Recipe: Grilled Flanken

 

You may have noticed that we often gravitate toward affordable and overlooked cuts of meat. And why not? Rather than fight the crowds for grill-ready rib eyes, flank steaks and London broils during the summer months, we skip the line and go for flanken. For Jewish grandmothers and Korean BBQ lovers this cut of beef is nothing new, but for most American shoppers it's an unusual looking piece of meat. Quite simply, flanken is short ribs sliced thinly across the ribs rather than along the bones. And just like short ribs, flanken are intensely marbled with fat and have an amazing beefy flavor - even on the leanest grass-fed animal.

 

The other morning Morgan Hartman, owner of Black Queen Angus, delivered the most beautifully marbled beef to the Meat Market, and as soon as Jake started to break it down he knew it would make the perfect flanken. So he zipped off 3 pounds of 1/4 inch thick strips on the band-saw and grabbed a bottle of Fire Cider - our new secret ingredient - some soy sauce and a little garlic for a marinade. The meat hung out in the marinade for the rest of day and when Jake got home, we threw it on a low grill with some asparagus. How was it, you ask? When a fight almost breaks out over the last slice, you know you've put together a great meal.

* While we don’t often use marinade - preferring the simple flavors of pastured meat - flanken is the ideal cut for it. The marinade (especially with something acidic like Fire Cider) helps to break down the naturally chewy quality of the cut without getting in the way of the chuck flavor. 

 

Grilled Flanken

+ 3 lbs of ¼” thick flanken
+ 1 cup of Fire Cider
+ ½ cup of soy sauce
+ 4 cloves of garlic, minced

1. Mix the Fire Cider, soy sauce, and garlic together in a bowl.
2. Set the flanken in a dish, deep enough the cover them. Pour the marinade over and let sit for at least 6 hours, no more than overnight.
3. Start the grill up and over low heat grill the flanken for about 7 minutes per side, or until they take on a deep brown caramelized color. Serve!