New Beef Cuts

A buddy of mine from St. Louis wrote me yesterday that he'd found a terrific new steak cut--a "bistro" or "sonoma" steak--at a St. Louis specialty meat market:

http://listings.riverfronttimes.com/gyr ... id%3A37223

I called one of KC's better meat markets--McGonigle's--and they'd never heard of such a thing. So I wrote to the beef guy at OK-State's ag school. They sent me to:

http://www.rdranch.com/uDocs/BEF12664_shdcvr_sm.pdf

and sure enough, there it was. A bit more poking around produced the general starting point for lots of New Cuts of beef. Go to

http://www.rdranch.com/randlistofcuts.aspx

and, if you're like me, drool. Very interesting, all these new angles on an old story.

Geo

So the beef shoulder isn't the same as a pork shoulder or lamb shoulder ?

I've always read/been told that those cuts are better served by braising or stews rather than grilling as there's too much connective tissue to break down. Seems odd to me.

The only one of these "new cuts" I'm familiar with is the "flatiron" steak, which I first read about in Cook's. There's a butcher in East Troy WI who cuts them (and sells for c. $7!! which seems to defeat the whole purpose of discovering new *value* cuts). I bought a couple a few months ago and grilled them. They were wonderful: tender enough but chewy, and with a magnificent flavor, much richer than anything from the loin.

My buddy in St. Louis, who absolutely knows what he's doing, thinks the grilled bistro steak is wonderful as well--same qualities I report above. He says that The Bull Market has them for $4.99, "well worth it" he says.

Geo

Geo wrote:The only one of these "new cuts" I'm familiar with is the "flatiron" steak, which I first read about in Cook's. There's a butcher in East Troy WI who cuts them (and sells for c. $7!! which seems to defeat the whole purpose of discovering new *value* cuts). I bought a couple a few months ago and grilled them. They were wonderful: tender enough but chewy, and with a magnificent flavor, much richer than anything from the loin.

Flatiron steaks should not be chewy. I think the texture is more silky if it's sliced against the grain and is not overcooked.

Bill/SFNM

Sorry, "chewy" not such a great choice of terms. What I meant was, toothsome, with texture--not 'mushy' in the way that filet can sometimes be.
[? amazing how impoverished I find my oral-texture vocabulary, now that I try to say something communicably clear about how a piece of meat felt as chewed...]

Simplest thing to say: between filet,etc and flatiron, which would I prefer to be chewing? the flatiron.

Geo

Whenever a new name apears for a beef cut, you can be sure that the "real name" will be one of the less tender beef cuts.