pan fried denver steak with bone marrow compound butter

Whole-Carcass Artisan Steaks - Heritage Breed Beef

Whole-carcass butchery gives us access to steaks beyond the familiar ribeye, sirloin and fillet. Onglet, bavette, spider, Denver, featherblade and outside skirt all come from different muscles across the carcass, each with its own grain, fat, texture and way of cooking.

Our beef comes from heritage breed cattle, slow-grown on grass on independent farms and smallholdings across the Yorkshire Dales. It is dry-aged on the bone for at least 28 days before our butchers break down the carcass and seam out these individual muscles by hand.

These are cuts we’ve long supplied to restaurant chefs because they offer plenty of flavour and character without relying on tenderness alone. Some, such as bavette and onglet, want a hard sear and careful slicing across the grain. Featherblade can be cooked as a steak or given a slower braise, whilst Denver and spider are best cooked quickly and served pink.

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Choosing a Whole-Carcass Steak

These steaks don’t all cook in the same way. Bavette, onglet and outside skirt have a pronounced grain and are best cooked quickly, rested well and sliced across that grain. Flat iron and Denver are more tender, making them straightforward choices if you want something closer to a conventional steak.

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Spider steak is small, deeply flavoured and naturally well marbled, while featherblade has enough connective tissue to work either as a steak or in a slower cook. Chuck eye roll is larger again and gives you several options depending on how you butcher and cook it.

What connects them is whole-carcass butchery. Rather than concentrating only on ribeye, sirloin and fillet, we separate useful individual muscles from across the carcass and give each one the treatment it deserves. It means more of the animal is valued and puts some of the most characterful beef cuts on the table.

Everything is butchered to order and delivered Always Fresh, Never Frozen®.

For cooking guidance, see our guides to Bavette Steak, Flat Iron Steak and Onglet Steak, or browse our Steak Recipes collection.

Benefits of Swaledale Butchers