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How to Cut Flat Iron Steaks from a Cheap Top Blade Roast

Updated on August 30, 2010
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/anotherpintplease/2397550916/sizes/z/in/photostream/

Make sure you act fast if you ever see a top blade roast in your supermarket meat section – it will probably be going for a fraction of the cost of more ‘premium’ cuts, like a strip loins or rib sections, but with a bit of simple meat cutting you can transform this humble and affordable roast into flat iron steaks – ranked amongst the most tender cuts of meats and also amongst the tastiest.

Get rib-eye taste and tenderness for stew meat chuck prices – can’t beat that deal!

Steaks from the top blade roast (flat iron steaks) were rated the second most tender cuts of steak, after steaks from the tenderloin – but in many places, top blade roasts are still sold as bargain cuts of meat.

With a little very simple meat cutting, you can transform that couple of dollars a pound chuck roast into great steaks!

Cutting Flat Iron Steaks from a Top Blade Roast

A top blade roast is a relatively flat roast (it’s about an inch and a half in height – about 5 inches wide and about 9 inches in length). If you imagine it as a book that was 200 pages in length (bear with me!) imagine that pages 1 to 90 were very tender, pages 90 to 100 were very very tough and stringy, and pages 100 to 200 were once again very tender.

What you’ve got to do is get rid of pages 90-100!

  1. To do this, lay the roast flat on your cutting board and find the seam of connective tissue that runs along down the middle of the roast. Once you find it, use a very sharp knife and carefully cut the meat away from the top of the connective tissue – cutting the roast in half lengthwise. When you are done, you will be left with two long, wide and fairly flat sections of meat.
  2. Take a look at the bottom section of the piece you just cut away from the top of the roast and trim away any additional connective tissue that you can find – and then this top piece is now done and ready for cooking or for cutting into smaller steaks, if desired.
  3. Take the bottom piece of your original blade roast, and cut the connective tissue of the top section of it, and then your second section of roast is also ready for cooking as steaks!

To Cook a Top Blade Steak

Steaks from the top blade have a great flavor that comes from being a part of a muscle group that gets a heavy work-out during a cow’s lifetime. They can be marinated, but are very tasty on their own, with a little salt and pepper the only seasoning required.

They can be braised or stewed, but they really shine when cooked simply as steaks, grilled, pan fired or broiled over direct high heat and cooked to medium or less.

Enjoy!

Cutting a Top Blade Roast Into Flat Iron Steaks

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