Top butchers reveal the best bang-for-your-buck cuts

It’s not all about sirloin and eye fillet when it comes to beef, with Australia’s best butchers offering up their prime hacks for those who can’t afford porterhouse, writes Dan Stock.

Fifth-generation butcher Anthony Puharich is a man on a mission.

The one-time merchant banker has witnessed first-hand the changes in Australians’ eating habits since setting up Vic’s Premium Quality Meat in 1996 with his father, Victor — which has since become the country’s leading meat wholesaler — and then super-luxe butcher shop, Victor Churchill in Sydney.

The father-and-son team are widely regarded as the country’s foremost butchers.

He’s seen Australia go from a steak-and-three-veg country to one that’s more fully embracing of making the most of our world-renowned beef in our home kitchens.

Cuts laid bare in an exerpt from Meat: The Ultimate Companion by Anthony Puharich and Libby Travers.

“Twenty years ago, even 10 years ago, forget about it, people would only use three different cuts. That’s steadily improved. There is a lot more consciousness around respecting the animal, and eating all of it, and people are a lot more adventurous,” he says.

Vic Puharich with son Anthony in their Victor Churchill butcher shop on Queen Street in Woollahra, Sydney.

Get your copy for $79.99.

He says the increasing price of meat in general — and prime cuts, specifically — has helped drive this change.

“Meat costs have increased significantly over the past decade. We now have to compete with the rest of the world in securing Australian beef because they have woken up to the fact we produce a phenomenal product, and they are prepared to pay more for it than we have, historically.”

But this hit to the household budget has come with an upside.

“Because of the high cost of meat, the general public have had no other option to look at other cuts of meat. It’s forced the industry to think outside the square and adopt these lesser known cuts,” he says.

Anthony Puharich with a $500 per kg piece of steak at Victor Churchill's butchers in Woollahra, Sydney. It is Australias most expensive steak ever sold, from Victorian cattleman, David Blackmore. Picture: James Croucher

Puharich has distilled his more than two decades’ experience into Meat — The Ultimate Companion.

The weighty tome covers the history of every breed raised for meat, farming practices, animal husbandry, breeds and provenance and teams this with butchery techniques, advice on selecting, storing and cooking all types of meat.

“I’m a big advocate of quality over quantity,” he says.

“I believe people on all levels of income can afford to eat good meat, ethically raised product from good farmers. They might not be able to afford the prime cuts, the scotch fillet, striploin, tenderloin. But what people forget is that with beef, there’s in excess of 40 different cuts of meat. If you ask most people to name cuts of meat, most would be hard pressed to rattle off 4 or 5 different cuts.”

So move over sirloin, and say goodbye to eye fillet. Here are the cuts we should be eating more of — great for both hip pocket and dinner table.

ORDER SECONDS

“I don’t like using the term secondary cuts because they are as tasty and nice as the prime cut — I don’t believe you’re eating less well than someone who’s paying for a piece of rib eye or fillet,” Anthony says.

Richard Ousby, executive chef of Stokehouse restaurants in Melbourne and Brisbane.

Executive chef of Stokehouse in Brisbane and Melbourne Richard Ousby agrees.

“For the most part, lesser known cuts are budget-friendly, they have interesting textures and flavours and they encourage you to use different cooking styles. One of my favourite childhood memories is salted lamb’s tongue.”

Anthony says flank, brisket and rump are all good cuts that are easy for the home cook to master.

Flank, known as barette, has a stronger beef flavour than other steaks (“but not so intense as to scare off the family”) and is great to barbecue whole and slice at the table.

Brisket is the favoured cut of low-and-slow Texan barbecue, but is also great rolled, tied and slowly braised in stock.

DOFF YOUR CAP

Anthony says his new hack, for those who can’t afford sirloin or porterhouse but who love that cut, is rump cap.

“If you portion up a rump cap, it looks just like sirloin. It’s a third of the price, and just as flavoursome — probably more so, because it’s from the rump. If it’s from a really good animal, it will be as tender as porterhouse. Rump cap is the next big thing,” he says.

Richard suggests slow roasting the cut for a couple of hours — “it would be a great way to impress at your next dinner party” — but, for serious cooks who have a sous vide machine in the kitchen, he advises three hours at 53 degrees, resting for an hour and then grilling. “It will take you to another place.”

SILVERSIDE IS GOLD

Anthony says silverside is the most unique cut of beef. “It’s the only one that has a cycle; that comes in and out of fashion.”

He says people loved silverside — which is also known as girello — in the ’60s and ’70s, in the ’80s no one ate it but then, due to an influx of British chefs putting it on their menus (Jeremy Strode, Paul Wilson) in the early 2000s, it became sexy again and “we sold it by the truckload”.

