Beef Flat Iron Steak 10 Oz

This cut sits above the blade on on to of the shoulder ( chuck) its from the front of the animal so does a fair amount of work, the more work a muscle does the tougher its going to be (generally)
I first came across this steak when two young student types came in to the shop asking for it ‘Jamie olive, said it was a good cheap frying steak with loads of flavour’ ME- ‘ I don’t care what he said this will be as tough as Mr T. Any way they brought some, and I took their money, I was have a rump steak myself that night and took a small bit of the feather home as well, small, knowing full well it would be as tough as hell. Well what a surprise for me, it was tender, full of flavour. It was the start of my mind being opened and I had so much more to learn about steak, other than the traditional ones (rump-sirloin- fillet- rib eye)

The Flat iron was always traditionally a great braising steak with this this memebrane running throw the middle this thick tough muscle is great for slow cooking as it very gelatinous, and tasty, breaking down over a long cooking time.

So for a frying the flat iron we take out the thick centre grisle (fascia membrane) and trim it up so to expose the great marbling and feathering effect steak.

Warning, this steak as said before is from the front of the animal, I’ve had amazing ones and rubbish one, we butchers are aiming for constituency. The best I found is to age the feather on the bone for two weeks, then vacuum pack it for another week. The idea ( and its i’ve tested this many times) the dry aging increase the flavour and tenderness and the extra week vacuum packed ( the enzyme still working) increase the tenderness. Lets not forget one side of the feather has no fat or protection, so to age it for to long and it will spoil.