Vol. XVIII · Meat and Poultry Plate 10 of 11carving, slicing, across the grain, against the grain, flank steak, brisket, fibre length, roast, carving a chicken, knife work, 逆纹切TM

Carving and Slicing.

The same flank steak is tender or chewy depending on one thing done after cooking: the direction of the knife.

Muscle fibres run in parallel bundles, the "grain" you can see on a cut surface as fine lines (VI.4). The teeth part fibres easily from each other but find it hard to cut along them. Slice parallel to the grain and each slice holds long, intact fibres that the jaw must tear; slice straight across and each bite holds fibres only as long as the slice is thick. Slice at a slant and the length grows as one over the sine of the angle: at 30 degrees, double; at 10 degrees, nearly six times.

How much it matters depends on the cut. Coarse, long-fibred working muscles — flank, skirt, brisket, shank, the beef for a stir-fry — must be sliced thin and squarely across, and a brisket, which is two muscles with their grains at an angle, is turned as you go. Fine-grained tender cuts like tenderloin forgive. Carving a roast or a bird is the same idea applied joint by joint. The workshop slices.

Below: the length of intact fibre in each slice against the angle between the knife and the grain, for the slice thickness you choose, with a teaching chewiness index for the cut you choose (fibre length × the coarseness of its grain).

What you will learn
Workshop
Geometry, exact: the fibre length in a slice of thickness d cut at angle θ to the grain is d ÷ sin θ, capped at 150 mm. Chewiness index: teaching coarseness factors (flank 2, brisket 1.6, rib-eye 1, tenderloin 0.6) multiplied by the fibre length.

Find the lines, cut across them

A 6 mm slice cut straight across holds 6 mm fibres; at 30 degrees, 12 mm; at 10 degrees, 35 mm. On this teaching index a 3 mm slice of flank cut across the grain scores 6, a 10 mm slice 20 — and a 10 mm slice of tenderloin only 6. So flank, skirt and brisket are sliced thin and across, tender steaks can be served in thick slices, and for stir-fries (XVIII.6) beef is always cut thin across the grain while raw — easier if it is half-frozen.

Practice: look at the meat before cooking and note which way the lines run, because a crust hides them later. Use a long, sharp slicing knife and long strokes, not sawing (IV.1). Rest roasts first (XVIII.3), then carve on a board with a groove to catch juice. For a leg of lamb, slice down to the bone and then along it; for a rib roast, cut the bones off in one piece, then slice the eye across. For brisket, separate the point from the flat where the fat seam runs, and slice each across its own grain. Carve only what will be eaten at once: slices dry and cool faster than a joint.

At the stove

Cook a flank or skirt steak; slice half of it along the grain and half across, both 5 mm thick. Taste them side by side.

Carving was once a gentleman's accomplishment in Europe: seventeenth-century carving manuals, with dozens of terms for cutting different birds — "unlace that coney", "dismember that heron" — were part of a courtier's education.

Terms

Grain
The direction the muscle fibres run.
Across the grain
Slicing at right angles to the fibres.
Carving
Cutting cooked meat into portions at the table or pass.
Point and flat
The two muscles of a whole brisket.
Slice across the grain: fibre length in a slice is thickness ÷ sin(angle). Coarse cuts — flank, skirt, brisket — must be thin and square; tender ones forgive.

Sources

  1. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.
  2. H. McGee, On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen, 2nd ed., Scribner, 2004.