Charcoal Bavette, Smoked Paprika Butter, Asparagus & Spring Onion
Bavette is the cut that came in from the cold a decade ago, and now lives where it belongs — over live coals. Open-grained, deep-flavoured, hungry for char.
Bavette (also called flank, also called skirt, depending on which butcher you’re talking to) takes heavy char beautifully. A slick of smoked paprika butter melting over the top is hard to beat. Add fistfuls of English asparagus and fat spring onions onto the same grill and you’ve got a proper plate — the kind you eat standing up, with your fingers, while everyone else asks for seconds.
- 1kg grass-fed bavette
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- Flaky sea salt & black pepper
- 1 bunch English asparagus (≈300g), woody ends snapped
- 1 bunch fat spring onions, trimmed
- 1 lemon, halved
- 80g unsalted butter, soft
- 1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
- ½ tsp smoked hot paprika
- 1 small garlic clove, grated to a paste
- ½ lemon, zested
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- A pinch of flaky salt
- Pull the bavette from the fridge a full hour before cooking. Pat dry, rub with olive oil and a heavy hand of flaky salt and pepper. Leave at room temperature.
- Mash all the smoked paprika butter ingredients together until smooth. Scrape onto cling film, roll into a log and chill until firm.
- Light a chimney of lump charcoal. Bank the coals to one side so you have a hot zone and a cooler resting zone. The grate should be howling hot — hold your hand 10cm above and you’ll manage 2 seconds, no more.
- Lay the bavette on the hot side. Grill 3 minutes, rotate 90° (proper cross-hatch marks), grill another 2 minutes. Flip and repeat: 3 minutes, rotate, 2 minutes. Internal 52°C for rare — anything past medium-rare and the cut toughens.
- Slide onto the cool side of the grill, top with a thick disc of paprika butter and let it rest there 6–8 minutes while you cook the vegetables.
- Toss the asparagus and spring onions with olive oil, salt and pepper. Throw onto the hot grate. Asparagus needs 4–5 minutes, turning once; spring onions take about the same — proper black bars and floppy through the middle. Hit the lemon halves cut-side down on the grill for 90 seconds.
- Carve the bavette ACROSS the grain (this is the cardinal rule — across, or it eats like a belt). Lay on a board with the vegetables, squeeze over the charred lemons, let everyone help themselves.
Bavette is a directional cut — the grain runs the long way in a clear line. Carve WITH it and even a perfectly cooked piece feels chewy. Slice firmly across, at a slight angle, into 5mm slices. And rare is non-negotiable: above medium-rare, the connective tissue tightens.
A glass of cold Manzanilla sherry while you’re grilling, then a sturdy Argentine Malbec at the table — the bavette can take the weight.
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