Culotte: Not Just Another Piece of Meat

Grilling season is in full swing, but if you’re bored of the same old steaks, dogs and burgers, try throwing some “fresh meat” on the grates.  In this food video, we’ll show you how to cook culotte, an unusual beef cut that makes a mighty fine grilled steak, and one that you’ve probably never tasted.

There’s never been a better time to experiment with different kinds of flesh: Dickson’s Farmstand Meats in New York and San Francisco’s Avedano’s Holly Park Market are two of an increasing number of artisan butcher shops using old school butchering techniques to stock their cases with unusual and rarely available meat cuts.

Consider the culotte. You know that top part of the sirloin that can seem tough? That’s the culotte, hiding as part of a bigger beef cut. The sirloin is actually made up of muscles with varying textures best suited for different cooking methods, but it’s usually just sold as one big hunk of meat, because it’s easier for large-scale meat-processers to cut it that way.

Find a purveyor that cuts to the level of granularity required to get to the culotte, then cook it properly, and you’ve got a steak with immense flavor and great texture that’s meltingly tender in the mouth.  Brazilians know this: they extract the large, flat muscle—called picanha there—and roast it churassco-style.  It’s their most popular beef cut, and with good reason. Left attached to the sirloin, it’s the tough part of an otherwise well cooked steak.

We got our culotte at Dickson’s Farmstand, where they cut the steak thick with the fat cap attached to prevent dryness. Proprietor Jake Dickson recommends grilling it, roasting it Brazilian-style for a roast-beefy texture, or cutting it into smaller pieces to increase the surface area, then searing both sides and finishing in the oven.

It’s summertime, so we went straight for the grill. We marinated the steak overnight with a chimichurri sauce, which tenderized the beef and infused it with bright herby flavor. 

Then, we threw some tomatoes on the grates, and finished with parsley. Done. Rare cut, exceptional flavor.  Watch this cooking demo video to learn the best way to cook the culotte, and to get tips for grilling perfect steak.

To learn more about other unusual cuts of beef, watch this food video:

And for more on Dickson’s Farmstand Meats butcher shop, click here: