SC - soteltie information [toon humor]

[KallipygosRed@aol.com]

Angus wrote:
> 
> Just out of curiousity, what area would house the skirt steak ?  I've never heard that term before.
> /Angus

Skirt is the diaphragm muscle, or rather, either of a pair of muscle
sections in the diaphragm, not all of which is muscle. Depending on how
you butcher, it varies, but it normally is considered part of the loin,
I think. On most beef cattle today, the trimmed skirt ends up being
about two feet long, tapering at the ends from perhaps two inches wide
to maybe four or five inches wide in the middle. It's is perhaps an inch
thick at its thickest point, again, in the middle. 

Unlike a tenderloin, though, the grain of the meat runs across the width
rather than along the length. Skirt is somewhat chewy, downright tough
if overcooked, somewhat darker in color than most beef, and with a
strong beef flavor, slightly gamy. Like flank steak in many respects,
only more so. For a long time it was a cheap cut of beef, good for large
familes without much cash, or stuffed and braised by the more
well-to-do, or relegated to fajitas. Regardless of my childhood habit of
eating it cooked until it resembled plywood, doused in equal parts of
tomato ketchup and Worcestershire sauce, it's actually now one of my
favorite cuts of beef, although it has become pretty expensive.
Sometimes I even add ketchup and Worcestershire, but I tend to keep it
rare.  Alternately, it's good for Roumanian steak, in which case the
sauces are distinctly unnecessary, even by comfort-food standards.

Adamantius
- -- 
Phil & Susan Troy

troy at asan.com