A few days ago, early in the morning, at work, before coffee, Meathead walked in and handed me a bag with some bloody meat in it. He assured me it was a cut of beef and the label said, Onglet. Since it was from Prather Ranch I figured it must be okay. They gots all that fancy Certified Organic meat. I thanked him & my sister for the gift and ran back to my computer to google “what the HELL is a beef onglet?”

This name even stumped Rick the butcher, he hadn’t heard of a Onglet. I hadn’t either, but I’m sure now I’ll see it all over the place. Apparently the Onglet is a the French cut of a Hanger Steak. This is the part of the diaphragm that hangs between the last rib and the loin. Very close to the beef’s kidney am told, which is why it has TONS of beefy flavors. It’s a tough cut to come across because it usually winds up in ground beef or related. Rick says his sides of beef don’t come with it at all. What’s up with that?
I forgot it at work the first day, so it had to wait until Thursday night. After a brief look through some online references and recipes I found that it is a tough grainy piece of meat that needs either long slow cooking or a quick pan fry to medium rare or less. Plus it seems one really wants to marinate it for a few days. I had less than 2 hours to get it done. Time to get to work.
At first I thought of a pot roast type of meal, but I really didn’t think I had the time necessary. My next thought was a quick toss in to a smoking cast iron pan with a dry rub. But I was worried that not marinating it for a day or two might give us some strong beefy flavors we weren’t ready for (the blood smell was pretty darned strong, I must say). Grilling I believe would have rendered us similar results. So it was off to the smoker. The Onglet was quite thin and I didn’t think it would take long in a 300 degree smoker.
I was dead on with that decision. Here’s why. Smoking meats at lower temperatures will cook the meat thoroughly from one end to the other without drying the thinner portions. This gave us wonderfully tender medium to rare thick portions while the thinner portions were a really nice tender medium. Something for everyone. Sure I rubbed it with extra virgin olive oil and some spicy dry rub, you just gotta. Mesquite makes a great base for heat and the large hickory cooking chunks gave the Onglet a nice dark redish color. As I closed the lid of the smoker for the first time I wondered if I had something else I could toss in there. Since smoking those chiles, smoking something other than meat makes sense. Duh. Anyway, I found a few handfuls of criminy mushrooms and red onions. The mushrooms got halved and the onions were sliced and rings separated. That wasn’t enough, they needed to SMILE when layed in to the smoker. This means a kind of ‘dressing’ for the little dears. Extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt & fresh ground white pepper did the trick. (I believe I’ll use less salt next time or just leave that out). I cooked those just as long as the meat, about an hour or so. I pulled the Onglet when the thicker portions reached 140 degrees F. Let rest for 10 minutes.

This was easily one of the best beef meals we’ve ever had, ever. The beef flavor was rich and the texture was of meaty butter. I must warn you though, the grain of the meat changes and swirls around a bit from end to end. So take REAL close notice when yer carving this sucker. I got a grain direction wrong on a few slices and wound up with beef gum. Yuuuummmmmm, beef gum. Unfortunately the smoked onions & mushrooms are hiding in the back there, still a nice shot though. It can be difficult photographing dinner, I have 3 people at the dinner table waiting to be served. Serving them first is key, the plate you see is mine. I was able to hang back and get the lights hung up, tripod positioned correctly, check the exposure and squeeze off a few.
Thank you to Mr. & Mrs. Meathead for such an intriquing and beefy meal. Our lives are changed forever.
Xo Xo