Watch for flat iron steaks to appear on a dinner table near you.

Story by AARON HOOVER (MFAS '02)
Photo by RANDY BATISTA (BA '73)

There is no substitute for a $1,800 handbag, string of natural pearls or golden parachute. But gourmands whose plates are left bare by the economic slump may have a good alternative to the $24.99 New York Strip.

Its name hints fashionably at sparer times: the flat iron steak.

The flat iron — a cut of beef singled out by UF and University of Nebraska meat science researchers nearly a decade ago — is rapidly becoming more popular in restaurants and retail outlets. Praised for its tenderness and flavor, a flat iron entrée typically sells from $5 to $10 less than a New York Strip or filet mignon main course.

Still steak, to be sure; but the price, at least, isn't heart-stopping.

"In this downturn people come in and they don't have the money or don't want to spend $20 for a steak — but they will spend $10 or $12," says Dwain Johnson, the UF meat science professor who first picked out and promoted the new cut with fellow meat scientist Chris Calkins at Nebraska.

Steak seems traditional, even immutable, like butter or salmon. But while the classic American cuts have been around for at least a century, others came along with the California roll or even later. Prior to the 1970s, for example, when Mexican food became popular, few outside South Texas would have recognized a colorful combo called the fajita. The beef in fajitas comes from a cut off the cow's diaphragm named for its appearance, the skirt steak. Until times turned taco, the skirt steak was ground into hamburger everywhere north of the Lone Star State.

"Now they don't grind the skirt steak up anymore," Johnson says. "They sell it for $3 to $4 a pound."

Dollars rather than food fads spurred the flat iron. It traces its roots to 1999 when the National Cattlemen's Beef Association hired Johnson and Calkins to help reverse falling prices for beef products. The two hunted for added value throughout the 6,000 muscles in the beef carcass, but they spent most of their time on two particularly large but then unprofitable parts — the chuck and round. Consumers, abandoning leisurely Sunday dinners for fast ones, were buying far fewer of the slow-cooked roasts typically carved from those parts. That was forcing beef producers to sell the meat, often ground into hamburger, at a loss. The chuck comes from the cow's front shoulder and is 26 percent of the carcass. As Johnson says, "you can't give away a quarter of your product and make any money."

Among the 27 chuck muscles, the researchers bore down on one called the infraspinatus. The second most tender in the chuck after the tenderloin, the odd-looking infraspinatus consistently aced taste tests. But it had a mouthful of a flaw: a tough piece of connective tissue running through its heart.

The researchers and the Cattlemen's Beef Association came up with the fix: fillet the top and bottom like a fish, creating not one but two 10-inch-long, half-inch-thick steaks. The steaks' elongated triangular shape suggested their old-timey name.

Restaurant suppliers were the first to latch on to the new cut with retailers following suit. Nearly 13 million pounds were sold in retail stores in 2008, up 18 percent from 2007. Combined with other tasty but less popular chuck steaks also picked out by Johnson and Calkins, the beef carcass' value is now worth $60 to $70 more than when the meat was sold for roasts or ground beef, Johnson says.

Better yet, diners saving dimes don't necessarily have to cluck for chicken.

Find directions to UF's meat processing facility store (open Fridays, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.) and a price list at www.animal.ufl.edu/extension/meat.