The steak is cut from the loin of the Chianina, the white Tuscan ox breed, choosing either the vitellone or the scottona: a thickness ranging from two and a half centimetres up to six, with the T-bone holding together the fillet and the sirloin. It is grilled over embers of hard wood, oak or olive, with no salt or other seasoning before cooking, turned only once, always rare: never more.
According to tradition, the name comes from the feast of San Lorenzo, on 10 August, when the Medici had large quantities of meat roasted over bonfires in front of the church and handed out to the people; among those present, some English knights are said to have called the cut «beef steak», later italianised into bistecca. Another version ties the name to the English residents living in Florence in the nineteenth century.
It is served with beans in olive oil and a glass of Chianti, and should be eaten standing against the cut, not left resting on the plate to overcook. Since 2021 bistecca alla fiorentina has been on the list of Traditional Agri-food Products of Tuscany.
