Weekend Wall Street Journal / July 6-7
Grill Stars: This Summer’s Hottest Steaks
How does a particular cut of beef rise from obscurity to celebrity status? Top butchers offer a glimpse into their business—plus pro tips on how to put a perfect sear on the steaks they’re loving now
THE NEWPORT STEAK This versatile cut—a standout whether smoked, roasted, braised or cut into pieces for skewering—is gaining a fan base on the East Coast. In California, where it’s known as tri-tip or Santa Maria, it’s long been a grilling go-to.
By Kathleen Squires
A FEW WEEKS AGO, I found myself gazing at a bachelor, laid out next to a Merlot and a feather. No, I was not surfing a fetish site. I was at the butcher shop, gawking through the glass case at a rosy display of meat. “Merlot,” “bachelor” and “feather” were the names of well-trimmed cuts of beef.
I’d never heard of these cuts. Could they possibly be new? Humans have raised cattle for 10,000 years, and butchery is just as ancient. Surely cows aren’t suddenly sprouting new parts.
Some of the usual suspects—tenderloin, sirloin, New York strip—sat alongside these new-to-me steaks. I was scanning the case for one I’d enjoyed in a restaurant, bavette. Though this shop had a massive selection, I didn’t spot it.
“Oh, that’s the vacio,” the meat cutter said when I asked. “Same thing, different name. It’s becoming quite popular.”
Talking further with meat suppliers, butchers and chefs, I learned that there’s more to this next wave of steaks than simply doling out new names. Specialty cuts help make all the above points on the meat supply chain more sustainable, economically and environmentally.
Jake Dickson of Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in Manhattan broke down the “popularity cycle” of meat cuts. “When something happens economically, like a recession, restaurants seek out lower-priced items. Instead of New York strip, they’ll serve skirt steak,” he said. “The consumer is introduced to this value cut, then looks to cook it at home.”
If cuts like the bavette are on the rise, I wondered, why weren’t they more common in supermarkets? “Math,” said Anya Fernald, co-founder and CEO of Belcampo Meat Co. Supermarkets operate on a much larger scale than neighborhood butchers and profit on volume. “The strategy is to sell as many popular cuts like rib-eyes and New York strips for as much as they possibly can,” Ms. Fernald explained; the rest becomes ground beef. A carcass, she explained, has 700 to 800 pounds of available meat; of that about 70 pounds is rib-eye and New York strip, and less than 1 pound is something like a flat iron or Denver cut. (For a guide to these and other specialty cuts, see “Heat Index,” page D8.) “So getting enough of those is not worth the trouble to supermarkets,” she said.
For butchers, however, extracting niche cuts rather than tossing them into the grinder makes sense: They can charge a higher price for the steaks than they would for ground beef, and they’re still using as much of the carcass as they can. “These cuts keep my butcher case interesting,” said Mr. Dickson. Niman Ranch, a prestige brand that sources from 700-plus independent farms, is increasing availability in specialty grocers. Cuts such as flat iron and sierra are appearing in cookbooks, too, such as the recent “Steak and Cake” by chef Elizabeth Karmel. “Cuts like these are uber-flavorful and often overlooked,” she said. “If you like intense, beefy flavor, do not pass them by.”
Awareness of sustainable eating and a rise in whole-animal butchery further account for these steaks’ popularity. A 2017 study by Manhattan’s New Amsterdam Market revealed that the number of whole-animal butcher shops in the U.S. grew from six in 2009 to 79 in 2017.
“I’m not looking for weird stuff to put on the menu,” said chef Bryan Weaver of Butcher & Bee restaurant in Nashville. “I’m trying to help the farm sell what they have. If they tell me a lesser-known cut is good, I’ll try it.” He’s currently championing the culotte steak. “We have to explain what it is. But the nature of our restaurant is to talk about what we’re getting and why we use it,” he said. “As [these steaks] gain traction, I find that people don’t just want to see the filet mignon anymore.”
Still, the names can confuse even chefs, such as Chris Shepherd of Underbelly Hospitality in Houston. “I thought, ‘What the heck is a Newport?’ ” he confessed. “And I found out that it is tri-tip. It depends on where you are.”
That bavette I was looking for and other cuts butchers are buzzing about now offer value as well as variety, typically at a price 40-60% below that of better-known cuts. Still, it can take some smart marketing to spark interest. “If something is called a sirloin flap, it’s probably not going to sell much,” said Mr. Shepherd. “But if you call it bavette, man, people get excited!”
Master Steak Recipe
This recipe works best for steaks 1½-2 inches thick.
Steak cut of your preference, at least 1 inch thick
Extra-virgin olive oil
Coarse kosher salt
Coarsely ground pepper
1. Preheat a gas grill with all burners on high and the lid closed. Once preheated adjust the temperature to medium-high heat and brush the cooking grates clean, if necessary. If using a charcoal grill, light charcoal in a chimney starter. Once the charcoal is covered with white-gray ash, pour it out in a single layer over the charcoal grate. Replace the cooking grate and cover the grill with the lid. Open air vents halfway on top and bottom. Let grill preheat 10-15 minutes and brush cooking grates clean, if necessary.
2. Wrap meat in paper towels to rid it of excess moisture.
3. Just before grilling, brush steaks all over with oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Place steaks in center of cooking grate, directly over medium-high heat, and close lid. Cook until steaks begin to naturally release from grill grate, about 5 minutes. Flip steaks and continue cooking until medium-rare, or on an instant-read thermometer inserted into thickest part of meat reads 135 degrees.
5. Remove steaks from grill and set on a platter. Let meat rest at least 5 minutes, but no longer than 10 minutes, before serving.
—Adapted from “Steak and Cake” by Elizabeth Karmel
HEAT INDEX
5 cuts to get hip to this summer and expert advice on grilling them. Plus: questions to ask your butcher and the only recipe you’ll need.
