Cheap Steak Cuts Worth Buying (And Why Bavette Tops Our List)

Steak doesn't have to mean sirloin, fillet or a ribeye priced like a small night out. Some of the best cuts going are the ones butchers have known about for years and supermarkets rarely shout about, because they come from the hardworking parts of the animal rather than the lazy, well-marbled ones. Bavette is one of them, and it's the one we reach for most.

What is bavette steak?

Bavette comes from the flank, the muscle running along the cow's lower abdomen. It's a small section that only yields a couple of cuts per animal, and because it's a well-worked muscle rather than an underused, tender one, it doesn't carry the same price tag as sirloin or fillet. That's the whole reason it's cheap: it's doing real work on the animal, not sitting around getting soft.

It's lean, with a clear, visible grain running lengthwise through the meat, rather than the fine marbling you'd see on a pricier cut.

Why a hardworking cut is still worth eating

A well-worked muscle means more connective tissue, which is exactly why cuts like bavette, skirt and onglet get written off by anyone only used to cooking the expensive stuff. Treated the same way as a sirloin, cooked low and slow or left too long on the heat, they'll go tough. Treated right, with a quick, hot cook and a rest, they're some of the most flavourful steak you can buy, and a fraction of the price.

How we cook it

Mac's approach is simple: keep it quick and keep the heat high.

"It's a cheaper cut, but it pan-fries really nicely," he says. "You can do it on the grill, on the barbecue, really quickly. Brings the cost down a little bit."

In practice, that means a very light coat of oil, a proper seasoning — we reach for our Montreal Steak Seasoning, which is built for exactly this — and a hot pan or grill rather than a gentle one. Bavette is thin enough that it cooks fast, and it's far better served rare to medium-rare. Push it further than that and it dries out and toughens up, which is the main way people go wrong with cheaper cuts.

Once it's rested for a few minutes, slice it thinly against the grain. That grain is the giveaway with bavette: cut with it and you'll chew for a while, cut across it and it falls apart easily.

The bargain, in context

Bavette isn't the only cut in this bracket. Skirt and onglet live in the same world: hardworking, big on flavour, and priced well below the cuts that get all the attention on a steakhouse menu. If you're cooking steak regularly, it's worth asking your butcher what's cheap that week rather than defaulting to the same two or three cuts every time.

It's a genuinely useful swap if you're trying to eat well without the bill creeping up, which is most of what we're about here. A proper seasoning and the right technique do more for a cheap cut than an expensive one ever needs.

We used bavette in a pan-fried steak with chimichurri, charred corn and lime potatoes. Full recipe and video coming soon.