So, is Pops still around?? Opinion please.

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flash

Smoking Guru
Original poster
OTBS Member
Mar 30, 2007
5,280
45
Chiefland/Cedar Key, Fl
 I remember these cuts from the past. Not real thick, maybe 3/8th to 1/2 inch, tough, sinewy strip down the middle. Sorry did not think of shooting it before I vacuumed sealed it. Now the grocery called it "Flat Iron". I have bought some Flat Irons before and they never had this strip down the middle. Always very tender and use to be a cheap piece of meat to buy. Not so much anymore. We usually don't see quality Flat Irons here in Florida and was wondering what you think this is?

835c8874_FlatIron0024.jpg
 
Those look like flatirons to me.  The sinew down the middle is typical of how some places cut them.  Pops will probably be along shortly to give you the professional skinny.

Good luck and good smoking.
 
Pops will know,

I'm interested to know also.

I have bought some that looked just like those, but never gave it much thought.
 
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Those look like flatirons to me.  The sinew down the middle is typical of how some places cut them.  Pops will probably be along shortly to give you the professional skinny.

Good luck and good smoking.


 I know they had a different name back then and most, if we see them, labeled "Flat Irons" do not have this strip. Of course I guess it is easy to just avoid it when cutting out the steak?
 
Yes, the flatiron is nothing but a very carefully selected cut of the chuck.  If memory serves me correctly it was concocted by the geniuses at the University of Nebraska and the University of Florida(?).  It is a method of "value added merchandising" for what is otherwise considered a lesser cut of meat.  If you can differentiate the flatiron, why sell it for chuck price?  Ingenious!

Good luck and good smoking.
 
I never understood the name "Flat Iron"

If I'm looking for a steak to grill, the name "Iron" is an instant head turner.

Of course I know better because I love them.

I used to get them darn cheap, but now they are $4.00 per lb.
 
Venture is right the flat iron comes from the "top blade" of the chuck...from the  shoulder clod. what you have in your pic is a top blade steak (breakfast steak is what we call them) to make them true flat iron steaks the top blade has to be seperated into its 2 halves and the conective tissue between them removed...like what Dan gave you a link to.

The top blade steak can be very tender even with the connective tissue intact. cook it slow and a long time and that tissue will melt like buttah.  The top blade meat is fast becoming the resturaunt industry's Go-To steak!  Which is driving the price up!  If you can get ahold of a whole top blade they make an amazing roast!....hey that gives me and idea.....thanks guys...later

SOB
 
We had the same thing happen with the tri tip which is cut off the bottom sirloin butt.  30 years ago we bought them for a little more than the price of hamburger.  Now that they are so popular, they sell for the price of premium beef.  While they are a good cut, neither is premium beef, except for the marketing behind them.

Good luck and good smoking.
 
Dang, started a reply and lost it; I apologize, my hand has been giving me a lot of problems and my typing has been very slow and laborious and my postings have suffered from it; I don't mean to be reclusive.  It's a long and slow healing process and you take one step forward and two steps back. The brain finds new pathways around the dead areas from the strokes but it causes anomalies doing it.

Years ago (50's, 60's) most merchandising with chucks was 'stab'n'slab'em' - slice off the steaks and roasts, bone out the neck, cut the shoulder into a boston or cross rib roast and short arm roast and do up the trim, that was all there was to it. 

Today, everything is 'muscle-boned' on a chuck; separating out each muscle group to make 'value-added' merchandised cuts (that's a nice way of saying you're going to charge more for the same piece of meat to make more profit).

Here's where the flat iron steak comes from and how it is supposed to be merchandised properly, which shows removing the grizzly membrane.  From the small end of the top blade the center membrane is minimal; at the large end it it thick and sinewy.

http://www.beefinnovationsgroup.com/ValueCuts/shoulderclod/#/flatIronSteak

This is from a post I did on Beef Animations:   http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/forum/thread/107516/beef-animations

That is the way the top blade steak is supposed to be merchandised, but as you can see, it is not done; much faster to slice it whole and leave the membrane inside and let the customer deal with it.  Hence, the steaks as shown; center grizzle and all.

I am working on finding more animations / demonstrational videos to post; just did one for porcine myology, and will continue to find more to show where the cuts some from.
 
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I never understood the name "Flat Iron"

If I'm looking for a steak to grill, the name "Iron" is an instant head turner.

Of course I know better because I love them.

I used to get them darn cheap, but now they are $4.00 per lb.
I think many names are made to confuse us into buying.

We've been shopping at Giant for many years, and I'm finally getting used to the name "Giant".

In the ads in their flyers, above each picture, it says things like, "Giant shrimp", "Giant chicken thighs & legs", "Giant grapes", etc, etc.

Even though I always knew that was their name, for years I read that as being really big grapes, very large chicken parts, and huge shrimp, before I came to my senses a minute later.

When I read "Flat Iron Steak", if I didn't know better, I'd think that would be better for grilling than a Ribeye, just because of the name.

My 2 cents,

Bear

BTW: Thanks Pops & SOB !
 
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