“It fell out of favour, but we took it to the next level about 10 years ago by offering it from wagyu,” Anthony says. “Wagyu corned silverside became the go-to thing. The last few years it’s fallen off the radar, but it’ll probably come back in next 18 months, 2 years. I love it, it’s inexpensive, it’s tasty and it’s easy to prepare.”

SECRET BUTCHER’S BUSINESS

“It was called the butcher’s cut, as there’s only one per animal, and it never reached the butcher’s cabinet because the butcher would keep it for himself. Now we all enjoy this, and it’s amazing,” Anthony says.

He’s talking about hanger steak, or what the French call onglet. Hanging between the tenderloin and rib, it sits close to the offal so has an intense flavour.

“It’s tender, flavoursome and often highly marbled,” Richard says, who suggests grilling it to medium rare and letting rest for a couple of minutes before serving.

OFFALLY GOOD

And that meaty mission Anthony is on?

“The last frontier for me … I’ll retire after this. I have a few battle scars, bruises from bashing my head and being an advocate of all the flanks, and skirts, and briskets. All these cuts are now starting to gather momentum. But the last frontier is offal,” he says.

“That is the true by-product (of the meat industry). People can’t seem to get their head around offal.”

He says one of his favourite dishes to eat is veal liver, which he cooks to an Anthony Bourdain recipe that features lots of bacon lardons and a veal jus.

“I reckon veal liver is amazing. If you’ve mastered beef cheeks and ox tail and you’re looking for that next level, veal liver is it for me,” Anthony says.

And of course, you can never go wrong with crumbed and fried anything, so sweetbreads, which are the glands of the animal, are delicious when cooked in butter until they are sweet, creamy and crunchy.

“Where I’m at, personally with offal, is tongue,” Anthony says. “The traditional way, European way, is to boil it, which I don’t mind. But the best way is the Japanese way. Cut it very thinly, grill it very quickly over a high heat. It’s mind-blowing.”

- Meat: The Ultimate Companion by Anthony Puharich and Libby Travers. Murdoch Books, RRP $79.99

STANDARD PRACTICE

Red Angus cows produce top biodynamic beef. Picture: Zoe Phillips

Organic, biodynamic, grass-fed and pasture-raised are just some of the keywords that Aussies look for when purchasing a premium piece of meat.

The trouble is, they don’t necessarily tell you if it’s going to taste any good.

“There’s no one single trait that will give you an indication of quality when it comes to buying meat, rather it’s a combination of many different traits,” says Sarah Strachan, program manager for Meat Standards Australia (MSA).

While most shoppers know to look for certain visual cues, such as a bright cherry red colour or creamy veins of intramuscular fat, attributes that you can’t see, such as the breed, the maturity of the meat, its pH, even the way it is hung, can have a big impact on taste.

“Choosing a piece of meat used to be a bit of a lottery, and that’s why we created the MSA grade, to help take the guesswork out of it,” Sarah says.

To create the grade, MSA relies on scientific data and consumer feedback from taste testing panels, which are held right across the country.

So far, more than 110,000 Australians have sampled more than one million pieces of meat to help create the grade.

Having ordinary people take part is crucial to the program’s success, Sarah says.

“These are the people who are actually buying the beef, so we want the grade to reflect their tastes and expectations specifically.”

Meats that make the cut are then sorted into three grades – three star, which is your high-quality everyday meat, four stars, which is your premium meat, and five stars, which is your special occasion, supreme-quality meat.

- Erina Starkey

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SKIRT STEAK FAJITAS

SERVES 6

Skirt steak fajitas, from Meat: The Ultimate Companion.

Prep time 20 minutes (plus marinating)

Cook 20 minutes (plus resting)

INGREDIENTS

1 kg inside skirt steak (see note)

60 ml lime juice

2 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra for cooking

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 pinch of dried chilli flakes

3 capsicums, thinly sliced:

a mix of red, yellow and green works well

1 red onion, thinly sliced

Guacamole, coriander sprigs, warmed tortillas and lime wedges, to serve

PICO DE GALLO

4 ripe tomatoes, chopped

1 teaspoon salt

1 small white onion, finely chopped

½ cup coarsely chopped coriander

2 jalapeño chillies, thinly sliced

Juice of 1 lime

METHOD

1.Combine the lime juice, olive oil, garlic, cumin and chilli flakes in a bowl and season with salt and pepper. Combine half the marinade with the steak in a resealable plastic bag, massaging well into the meat, and refrigerate to marinate for at least 3 hours (and ideally overnight). Bring the steak to room temperature before grilling.

