Wagyu British Beef Whole Flank (Bavette) | ±700 x2

Wagyu Flank (Bavette) - Pan or Barbecue

±700g x 2, delivered chilled. Each piece serves 2 to 3. Around 10 minutes of cooking.

1. Straight from the fridge
Your flank arrives chilled, not frozen, so there is nothing to defrost. Keep it in its unopened vacuum pack at 0-4°C and cook it by the date on the label. If you have frozen it yourself, thaw it in the fridge in its pack, allowing 15 hours.

2. Temper
Out of the fridge 45 minutes before cooking. A flank is thin at one end and thick at the other, and a cold core makes that difference worse.

3. Find the grain before you cook
Look at the raw steak. The muscle fibres run the length of the cut in long, visible lines. Note which way they run now, because the crust will hide them later. Everything about this cut depends on cutting across them at the end.

4. Dry and season
Pat both sides completely dry. Season generously with fine sea salt. This cut also takes a marinade well if you want one, garlic, olive oil and hard herbs, but dry it again before it meets the heat.

5. Get the heat as high as it goes
A heavy pan, a griddle, or a barbecue over direct coals. Give it 3 to 4 minutes. Add a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Flank is thin and open-grained, so it wants a fierce, short cook.

6. Sear
3 to 4 minutes on the first side without moving it. Turn once and give the second side the same. Lift the thin tail end out earlier if it is running ahead of the rest.

7. Pull at 52°C
Medium rare, and on this cut that is not a preference. Flank has little internal fat to protect it, so past medium rare the fibres tighten and it turns chewy.

8. Rest
8 to 10 minutes on a board. Do not cover it tightly. An open grain holds a lot of juice and it needs the time to settle back.

9. Slice thin, across the grain
This is the step that decides the result. Cut across the fibres you noted in step 3, at 5mm, holding the knife at a slight angle to widen the slices. Cut along the grain by mistake and even a perfectly cooked flank eats tough.

Optional: melt a flavoured butter over the sliced meat rather than cooking the steak in it. Flank also stands up to bold, sharp accompaniments, chimichurri above all.

Two pieces in the pack. Cook them side by side only if your pan is large enough to leave space between them. Otherwise cook one after the other and rest the first while the second sears.

If chilled
Keep refrigerated at 0-4°C in its unopened vacuum pack and use by the date on the label. You can freeze it unopened at any point up to that date - at -18°C or below it will keep well for up to 12 months.

If frozen
Keep frozen at -18°C until needed. Use by the date on the pack.
Defrost in the fridge, in its packaging, allow 15 hours. Never defrost at room temperature or in a microwave.
Once opened or defrosted, keep refrigerated at 0-4°C and use within 24 hours. Do not refreeze once thawed.
A faint metallic smell on first opening the pack is normal for vacuum-packed beef and will disperse within a few minutes in open air.