Speed up cooking with the Butterfly Technique (2024)

If you want everyone’s steak to come off the grill at the same time, you have a couple options. First, you could give everyone who wants well-done steaks a head-start. Let the medium-rare folks add theirs to the grill at least 5 minutes later.

The second option is to cut a thicker steak into a thinner steak through a technique called “butterflying”. We do this all the time at the restaurants, primarily on Filet Mignon, which you can see is a few inches thick.

Essentially, you make a cut across the steak, stopping before you cut all the way through it. When you open the steak up, it now has two matching sides, resembling a butterfly. Now the steak is only half as thick and will cook much more quickly. Butterflying a thick steak helps you get the inside well done without charring the outside.

The butterfly technique is easy to do at home and doesn’t require special tools - just a sharp knife! Watch as our butcher butterflies a filet mignon at the steakhouse. Feel free to ask us to butterfly your steak the next time you’re at our meat counter!