The Best Way to Cut Steak

When carving or cutting meat, you may have heard the terms "cutting against the grain" or "across the grain". That's because every cut of beef, from T-Bone Steaks to Filet Mignon to Top Sirloin Steak, is made up of bundles of muscular fibers that run parallel to one another, and the direction those fibers run in is called the "grain". Those bundles of fibers are pretty strong and can be very tough. Some cuts of steak are more fibrous than others, like Flank Steak and Skirt Steak.

But don't worry! When you know how to cut a steak properly, you can make every bite melt-in-your-mouth tender, no matter what cut it is. Follow these tips, and soon, you'll be carving steak like a pro.

Determining the Direction of the Grain

To find the grain on any piece of meat, place the meat on a cutting board, so the edges of the steak are parallel with the edges of the cutting board. The grain should now also run parallel to the edge of the cutting board. Look for somewhat uniform, long muscle fibers running down and through an entire piece of meat.

How to Cut Against the Grain

To slice meat against the grain, take a sharp knife to the grain, cutting across it. To ensure you have cut the steak against the grain, examine your first slice to make sure you can still see the parallel lines of muscle. The goal is to shorten the fibers, but the result should still have multiple parallel lines of muscle fibers. Cutting meat with the grain would keep the entire muscle fiber intact, making the meat chewy, if not tough.

Follow these steps to cut a steak perfectly:

Rest your steak for 5–10 minutes before cutting. This step is crucial as it gives the meat time to saturate in its juices rather than running onto your plate.

If you are carving a bone-in steak, cut along the bone and pull the meat away. Take a good look at your steak and note which direction the fibers are running. Slide your knife back and forth across those fibers — across the grain — cutting your steak into slices. Keep each piece no more than ¼ inch thick.

To make each bite extra tender, hold your knife blade at a 45° angle; this is called "cutting on the bias". Cutting against the grain this way exposes more surface area in each fiber and keeps the fibers from being stacked directly on top of each other in each slice of meat, further weakening the bonds that hold them together.

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