Onglet, does it need to be butterflied

[pacman1978]

Hi,

Whenever I purchase onglet from the butchers it is always butterflied. Has anyone every tried grilling/frying/bbqing it without butterflying it first? Reason I ask it when I see hanger steak pics from the US it looks to me very much like an un-butterflied version.

Thanks,

Regards,

[MelissaH]

I've never seen it butterflied. I live in upstate NY.

[Ttogull]

I grill hanger steaks semifrequently. The place I buy it from says it comes with a strip of cartilage or something down the middle, and they cut that out automatically as a service to their customers. So for them a hanger steak is really two pieces of meat. But neither piece is butterflied, and I do not butterfly it.

[tim]

"... it comes with a strip of cartilage or something down the middle...."

Hi,

The hanger steak is the muscle that runs across the middle of the diaphragm. It is a square strip of muscle that curls with much cartilage providing fat for tenderness. There is only one onglet per animal, explaining its rarity in local markets.

That strip of caritilage separates two muscles but really needs no separation. The whole square sectioned muscle, twists down its length but the cartilage melts as it is cooked. The result is not tough sections of steak. Therefore, butterflying, cutting, this small muscle in half really has no purpose. .

The whole hanger steak has wonderful flavor (possibly some liver notes) and excellent tenderness. it is the perfect cut for steak frites.

Tim

[sigma]

I think you have to take the tough center out. You then have two nice long hangar steaks. You can portion them or cook them whole, but they tend to be wiggly in the pan, they go from basically flat to pretty tall when they hit the heat, which is why people often butterfly and lightly pound them. I go either way, but I wouldn't leave the central nerve in.

[pacman1978]

Thank you very much for your responses. The butcher always takes out the centre to create two steaks. It sounds like trying to cook it without butterflying it will work as well and result in a thicker slab of meat as I find butterflying can make some parts slightly too thin due to the tapered nature of the steak. So leaving it whole it means these will not be as prone to overcooking. I always use onglet/hanger steak for steak frites, believe it can be good for tacos and such when sliced upon the grain.

Has anyone ever tried cooking it sous vide?

Cheers,

[Franci]

Here in France is customary butterflied but I usually buy one piece (all thing divided lengthwise) asking the butcher to leave it as it is

[Broken English]

Sous vide at 54C it is sublime. At work we marinate it in soy, apple juice and sesame oil, and cook it with the marinade in the vac bag.

It's become my favourite cut.

[pacman1978]

Interesting thanks Broken, is it a cut that requires a long time in the bath or just the standard sterilisation time?

Cheers,

[Broken English]

Depending on size, but 25-45 minutes usually does the job.

[ElsieD]

I do mine sous vide at 133F for an hour.