Why is Learning the Cut of the Steak so Important?

The cut of the steak enables all the heat and ingredients to effectively enter the meat and make it juicy and tender. Otherwise, it will be hard to chew.

So, there is a special occasion, it is someone’s birthday, some festival going on or someone graduated from college. Now, to celebrate, you are thinking of making an awesome steak dish that is going to bring water to everyone’s mouth.

You have the recipe in your mind, all the ingredients are ready, so you decide to start cooking. But hold on, there is one little thing you need to check. How is your steak cut? And will it work the dish you are going to prepare?

For creating a steak dish, you need to ensure that the steak is cut properly so that it cooks well, keeps the meat tender, and the spice equally reaches all parts of the steak. 

So, how do you perfectly cut your steak? This article will help you with that.

Cut The Meat Against The Grain

The term grain means how the muscles of the meat are directed. In some meat steaks, it is easier to identify, like those of flank or skirt steak, but it gets a bit tricky for other meats like tenderloin.

So, before chopping up your meat, be sure to look very closely at your meat and identify the grains, and once you notice those grains, you know how you need to cut it. 

However, the grain may be, make sure to cut the meat perpendicularly. Get a sharp knife and cut gently against the grain of your steak.

Reasons Behind Cutting Against The Grain

So, if you compare two separate cuts of meat, one along the grains, and the other against the grain, after cooking and tasting, you will easily notice that the one that was cut against the grain is much tender. 

It feels like it just melts inside your mouth. The one that was cut along the grains contains much more muscle fiber and you need to chew it harder to get the actual taste. As cutting against the grain shortens the muscle fibers, the salt, pepper, spices, and the heat from the stove reach inside the meat much more effectively and the flavor is much better.

Otherwise, if you cut along the muscle fibers, it prevents the heat and the spices from entering the meat, and sometimes may even leave parts of the meat uncooked or raw, leaving you with a bad taste. 

So, while preparing your meat for cooking in any type of dish, be sure that you always cut it at a right angle against the grain, so that it does not remain hard to chew even after you cook it thoroughly.

Get The Right Meat Slicers

The best home meat slicer will not only give you the perfectly sliced meat,  it can also be used for cutting vegetables, sausages, and cheese to get the right slices.

Not cutting it properly will hinder the entire cooking process, where some parts might remain uncooked, some parts might not turn out the way you want it and some parts will not get the right amount of flavoring of your choice.

You can get it cut by professionals, but there are also good automatic home meat slicers available at a reasonable price. 

There are manual meat slicers, but the electric ones are much more reliable as they can give you the exact size and shape of the meat that you want. 

Popular restaurants and steakhouses like the Seafire Steakhouse & Bar use professional-grade meat slicers to get the perfect cut.

Properly Use The Meat Slicers

After you get your meat slicer, the first thing you need is to thoroughly clean the blade. Remove all types of grease from the counter where you are going to put your slicer. 

Next, put the carriage of the slicer facing towards you. Now, put the meat inside the carriage and lock it so that the meat stays in place.

As the slicer is automatic, you can select the thickness of the meat, start the slicer, and see the magic happen. After the slicing is done, turn off the slicer and pull out the carriage. 

Finally, you have the perfect slices of the meat that you wanted for your dish. You can try out different types of cooking methods or just smoke it with a pellet smoker to get a tender, juicy piece of meat.

Clean The Slicer

To ensure that the slicers last long, you need to clean it properly to prevent harmful microbes from growing in it. A recent report of the FDA also claims that if unclean meat slicers are used to cut meat it may result in serious illness.

The carriage and the blades need to be cleaned separately. 

The carriage is going to become a bit greasy since it has the meat, so wash it with warm water and soap, then wipe it with a dry cloth. For the blade, you need to spray a mix of warm water and soap onto the blades, then wipe it with a dry cloth as well.

Final Thoughts

No one wants to eat a steak that is hard to chew and does not taste right. It would just ruin the whole mood. To make sure that this does not happen, you need to properly cut the meat so that it is cooked properly and satisfies everyone eating it. The procedure of cutting the meat and using proper meat slicers will ensure this, and following this article will hopefully help you out too.