Tonight

[mrdutton]

Now on a more serious note...... According to this really neat database I found while surfing around the web, the hanger steak (aka hanging tender, butchers steak, butchers tenderloin or onglet) is the part of the diaphragm that hangs between the last rib and the loin. Either taken home by the butcher as a boon for his work or ground into hamburger, but some folks say it is a tastey bit of meat if marinated and cooked rare. It has a grainy texture and is a very flavorful cut of meat. Better known in France than in the US, if you want one you'll have to special order it.

The database I found at www.foodsubs.com is called The Cooks Thesaurus.

According to James Rodwell at Gourmet, its function is to push the secretions out of the pancreas gland. (Fortunately it does not taste like those secretions.)

According to Julia Child (see THE ART OF FRENCH COOKING, Vol. 1), the hanger steak is the same as the French cut of beef onglet. It consists of two small muscles joined by an elastic membrane that supports the animals diaphragm.

Larousse Gastronomic goes on to say, "The butcher splits it open, trims it and removes all the skin and membrane. Onglet must be well hung; the meat is then tender and juicy.

It is very well marbled with fat, grill-pans to rare in about 6 minutes total cooking time. Quite tastey. Mine came from the butcher sans silver skin and membrane and was, therefore in two pieces.

I got the meat from Loebels in NYC.