How to choose and cook steak flank?

A flank is a beef steak cut from the abdominal muscles or the buttocks of a cow. This method of cutting is common in Colombia, where it is known as sobrebarriga (literally means "above the belly").

Steak flank - what is it?

It is a relatively long and flat cut of meat, and it is used in various dishes, including as an alternative to traditional steak in fajitas. Steak flank can be cooked on the grill, and also be fried, baked or stewed. Meat fibers are very noticeable in such pieces of meat, and many cooks pierce them to make the dish more tender. The most qualitative flank has a bright red color.

It's hard to come up with a piece of meat that is more conducive to appetite than steak flank. It has a pronounced taste and a pleasant, delicate texture with little hardness. In addition, meat pieces are usually large and regular in shape, which makes it sliced, processed and cooked with very light tasks. Such steaks are usually thin enough, so they are ready in a few minutes and at the same time dense enough to experiment with different degrees of readiness.

There are several options for cooking meat such as steak flank. Ways of cooking are very diverse, but the best method is, of course, grilling on the grill. As these pieces of meat have a large surface area, they look very appetizing and are soaked with the amazing aroma of smoke and fresh air.

Purchase

At one time, the flank steak was relatively difficult to cut, and so finding it on sale was not an easy task. As a rule, these parts of the carcass were reserved for professional butchers or kept for industrial use. Nowadays, to buy any piece of meat is not a problem, and the flank has become a standard steak.

At its purchase it is necessary to look, that the piece was dark red color with a fair amount of the fine fat passing along muscles. A badly divided steak flank or will have a thin membrane still attached to its part, or this membrane will be removed so inaccurately that the surface of the meat will be damaged. Look for smoothly textured pieces without jags and potholes.

The standard weight of the flank steak is from 1 to 2 kg. When cooking, you should calculate 0.5 kg of meat per person, i.е. One steak will be approximately 3 servings.

Pickling

Contrary to popular belief, marinade does not actually penetrate deep into the meat even for a few days, most of the aromatic compounds are absorbed by just a few millimeters (excluding salt and small sugar molecules, as well as some acids). Any mixture basically processes the surface of the product, so there is absolutely no benefit in marinating for a long time - more than half a day. If you want meat to get the taste of a marinade, it is better to leave some of its quantity separately and pour on them already prepared steak flank. Below are some ingredients that you should use when making marinade.

Salt is absolutely necessary. This is one of the few ingredients that penetrate and change the taste of meat deeper than on the surface. It is advisable to add it in the form of soy or fish sauce, which gives a kind of pleasant taste.

Sugar when used in moderation will help the meat to acquire a brown color, and when cooking on the grill will strengthen the smoky odor.

Aromatic seasoning basically remains on the surface, but they can be quite strong. Garlic, shallots, dried spices, herbs or chili peppers are all good things that you can safely experiment with.

Oil is often the main ingredient in marinades. Many aromatic compounds (for example, garlic) are highly soluble in oil, and not in water. Olive or sunflower oil will help spread these aromas evenly over the entire surface of the meat, and also protect it from burning in the first seconds on the grill.

Acidic ingredients can balance scents, but they should be used with caution. Acid promotes denaturation of proteins in meat, softening it.

Steak flank: how to cook

The main secret of the right cooking is the use of a modified two-level grill, where all the coals are forced out to one side (in the gas grill, one side should be left in the off state). This gives you more control over the cooking process and allows you to start frying the meat at a very high temperature and finish on the cool side.

Before placing the marinated steak on the grill it is very important to wipe it with a paper towel. Wet meat can cause some problems. If the marinade is made on the basis of oil, it will drip into the fire, causing sparks, and your steak may partially burn. If a piece of meat contains too much water, it will end up paralyzed instead of fried.

Cutting and feeding

Like any steak cooked on the grill, the flank must be put aside to "rest" before cutting and serving on the table. Premature slicing always leads to loss of juices and flavor. A good rule of thumb is that the internal temperature of the meat falls a few degrees below the maximum temperature for its preparation. Usually for flank steak this time takes 5 to 10 minutes.

As for its cutting, the steak has pronounced fibers that make the task much easier. You should always cut pieces perpendicularly to minimize the length of each muscle fiber - this will allow the meat to remain soft.