It’s expensive, and flavor-wise there are better cuts of beef. Mario Batali compared the cut to Paris Hilton — it’s nothing special, and yet for some reason everyone wants to get a hold of it.

… like my wife… does that make her gay for Paris Hilton??

Read the whole thing: Top Of The Food Chain: Tenderloin – Eat Me Daily (makes me wonder what kind of wonderful things you can do with all those different loin cuts besides fillet. Ryan gives a handful of recipe links, maybe I’ll investigate more for a later post on here).

It was really quite good. Not over-marinated at all, I think that actually did what I wanted, as the flavors of cumin and oregano stayed with the meat even through grilling.

I really need to clean the inside of my grill — FIRE!!

Once that calmed down, things proceeded just fine, maybe a little too fast after searing, because it ended up too rare in the center and too done on the edges. But it was a thousand times more tender than other times I’ve done flank. Or had flank.

One thing to remember is, flank, being a thinner cut, will lose heat way faster than you think it should. Especially upon slicing it. There might be some benefit to letting your flank steak rest in a warm oven, or on a pre-warmed plate, before slicing, and serving on a warmed plate, or one of those nice metal serving trays you see in steak houses.

The sauces from the Colombian Beer-marinated recipe were way too spicy for our tastes. Probably because I was a smart-ass and bought Serranos instead of Jalapenos. For future reference, one eighth of a Serrano equals one whole Jalapeno. Roughly.

Overall this was a great trial of what could be an outstanding preparation of flank steak. Moderation in the sauces, and minding the temperature of the meat post-grilling, are key. Luck would have it that this flank steak was the free one in the buy one get one free deal!