Bavette Steak: What It Is, How to Cook It, and What to Pay

Walk up to most meat counters and you will not see bavette in the case, even though it is a steak a French bistro would charge well for. It hides under plainer names, costs less than the cuts everyone asks for, and eats like a far pricier steak when you cook it right. It is one of my favorite sleeper cuts.

I am Marty Reichenberger. Amy and I raise our cattle in Independence, Kansas, and I am the fourth generation of my family in the cattle business. I cook every cut we sell on my own grill before I recommend it, bavette included. Here is the cut the way I would explain it over the fence, start to finish. Bavette is one of the stars in our roundup of the best cheap steak cuts, and it might be the easiest one to fall for.

What is a bavette steak?

Bavette is French for "bib," a nod to the cut's long, flat, drapey shape. In American butchery it is usually sold as flap steak, flap meat, or sirloin flap, and in New England you will see the same muscle labeled "steak tips." It comes from the bottom sirloin, and the exact muscle is the obliquus internus abdominis, a flat sheet of muscle from the lower back end of the animal. The National Cattlemen's Beef Association catalogs it on Beef. It's What's For Dinner as the sirloin bavette, a thin, boneless cut that takes beautifully to a marinade and a hot grill.

Where it sits matters. The bottom sirloin is the junction where the sirloin, short loin, and flank all meet, just behind the tri tip. That spot gives bavette two things at once: real beefy flavor from a working muscle, and enough marbling to stay juicy, which the leaner cuts nearby often lack.

Bavette vs flank vs skirt: how to tell them apart

These three get mixed up constantly, and bavette is often mistranslated as flank steak on menus and in recipes. They are three different cuts from three different parts of the steer:

• Bavette, or flap, comes from the bottom sirloin. It is thicker and wider than skirt, with more marbling than flank, and a loose, open grain.
• Flank comes from the abdominal wall farther forward. It is leaner, broader, and more uniform, with a milder taste.
• Skirt comes from the plate, the diaphragm muscle. It is the thinnest and most intensely beefy of the three, the classic fajita and carne asada steak.

You can cook and slice all three the same way, hot and fast, then thin against the grain, which is why recipes swap them. But bavette gives you the best of the group in one cut: much of the deep flavor of a skirt, with more thickness and marbling to work with.

What bavette steak tastes like

Bavette tastes like steak is supposed to taste: bold, beefy, and a little mineral-rich, with more character than a plain sirloin and more marbling than a flank. That fat in the open grain keeps it juicy under a hard sear instead of drying out. If you like a steak that fights back a little and pays you in flavor, this is your cut. It is why bavette has been a French bistro staple for generations.

The loose, open grain, and why bavette loves a marinade

The most important thing to understand about bavette is its grain. The fibers are long, coarse, run in one clear direction, and sit loosely rather than packed tight. That open structure is why bavette is the classic marinated steak, and why both the beef checkoff's cut database and the traditional French kitchen call for marinating it before it hits the heat.

Here is the honest science, because it should change how you marinate. A marinade rarely soaks in more than about an eighth of an inch, even after hours in the bag. On a thick roast that barely matters, but on a thin, open-grained cut like bavette that shallow reach is a much bigger share of the steak, and the loose fibers give the salt and seasoning more surface to grab. You do not need to soak it overnight. Thirty minutes to a few hours with salt, oil, acid, garlic, and herbs is plenty, and lightly scoring the surface helps. Bavette is also excellent with nothing but coarse salt and pepper.

How I cook bavette steak

Bavette is a fast cut. It is thin and on the lean side, so the enemy is overcooking, not undercooking. Here is the method I use every time.

1. Bring it to room temperature and dry it off. Pull the steak out thirty to sixty minutes ahead and pat it dry so it sears instead of steams. Salt it well.
2. Get the heat screaming. A charcoal grill, a gas grill on high, or a cast iron pan ripping hot. Bavette wants high, dry heat and a short stay.
3. Sear hard and fast. Two to four minutes per side, depending on thickness, is usually all it takes. You are chasing a dark crust and a warm center.
4. Pull it at medium rare. I take bavette off at about 130 to 135°F. Cook it past medium and the lean, coarse fibers turn chewy. For food safety, the USDA lists 145°F as the safe minimum internal temperature for whole beef steaks, followed by a three-minute rest, so use a thermometer and cook to the doneness you are comfortable with.
5. Rest it, then slice thin against the grain. This is the step you cannot skip. Rest it five to ten minutes, find the direction the fibers run, and cut straight across them. Iowa State University Extension says it plainly: slice perpendicular across the grain to get short fibers and a more tender bite. Meat scientists measure tenderness with a shear force test; slicing across the grain is the home-kitchen version of lowering that number, since shorter fibers mean less chewing.

Slice bavette with the grain and even a perfectly cooked steak chews like a rope. Slice it across the grain and it turns tender. On a coarse cut like this, that knife angle is the whole ballgame.

