Denver Cut (Plus a Bonus Palomilla Cut)

[DonRocks]

I was at the Organic Butcher yesterday, and saw two pieces of Wagyu in the shape of a rectangular prism. Not recognizing the cut, I asked what it was, and was told (enthusiastically) that this was a Denver Cut.

Ah! The Denver Cut - I've heard of it before, and I may have even had it before at Ray's the Steaks; I'm just not sure. It wasn't even "invented" until the late 1990s, and has been ranked as the 4th-most-tender cut of beef there is (behind the tenderloin, the flat iron, and the calotte). 

I've viewed some videos about how to extract a Denver Cut from a prime cut, and there's no way in hell I'd be able to figure this out without extensive training - butchery is much more complicated than people may think.

Interestingly, I was warned that one of the two steaks I purchased was improperly cut, and there's a band of meat running along the top which is known as the Palomilla cut (as in Bistec de Palomilla) - this is a much tougher cut, and it will be interesting to compare the two, side-by-side. I appreciate the salesman at Organic Butcher advising me about this, as the entire steak was priced as a Denver Cut.

Here are pictures of the two steaks - the one which has the band of Palomilla will be obvious:

[MarkS]

Was it good or great?

[DonRocks]

On 3/19/2018 at 5:32 PM, MarkS said:

Was it good or great?

Great! And the Palomilla cut was really good, too (interestingly, it cooked to medium-rare while the Denver cut was still rare, so we trimmed off the Palomilla, and cooked the Denver for another few minutes).