Like every Argentinian, I love milanesas. They are delicious, easy to make and relatively cheap. You can eat them both hot and cold, by themselves or in a sandwich, by themselves or with toppings. And you can make them with a variety of beef cuts, as long as they are cut thin.
The vest and most typical milanesas are milanesas de ternera, or veal milanesas. Alas, I don’t eat veal in America. I do understand that all meat eating is cruel, but I find the treatment of calves to be particularly heartbreaking. I just can’t eat it.
My actual meat choice for milanesa is top round (cut very thin). It has good flavor, a nice bite (but you do have to cut it thin) and not much marbling (milanesas don’t need it). There is one major fat streak dividing the steaks, and sometimes I simply cut if off, dividing them into two small steaks, which I can then pile in a sandwich. However, thin-cut top round steks are now $16/lb, so I only buy it when it’s on sale – which is not too frequently.
Thin-cut top sirloin is also a good choice for milanesas. The additional marbling makes it very tender, but it’s hard to trim the big pieces of fat without destroying the shape of the steak. It’s also not as flavorful as top-round (don’t ask me why, I’ve no idea). It sells for $18 at my Safeway, but I lost bought it on sale for $10/lb.
Thin-cut Tri-Tip is not available at my local Safeway but I got it once at another supermarket and it worked quite well. It’s been too long so I don’t remember where I rated it vis a vis the other cuts, but I do remember I thought it worked.
One cut that doesn’t work is bottom round. At Safeway, it’s cut thicker than I like. It’s also tough (though OK with tenderizing), filled with grizzle and not as tasty. At $13/lb regular price, it’s cheaper than the other choices.
One thing to keep in mind: you can prepare the milanesas and freeze them uncooked. You can fry them without defrosting them without losing too much quality.
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