Flat Iron

Flat Iron

The flat iron is nestled into a tender area of the shoulder, so it's an exception to the rule that shoulder steaks are always tough. Plus it's cheap.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flat iron steak (US), butlers' steak (UK), or oyster blade steak (Australia and New Zealand) is a cut of steak cut with the grain from the shoulder of the animal. This produces a flavorful cut that is a bit tough because it contains a gristly fascia membrane unless removed.^[1] Some restaurants offer it on their menu, often at lower price than the more popular rib-eye and strip steaks of the same grade. This is used, in some places, as a means of selling a less expensive cut from the same animal, for example Kobe beef.

The cut

This cut of steak is from the shoulder of a beef animal.^[2] It is located adjacent to the heart of the shoulder clod, under the seven or paddle bone (shoulder blade or scapula). The steak encompasses the infraspinatus muscles of beef, and one may see this displayed in some butcher shops and meat markets as a "top blade" roast. Anatomically, the muscle forms the dorsal part of the rotator cuff of the steer. This cut is anatomically distinct from the shoulder tender, which lies directly below it and is the teres major.

Flat iron steaks usually have a significant amount of marbling. To make it more marketable, the steak, which has the fascia dividing the infraspinatus within it, has increasingly been cut as two flatter steaks, each corresponding to one muscle, with the tough fascia removed. Steaks that are cross cut from this muscle are called top blade steaks or patio steaks. As a whole cut of meat, it usually weighs around two to three pounds; the entire top blade usually yields four steaks between eight and 12 ounces each.