2.Combine the remaining marinade with the capsicum and onion in a bowl, cover and refrigerate to marinate.

3.To make the pico de gallo, toss the tomatoes with the salt, transfer to a sieve and set it over a sink to drain for 30 minutes. Put the drained tomato into a bowl with all of the remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper to taste.

4.Set up a kettle barbecue for direct grilling, heating until the charcoal is white hot, or heat a gas barbecue to high. While the barbecue is heating, remove the steak from the marinade. Grill the steak on the barbecue, turning once, for 8–10 minutes until well charred and cooked to medium-rare: a thermometer should read 52C. Cover loosely with foil and set aside to rest for 15–20 minutes; the steak will continue to cook as it rests.

5.Meanwhile, heat a splash of olive oil in a frying pan on the barbecue until smoking (alternatively, you can do this over high heat on the stovetop). Drain the capsicum mixture from the marinade, put it in the pan and fry, stirring occasionally, for 8–10 minutes until tender and beginning to scorch. Set aside. Pour any juices that have accumulated from the resting meat into the pan and set aside.

6.To serve, thinly slice the steak across the grain and serve with the capsicum, pico de gallo, guacamole, coriander, warmed tortillas and lime wedges.

NOTE:

Depending on the length of your steak and the size of your barbecue, you may need to cut your steak to fit.

BROWN BUTTER SWEETBREADS with ravigote sauce

Brown Butter Sweetbreads from Meat: The Ultimate Companion (cover above).

Prep time 30 minutes

Cook 25 minutes (plus cooling)

INGREDIENTS

500g pancreatic (heart) or thymus veal sweetbreads

2 teaspoons white vinegar

1 teaspoon sea salt

100g chilled butter, chopped

Plain (all-purpose) flour, seasoned with salt and pepper, for dusting

Squeeze of lemon juice

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Toasted or chargrilled sourdough bread, to serve

Ravigote sauce

2 handfuls of flat-leaf (Italian) parsley, finely chopped

1 handful of chervil, coarsely chopped

2 tablespoons snipped chives

40g cornichons, finely chopped

2 tablespoons tarragon vinegar or

white wine vinegar

2 tablespoons baby salted capers, rinsed and finely chopped

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 golden shallot, finely diced

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

Finely grated zest and juice of ½ lemon

Olive oil

METHOD

Bring the white vinegar, sea salt and 1 litre (4 cups) of water to a simmer over medium heat. Add the sweetbreads and gently poach for 10–15 minutes until opaque. Drain and transfer to a bowl of iced water to cool.

Drain the cooled sweetbreads well and pat dry on paper towel. Peel off the membrane, trim any sinew and blood. Break into walnut-sized pieces and set aside.

To make the ravigote sauce, pulse the herbs, cornichons, vinegar, capers, mustard, shallot, garlic, lemon zest and juice in a food processor until finely chopped. Stir in enough olive oil to make a drizzling consistency and season with salt and pepper.

Heat half the butter in a large frying pan until the butter foams. Dust the sweetbreads in seasoned flour, shaking off any excess. Carefully pan-fry, turning occasionally, for 2–3 minutes until golden brown and crisp. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towel.

Wipe out pan, add the remaining butter and cook, swirling the pan occasionally, for 3–4 minutes until nut brown. Remove from the heat, squeeze in some lemon juice (be careful as the butter will spit and sputter), then when the spitting dies down, stir in the garlic and season with salt and pepper.

Divide the sweetbreads among serving plates and spoon the burnt butter over. Drizzle with ravigote sauce and serve with chargrilled sourdough bread.

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BEEF STEAK WITH SATAY SAUCE AND SPROUT SALAD

Beef steak with satay sauce and sprout salad. Picture: Chris L Jones and Guy Bailey

Serves 4

Prep 15 mins

Cook 25 mins

INGREDIENTS

400ml can coconut milk

1 1/2 tablespoons Thai red curry paste

1 1/2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter

2 teaspoons fish sauce

2 teaspoons caster sugar

2 teaspoons tamarind purée

1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, finely chopped, plus extra to serve

1 tablespoon kecap manis

1 tablespoon peanut oil

700g beef rump steak, trimmed

200g mixed baby tomatoes, halved

1 Lebanese cucumber, roughly chopped

60g baby spinach

3/4 cup bean sprouts, trimmed

2/3 cup fresh coriander leaves

Lime wedges, to serve

METHOD

Step 1: Bring coconut milk to the boil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add paste. Cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Stir in peanut butter, fish sauce, sugar, tamarind and peanuts. Cook, stirring, for 10 minutes or until thickened slightly. Transfer to a bowl. Drizzle with kecap manis.

