Bavette de flanchet

Bavette de flanchet is the French butcher's name for the flank steak, the flat, coarse-grained muscle from the lower belly of the steer behind the ribs, as distinct from the bavette d'aloyau, which comes from the sirloin end and is the one bistros usually mean when they write bavette on a chalkboard. The flanchet is the cheaper and chewier of the two, with long parallel fibres, almost no marbling and a strong beef flavour, and it is the same cut that Americans grill for fajitas and the British call flank or skirt. In France it has traditionally been a pot-au-feu or braising cut, and more recently a grilled steak for those who want flavour over tenderness; in Argentina it is the matambre, stuffed and rolled; in Mexico it is arrachera, marinated and grilled for tacos. The cut rewards knowledge and punishes carelessness more than any other steak.