GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN A s you know, meat is made up of bundles of long muscle fibers that are laid out parallel to one another Take a close look at your meat, and you’ll see that, just like wood, it’s got a grain In some muscles, like the loin (where strip and rib-eye steaks come from) or tenderloin (aka fillet), that grain is very fine: the muscle fiber bundles are thin enough that they don’t form a significant grain Cuts from weak muscles like these will be soft and tender no matter how you slice ’em Inexpensive cuts, like skirt steak, hanger steak (shown above), or flank, have thicker muscle fiber bundles with a clearly defined grain These fibers are tough cookies—they have to be Their job is to move the moving parts of an animal that is much much bigger than you Try to tear a single muscle fiber by stretching it along its length, and you’ll have a pretty hard time But pulling individual muscle fibers apart from one another is relatively easy So, before putting a piece of flank, hanger, or skirt steak in your mouth, the goal should be to shorten those muscle fibers as much as possible with the help of a sharp knife If you cut with your knife parallel to the grain, you end up with long muscle fibers that are tough for your teeth to tear through Slicing the meat thinly against the grain, however, delivers very short pieces of muscle fiber that are barely held together Take a look below at the difference between slicing with the grain (on the left) and slicing against the grain (on the right): ... muscle fiber that are barely held together Take a look below at the difference between slicing with the grain (on the left) and slicing against the grain (on the right): ... you cut with your knife parallel to the grain, you end up with long muscle fibers that are tough for your teeth to tear through Slicing the meat thinly against the grain, however, delivers very... have thicker muscle fiber bundles with a clearly defined grain These fibers are tough cookies—they have to be Their job is to move the moving parts of an animal that is much much bigger than you