Steak lovers of the world, rejoice. (Vegetarians, look away.)
We’re about to let you in one of the world’s best-kept steak preparation secrets. And it all comes down to the way you’ve been cutting your meat.
It’s all about angle and direction – and it makes all the difference to its tenderness and taste by the time it hits your palate.
In the video below, America's Test Kitchen demonstrates how just a small change in the way you use your knife will lend tenderness to even the 'toughest' cuts of meat. In short, they've discovered the way you cut your red meat can make it easier to chew, regardless of whether it’s usually considered 'tough' or 'tender'.
They test their theory on skirt steak (typically considered the poor cousin to most other cuts and characterised as 'tough') and pitted it against a cut of porterhouse (traditionally considered a tender cut). Both are cooked to 54°C.
They then cut both steaks with the grain.
They found that the skirt steak, when cut WITH the grain instead of against, took four times as much force to “bite” about 5mm into the meat (which wasn't unexpected).
