Tag Archives: Cutting

Denver steak

The Denver steak: An American innovation

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While discoveries in centuries-old industries are exceedingly rare, they do still occur from time to time.

Witness the Denver steak, a uniquely American, and rather “new” cut of meat that, if you are lucky, you can find on the menu at some of the best purveyors of meat across the country. (The Denver steak is also a part of this month’s ButcherBox for some subscribers.)

While the profession of “butcher” has been around likely as long as cattle have been domesticated — and the oldest butcher guild in England was founded in the tenth century — the Denver cut is less than a decade old.

So first, what exactly is a Denver steak?

The cut comes from the chuck roll, which is mostly muscular meat from the area that starts under the shoulder blade and continues to the ribs and backbone. Some common steaks that derive from this area include the ribeye and Delmonico steaks. More specifically, the Denver steak comes from the serratis ventralis section of the chuck underblade. Most of the meat in this area is tough and tends to be used for ground beef and stew meat. If it is cooked for other purposes, it often needs to be braised or roasted over long periods of time.

But the Denver steak is an exception to the tough beef from this part of a cow.

Getting at a Denver steak out of the chuck roll is a bit of an onerous process. It usually comes from a section that accounts for only eight total pounds of an average 25-pound chuck roll. The cut is a part of the muscle that is more flavorful, due to marbling, and more tender than the surrounding meat. This section of the shoulder underblade gets a lot of use, but the particular area that derives the Denver steak is one often used less and therefore has more fat, i.e., marbling. The challenge of making this often tear-shaped cut comes from separating the tough connective muscle tissue surrounding it.

It is a very rare — as in challenging to find — cut. In fact, before 2009, you couldn’t find a Denver steak at all. It didn’t exist.

(Note: The history on this steak is a bit confusing, as similar steaks appear in other cultures across the world. Their origin, too, is not always clear. For instance, the zabuton is an extremely rare cut of Wagyu steak found in Japan. The name, which in Japanese means “flat cushion,” refers to the shape it is often presented in. This cut is often sliced extremely thin and cooked for a very short period of time — like eight seconds. Similar cuts from the same region of a cow can be found throughout the world, yet, as far as I’ve found, few are promoted as a steak meant to be thrown on the grill and cooked. The key modifier in the previous sentence being “promoted,” as you will see below.)

The Denver steak as we know it comes out of a project funded by the Cattleman’s Beef Board, the Beef Checkoff Program, a project whose goal is to identify and promote new and potentially more affordable cuts of meat. The Denver steak is the result of a research project from the 1990’s by meat-science professors at the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska.

The moniker “Denver steak” has no historical significance; it is not as if the cut is more popular in the Rocky Mountain foothills. It is actually the marketing brainchild of Beef Checkoff Program and was “unveiled” with the cut in 2009.

So, in more ways than one, the Denver steak, both an innovation and a bit of a marketing ploy, is a most American creation.

One last thing to know about the Denver steak: Among the thousands of cuts identified during the research project that led to the discovery of the cut, the Denver steak is the fourth most tender muscle section of a heifer, steer, or cow.

You will undoubtedly discover this once you take your first bite.

According to most  — but not all — chefs, the best way to cook a Denver steak is to do so rather quickly on a very hot grill. The key to a great Denver steak experience, however, is how you slice this particular cut.

As we’ve pointed out before, how you cut your steak can have a tremendous impact on taste and tenderness; cutting the wrong way and you will make a potentially delectable steak tough and less flavorful. This is especially true for a Denver steak which could be considered a cousin to other, better-known steaks to come out of the Beef Checkoff program such as the flat iron steak.

Like many other muscular cuts, the Denver steak should be cut against the grain for maximum taste and tenderness. Also, be careful not to overcook, something that is especially true with grass-fed steaks.

Now you know more about the cut, get out there an throw one on the grill and enjoy so good old-fashioned American ingenuity.

flankSteak1

Don’t ruin your steak by cutting it wrong

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Obviously, we love a great steak as much as anyone.

