The Strategy
Even the most flavorful skirt or flank steak can turn out tough if you don't cut it right, honey. Take a close look at the meat to see which way the long muscle fibers run, and run your knife directly across those lines. Slicing against the grain cuts those tough fibers short, making every single bite melt-in-your-mouth tender.
Technique Summary
Slicing beef perpendicular to the natural direction of its muscle fibers is the easiest way to make tougher cuts wonderfully tender. This simple trick turns a simple steak into something so soft it practically melts on your tongue.
Chef’s Checkpoints
- Long, parallel lines are visible running along the surface of the cooked steak.
- The knife cuts cleanly through the meat with minimal sawing, yielding neat, short-grained slices.
- The cut slices pull apart easily with very little tension or resistance.