Flanken substitutes

Exactly the same meat, cut parallel to the bone instead of across it, so you get one thick rectangle of meat sitting on a single length of bone.

Best for

beef soup, cholent, braises, stews, pot roast

The flavor is identical because it is the same cut. What changes is timing and shape: a thick English-cut rib needs 30 to 60 minutes longer to become tender, and it releases gelatin more slowly because less bone surface is exposed. Each portion is one hefty chunk rather than a strip with several small bones, so a bowl of soup looks different. If you have a sturdy knife you can cut them across yourself between the bones.

Rounds of beef shin, each with a marrow bone in the middle and a collar of very collagen-rich meat. Cheap and widely available.

Best for

beef soup, cholent, stock, pho, braises

The broth this makes is arguably better than flanken's, deep and glossy from all the collagen and marrow. The meat is leaner and stringier, shredding into fibers rather than staying in tender slabs, and there is less fat, so a soup made with shank tastes cleaner and less rich. Excellent value and the closest thing in shape.

The standard braising cut, well marbled and full of connective tissue but with no bone at all.

Best for

cholent, stews, beef soup, braises, goulash

The meat becomes beautifully tender in about the same time and tastes properly beefy. The gap is body: with no bone, the broth stays thin and does not coat your lip the way a flanken broth does. Add a marrow bone, a knuckle bone or a teaspoon of unflavored gelatin per cup of liquid and it comes very close. Also nothing to gnaw on, which for some people is the whole appeal of flanken.

The fatty end of the brisket, laced with connective tissue and available at every kosher butcher.

Best for

cholent, beef soup, braises, Shabbat main

Rich and fatty with excellent flavor, and it slices neatly rather than falling into strips. No bone, so again the broth has less body. Brisket also cooks slightly faster and can go from tender to dry if the liquid runs low, whereas the bone and fat in flanken protect it. Skim the fat before serving.

Cross-sections of tail, each a ring of collagen and fat around a bone. Structurally the closest thing on this list to flanken.

Best for

beef soup, cholent, stock, braises

This makes the richest, most gelatinous broth of any option, noticeably glossier than flanken gives, and the flavor is deeper and slightly sweeter. Two drawbacks: it costs considerably more per pound and about a third of the weight is bone, so buy roughly a third more than the recipe's flanken weight. It also needs a full three hours.

This is genuinely the same cut, cross-cut short rib, sold thin-sliced at almost any Korean or pan-Asian grocery, usually frozen.

Best for

quick braises, grilling, soup where thin strips are fine, when no kosher butcher is nearby

It is flanken, just thinner, typically a quarter to a half inch instead of an inch or two. That means it cooks in 60 to 90 minutes rather than three hours, and it will overcook into stringiness if you treat it like a long braise. Check for marinade on the package, since much of it is sold pre-marinated in soy, pear and garlic, which will change your soup completely. Buy plain if you can.

The same rib region from further back on the animal, sold at most non-kosher butcher counters and often labeled simply beef ribs.

Best for

cholent, braises, soup, barbecue-style dishes

Very close in flavor and texture, generally fattier than chuck-end short ribs, which makes the pot richer and means more skimming. Ask the butcher to cut them across the bones and you have flanken in all but name. Bone-in beef back ribs are the one rib cut to avoid here, since they are mostly bone with very little meat.

Cross-cut bone-in lamb, which behaves in a pot exactly the way flanken does: bone, collagen, fat and meat that shreds.

Best for

stews, soups, braises, cholent

The cooking behavior is right and the flavor is unmistakably lamb, sweeter and more mineral, which will redirect the whole dish. In a barley or bean stew this is a genuine pleasure. In a traditional Ashkenazi beef soup it will taste wrong to anyone expecting beef.