It is practically impossible to visit Florence without realizing that this is one of the most traditional dishes of the city. It is at least 5 cm thick and is always served on the bone, cooked on the grill over high heat for about 3-4 minutes per side: it is a true specialty, especially for meat lovers. The Florentine steak is obtained from the cut of the loin (the part corresponding to the lumbar vertebrae, half of the back on the side of the tail) of veal or pork: it has a "T" shaped bone in the middle, in fact in English it is called T-bone steak, with the fillet on one side and the sirloin on the other.
The culinary expert Pellegrino Artusi, in his manual Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well, defines the cut of the steak as follows: "Bistecca alla fiorentina. From beef-steak, an English word that means ox rib, the name of our steak is derived, which is nothing more than a chop with its bone, one or one and a half fingers thick, cut from the loin of veal".
Almost every restaurant advertises it as the highlight of the menu, but that doesn’t mean it’s always done properly.
