The grill is hot. You have a succulent cut of steak prepped and ready. You’ve waited all week for this — the last thing you want to do is ruin your long-awaited meal by improperly slicing your steak.
Follow these four tips to ensure you have the best, most tender steak experience possible:
Let the steak rest before cutting it.
As silly as it may sound, you need to let your steak rest before you dig in. Once you take your steak off of the heat, loosely cover it with foil and set it aside approximately the same amount of time that you cooked it. This allows the juices in the meat resettle after being scrambled around during the cooking process, and can produce a more evenly cooked, juicer steak.
Use a sharp knife.
When you think “steak knife,” a serrated blade likely comes to mind. But actually, a flat, ultra-sharp blade is your best bet. For smooth slicing, you want a knife that’s at least double the length of your steak’s width. Don’t press down on the knife too hard and hack away at the meat. Simply allow the knife to do the work.
Slice against the grain.
This is THE most important action in a properly cut steak — and so if you only remember one of these tips, let it be this. On any cut of steak, you should always slice against the grain.
Whether you have a T-bone, a tenderloin filet, a ribeye, or another cut, you’ll want to slice against the direction that the muscle fibers run, forming a “T” with the grain.
How do you figure out which direction the muscle fibers run? Well, if you look up close, you’ll notice small lines that run parallel to each other — and that’s the grain. The more tender your slice of steak, the more difficult it is to notice the fibers. (For example, it’s harder to see fibers in beef tenderloin than it is in a tougher cut like a flank steak.) As you look, don’t confuse the fibers with the grill marks!
Note that this last tip is especially important for grass-fed and finished steaks (like many of the selections we proudly offer here at Market House) because the muscle formation is generally different.
Go thinner than you think.
This one is pretty self explanatory: Slice your individual bites as thin as possible. Not only does this draw out the steak-eating experience, but it also decreases the amount of thick muscle you would have to chew through at once.
Ready to put your steak-cutting skills to the test?
