Flanken

[Shel_B]

Later on this fall and probably throughout the winter I'll want to make some hearty "Grandma Bessie" soups, and recently, in another thread, it was noted that adding flanken to such soup may be a nice touch. Having poked around the web a bit, it seems there's a concensus that the meat used is beef short ribs, but there's disagreement about how the ribs are cut as to what constitutes the flanken method. It appears that even some butchers disagree.

Can someone provide the correct way to cut the ribs to make flanken? Also, it was mentioned that only certain ribs are used - rib # 4,5, & 6 if memory serves. Any thoughts on that?

I want to become a "flanken expert" ... but help is needed.

shel - the flanken dunce

Edited November 28, 2007 by Shel_B (log)

[Doodad]

Later on this fall and probably throughout the winter I'll want to make some hearty "Grandma Bessie" soups, and recently, in another thread, it was noted that adding flanken to such soup may be a nice touch. Having poked around the web a bit, it seems there's a concensus that the meat used is beef short ribs, but there's disagreement about how the ribs are cut as to what constitutes the flanken method. It appears that even some butchers disagree.

Can someone provide the correct way to cut the ribs to make flanken? Also, it was mentioned that only certain ribs are used - rib # 4,5, & 6 if memory serves. Any thoughts on that?

I want to become a "flanken expert" ... but help is needed.

shel - the flanken dunce

←

My notion of flanken ribs is the Korean cut which, I think, contains some of the rib eye meat attached to the rib "nodes." Basically, they are ribs cut perpendicular to the length of the rib. We make bulgogi with them, but sometimes other flavors as well. The bones are little circles held together by the meat if that helps?

[Pam R]

Here are a few of the pictures I have on my computer of flanken. This is just a few of them. It's amazing how many I had - but it's so good in soup.

The pictures aren't great, because I didn't take them to show off the flanken, but it'll give you an idea.

Raw, as the base of a bean and barley soup (in the middle, with marrow bones on either side):

And in the soup:

And just cooked on their own:

The ones in the pictures are about 1/4" thick - they're three or four rib bones (and meat) cut into thinner strips. This thickness is called a 'Miami Rib' up here, and a thicker cut - about 1" is called, simply, a shortrib.

I'm not sure which bones these are. I do know that there's also a 'white bone' shortrib that some of my customers look for (the whole, oval bone is white).