Cooking bavette: hot, fast and against the grain

Bavette (also called flap steak) comes from the beef flank. It's a butcher's cut with a coarse, open fibre structure and a pronounced, almost gamey beefy flavour. The flip side of that flavour: bavette turns tough if you treat it wrong.

Fast and hot, never well done

Bavette wants a short, fierce cook. Sear it over high heat and pull it off around medium rare (52–54 °C / 126–129 °F). Take it towards medium or beyond and the meat contracts and turns dry and chewy. This is not a cut to 'cook through to be safe'.

Marinating pays off

Thanks to its open structure, bavette takes on a marinade beautifully. A few hours in oil, garlic, soy sauce and something acidic (lemon or vinegar) tenderises the meat and adds flavour. Pat it dry before cooking, or it won't sear properly.

The slicing technique makes or breaks it

• Rest the meat for 5 minutes after cooking.
• Find the direction of the coarse fibres — on bavette they're clearly visible.
• Slice thinly across the fibres (against the grain), holding your knife at a slight angle for wider slices.
• Cutting against the grain shortens the fibres and, with bavette, is the difference between tender and tough.

Bavette was long an affordable insider's cut, but its popularity has pushed prices apart. Compare current bavette prices per kilo and their history below.