When it comes to beef, Australia has some of the best in the world.
Whether you enjoy it in a burger, chomping into a juicy steak, or even cooking it for hours so it’s tender, the possibilities are endless.
While there’s endless inspiration, it can also be tricky to know what cut to use.
So naturally, I had to ask Meat & Livestock Australia’s Corporate Executive Chef, Sam Burke, when I visited Coolullah Station in western Queensland earlier this year.
Scroll on to read what he told us.
For burgers
You can never go wrong with a beef burger with a juicy patty, so which cut does this beef aficionado use?
“I love to get a mix of chuck and brisket, cause you got the fatness of the chuck and then you’ve got the flavour in the brisket,” he exclusively explains to New Idea.
If you’re after a new burger recipe, I had this Smashed Cheese Burger on my trip, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it.
The right cut when you’re craving steak
“I love my scotch fillet. And then I love the oyster blade. You see, the oyster blade comes off the top side of the bolar,” Sam says.
The bolar is generally taken from an animal’s shoulder.
“It’s a wonderful strip, and there’s a bit of fat that runs in between it, right?”
“If you take one piece of steak off that side and one underneath, you’ve got these two long fillets of flat iron steak. And that flat iron steak from the oyster blade, believe it or not, is one of the most tender cuts on the whole animal, right?”
While it might not be your typical choice of steak, the chef swears by it.
“It’s a whole different cut from the shoulder, and it actually eats just as tender as the scotch fillet,” he explains to us.
What is the correct way to cook a steak?
Having a steak is a ritual Aussies take seriously, so we naturally had to ask Sam for the secrets to mastering it.
Make sure you save these steps for later!
- Take your protein out of the fridge 20 minutes before cooking it, so it reaches room temperature.
- Sprinkle salt on your meat from a height, so you cover as much of it as possible.
- For cooking, a high flash point oil is a must. Sam’s choice? Grapeseed oil or even canola oil.
- When you cook your steak on a barbecue, make sure it’s hot.
- When it’s seared to your liking, flip it. When Sam does this, he reduces the barbecue to a medium heat.
- Make sure you have a meat thermometer handy to pierce the thickest part of your steak with. For medium rare fans, once it hits 54°C, turn it.
- Season it again, and add the pepper at the end if you wish. If you add it at the start, there’s a risk of it being bitter, because pepper burns at a high temperature.
- Take your steak off the grill, put it on a tray and lightly cover it with foil. Let it rest for half the amount of time it took you to cook it – this allows the juices to redistribute.
- One final thing: when you cut it, make sure to do so across the grain.
