Any curious visitor finds himself tasting the food of the place he visits. It must be admitted that in Tuscany every tourist will certainly be lucky because among fine wines, excellent cheeses, precious extra virgin olive oil every palate is satisfied. The dish that everyone agrees on and that you can’t forget to taste if you are in Tuscany is the Florentine steak.

What exactly is the Florentine steak?

The Florentine steak, also simply called Florentine, is a challenge for every cook and many restaurants pride themselves on cooking the best. So how to recognize a good steak?

First of all, the cut is important: it must come from the loin (the area of ​​the lumbar vertebrae) of beef or scottona. The most famous breed of cattle is the Chianina.

The Chianina breed

Val di Chiana is located between Siena and Arezzo and is the place of origin of a porcelain-white giant bovine. Chianina breed is one of the most powerful, just think that an adult male can weigh between 1100-1700 kg!

These animals are very ancient, certainly known to the Etruscans and Romans but also painted in rock paintings.

However, Chianina is not the only breed used for steak, depending on your tastes, you can also choose another breed but not the cut. The steak must have the bone and be high and have the fillet on one side and the sirloin on the other.

The origin of the italian name bistecca (steak)

There are two equally valid traditions about the origins of the steak name.

1) At the Medici time, for the summer San Lorenzo festival in the district of the same name in Florence, beef was cooked and then donated to the population. It is said that some English guests called the piece of meat “beef-steak” and hence the name bistecca.

2) The second traction always involves the British. At the end of the nineteenth century many wealthy gentlemen had moved to the sunny cradle of the Renaissance and these people could afford to eat fine meat that they call “beef-steak” and so bistecca.

Whatever the origin of the name, this dish is now an emblem of Tuscan culinary culture.

Cooking

Very marked, after having carefully chosen the piece of meat and proceeding to a correct cooking.

Traditional cooking requires having a fireplace or a barbecue and cooking on embers.

The embers must be very hot and the meat should be turned only once on each side to then finish cooking vertically on the bone, for this reason it is important that it is high otherwise it would not stand vertically by itself. After cooking it is always good practice to let the meat rest for a few minutes and only then season and cut it.

What to do if you don’t have a fireplace or space for a barbecue?

You can always try to cook the meat on the cast iron grill, but you have to make sure that the grill is very hot otherwise you risk a boiled and not crunchy effect.

Another important precaution is not to cook the steak just removed from the refrigerator to avoid a thermal shock to the meat.

We look forward to seeing you at Villa Campestri for an excellent bistecca

As you have read, the precautions to follow are various, if you do not have a trusted butcher and you are not familiar with cooking, you must not do without an excellent steak!

We are waiting for you at Villa Campestri to put our experience at your service and be able to enjoy an excellent, carefully selected steak, cooked according to tradition and seasoned with our precious extra virgin olive oil!