Step 2: Meanwhile, rub oil over steak. Heat a large chargrill pan or frying pan over high heat. Cook steak for 3 to 4 minutes each side, for medium, or until cooked to your liking. Cover loosely with foil. Set aside for 5 minutes to rest, before slicing.

Step 3: Combine tomato, cucumber, spinach, sprouts and half the coriander on a large serving platter. Top with steak. Drizzle with satay sauce and sprinkle with remaining coriander. Serve with lime wedges.

Recipe: Kim Coverdale & Liz Macri at Taste.com.au

ONGLET STEAK WITH SALSA VERDE AND PARMESAN CHIPS

Mouth-watering goodness. Picture: Jeremy Simons

Serves 4

Prep 25 mins
Cook 20 mins

INGREDIENTS

1 tablespoon rosemary leaves, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

200ml olive oil

1kg beef onglet steak

1 tablespoon capers, rinsed, drained

3 anchovy fillets in oil, drained

1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

1 cup flat-leaf parsley

1 cup fresh mint leaves

2 cups basil leaves, plus extra leaves to serve

2 tablespoons lemon juice or red wine vinegar

Sunflower oil, to deep-fry

400g packet frozen chips

1 cup (80g) parmesan, grated

Cherry tomatoes, vine-ripened, roasted, to serve

METHOD

Step 1: Combine rosemary, half the garlic and 2 tbs olive oil in a bowl. Season, then brush over steak. Cover and set aside to marinate for 15 minutes.

Step 2: To make the salsa verde, whiz capers, anchovies, Dijon and remaining garlic in a small food processor to combine. Add herbs, lemon juice and remaining 160ml olive oil, and whiz to a paste. Set aside.

Step 3: Preheat a chargrill pan or barbecue to high. Chargrill steak for 6 minutes each side for medium-rare or until cooked to your liking. (Note, if overcooked, this cut may be tough.) Remove from heat and rest, loosely covered with foil, for 10 minutes.

Step 4: Meanwhile, half-fill a large saucepan with sunflower oil and heat to 190C (a cube of bread will turn golden in 30 seconds). Deep-fry chips according to packet instructions. Drain on paper towel, then toss with parmesan.

Step 5: Thinly slice steak and drizzle with salsa verde. Serve with parmesan chips, roasted tomatoes and extra basil leaves.

Recipe: Vallit Little & Warren Mendes, taste.com.au

POACHED BEEF TONGUE

On the Grill: Karena Armstrong

Beef tongue, red cabbage and fennel salad & fried eggs is served at the Salopian Inn.

Introducing Karena Armstrong’s beef tongue, red cabbage and fennel salad & fried eggs.

This recipe will work for up to 3 beef tongue that fit quite snugly into a slow cooker

Serves 6

1 pickled beef tongue (around 600g-800g)

100ml white vinegar

40g soft brown sugar

1 generous pinch sea salt flakes

4 bay leaves

1 brown onion peeled and roughly chopped

1 carrot sliced

2 celery sticks sliced

Hand full of hard herbs (rosemary, thyme etc) or herb stalks

RED CABBAGE SALAD

½ red cabbage finely sliced

½ red onion finely sliced

1 small fennel bulb

½ cup freshly chopped herbs — parsley/dill/chives

1 tsp Dijon mustard

100g sour cream

50ml apple cider vinegar

1 lemon juiced

50ml extra virgin olive oil

TO FINISH

100ml olive oil

1 lemon juiced

50g butter

6 free range eggs

Wash the tongue in running water to remove any pickling “slime”. Then put everything for the tongue in a pot or slow cooker and cover with water. Poach on a very low heat for 8 hours in a slow cooker or around 6 in the pot. The tongue should remain submerged the whole time in the liquid.

The tongue is ready when it is easily pierced with a skewer with no resistance. When ready allow the tongue to cool slightly in the liquid. Remove the tongue and peel the outer layer off while warm. If your tongue is cooked the peeling is easy.

Strain the liquid and pour over the peeled tongue if not using immediately. The tongue will keep for 5 days in the refrigerator in the poaching liquid.

To make the salad mix all the prepared ingredients in a bowl and season to your taste with sea salt and pepper. This salad does benefit from being mixed at least an hour before serving.

To serve, slice the tongue into 1cm slices. Heat a frying pan and add half of the olive oil. Fry the tongue on both sides until golden over a medium flame. Just a few minutes as the tongue is already cooked. Finish the tongue in the pan with the lemon juice, butter and sea salt flakes.

Fry the eggs in the same pan with the remaining olive oil and serve with the tongue and salad and perhaps some mustard on the side.