Carving meat Against the Grain

When slicing cooked steak, always carve against the grain - that is, cut perpendicular to the direction of the muscle fibres. The grain appears as long parallel lines running through the meat. Cutting against these fibres shortens them in each slice, making every bite significantly more tender and easier to chew. Cutting with the grain leaves long intact fibres that are tough and stringy. This technique is especially important with coarser-grained cuts like bavette, skirt and flank steak where the fibres are particularly pronounced. Before carving, identify the grain direction, then position your knife at a right angle to it and slice confidently in clean strokes.