If you’ve got a recipe that calls for you to slice the meat against the grain, it’s a pretty important step. Let me show you how easy it is to find the grain in the meat, like this flank steak or skirt steak, and how to slice against the grain for tender meat.
How to Find the Grain in Meat
It’s as simple as looking for the direction of the fibers. It’s easy to see in this flank steak above. You can see that the muscle fibers are going from top to bottom in this image.
Why is it important to slice against the grain in meat?
Meat is made up muscle fibers and connective tissue. Often times, those long muscle fibers can be tough – especially in cuts like .
Slicing against the grain cuts those long muscle fibers into smaller pieces resulting in meat that’s tender and easy to chew. If we were to cut with the grain, we’d end up with long ,muscle fibers that were tough and chewy.