Denver
TEXTURE Medium fatty, yet firm. TASTE Buttery, smooth and rich. Complex.
Denver (aka zabuton) comes from the chuck (shoulder) part of the cow. In Japanese restaurants it’s commonly used for shabu shabu or yakiniku grilling. Chris Shepherd of Houston’s Underbelly Hospitality calls it his “filet alternative” and likes how it “sears eloquently” because of its surface area. The Denver name for this cut originated in a Cattlemen’s Beef Board marketing effort about 10 years ago. Zabuton means “flat cushion” in Japanese, referring to the rectangular shape.
PRO TIPS: “Be very sensitive to overcooking. Denver cut does not leave room for error,” said Anya Fernald of Belcampo Meat Co. Cut against the grain to serve.
Bavette
TEXTURE Lean yet heavily marbled, tender chew. TASTE Intense beefy flavor, chars well.
This cut (aka sirloin flap, vacio or faux hanger) comes from the bottom of the sirloin, in the rear of the cow. Ms. Fernald said, “Bavette responds well to grilling because it doesn’t get tough and dry.” Comparable to a flank, bavette is used for steak frites. Striations through the meat make for easy absorption of marinades.
PRO TIPS: Jake Dickson of Dickson’s Farmstand Meats said if your supermarket sells sirloin tips—a bavette cut into strips—they will have bavette. “Ask your butcher for it as a flap, and they’ll cut it differently,” he said. Mr. Shepherd uses the thin parts for fajitas or steak salad. Cut against the grain when serving.
Culotte
TEXTURE Very lean, with a good amount of marbling. Juicy and tender. TASTE Bold, beefy, savory.
The Culotte (aka picanha) comes from the top part of the sirloin. This cut has risen in popularity as Brazilian-style steakhouses have proliferated around the country. Mr. Dickson called it a “poor man’s NY strip,” as it’s usually half the price. Thick, tapered at the end and graced with a fat cap, culotte can come in roast form or steak cut.
PRO TIPS: The fat renders quickly and prevents the meat from drying out (beware of flare-ups). Chef Elizabeth Karmel recommends making crosshatch cuts in the fat cap and sprinkling with a rub of sea salt, dried herbs and pepper. Mr. Shepherd likes to use the cut for quick-seared and raw preparations.
Flat Iron
TEXTURE Very tender, with generous marbling; juicy. TASTE Strong and meaty, on the pleasant side of gamy.
This cut (aka boneless top chuck steak) comes from the chuck and is often compared to a tenderloin or ribeye. Ms. Fernald called it a “sleeper summer hit,” adding that when she conducts blind tastings, it wins over ribeye. As the name suggests, it’s flat, and thin.
PRO TIPS: Ms. Karmel said the flat iron is so flavorful that it doesn’t need much more than a little olive oil, salt and pepper before cooking. As it tends to be a thinner cut, she cautions to beware of overcooking or else it will take on a livery taste.
Newport
TEXTURE Relatively lean and chewy. It bulks up when cooking. TASTE Beefy, a bit nutty.
The Newport (aka tri-tip and Santa Maria steak), from the bottom sirloin, has long been popular in California. Manhattan butcher Florence Meat Market claims to have come up with the name Newport, for its resemblance to the crescent-shaped Newport cigarettes logo. But Mr. Dickson pointed out, “There are at least three other butchers who also claim to have invented the name of the Newport.”
PRO TIPS: Mr. Dickson finds it great for skewering. Slice against the grain before serving. Good with marinade and stands up well to sauce
Grilling Myths and Musts
Steak seems to generate especially strong opinions among cooks—some more valid than others. Here, the pros do some debunking and drill down to the crucial tips
THE MYTHS
Steaks like high heat.
“No food benefits from cooking over 500 degrees,” Ms. Karmel said. “It will burn on the outside and take on an acrid, bitter flavor.”
Salt meat well in advance of cooking.
False, said Ms. Karmel. She stressed salting the meat just before cooking: “You want to keep all the juices in the steak, not pull the juices out of the steak, which salting too far in advance will do.”
Thermometers cause juices to run out.
Mr. Shepherd is staunchly pro-thermometer: “There’s nothing wrong with it. It doesn’t matter if you poke a hole in the meat, the hole is much smaller than if you’re cutting straight through the steak—which you should not do to test doneness. If you do that, your juices will run out, guaranteed.”
THE MUSTS
Dry the steak before cooking.
“Wrap the steak with paper towels to remove all the surface moisture,” said Ms. Karmel. “You can’t get good grill marks unless the steak is dry, because moisture has to evaporate and steam away before you can get any marks at all.” Plus, oil or marinade adheres much better to a dry steak than to a wet steak.
Oil the meat, not the grill grate.
Use olive oil, said Ms. Karmel, as it has a thicker viscosity than vegetable oil and will cling to the meat well and prevent it from sticking on the grill.
Rest the meat.
Resting meat after cooking for about 5 minutes is essential for tenderness. And don’t cover with foil when resting, or your crust will get soggy, said Ms. Karmel, noting that the temperature difference will be minimal. “It’s much better to have meat that is slightly less hot with a fine crust.”
How you slice it does matter.
Ask your butcher if the meat should be cut against the grain to maximize tenderness. A general rule of thumb, per Mr. Dickson: “The tougher the cut and the heavier the grain, the more important slicing against the grain is. And the tougher the cut, the thinner you should slice it.” To find the grain, look for the striations that run through the meat—not to be confused with marbling or grill marks. Then cut perpendicular to the lines. Bavette, Newport and Denver should always be cut against the grain.
The Chains are probably an A minus because of what you stated about dry aging. But they all have pretty good items on there menus to enjoy!