Bistecca alla fiorentina
Bistecca alla fiorentina is an Italian steak dish made of young steer or heifer that is one of the most famous dishes in Tuscan cuisine. It is loin steak on the bone cooked on a grill until rare.
Etymology
The word bistecca was borrowed from the English beefsteak in the early 19th century. An 1863 dictionary defines it as:
...a thick slice of meat, cut from the rump or elsewhere, lightly cooked on a grill or otherwise, and eaten undercooked.
Description
Bistecca alla fiorentina is obtained from the cut of the sirloin of a young steer or heifer of the Chianina breed: in the middle it has the T-shaped bone, that is, a T-bone steak, with the fillet on one side and the sirloin on the other.Today the steak is cut 3–4 fingers high in the loin. An average bistecca alla fiorentina when ordered at a restaurant weighs between.9 and 1.2 kilograms. The cost can range from twenty to one hundred euros per kilo.
History
The Italian gastronomist Pellegrino Artusi, in his 1891 cooking manual La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiare bene', defines the cut of the steak as follows: "Florentine steak. From beef-steak, an English word that is worth the rib of an ox, came the name of our steak, which is nothing more than a chop with its bone, a finger or a finger and a half thick, cut from the sirloin of a steer."In 2021, the dish was added to Italy's list of traditional food products, prodotto agroalimentare tradizionale.