The Flat Iron Steak

Memorial Day weekend is the traditional beginning of grilling season. Here’s introducing a cut of beef perhaps new to you but well worth seeking out for the grill: the Flat Iron Steak.

You who sear steer are acquainted with chuck, but stay clear of the cut in favor of the tenderer sirloin or filet. But inside of chuck is a soft heart; it just took a crafty butcher to find it. 

It’s called the Flat Iron (because, not unlike our own, chuck’s tender heart has the triangular shape of a clothes iron). The flat iron is part of the chuck called the oft-seen top blade, used for braising in large part because of a nasty seam of sinew and connective tissue running down its middle. But one day that crafty butcher skillfully sliced away at the top blade’s sinew, separating steaks on both sides, and the grilling world had its first flat irons.

Some allege, in fact, that the flat iron is the second most tender cut of beef after the filet mignon. Hence, it is woefully underappreciated and, often, underpriced. However, because it does come from the chuck, it sports much more intense beefy awesomeness than the filet, more like that from New York Strip. That’s a compliment that any searer of steer will appreciate.

Flat Iron also has more names than pro wrestling’s roster. You’ll find it, in different parts of the country and from various butchers or grocers, called boneless top chuck steak, oyster blade steak, book steak, butler steak, lifter steak, chuck clod, petite steak, triangle steak, shoulder top blade steak, and boneless top blade steak. (Note that it is not, however, a hangar, flank, or skirt steak.)

RECIPE: Grilled Flat Iron Steaks
To serve 2

Ingredients
2 flat iron steaks, each 1 and 1/2 inches thick, total weight of each depending on your appetites
Seasoning of your choice (kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper; dry prepared steak rub or seasoning; marinade)

Directions
To assure proper finishing temperatures, steaks should be thawed and at room temperature (out of the refrigerator and set on the counter 40-60 minutes before cooking). Season the steaks.

Over charcoal, have both hot and medium-hot sections of the grill. Put steaks over the hotter section first, searing both sides for 2 minutes a side. Then move to the less hot part of the grill and cook to an internal temperature, read on an instant-read thermometer, of 130 degrees for medium-rare (anywhere from 8-12 minutes total, with one flip). On gas, preheat to high, then proceed as with charcoal, lowering heat to medium after the 2-minute sear.

Remove the steaks from the heat and rest them on a counter, cutting board, or warmed plate for 5 minutes before serving, tented loosely with foil. (The internal temperature will rise about 5 degrees, which is desired.) Resting the steaks allows the internal juices to redistribute themselves away from the surface of the steaks where they have traveled due to the heat of cooking, and back into and throughout the meat.

More steak recipes at GET COOKING WITH BILL ST JOHN: Two-Heat Kansas City Strips, Bone-In Cowboy (or Tomahawk) Steak, Pan-Seared Flap Steak with Sauce Gribiche.