Merlot Steak

The merlot steak takes its name from the color — a deep, wine-dark red that sets it apart from everything else in the case and tells you immediately that this muscle has been working hard. It comes from the heel of the round, right where the rear leg meets the shank, one of the most heavily exercised areas on the animal. By every conventional logic that muscle should be tough. It is not. The medial portion of the gastrocnemius — the specific muscle the merlot comes from — is the exception that defies the neighborhood entirely.

Two per animal. Most packers never bother isolating it — the heel goes to ground beef or stew meat and the merlot disappears with it. The butchers who know it keep it. The chefs who have cooked it reach for it again. It reads like a small flank steak in shape and format, but the grain is finer, the texture more yielding, and the flavor is the deep, forward beefiness that only a heavily worked muscle on a properly raised grass fed animal can produce.

Treat it exactly like a flank. High heat, fast cook — two to three minutes per side in a screaming hot cast iron or over a hot grill. Pull it at 120°F, rest it five minutes, and slice it razor thin against the grain. Medium rare is the ceiling. Past that the lean muscle tightens and the steak works against you. It needs nothing more than salt and heat the first time. The color tells the story before it ever hits the pan.

Sold individually and priced by weight.

If the merlot earns a place in your rotation, our hanger steak covers the same deep, iron-rich character from a different part of the animal — another cut most packers grind and serious buyers know to ask for. Our bavette and flank are the natural neighbors in format and approach.