The Tomahawk: Big in taste and size
With its generous size and bone still attached, you certainly say the tomahawk is an impressive cut of meat. At The Uptown Meat Club, we serve premium tomahawk steaks of at least 1.3 kilo. In this article, you can read about where the tomahawk comes from and how you can prepare it at home.
A rib-eye on the bone
The tomahawk steak is a large piece of ribeye with the bone still attached. The weight of the tomahawk is usually between 1.2 and 1.5 kilo. A huge piece of meat, but it can be even more extreme. At butcher shops and restaurants, you can sometimes find tomahawks of more than 2 kilo. And the tomahawk is not only great in size, but also in taste. The steak has a large amount of intramuscular fat. These are fat particles in the muscle tissue and ensure a tasty steak. The breed of cattle from which the tomahawk is cut also effects the taste of the meat.
Because of the bone, the steak has the shape of a battle ax, or a tomahawk—which is where it gets its name.
What part of the cow does the tomahawk come from?
The tomahawk is cut from the ribs (thick and fine rib). This part consists of a rack of seven ribs, located between the shoulder and the loin. Other steaks cut from this part include the entrecote and côte de boeuf.
Pork tomahawk
Typically, when you order a tomahawk steak, it will be a cut of beef. But the tomahawk can just as well be made from pork, also called a tomapork. The piece of meat in this case is cut from the rib of a pig. The result is a very thick rib chop with the bone still attached.
Tomahawk meat matured for an intense flavor experience
The tomahawk steak lends itself very well to dry aging. With this process, the meat is aged for 20 to 30 days under controlled conditions (temperature, humidity, duration). All this is done in a special drying cabinet. At The Uptown Meat Club, we also have a dry-aging cabinet in which we let the finest pieces of beef mature. During the drying process, the meat loses a lot of moisture and therefore also weight. The flavors are even better concentrated in the meat. The result is a dry-aged tomahawk with a deep and intense flavor and a wonderfully tender structure. Read here to learn more about how this works.
How to prepare a tomahawk steak
You can prepare the tomahawk steak in different ways: in the oven, in a pan or on the barbecue for a delicious, smoky taste. It depends on your personal preference and which kitchen appliances you have at home
Preparing tomahawk in oven and pan
The most popular way to prepare a tomahawk steak at home is in a pan in the oven. By first searing the meat in the pan, you can then let it cook in the oven for a perfect result. The Uptown Meat Club takes you through this method of preparation step by step.
Remove the tomahawk steak from the refrigerator about an hour before serving to allow it to come to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 200℃ and make sure you have a heated pan with oil. Sprinkle the tomahawk steak on both sides with salt and pepper and then fry it briefly in the pan with some finely chopped garlic and rosemary. When the meat is nicely browned on both sides, you can transfer it to the oven. For a medium-rare steak, let the tomahawk cook for 10 to 15 minutes. It is advisable to monitor the internal temperature of the steak with a meat thermometer. For a medium-rare piece of tomahawk meat, a core temperature of about 50 ℃ is optimal.
Enjoying a Tomahawk steak in a restaurant? At The Uptown Meat Cub in Amsterdam, we serve Tomahawks up to 2.3 kilo
When the meat is cooked to your liking, you can take it out of the oven. It is advisable to let the meat rest for a while, so that the juices can distribute well and the meat remains tender. Use aluminum foil for this. After 10 minutes, you can cut and serve the tomahawk to impress everyone at the table.
Tomahawk sous vide cooking
Due to the imposing size of the tomahawk steak, it is sometimes difficult to cook it evenly at home. For extra control and perfect, even cooking, you can use the sous vide cooking technique. With this method, the meat is vacuum-packed and cooked in a hot water bath. As soon as the desired internal temperature has been reached, the meat can continue cooking in the pan. Preparing tomahawk steak sous vide is very simple, but special tools (including a vacuum device) are required.
The juicy tomahawk steaks from The Uptown Meat Club
As a premium meat restaurant, The Uptown Meat Club in Amsterdam naturally also has tomahawk steaks on its menu. We are currently serving a 1.3 kilo tomahawk steaks and an impressive XXL variant of no less than 2.3 kilo. Both pieces of meat are excellent for sharing with table mates. The tomahawk steak is served in our restaurant with a sauce of your choice. Also take a look at our other meat specials such as Picanha and dry aged côte de boeuf.
Tomahawk steaks from dual-purpose cattle
The Uptown Meat Club only uses meat from the Dutch Holstein cow—a dual-purpose cow that first produces milk and then goes on holiday for a period of time to relax and put on more weight. Dual-purpose cows often have a larger body size than dairy cows bred solely for milk production. In addition, they may contain more fat and muscle tissue than beef cows bred solely for meat production. Breeding dual-purpose cows is often seen as a more sustainable and efficient method of animal husbandry, as fewer cows are needed to produce both milk and meat.
If you order a Tomahawk steak in our restaurant, you will receive a local piece of high-quality meat on your plate. An impressive rib-eye with bone that is even tastier than the same piece of meat from a beef cow.