For those who want the joys of steak but lack the budget for premium cuts like ribeye, there
is hanger steak. In recent years hangar steak has indeed grown in popularity, but it has
remained affordable enough for people to cook with oven fries and enjoy with a bottle of
wine.
In France, hanger steak is a prized cut served as a steak in its own right. Until more recently,
however, in the U.S. you were more likely to find hanger steak as part of a stew. That
said, butchers in the United States understood the value of the meat, often saving it for
themselves — which is why hanger steak is also known as butcher's steak.
Why has hanger steak not enjoyed the same reputation in the U.S. as in France? It comes
down to looks and location.
Yea, we'll have the…. *speaking not-French"
Writing for The New York Times in 2000, the late chef and TV host Anthony Bourdain noted
how French chefs make the most of everything when it comes to food, particularly meat.
He wrote,
"Use what's available. Use it to its best effect. And make the most money you can from
it — every scrap of shank, shoulder, and jowl."
And that includes making the most of a hanger steak. Bourdain described how the steak exists
as a single strip between the kidneys, making it a plate cut like skirt steak. Without fat
or bone to protect it, the steak lacks the coloring of a T-bone, Bourdain writes, but
"because of its exposed location, it comes in contact with the air and begins aging almost
immediately after the animal is slaughtered, and so it is more flavorful."
Hanger steak is also the most tender cut of meat on the cow because, unlike other parts
of the cow, it does nothing but hang — hence, the name hanger steak. That means the muscles
don't develop and toughen. However, as the area covered by this particular cut is so
specific, each cow only produces one hanger steak of about two pounds.
A hanger steak is just one of the strips of meat available within the plate cut area.
Flank steaks, which are located around the belly, are lean, and skirt steaks, which come
from between the abdomen and chest, are less tender because the muscles are used more.
Both of these find their full potential with the proper preparation — marinating with
the former and tenderizing with the latter. That said, skirt steak is typically used as
a steak ingredient for a different dish.
Hanger steak, though, is protected by the rib cage and, as we mentioned, is an incredibly
tender meat. No further preparation is needed to enjoy it as the featured food of a meal.
That said, in a pinch, you could substitute any of them for the others as long as you
address the qualities of each steak.
Hanger steak cooks fairly easily, and you can absolutely get by with just adding a dash
of salt and pepper, then throwing it on the grill. Seriously, that's it!
That said, the looseness of hangar steak also helps it absorb marinade really well, so if
that's what you're feeling, you can definitely go right ahead and do that. At the end of
the day, it all comes down to personal tastes.
However you prepare it, though, the actual cooking of hanger steak follows the recipes
of thin cuts, which have you cook until the steak reaches the point you desire, then let
it rest.
After all this, you might find yourself hankering for a hanger steak, and here's where you might
run into problems. The issue is, as we mentioned earlier, that there is only one hanger steak
per cow, and there's a good chance you're not going to find it at any supermarket. You'll
probably have to head to the butcher for this rare item that supermarkets did not consider
sustainable to stock. As no one knew to buy it years ago, butchers offered hanger steak
for a cheap price, as they probably would not have sold it otherwise.
But hanger steak's newfound popularity brings with it another problem: Supply. Even in 2017,
Huff Post published a piece in which a butcher pleaded with readers not to hop on the hanger
steak bandwagon. This was not because of some anti-popularity bias, but because one cow
produces just one hanger steak. It's not a sustainable food. Hanger steak, the steak
originally treasured by the thrifty French, cannot sustain excessive popularity.
Like life, it's all about balance.
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