The best ways to use bavette

Bavette is a great steak on its own, but it really shines sliced. It makes some of the best fajitas and steak salads you will ever have. Slice it thin, add grilled peppers and onions, and you have something special on a weeknight. It is also a natural for steak tacos, a steak sandwich with caramelized onions, or a rice bowl with a quick soy and garlic marinade. Because the grain is so open, any of those flavors grab onto the meat fast.

What to pay for bavette steak

Bavette is a value cut and should be priced like one. It comes from the sirloin, not the loin or rib, so it usually costs less per pound than ribeye, strip, or tenderloin while giving up very little in flavor. That holds on our own price list: our bavette, sold in packages of 1 to 1.5 pounds, costs less per pound than our ribeye or our filet.

Prices move, so we keep the current number on the product page rather than print one here that goes stale. Check our bavette steak today. For national context, the USDA publishes a weekly National Retail Report for beef and tracks long-run price spreads by cut.

What makes Diamond R's bavette different

A steak is only as good as the animal it came from, and this is where a family ranch beats a commodity case. Our cattle are black Angus, born and raised on our ground in Independence, Kansas. They grow up on Kansas pasture, then finish on a ration of corn and oats. That is what grass fed and grain finished means. As I put it, "We are grass fed, grain finished to get that steakhouse flavor everyone desires." The grass builds a clean, beefy base, and the grain lays down the marbling that makes a bavette juicy instead of lean and tough.

Two more things set our beef apart. Every package is single source, cut from one animal we raised, not a commodity blend of many. And we dry age our beef about 16 days, a stretch in which natural enzymes break down muscle fibers and moisture evaporates to concentrate the flavor. On a cut built for bold flavor like bavette, that dry age is the difference between good and memorable. We raise our cattle with no added hormones or antibiotics, and we ship our steaks frozen to your door.

Only a small piece of bavette comes off each animal, so it is a limited cut, and we sell it on its own rather than as part of our beef shares. For more steaks like it, read the rest of the sleeper cuts. If you want a high-protein snack from the same cattle, our beef sticks are made from our own trimmings.

Frequently asked questions

What is a bavette steak?

Bavette is a thin, flavorful steak from the bottom sirloin, the same cut American butchers call flap steak, flap meat, or sirloin flap. Bavette is French for "bib," a nod to its long, flat shape. It has a loose, open grain, bold beefy flavor, and it costs less than loin and rib steaks.

Is bavette the same as flank steak or skirt steak?

No, though the three are often confused. Bavette comes from the bottom sirloin, flank comes from the abdominal wall, and skirt comes from the plate, or diaphragm. Bavette is thicker and better marbled than flank and wider than skirt. All three are cooked hot and fast and sliced thin against the grain, which is why recipes swap them.

How do you cook bavette steak so it is tender?

Cook it hot and fast to medium rare, then slice it thin against the grain. Get a grill or cast iron pan very hot, sear two to four minutes a side, pull it at about 130 to 135°F, and rest it five to ten minutes. Do not cook it past medium, and never slice it with the grain.

Do you have to marinate bavette steak?

No, but it takes a marinade better than almost any other steak because of its loose, open grain. A marinade only reaches the surface layer of any cut, so a thin, open-grained steak like bavette gets more benefit than a thick roast would. Thirty minutes to a few hours is plenty. Bavette is also excellent with just salt and pepper.

What temperature should bavette steak be cooked to?

For medium rare, pull it at about 130 to 135°F and let it rest. The USDA lists 145°F, followed by a three-minute rest, as the safe minimum internal temperature for whole beef steaks, so use a thermometer and cook to the doneness you are comfortable with. Because bavette is lean and coarse-grained, cooking it past medium makes it chewy.

Is bavette a cheap cut?

It is a value cut, not a lesser one. Bavette comes from the bottom sirloin, a less famous part of the animal, so it costs less than loin and rib steaks while delivering big beef flavor. On our own price list it costs less per pound than our ribeye or our filet.

What does grass fed and grain finished mean?

Our calves are born in late winter and spend the summer on pasture with their mothers. After weaning they graze oats, wheat, turnips and kale, then finish on a ration of corn and oats for 130 to 180 days before harvest. The grass and forage build the animal and a clean, beefy base. The grain finish adds the marbling and steakhouse flavor. Grass fed and grain finished gives you both.

Can I order bavette steak online and have it shipped?

Yes. We ship our bavette frozen to your door from our ranch in Independence, Kansas, in packages of 1 to 1.5 pounds. It is single source, grass fed and grain finished black Angus, dry aged about 16 days.

Ready to fire up the grill?

Bavette rewards you for cooking it simply: high heat, medium rare, thin slices across the grain. Start with a Diamond R bavette steak, cut from single-source, grass fed and grain finished black Angus, dry aged about 16 days in Independence, Kansas. If you live near us and want a freezer full of steaks, a quarter beef share is our best price per pound, picked up at the ranch or delivered in the Kansas City, Wichita, Tulsa, Joplin and Oklahoma City areas. For more steaks like this one, read the full guide to the best cheap steak cuts, then our guides to the Denver steak and picanha.

Written by Marty Reichenberger, fourth-generation owner-operator of Diamond R Cattle.