Cuts · UK butchery
Bavette
A thin sheet from the abdominal wall with a grain coarse enough to see. Bavette, flank and skirt are neighbouring cuts that different systems divide differently, which is why the aliases here are approximate rather than equivalent.
Known as
The same muscle carries different names in different butchery systems, and some of those names mean different cuts elsewhere. Where a name is ambiguous, BBQHQ says so rather than picking one.
- United Kingdom
- Bavette
- Skirt
- United States
- Flank steak
What to ask a butcher for
- United States: Bavette, or flank if the counter uses American names.
- United Kingdom: Bavette, and say you want it for fast grilling.
Where it comes from on the animal
Abdominal wall (flank and skirt)
Flank · moderate use · connective tissue: moderate
The sheet of muscle across the belly. Its fibres run long and parallel and are coarse enough to see, which is the anatomical reason every cut taken from here has to be carved across the grain and the reason marinades reach further into it than into a dense loin steak.
Muscles: Rectus abdominis, Obliquus internus abdominis, Transversus abdominis
Asking a butcher for it
Named the way uk butchery names it. If the counter does not recognise the name, the anatomy is the fallback: ask for the cut by where it comes from.
- What to say
- Bavette.
- If that draws a blank
- Ask for flank — the muscle is Rectus abdominis, Obliquus internus abdominis, Transversus abdominis.
- What to specify
- Thickness, which governs the timing more than weight does — the usual range is 15–25 mm. Typical weight is 400–800 g.
What it is suited to
Derived from how hard the muscle works and how much connective tissue it carries, which is the pairing that decides whether a cut wants a fire under it or beside it. BBQHQ does not rank cuts and does not name a best one.
- Moderate connective tissue: it will take either approach, and the two give genuinely different results rather than one being a compromise.
BBQHQ holds cooking evidence for this cut as bavette steak.
What to use instead
BBQHQ has established no substitute for this cut. That is a statement about what has been checked rather than a claim that none exists.
Asking for it in another country
BBQHQ has not established how this cut maps to other butchery systems.
The UK side of these mappings rests on AHDB’s published cutting specifications, which BBQHQ has read. The US side does not: USDA’s Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications and the Beef Checkoff cut pages both refuse automated access, so no mapping here reaches “same cut” across two butchery systems. See the open question.
Typical size
400–800 g