We cooked the bavette on the bbq, pretty much as you suggested, and it was at room temp. But… It wasn’t really for me. I suppose it’s what you are used to. I shall try the other interesting suggestions with the butcher. Thanks Veronique.
Bavette is delicious grilled but you have to eat it the way we do, charred outside & raw inside ;-) you may also like poire, onglet (onglet is lovely & my favourite but often hard to get as there's only one in a beast - it is the diaphragm) another tender flavoursome bit is l'araignée, rare again because there are only 2 on a beast and you need to get the butcher to prepare it for you. & whatever you do make sure you don't cook French beef too much.
Côte de boeuf is vvvv good grilled...
That’s a really good tip, Gerald. I’ll try it. However you have to get a reasonable cut to start with: I had a discussion with a restauranteur in Uzes who asked me if my entrecôte was good, and I said it wasn’t great, tough and full of sinew. (And not much flavour). He told me that I should rather choose a bavette - I bought some of this but it was flank of beef, certainly not suitable for grilling!
I had read this - a great article!
It is not a question of cuts for me. When I lived in Scotland the cuts were different from English ones as well. The main difference is that the French do not hang beef long enough. When you buy steaks in France leave them in the fridge protected from drying out with clingfilm for at least a week. They will then be as tender as you like.
I know The Telegraph is a bit xenophobic, though not as much as other British rags I could mention, but this view is interesting: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11233627/Why-English-rosbif-is-a-cut-above-the-French.html
(Somewhat off-topic, actually, but the journalist's headline is worth sharing on its own.)
cheers for that Veronique, just what i have been looking for ages
Thanks very much Veronique, I shall do so at once!
If you google découpe de viande & click on images you will get posters of all sorts of animals & how they are cut up & what the cuts are called.