Want a Flank Steak: Help Me Choose!

[J-Melt]

I still have a pile of dry grape vines from when we had the MeatUp at my place. Meathead did a couple of wagyu flank steaks via roaring fire and I want to do the same, but wagyu is way out of my price range! Wild Fork has choice ones that are blade tenderized. Would I need to cook steak that is blade tenderized to well done to avoid bacteria not getting cooked out?

Would it even be worth trying with a choice cut of flank steak?

[Michael_in_TX]

I think so. I regularly cook choice flank and it comes out fantastic. Flank (and skirt) are lean cuts of meat (granted, not round roast lean, but lean), so I consider marbling as less important.

(And, of course, a lean outside skirt will beat a marbled inside skirt any day.)

[Jfrosty27]

I buy the Flat Iron steak from Wild Fork. Very similar to flank but more tender in my opinion. Awesome every time. Give it a try. Oh and I cook it to rare-medium rare at most. No issues.

[PGH_RAM]

I get choice flank steaks from Costco all the time and cook them to medium rare without problems. I'm under the impression that Costco also blade tenderizes its steaks.

[RonB]

They used to blade tenderize, but I have heard that not everything is tenderized now. It will say on the label if it's tenderized.

[J-Melt]

Meathead would your grapevine method work with flat iron steak or outside skirt?

[Meathead]

I think so. Outside skirt for sure. Thickness is the key. Just watch the temp. There is so much energy you don't want to burn the crust and leave the interior too rare.

[jfmorris]

I've cooked a lot of non-tenderized USDA choice (Angus) flank steaks from Sam's Club over the years, and they come out just fine if cooked to medium-rare and sliced thin. I slice thin, at an angle (bias?) across/against the grain. I've never cooked a prime flank steak, as the Angus choice ones seem just fine to me.

Personally I don't like the risk of blade tenderized meat, and stay away from it. While I know a lot has been said on here about how Costco does it in a supposedly safe manner, I am not sure I would pay $9.98 a pound for a 2 pound hunk from Wild Fork, when you can likely get choice flank steak that isn't treated with blade tenderization locally for the same price.

Here is a recent article on the subject, and it leads me to continue to conclude that you are best off avoiding blade tenderized steaks... unless you LIKE steak cooked to 160F that is!

https://news.northeastern.edu/2024/05/31/blade-beef-mechanically-tenderized-steak/

The conclusion in that article is a quote from the USDA:

The USDA advises all beef products be cooked to at least 145 degrees, adding three minutes of rest time for bladed or mechanically tenderized steaks. The temperature of the meat continues to rise during the resting period.

I cook my steaks to 135, and my wife's to 145. I guess a 3 minute rest at 145 is long enough to pasteurize the e-coli that the blades can shove into the meat?

[Spinaker]

I cook choice flank steak all the time. I found that the key is a roaring hot fire. Like blazing hot. Then do the continuous flip method and let it rip. Flip about every 5 seconds and watch the crust develop. When you have the color you like, it's done. The middle will be rare to medium rare, perfect for flank steak.

I would skip the mail order meat, and go to Costco or a local butcher to find the meat. I eat a flank steak like this almost weekly at thins point, since I am mostly eating carnivore these days. (Weekly ribeyes were getting a bit ridiculous, LOL)