The chuck and blade makes up the central muscle group of the shoulder of the animal – the reference to blade is the actual shoulder blade of the animal. The neck is the continuation of this muscle group up into the neck of the body where we get a lot of our rich diced braising beef from. Within this hard working muscle group are some hidden gems that we love to make the most of at Field & Flower. Nestled among the tougher cuts that are diced for stewing and braising, we have the first few cuts of chuck which contain the tail muscle of the ribeye – this part of it’s known as the ‘chuck eye’. Across the top of the chuck is a gorgeous, heavily marbled cut that we call the Denver, which is as soft as rump, and then the flat iron sits within the featherblade, nestled within the curve of the shoulderblade. You’ll find these cuts across our site, but also the gorgeous diced beef from the chuck not only in our packs of diced steak but in our pies and through our mince.

Some butchers say that the perfection of the fore rib of beef is the greatest proof of an all knowing creator. This cut lays in the perfect position between the sirloin and the chuck, cradling the continuation of the loin muscle, but in a slightly different form, and protected by a gorgeous cap ready for roasting. This means that it contains arguably the world’s favourite steak, ribeye, prime rib and cote de boeuf, but can also be tied as a joint for a world beating roast either bone-in or boneless. If you were Indulgent enough, I’m sure it could also be slow roasted to make the best pulled beef in the world, but to me it would be sacrilege not to enjoy this cut cooked medium rare with plenty of thyme, cracked black pepper and hot mustard.

When following the course of the spine from nose to tail, the ribeye muscle emerges from the shoulder and continues into the sirloin. The sirloin is arguably the most time-honoured staple of the ‘prime steak’ world, either as sirloin steaks, rolled sirloin roast – a decadent choice for traditional roast beef lovers – or cut on the bone as wing rib, T-bone or porterhouse. These latter two cut the loin section straight through and include the fillet, which sits within the carcass tracking from the bottom of the ribcage to the pelvis or ‘aitch bone’ as butchers know it. The smaller end of the fillet is known as the tail, where it is too narrow to be cut into steaks, the centre is the ‘barrel’, which is used for medallions and beef wellingtons, and the chunkier end is known as the chateaubriand, where it connects to the aitch bone. This is the softest muscle in the animal and makes for quick cooking and luxurious, melt-in the mouth eating.

The rump is a rich, broad muscle that serves a range of purposes at Field & Flower. Its position sitting on the pelvis, with a broad covering of back fat, means that it is well protected for dry-aging, so it can develop and enrich for 28 days before being cut, and makes for gorgeous, rich individual steaks, a thick, broad sharing steak to wow guests on the barbecue, or even as a nutty, full flavoured roast as our dry-aged heart of rump roast. As well as this, when deconstructing the primal for steaking, we take the heavily marbled tri-tip or ‘rump tail’ off, which we have added to our everyday steak of the week offering, and the picanha or ‘rump cap’ sits as a whole muscle in the prime steak of the week range. Rumps combine the benefits of the dry-aging process with the full richness of a large muscle group to create a gorgeous set of cuts.

The round, which makes up the top part of the hind leg or ‘top’, is made up of three cuts: top rump, silverside and topside. All are lean cuts, so in order to provide perfect moist beef, we ‘fat’ these joints in the traditional way, with a thin layer of fat laid over the top and bottom of the joint before tying to gently baste and moisten the meat during the cook. We recommend pot roasting at a medium pace and adding a small amount of stock or wine and a sliced onion to the base of the pan to really bring out the flavours − you’ll be left with a delicious gravy base too. These lean cuts lend themselves to creating lean everyday steaks, so look out for thicker ranch steaks on the site or the thinner minute steaks, named so because they should only take a minute per side to cook in a hot pan.

These cuts, despite naming ox in the title, are from the same cattle as the rest of our beef. They are removed when dressing the carcass so technically count as offal, but both cheeks and tails provide arguably the richest flavour of any beef cut when cooked gently. Both of these cuts also have fantastic gelatine content, so deliver an even richer gravy after a few hours’ braising. Sam’s recommendation for oxtail is Valencian style Rabo de Toro braised down in wine and stock, or a punchy West Indian oxtail curry. Interestingly, most beef braising, curry or casserole recipes can be slowed down by cooking on lower for longer, and diced beef can switch out for big chunks of ox cheek – it makes fantastic rendangs and massaman curries, as well as slow cooked ox cheek ragout for pasta.

The flank is a hard working and versatile area of the animal, and gives a unique set of cuts which us Brits used to drop into stews and Cornish pasties, until the French showed us the light, we re-named flank steaks Bavette and realised just how incredible these cuts were when flash fried, well rested and enjoyed rare to medium rare. The bavette has what we refer to as a ‘loose grain’, meaning that when cut against the grain (this is fundamental), it can break apart as easily as the softest fillet. Outside of the two key bavette steaks, there’s a tighter grained flank steak that we call ‘goose skirt’, and adjacent to this area, within the cavity of the animal and supporting the diaphragm, is the onglet. This has a unique flavour among steaks due to its location within the body and next to the liver and kidneys, and is punchier with a stronger hit of iron. Cooked fast like bavette and sliced against the grain, it’s one of our favourites.

Shin is the hardest working of the ‘muscles of locomotion’ on the carcass – there’s only four of them to carry all that weight around! This means that they hold incredibly rich flavour that can only be unlocked with gentle, slow cooking. We sell this both boneless and on the bone, with the latter adopting the name ‘osso bucco’, which means hollow bone, referring to the ring of bone that’s left after the marrow has melted and enriched the cooking sauce. This plus the melted gelatine from the muscle makes for velvety, silky sauces that naturally thicken.

The brisket is arguably the hardest working muscle in the body, bearing the tension of 80% of the weight of the animal, making it an incredibly rich cut that yields gorgeous gravy beef when cooked low and slow in the bottom of the oven. The brisket is made up of two key muscles, the lean flat muscle and the heavily marbled ‘point’. We try to include both of these in our brisket rolls with a good bit of fat that will render out over the hours of cooking and give a gorgeous flavour base. Sam’s best recommendation is to take the BBC Goodfood’s firecracker beef brisket recipe and spike it with even more chillies, a surefire winner every time in both warm and cold months. If you haven’t got time to cook for hours of a weeknight, we also have a few brisket options in our sous-vide range that will pull apart moments after touching the heat.