If you want to slice for individual steaks:
If you’re making Brazilian skewered beef:
No idea how to find the grain? Read below.
First, Find the Grain of the Picanha
From the side of the triangular shape, look at how the lines are oriented.
Now from the top down, we know what way this grain is going and how to slice.
The side above is to the right and we know it goes up and down.
If Cutting Meat for Steaks, Slice WITH the Grain
This seems counterintuitive.
But the reason we’re slicing WITH the grain initially is because when you go to slice your cooked steak, you’ll then slice AGAINST the grain.
Note: If you end up messing this up, it’s not a huge deal.
As long as you cook to medium-rare, the steak will still be tender, just less tender.
This is sort of the same thing as when people slice T-bone steak, they slice the NY strip side with the grain for presentation, but it’s less noticeable because it’s tender.
Slicing Picanha for Brazilian-Style Skewers
Here we want to slice steaks against the grain because when we go to skewer the beef, we’re shaving the meat off against the grain.
If you did the opposite and did what we did for steaks, the meat would shave off the skewer with the grain.
