London Broil

London Broil is not a cut of meat, but a recipe for a marinated and grilled flank steak. Many butchers mistakenly label thin cuts of beef as London Broil in their meat counters. The origin of the recipe is not known, but first appeared in print in 1931. Many beef marinades include soy sauce, as did my London Broil recipe, but salt, beef stock, and tomato paste are also highly recommended as marinade ingredients.

1 flank steak

Olive oil for brushing

Salt

Fresh ground black pepper.

Prepare the marinade (recipe follows). Place the meat in the zip-top plastic beg with the marinade, zip the bag almost closed, expel as much air as possible, and zip the bag fully closed. Marinate refrigerated for 24 hours.

Prepare the grill for direct cooking over a hot fire. Remove the meat from the bag and discard the marinade. Lightly brush the meat with oil and season lightly with salt (the marinade contained salt) and pepper. Grill the meat for approximately 5 minutes per side directly over the fire for medium rare, depending upon its thickness. Cooking beyond medium is not recommended.

Thinly slice the meat across the grain to compensate for its toughness.

Marinade

In case you do not recall my June 7, 2018 BLOG post on marinades, only the salt, glutamates, and nucleotides in a marinade penetrate into meat. Most flank steak recipes I see on the WEB include soy sauce that is high in glutamates and salt. However, tomato past is also high in glutamates and mushrooms are high in nucleotides. Read the ingredients in beef stock, most include mushroom extract.

1 cup beef stock (be sure the contents includes mushroom extract)

1/4 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup tomato paste

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, pressed of minced

2 bay leaves

1/4 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon salt