And there is nothing we dislike more than when a simple mistake ruins a fantastic, tender steak.

So as a bit of public service, we want to make sure that you are aware of one of the most common errors that can transform a melt-in-your-mouth steak into something akin to chewing a rubber boot.

So once you cook your steak to your preferred level of doneness — although we don’t know why anyone would eat a steak cooked anything but medium-rare  — you should first let the steak rest for it to maintain a perfect tenderness and its juices.

And now comes the part that is easy to screw up: Cutting the steak.

Don’t ruin your steak with a simple mistake

You should always cut a steak against the grain, which means against the direction that the muscle fibers run.

This is true of all cuts of meats, but it is most vital in some of the unique cuts that we include in our ButcherBox shipments like flank steak and Tri-Tip. These and cuts like skirt steak and hangar steak have more pronounced muscle fibers (the grain of the meat) because they come from parts of the cattle where the muscles work harder.

Our in-house ButcherBox chef Yankel Polak said that to dig into the reasons for this more, it’s important to consider what beef is.  “It is muscle, and muscle consists of fiber and connective tissue,” said Yankel. “Depending on where the cut is harvested, the muscle may be tougher with more connective tissue or tender with very little. Cuts from the loin and rib — such as New York strip, filet mignon, or ribeye steaks — are quite tender because those are less used muscle groups. Cuts from the chuck, round, and flank tend to be tougher with more tissue due to their high usage.”

The more the muscle is used according to Yankel, the more apparent the grain. “On a tender steak, like the filet or strip, it really doesn’t matter how you cut it, it will pretty much be tender no matter what,” he said. “However, a steak with a distinct grain will be inedible unless cut against the direction the grain runs.”

If you do cut with the grain of the steak, you will often find the meat more gamey and tougher to chew. The reason? It is because the longer muscle fibers remain intact and haven’t been cut. Cutting against the grain breaks up the muscle fibers making the steak much more tender.

Cutting grass-fed steak

This is even more true with grass-fed beef. “Grass-fed will be significantly less forgiving to an improper cut,” said Yankel. “It’s leaner, to begin with, and the cows have lived more active lives meaning their muscles will be more developed than grain fed cows who spend a significant portion of their lives cooped up in a feedlot,” he added.

That’s why it is essential for you to cut against the grain and why most restaurants cut their flanks, hangars, and skirts before delivering them to your table.

Not only is cutting against the grain crucial, but the thickness of the slice is important as well.  “Considering the muscles fibers run parallel to each other,” said chef Yankel, “cutting thick slices against the grain still leaves a significant amount of tough muscle to chew through.”

“Keep the slices thin,” he added, “as thin as possible.”

Lastly, consider the knife you use.

While most steak knives are serrated, the best knife for a steak is actually a flat blade, a chefs knife, or slicer. “At least double the length of the width of the meat,” is chef Yankel’s rule.

“This will allow you a smooth motion while slicing,” he said. “Don’t press down hard or struggle with the meat. Using a sharp knife, draw the blade smoothly across the surface.  Allow the knife to do the work, not your strength.”

“A clean-cut retains all the moisture that reabsorbed during the resting period,” Yankel said.

So, to sum up, always rest your steak for ten minutes or more, use a wicked sharp knife, and cut THIN against the grain.

Think this is nonsense? Well, Cook’s Illustrated did an interesting test that discovered that even steaks that many people consider to be “tougher” cuts were actually as tender as the traditionally better known and more widely considered “tender” cuts, if cut the correct way. You can watch a video of the experiment and its results here.

Our taste buds and science concur: Cut your steak against the grain and you will have a mouth-watering, tender steak every time.

Our taste buds and science concur: Cut your steak against the grain and you will have a mouth-watering, tender steak every time.

Oh, and whatever you do, don’t cook it medium-well. But we’ll get into that another time.