Kevin Smith

With the steak lying flat on the plate, slice the filet in half to produce two half-moons. Working with one half at a time, stand the steak on its cut side and slice half-moon slices against the grain as thinly as possible. Repeat with remaining half.

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Poached filet mignon (beef tenderloin) steak recipe

Poached Filet Mignon

Filet Mignon

With the steak lying flat on the plate, carve the tenderloin and New York strip from the bone by riding your knife along either side of the central bone. Set bone aside.



Working with the tenderloin, slice away the psoas minor, the small muscle attached to the main tenderloin muscle (the psoas major); slice the psoas minor in half and set aside.



Slice away the nugget of suet attached to the tenderloin; cut it into small pieces to enjoy in conjunction with bites of the other parts of the steak; set it aside. (Don’t sleep on that piece; Kevin likens it to roasted bone marrow, a perfect “golden” bite.)



Slice the tenderloin into thin pieces against the grain.



Working with the New York strip, slice crosswise into thin pieces, making sure each piece has a bit of the fat cap.

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Pan-seared and roasted porterhouse steak recipe

Ultimate Porterhouse Steak

Porterhouse

With the steak lying flat on the plate, carve the steak off the bone. Set bone aside.



Slice away the chunk of fatty muscle from the top of the ribeye; slice as thinly as possible, doing your best to cut slices with relatively equal proportions of fat and meat.



Remove the eye of the ribeye (longissimus dorsi) by tracing its outline with your knife and pulling the ribeye cap (spinalis dorsi) away from the eye. Set it aside.



If present, slice away the small complexus muscle attached to the cap (not all ribeyes feature the complexus; it depends where the steak is cut from on the rib primal). Slice the complexus against the grain into several pieces. Set it aside.



Slice away the nugget of fat attached to the cap (spinalis). Set it aside. (Just like the nugget of suet on the porterhouse, think of this like roasted bone marrow—delicious.)



Slice the ribeye cap into bite-size pieces against the grain. Set them aside.



Finally, slice the eye (longissimus) into bite-size pieces, doing as best you can to slice against the grain.

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Grilled and Butter-Rested Ribeye Steak

Bone-In Ribeye

“Trophy” steaks like <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/poached-filet-mignon">filet mignon</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/porterhouse-steak">porterhouse</a>, and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/grilled-butter-rested-ribeye">ribeye</a> come from muscle groups that aren’t worked very hard during the animal’s life, which makes them inherently <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/decoding-tough-and-tender-cuts">more tender than muscle groups from other parts of the animal</a>.



When serving these premium steak cuts, you can use a sharp <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/knife-gifts">chef’s knife</a> to carve them into smaller serving pieces that are even more tender before placing the slices on a plate. But it’s very common—in steakhouses or at backyard barbecues—to serve them whole, in all their beefy glory. Since these cuts are already so tender, most people don’t think about their plan of attack; they just hack away at the piece of meat with a fork and a dull steak knife. And, of course, it’s still pretty great.



While that method is perfectly functional, you can do better. By taking into account the direction of the grain in these muscle groups, you can carve up a steak on a plate so it eats more tender. But what’s even more important is carving up the bits attached to these muscles—the fat and chewy morsels attached to some steaks—so they don’t get left by the wayside.



Eating a steak isn’t just about spoon-tender meat and a burnished, beefy crust; it’s about enjoying the whole spectrum of textures and flavors each cut can offer and leaning into just what makes them so desirable. For a filet, that means cutting it up so it’s as tender as possible. For a porterhouse, it’s about getting a range of textures and temperature gradients all in a perfect bite. For a ribeye, it’s enjoying a succession of the richest and beefiest muscles on the animal until you have to tap out.



A little knowledge is a delicious thing. 
 
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Decoding Tough and Tender Cuts

Why It Works

You’re telling me I eat steak wrong?
 
No! Eat your steaks how you like. All we’re saying is: This is how a master butcher who loves beef more than almost any human in the world will carve up a steak on his plate to enjoy it as much as he can. You should try it?



I always carve steak before I serve it. Should I do the same thing?
 
These instructions are for attacking a whole steak on a plate when you get one at a steakhouse.



However, the same principles Kevin uses for taking apart a steak on a plate can be applied to carving them up on a cutting board with a sharp chef’s knife. Filet mignon will be more tender if you carve it in the way he describes; the New York strip side of a porterhouse is inherently tastier and more interesting if you ensure there’s a bit of the fat cap—and the sinew under it—on every slice. (Although Grant Crilly disagrees with Kevin on that one and <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/butter-basted-strip-steak">prefers to remove the connective tissue from a New York before cooking it</a>.) Separating the longissimus from the spinalis in a ribeye isn’t the prettiest presentation for a ribeye, but it makes for better eating.



What about other steak cuts?
 
There are so many steak cuts out there, but it isn’t likely that a steakhouse will a.) serve something like flank steak, and if they do, b.) they almost certainly won’t serve it whole on a plate.



But if you’re at a French bistro and order an onglet or a coulotte, you might get a hunk of unsliced beef. In the event that you get an unfamiliar (to you) piece of steak on a plate, the first thing to do is to identify the direction of the grain. You want to cut against it, or perpendicular to its direction, for more tender bites.



You want me to eat fat and sinew?
 
Yes! If there’s a sleeper lesson in Kevin’s method, it’s this: Don’t let fat cap and chewy bits go to waste. They are part and parcel with a steak-eating experience. The fat is creamy, golden, and rich—a good cook will have spent a not inconsiderable amount of effort rendering the fat and crisping it, as well as getting the sinew that sometimes lies underneath it to an appropriately tender, yet still beautifully chewy, state.

Frequently Asked Questions

When a beautifully cooked hunk of beef hits the table at a steakhouse, you know what to do: Roll up your sleeves and go to town. 
 
Steak is beauty, steak is life, and that’s true whether you use a <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/make-your-own-steak-knives">razor sharp steak knife</a> and a fork, or you grab the dang thing in your hands like the glorious carnivorous animal you are and down it in huge, honking bites. There’s no wrong way to eat steak. 
 
However, we believe that when you’re served a whole, unsliced steak at a restaurant, there is a way to slice it on the plate that maximizes enjoyment—making it more tender and more delicious. And it isn’t as simple as “slice against the grain”; it’s about taking into consideration the unique attributes of specific steak cuts, their disparate muscle groups and fat content, when the only tools at your disposal are a steak knife and a fork. 
 
We turned to master butcher Kevin Smith of Seattle’s <a href="https://beastandcleaver.com/">Beast and Cleaver</a> to fill us in on how he likes to cut up three “trophy” steak cuts that people love to order at steakhouses—<a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-filet-mignon">filet mignon</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/porterhouse-steak">porterhouse</a>, and bone-in ribeye. It’s a master class in enjoying the best beef cuts to the absolute max. 
 
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:

Perfectly cooked steak (<a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/porterhouse-steak">porterhouse</a>, <a href="https://www.chefsteps.com/activities/sous-vide-filet-mignon">filet</a>, ribeye)

Steak knife
 
Fork

Tips & Tricks: How to Carve Steaks for Maximum Tenderness