Wow your guests at your next dinner party with five fab beef cuts — plus tips on how to cook them to perfection.
Let’s admit it: who can resist a good steak? A hot favourite for date nights, family dinners, and Sunday barbeques, the steak wows diners every time. But how do you pick the right cut and prep them? Here are the top five beef cuts and how to cook them to perfection:
1. Ribeye
The king of steaks, the ribeye is a firm favourite by many. Carved from the primal section, the ribeye is tender with marbling that runs throughout — often with an ‘eye’ of fat that makes it juicy and flavourful. Its texture and marbling makes it a popular cut whether attached to the bone (rib steak), or attached to the whole rib bone (Tomahawk steak).
Simply sprinkle some salt and pepper, and cook the steak in butter over high heat. For extra pizazz, throw in some smashed garlic cloves, rosemary sprigs, and thyme.
2. Skirt
The Bavette (skirt steak) offers great value for money, doesn’t shy on flavour, and is heavier on texture. Comprising a long muscle from the plate section of the belly, it packs a punch when cooked well (not beyond medium rare!).
Skip the marinade, or use an acidic mixture — soy sauce, olive oil, garlic, ginger, lemon, balsamic vinegar and honey — before flash searing the steak over high heat.
3. Hanger
The Onglet (hanger steak) is a cut that hangs beneath the diaphragm. It has more texture than bavette with it’s coarse grain, with a robust beefy flavour and notes of offal due to its proximity to the liver. Cooking this is simple: just add salt, pepper, and butter, and cook quickly over high heat.
Do err on the rare side of medium rare, with a longer resting time. As a finishing touch, serve the Onglet with red wine sauce or mustard.
4. T-bone
The premium T-bone steak offers the best of both worlds: the flavours of a sirloin, and the buttery tenderness of a fillet, separated by a T-shaped bone.
Cook the T-bone over a roaring flame on the grill or sear it quickly in a smoking iron-cast skillet, before transferring it to an oven. Use a meat thermometer to ensure the meat cooks through. For added taste, use a rub that contains olive oil, Worchester sauce, garlic, pepper, and lemon juice.
5. Sirloin
The sirloin is the second most tender cut after the fillet. Protected by a layer of fat on the outside and light marbling throughout, this is a must-try for those wanting a slightly leaner steak than the ribeye.
Add a dry rub that contains ingredients like kosher salt, paprika, cumin and brown sugar. Alternatively, just top the steak with garlic and a knob of melty herb butter. The sirloin is also great for making steak sandwiches or steak and frites.
Our top go-to tip of all? Get maximum flavour by choosing steaks that have been dry aged. And lucky for us, the Little Farms store at Tanglin Mall has just debuted a spanking new dry ager! A true feast for the eyes, the fridge enhances flavour by controlling temperature, air flow, and humidity to remove moisture from the meat. The best part? Customers are able to reserve a piece of meat, and keep it in the dry ager for as long as they like! Choose from either British or Australian dry aged beef, which have been aged for varying lengths of time.
FYI, Little Farms is one of the only butchers in Singapore that uses a hand saw, offering a wider and more curated range of cuts. The dry ager is manned by Little Farms’ fab butchers — see them work their magic at the Lamb Demo Butcher Masterclass (stay tuned for more details in 2023).
See the dry ager for yourself — and get your hands on a gorgeous cut of meat — at Little Farms, open seven days a week for your meaty pleasure. Trust us, you’re in for a real treat!
This post is in partnership with Little Farms.