Recipes

Ten minutes with a knife buys you the barbecue's best-kept secret

Inside every blade steak there's a flat-iron trying to get out — you just have to remove the seam of gristle running through the middle. It's honestly a ten-minute job with a sharp knife, and what you're left with are trim, even steaks that barbecue beautifully: tender, big-flavoured, and built for high heat. Do it once and you'll never look at blade the same way again. Fire up the barbecue, keep the seasoning simple, and slice it across the grain — that's the whole game.

The taverna classic that makes onions the co-star

Stifado is what Greek home cooks do with a tough cut and a bag of little onions: braise them slowly in red wine, tomato and warm spice until the beef turns silky and the onions go impossibly sweet. A cinnamon stick and a few allspice berries do something quietly magic here — it's warming rather than spicy, and the gravy comes out glossy from everything the blade gives up along the way. Serve it with crusty bread, pour a glass of whatever's open, and take your time over it.

Provence's wine-dark Sunday braise — olives, orange and patience

A daube is what happens when the south of France gets hold of a braising cut: red wine, tomatoes, a couple of strips of orange peel and a handful of olives, all barely simmering for the better part of an afternoon. It's the richest dinner you can build from the most affordable steak in your share. The orange doesn't make it sweet — it just lifts the whole pot — and the olives turn soft and savoury in the gravy. Proper slow Sunday cooking, and the house smells incredible for hours.

Understanding the gristle line — and cooking around it brilliantly

Blade steak has a line of connective tissue running through its centre — but that connective tissue is also the reason blade is one of the most flavourful cuts on the animal. When you cook it correctly, it becomes a feature, not a flaw. Braise it low and slow and it converts to rich gelatin; cook it as a steak and simply slice around the gristle line.