Oh, Fiorentina!

Meat cuts and their names varied so much from place to place in Italy a century ago that Pellegrino Artusi introduces Bistecca alla Fiorentina in his classic book, La Scienza in Cucina, with:

"Our word bistecca derives from the English beef-steak, which means beef rib. It's simply a slice of meat a finger to a finger-and-a-half thick, with its bone, cut from the short loin of a heifer. The butchers of Florence call both newborns and animals up to two years old veal; could the latter talk, many would tell you they're no longer maidens, having had their husbands and perhaps some children too.

"This dish, excellent because it's wholesome, invigorating, and tasty, has not yet spread throughout Italy, perhaps because in many provinces butchers work almost exclusively with old and draft animals. In this case, they use the filet, which is the tenderest part, and incorrectly call a round of filet cooked over the coals a steak."

As a cut, the Bistecca alla Fiorentina is now known throughout Italy. The steak pictured here is a normal-sized Bistecca alla Fiorentina of the sort you or I might find in an Italian supermarket, just off the coals and steaming at table. Those in the English-speaking world would consider it a T-Bone or Porterhouse steak.