8 cuts of steak and how to cook them

To get started, explore our how to cook steak guide, browse our collection of steak recipes and find more inspiration with our steak sauce recipes and steak side dishes.

What are the best steak cuts?

There is no ‘best’ cut of steak. It all depends on your personal preferences for flavour, tenderness, cooking method and budget. Some cuts are prized for their tenderness, while others offer deeper, more complex flavour as the muscle they are cut from has worked more. Fillet steak is known for being exceptionally tender, whereas rump and bavette are more affordable and flavourful, though slightly firmer and chewier in texture.

Cuts of steak

T-bone

T-bone is a great steak for sharing as it’s part fillet and part sirloin, attached by a bone. It’s cut from the back of the animal. (A porterhouse steak is a thicker T-bone, cut from the rear end of the joint.)

How to cook it

To make sure T-bone cooks evenly, it’s best started in a frying pan and finished in the oven. Slice at the table so each person gets a bit of fillet and a bit of sirloin, and serve with a classic side such as onion rings.

Sirloin

Sirloin comes from the upper middle of the animal. It has a strip of fat that runs along the top – this can be browned and rendered first, then the steak can be fried in the fat. Sirloin is considered to be a prime steak, like fillet, but it has more flavour. Boneless steaks can be cut to the thickness of your liking, but for two people, it’s better to buy a thick steak and carve it after cooking, rather than buying two thin ones. Best served medium-rare.

How to cook it

Cook on the hob in a cast iron pan for a good crust and flavour. If your steak has a thick layer of fat, hold the steak on its side with a pair of tongs and push the fat into the pan for 2 mins or until golden-brown. Try it with a creamy mushroom sauce, like in this Tom Kerridge recipe.

Fillet

Fillet (also known as tenderloin or filet mignon in America) is prized as the most tender cut, and the most expensive. It has little fat, which means that it isn’t always as flavoursome as other cuts, and is best served as rare as you like – it’s the cut used in the raw beef dish carpaccio.

How to cook it

Fillet makes for neat individual steaks that are best cooked in a very hot pan. Peppered steak is a classic way to serve this cut.

Ribeye

From the rib we get two classic cuts. Firstly ribeye, which is a boneless steak, usually for one. The other is a rib on the bone, also known as a côte de boeuf, which traditionally serves two. (Tomahawk is another bone-in ribeye cut – see below.) All ribeye cuts have fat running through the meat, so even if you like steak rare, rib is best served medium-rare so that the heat cooks the internal fat.

How to cook it

Searing and turn the steak with a pair of tongs every 30 seconds to 1 min so it gets a nice brown crust. As a rough guide, a 200g steak about 2cm thick will take 4 mins in total for rare, 5-6 mins for medium and 8-10 mins for well done. If you have a digital cooking thermometer, the temperatures you're looking for in middle of the steak are 50C for rare, 60C for medium and 70C for well done. Leave the steaks to rest for at least 5 mins.

Tomahawk

Tomahawk steak is essentially a thick ribeye with the entire rib bone left intact and trimmed, creating a dramatic, axe-like appearance. It is thick-cut and ideal for sharing, offering both flavour and visual impact.

How to cook it

You’ll need to think this through based on what you have at home: a barbecue will be big enough for a tomahawk but a frying pan won’t as the bone will stop it contacting the surface of the pan. Use a flat grill pan to start the steak and finish it in the oven. Bring the steak to room temperature before cooking so that it cooks through evenly.

Rump

The opposite to fillet, rump has lots of flavour and texture but with a much more affordable price tag. Rump can be cooked as individual steaks, flash-fried and served whole or barbecued as a large piece. A thick slice can easily feed a family of four. Rump can be cooked to whatever degree you like.

How to cook it

Cook rump steaks in a very hot pan. If you have a digital cooking thermometer, the middle of the steak should be 50C for rare, 60C for medium and 70C for well done. A little garlic, butter and thyme makes a good extra hint of flavour without overpowering the meat.

Bavette

Bavette (aka flank or skirt depending on whether you are in the UK or USA) has a loose-grained texture and is a flavoursome, cheap cut taken from the flank. Bavette should be cut into slices across the grain. It is best served no more than medium and is a great cut for barbecuing. Try this James Martin recipe flavoured with chipotle.

How to cook it

Cook on the rare side of medium-rare, perhaps 2-3 mins each side at most, and then rest for a longer time, as much as 20 minutes on a warm plate in a warm (not hot) place, until it is almost room temperature. Cut into finger-wide slices, from top to bottom across the grain, just before serving.

Flat iron

Flat iron steak is cut from beneath the shoulder and is known for its tenderness and uniform thickness – it is often a very neat oblong shape. It is a relatively lean cut that has a marbling of fat, cooks evenly and is well suited to barbecuing or pan-frying.

How to cook it

Use a heavy pan and rub oil into the steak rather than putting it directly into the pan, which can cause smoking.

Onglet

Also called hanger steak, onglet isn’t so well known in the UK, but it’s highly regarded in Europe and is the cut of choice in a classic steak frites. It’s a very lean, rope-shaped muscle that runs along the diaphragm. Onglet has a deep flavour but needs to be served on the rarer side otherwise it becomes tough.

How to cook it

Cook to medium-rare – onglet isn’t at it’s best rare. Though it looks as if it will cook very quickly compared to a thick steak, make sure you give it enough time to cook through. There is so much texture to onglet it’s good to slice it across the grain before serving, as in this recipe with red wine and shallots by Barney Desmazery.