Flat iron steak (US), butlers' steak (UK), feather blade steak (UK) or oyster blade steak (Australia and New Zealand) is a cut of
steak cut with the grain from the
chuck, or shoulder of the animal.
The cut
This cut of
steak is from the
shoulder of a beef animal.
It is located adjacent to the heart of the shoulder clod, under the seven or paddle bone (shoulder blade or scapula). The steak encompasses the
infraspinatus muscles of beef, and one may see this displayed in some butcher shops and meat markets as a top blade roast or informally called a "patio steak". Anatomically, the muscle forms the dorsal part of the rotator cuff of the steer. This cut is anatomically distinct from the
shoulder tender
The beef clod or shoulder clod is one of the least expensive cuts of beef and is taken from the shoulder (chuck) region of the animal. Beef clod is a large muscle system, with some fat that covers the muscles. The clod's composition is mainly three ...
, which lies directly below it and is the
teres major.
Steaks that are cross cut from this muscle are called
top blade steaks, or chicken steaks.
To make it more marketable, the cut which makes up this steak, which has the
fascia
A fascia (; plural fasciae or fascias; adjective fascial; from Latin: "band") is a band or sheet of connective tissue, primarily collagen, beneath the skin that attaches to, stabilizes, encloses, and separates muscles and other internal organs. ...
dividing the infraspinatus within it, has increasingly been cut as two flatter steaks, with the tough fascia removed. This method of breaking down the larger cut was creation of the flat iron steak as we know it today. As a whole cut of meat, the top blade usually weighs around two to three pounds; it usually yields four steaks between eight and 12 ounces each. Flat iron steaks usually have a significant amount of
marbling.
In the North American Meat Processor (
NAMP) meat buyers guide, it is item #1114D Beef Shoulder, Top Blade Steak.
This variation on the original flat iron cut was identified in 2002 as part of a
National Cattlemen's Beef Association
National Cattlemen's Beef Association (NCBA) is an American trade association and lobbying group working for American beef producers.
Advertising campaign
National Cattlemen's Beef Association is a contractor to the Beef Checkoff, which is the gro ...
initiative, in conjunction with the
University of Nebraska and the
University of Florida to find lower-priced cuts which could be trimmed into steaks and roasts.
was one of the meat cutters who helped develop the steak.
References
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Cuts of beef