Bavette d'aloyau

Two different cuts are called bavette

French butchery uses bavette for more than one thing, and the two are not interchangeable. Bavette d'aloyau is the flap, from the bottom sirloin — the cut on this page, and the one a bistro means by “bavette à l'échalote”. Bavette de flanchet comes from the flank proper, further forward and thinner, and is what Argentina sells as vacío.

Both are loose-grained and full-flavoured, so the confusion is understandable, but the aloyau is the thicker and more tender of the two and is the one worth paying for as a steak.

Bavette d’aloyau

Bottom sirloin flap. Thick, loose grain, sold as steaks. US and UK butchers call it flap steak; Italy, bavetta.

Bavette de flanchet

The flank. Thinner, chewier, and the cut behind Argentine vacío.

What it tastes like

This is one of the strongly beefy cuts. The flavour is deeper and more mineral than a fillet or a sirloin, and the texture is openly grained rather than smooth — you can see the fibres running in one direction before it is cooked, and you can feel them if it is cut the wrong way afterwards.

The chew is the point, not a defect. It is the trade the cut makes, and it is why French butchers sell it to people who want beef to taste of something.

How to buy it

Thickness

Ask for a thick piece rather than a wide thin one. A thin bavette is overcooked by the time the crust forms.

Grain direction

Look at which way the fibres run before you cook it — once it has a crust, the grain is much harder to read, and reading it is the whole job at the end.

Names elsewhere

Flap steak in the US and UK, bavetta in Italy. Not the same as flank steak, which is the other bavette.

How it is cooked

Very hot pan or grill, a few minutes a side, served rare to medium-rare, rested, then sliced thinly across the grain. Every one of those steps is load-bearing. Past medium the loose grain tightens and the cut turns genuinely tough, and slicing along the grain instead of across it produces long fibres that chew no matter how well it was cooked.

The classic is bavette à l'échalote: the steak seared, set aside, and shallots softened in the pan with a splash of vinegar or red wine to lift the fond.