THE TIMES 'MASTERCLASS': 'RARE STEAKS, UNCOMMONLY GOOD'
Masterclass: choosing a steak for dinner
These choice cuts are difficult to find in the UK, but worth the effort
By Lindsey Bareham
June 6th 2008
I'd never heard of hanger steak before I met Jack O'Shea, an eighth- generation butcher with shops in Brussels and London, who specialises in grass-fed Black Angus beef from southwest Ireland. Hanger steak is the American equivalent of onglet in France, the bistro steak that is always cooked medium rare and served with frites. We call it skirt, although butchers refer to it as the “hanging tender” because it hangs below the ribs, an extension of the tenderloin, in the diaphragm of the animal. It used to be classified as offal because of its proximity to the kidneys and this explains its rich, almost gamey, beefy flavour.
It's actually two muscles divided by tough connective tissue, which must be removed, then tidied up to leave a thin, narrow boneless cut of meat with a fibrous, almost shaggy, structure, falling into pleats across its width. Your butcher may not thank me for flagging up hanger steak, but it's time to stop overlooking this extraordinary muscle, which usually ends up in pasties, pies and the mincer. When properly cooked and carved, it is tender and full of flavour, with a silky texture - although it requires a bit more chew than steaks from less worked parts of the body. The price at Jack's Knightsbridge shop is £12.50 a kg, plenty for six, so it is worth persuading your butcher to get carving.
Bavette is another loose-textured flank steak much prized in France but remaining one of the least appreciated cuts of meat in the British Isles. It's a wide, flat abdominal muscle, shaped a bit like a stingray, which is butchered into strips that can then be cut into individual steaks. For two people you need 300g, which will cost you less than £4 in Knightsbridge.
The other steak that I couldn't resist at Jack's was fillet steak on the bone. Fillet comes from the T-bone but, instead of taking off the fillet first, the sirloin is removed, leaving the fillet against the bone. The T is changed into an L and the bone is sawn to size, chain intact (the strip of meat that runs down the length of the fillet and usually tidied away).
Individual steaks can be served on the bone but a 500g steak, including bone weight, is perfect for two and is sliced before serving. It will cost about £15. Jack's hanger and bavette are matured for two to three weeks in a vacuum pack, which allows the natural enzymes to tenderise the meat, and can be ordered at www.jackosheas.com .
RECIPES FOR COOKING WITH JACK'S MEAT:
Hanger steak, Bavette steak and fillet steak on the bone
