Txuleton or chuletón is a speciality of the Basque region in northern Spain, where we travelled recently. While most commercially reared cattle are slaughtered in their first three years, these massive rib (T-bone) steaks come from cows that are between 8 and 18 years old! The cows, ideally Galician Blond (Rubia Gallega), are former dairy cows put out to pasture and fattened for slaughter. The meat is dark red with distinctive yellow fat and is prized for its increased fat marbling and rich depth of flavour. The steaks are cut at least 5cm (2″) thick, cooked whole on a hot plate with a big handful of salt to enhance the flavour and are served rare to medium-rare. We enjoyed this one in San Sebastian’s popular Bar Nestor, known locally as ‘the holy trinity’ as they specialise in just three dishes. Txuleton is one of them.
The steak was so large that we could only fit in one more speciality. We ordered the tomato salad – a whole plate of the most delicious-tasting local corazon de buey (ox heart) tomatoes simply topped with mild salad onion, a little salt and olive oil.
michelle picker cooks 