Picanha is the cut's Brazilian name, by the way, and it's a highly prized piece of beef. Here, it's often cut and sold as steaks, but ask your butcher to sell you the rump cap in one piece and try it for your next roast.
My other choice, when there's no rib available, is a very thick slab of sirloin. The meat counter in our local supermarket cuts sirloin steaks to your preferred thickness; instead of asking for steaks, I have them cut me one piece about 7-8 cm thick, which makes a quick two person roast (with leftovers for a tasty sandwich).
Where I don't want to stretch budget to one of my three preferred roasting cuts, I'd rather roast a chicken or lamb, or cook a braising joint long and slow, in liquid.
I certainly recommend avoiding beef sold only as a 'roasting joint' without any indication of cut, like a recent example from our local supermarket, bought when the meat shelves were unusually bare. Sadly, for all the label's fancy talk of Hereford Beef and 30 days dry aging, it was enormously disappointing.
Fore rib of beef (bone in and boneless) and boneless sirloin
Steaks
The two front runners for choice of steak are rib eye followed by sirloin.
Rib eye is my own favourite, and our number one purchase for a perfect dinner of steak and triple cooked chips – Pete's in charge of those and they're super!
At home, Mat also chooses rib eye because "it has flavour, unlike most other cuts, from lots of fat". Neil agrees. A few years ago he attended a comparison session between rib eye, fillet, rump and sirloin. He says, "Fillet is boring as, sirloin and rump are both very good, but a well marbled piece of rib-eye, cooked somewhere around medium-rare / medium so that there's a char and all that fat is starting to melt? That's what it's all about." Laura too loves a rib eye, "well marbled with a good layer of fat", adding that it's "the fat that provides the most flavour when it comes to a good steak". She's also a fan of wagyu (high quality, highly marbled Japanese beef) for the same reason.
Sirloin is the steak of choice for Sally, as it offers "the perfect balance of fat to meat ratio for a fat-averse family". She also buys 3 kilo whole sirloins for the barbecue. I don't find it as flavoursome as rib eye but if you can find a longer aged piece, that helps.
What about other cuts?
Steaks from the rump are usually very good, though I'd recommend seeking out the newer cuts Martin describes above, where the three rump muscles are separated and then cut into steaks individually.
Kathryn reckons that "ribeye and rump give you quite a lot of 'bang for your buck' particularly when it comes to flavour". She also finds rump "is a bit more forgiving when it comes to timings and you can cook it for a little longer and it doesn't get ruined".
Incidentally, when it comes to cooking any of the fattier steaks (such as rib eye) I recommend taking them to medium rare (or even medium if that's your preference) rather than rare; this allows the fat within the meat to melt and the larger pieces of fat to brown.
Flat iron, another cut that I talked to Martin about, is another tasty and somewhat more affordable choice, though I rarely see it in supermarkets; a butcher is your best bet. It's cut from feather blade piece but divided into two to remove the central gristle, which leaves two long thin pieces that can be portioned into three or four steaks.
If you've ever travelled to France you'll be familiar with onglet and bavette, two popular cuts served in restaurants across the country. Karen (who spends much of her time in France) loves rump for flavour but in France she'll usually opt for bavette, which offers flavour at a great price. So what are onglet and bavette in UK terminology? Onglet is known here as hanger, skirt or butcher's steak, cut from the plate (diaphragm) area and with a really deep flavour. Bavette is flank steak, taken from just behind the onglet and is also dense and well flavoured. Both are best cooked fast on a very hot griddle, medium rare to rare. Overcooking these can result in dry or tough steaks.
Flat iron, onglet/skirt and bavette/flank are also great choices for marinating before cooking.
Fillet is known as the most tender cut, but it has very little fat and lacks the flavour of the other cuts; I would never choose it myself. (For American readers, this cut is what you guys call tenderloin).
Skirt (onglet) steak
Buying British
Perhaps it's a function of who I asked, but everyone I spoke to makes an effort to seek out British beef and lamb.
Mat, being a kiwi, has an excuse for choosing New Zealand lamb, though he also points out that British lamb is sold in early spring when it's not had much time running around in fields and is too young to have developed enough flavour. When it comes to beef, he buys British. For his restaurant he buys from a butcher or wholesaler, for home it's a split between butcher and supermarket. He says he'd "rather spend a little more for quality and have less quantity", echoing my own thoughts on enjoying a fabulous beef rib roast every now and again rather than an inferior roast every fortnight.
Karen buys British when she's in the UK and French or New Zealand when in France, preferring organic, locally sourced meat with a known provenance.
Neil explains that although he's "been known to happily devour USDA steaks at Goodman", when cooking at home, he buys British, noting that "we produce some of the finest meat in the world; the fall out of the BSE problem and Foot & Mouth has been a massive improvement in farming standards and improved labelling".
Laura has been to visit two animals farms (something I've also done) and believes "our meat is of a high standard". She buys organic or Freedom foods meat, keeping an eye out for special offers which she stores in the freezer.
Alicia always seeks out British, and if there's none available, she doesn't buy. She says that although "Rayner makes a compelling case for New Zealand lamb, for [her] it isn't about the food miles so much as supporting British farmers and creating food that has a sense of the place we live in". She doesn't "understand steak houses that open here making a virtue of the fact that they use American beef – the British beef I have had is the best I have had anywhere".
While Matt may not yet have much knowledge of cuts, he does "pretty much avoid buying non-British". As he hates the "overall big supermarket experience" he buys most of his meat from local independent butchers, which he has within walking distance. When "it's a choice between rubbish 'local' supermarkets who aren't good for meat, or fabulous, friendly independent butchers who really know what they're doing, it's no surprise I end up in the butchers".
Contributors
Alicia Fourie foodycat.blogspot.co.uk
Helen Best-Shaw fussfreeflavours.com
Karen Burns-Booth lavenderandlovage.com
Kathryn londonbakes.com
Laura Scott howtocookgoodfood.co.uk
Mat Follas matfollas.com
Matt Gibson gothick.org.uk
Neil Davey nrdavey.co.uk
Sally Prosser mycustardpie.com
With thanks to Quality Standard Beef & Lamb for arranging a private masterclass with Martin Eccles and giving us some delicious British beef and lamb to take home. Further information about British beef (and lamb), including quality assurance, nutrition, cuts and carving advice can be found at the Simply Lamb & Beef website. Additional images courtesy of Quality Standard Mark and Shutterstock.
Source: https://www.kaveyeats.com/which-cuts-of-beef-are-best-for
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