bhensley

I hear alot of people on here talk about cutting their steaks and refer to the cuts as "butterfly" and "medallion" cuts. What are these cuts and how do you do it? Thanks
Brandon

Alsatian

The "butterfly" cut is obtained by cutting a double thickness steak that is round then slicing part-way through the middle of the steak and opening the steak out into two connected halves. These two connected halves have the general appearance of a butterfly. This technique is most likely to be used when cutting steaks from the backstrap, because a single thickness backstrap steak is pretty small. Personally, I just cut single thickness steaks from the backstrap and eat more than one steak; others seems to prefer the butterfly steaks. Maybe someone can comment on whether there is some advantage to the butterfly steak that I am unaware of.

The "medallion" cut is simply a round cut of steak, for example from the backstrap. This is how I cut my backstrap.

Note that when I butcher, I leave my backstrap whole and only cut steaks when I am ready to cook the steaks. This means my backstrap is frozen in a single piece, and there is less surface area for freezer burn or other problems to attack the meat.

NY Bowhunter

Butterfly cut... simply make your first cut however thick you want and go a little more than 3/4 of the way through with the cut. Slide your knife down the same thickness as your first cut and go all the way through. The piece of meat will fold over to make one steak. You may have to lightly slice your first cut deeper as you're folding it to get the steak to lay flat.

Backstraps? I plop the whole thing on the grill and have a feast![8D]

jerseyhunter

I have watched a butcher take a small peice of veal and add a third cut to make the small peice even larger to match the previous full size steaks/cutlets.