Teres Major Steak – Outstanding and Cheap

Teres Major Steak is the second most tender cut of meat in the cow and has more flavor than the first (beef tenderloin/filet mignon). It is also much cheaper to feed guests than say rib eye or strip loin. This post will go over what the teres major is and how to grill it.  

What steak is the teres major?

Teres Major, Outstanding and Cheap? I know, I know. First you’re wondering what the heck is a teres major and why do you care if it is outstanding or cheap. What if I told you that teres majors steaks other names are petite tender, petite shoulder tender, shoulder tender, bistro tender, bistro tender? Doesn’t help. OK then. It’s steak. Tender, delicious, amazing, stupendous steak. Does that help? I was as clueless as you are when I first saw one. I asked what it was too, because I thought it might be a constellation:

Teres Major is often spelled wrong. Many people add an extra R to make it Terres Major. We know what you meant! Also, this is perfect for the keto crowd. Cheap, high in protein, not too fatty (even though it wouldn’t be a bad thing if it were even fattier). It’s a great way to get a ton of protein for that keto friendly diet without breaking the bank. 

One of the meat cutters told me that I’ve probably already had it and never knew.  He said local restaurants serve teres major all the time as steak modiga or as medallions.

I decided to do a little more digging.  According to Grasslandbeef.com:

“The teres major is a seldom used muscle in the shoulder that is second only to the tenderloin filet in tenderness. This muscle requires skilled craftsman to extract, but yields a wonderful dining experience and is a new leader in trendy white table cloth restaurants.

The teres major steak is also referred to as a shoulder tender. If sliced into medallions, they are appropriately named petite tender medallions.”

Is teres major the same as filet mignon?

Teres major is very similar to beef tenderloin (or filet mignon) in that it is also lean and uber tender, but not quite as lean as filet or tenderloin and thus it has better flavor and generally the teres major beef price is a third of that of the filet. There’s a reason filets are wrapped in bacon. The bacon gives the filet flavor it just doesn’t have due to a lack of fat. While the petite tender is not quite as tender as the filet, it has more fat and thus is tastier. And when I say not quite as tender, I’m not saying it’s tough. It’s just about the most tender steak on the cow not named tenderloin.

Don’t bother looking for a huge petite tender or terres major . They generally don’t come larger than about 12 ounces. This is a fairly large one at about 14 ounces.

There is something fascinating about the teres major that I can’t explain. It gets thicker as it cooks. I’m not kidding. When I pull this steak from the grill it will be thicker than when I put it on. Don’t believe me? Fine. I’ll prove it to you with my tape measure. Here’s how thick the steak is:

And here’s the length:

Please no meat measuring jokes here. This is a family friendly site.

What is the best way to cook teres major?

To season the teres major, all I do is remove it from the packaging, pat it dry with a paper towel and then hit it with some coarse salt to start:

Other than the salt, I’m going to  hit it with a rub:

Now off to the grill. For this steak, I want to sear it hot and fast. Wait till the grill is lava hot (north of 500F) and then throw that teres major (petite tender) steak on right over the heat:

This can be done on charcoal or gas, but for this recipe, I did this on a gas grill. 

I had this grill at close to 700 degrees, so all it took was about 2-3 minutes before I rotated the steak 45 degrees. I did not flip it over yet. I rotated it to get some nice grill marks. After a second 2-3 minute stretch, I flipped the steak over to repeat on the other side:

This steak does not make for the greatest cross hatch grill marks. As it puffs up (I’ll show you that in a minute) it goes from flat to round. It will never have the beautiful marks of a NY strip or rib eye. But it still has a fantastic flavor crust going here, if I do say so myself.

Once the teres major (petite tender) has been seared on each side, move the steak to the side of the grill with no heat and close the lid to bake until the desired doneness. For me it was done after the searing, but I like my steak with a faint pulse. I’m OK if my steak is only in a coma. If you like your steak more well done than that, don’t cut into it to find out if it is grilled properly. Use the thumb test to determine the doneness of the steak.

Now it’s time to prove that the teres major (petite tender) steak indeed gets thicker as it grills. Here’s the steak right after it came off the grill:

It is now an 1.75 inches thick. A half inch does not seem like a lot, but it was only 1.25 inches before. That’s a full half inch thicker or a difference of about 40%. Alas, it also gets shorter:

Now that the teres major (petite tender) steak is off the grill, it is vital to let it rest so the juices, in an excited state due to the heat, can calm down and redistribute throughout the meat. A steak this size only needs 3-4 minutes rest:

But how does it look sliced?

Truth be told, I redid this post because the original pictures I took sucked. Originally I made this steak with some Andria’s Steak Sauce brushed on while I grilled it. The problem was the lighting was terrible and it was a few years before I figured out how to compensate for that. The inside pictures weren’t so bad. Here’s a plated shot of a steak I made around Christmas in 2011 when I did this post originally:

And here’s the sliced teres major (petite tender):

If that picture above doesn’t send you out to your local butcher to get a teres major, how about this one:

This steak has been rising in price since I wrote the original one, but still a cheap way to feed a crowd steaks compared to NY Strips, Rib Eyes and Filets. Here are some more that I grilled:

One I did with the Andria’s Steak Sauce and the other I brushed with a jerk paste to spice things up. Both were well received:

I can’t put into words how delicious and tender the teres major (petite tender or terres major) is. It blows me away every time I grill and eat one. If you are going the keto route and the prices of steak is wrecking your bank account, this might be the key to a successful keto friendly diet

All of this begs the very obvious question. Where do you find teres major (petite tender) steak? Your grocer might carry them in vacuum packed packaging from time to time. Otherwise, you need to go to your meat cutter. You should be going there anyway. You’ll thank me later.

Here is a link to a teres major I did with a coffee rub.

If you have any questions about this cut or this grilling recipe, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

Also, you can follow us on our GrillinFools Facebook page, Instagram, and YouTube feeds

Print Recipe

4 from 1 vote

Teres Major Steak - Outstanding and Cheap

Prep Time2 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time12 minutes mins

Course: Steak

Cuisine: BBQ

Ingredients

• 1 Teres major steak
• coarse salt
• Code 3 Spices BBQ rub

Instructions

• Coat the steak with coarse salt and the rub
• Prepare the grill for two zone grilling with super high heat on one side and none on the other
• Sear the steak on the side with high heat for 2-3 minutes and then rotate 45 degrees and sear another 2-3 minutes
• Flip over and repeat on the other side
• Move the steak to the other side of the grill with no heat and close the lid until it is baked to the desired doneness
• Remove the teres major (petite tender) steak from the grill and allow to rest 3-4 minutes
• Decour

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Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

Scott Thomas

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