Less known cuts like the hangar steak above are growing in popularity.

My first word was "meat." And when I think of family dinners growing up, it’s platters of pork, beef, chicken that linger in my memory. My favourite late-night snack is leftover flank steak, still in long strips cut against the grain and with a pinch of salt. Don’t tell my husband, but I’ve always secretly taken credit for his conversion from vegetarian to carnivore a few months after we met.

Up until last week when I started to research this article, I thought I knew my stuff when it came to beef and its consumption culture. So when I noticed a few months ago that more friends were serving dinner guests the likes of hangar and flank steak rather than the typical tenderloin or T-bone—and restaurants too—I was sure that the recession was the cause. Confident was I that these less expensive cuts were increasing in popularity merely because we could save a pretty penny or two at the till. And I set out to prove as much.

Turns out, we’re not that miserly after all. We’re thrifty.

Says Steve Alexander, owner of Cumbrae Meats in Toronto, "At the retail or restaurant level—in the meat business—people want value in the recession. Whatever money they are spending, they want it to count."

Alexander confesses that Cumbrae’s sales have actually gone up since the start of the recession, with patrons choosing to eat more adventurously with alternative cuts like flat-iron, flank, bavette, hangar, tri-tip and sirloin cap. And hamburgers. Lots of burgers.

Sales of hamburgers have surged in popularity when eating out too. Executive chef Mark Cutrara of Toronto restaurant Cowbell has seen a spike in patrons’ penchant for patties this summer, and agrees that there is a dramatic difference overall in the way people order food, contemplating the menu in search of the most bang-for-your-buck meals. "Sales of medium cuts like flank and tri-tip have gone up too. And I’m fine with that. It helps move the hock and leg of the animal." (Cowbell self-butchers and practices whole-animal cooking.)

Cutrara also points to the increased interest in his charcuterie plate, $16, which this week features chorizo, boar honey garlic and miso beef salumi. "We stopped doing specialty dishes like 60 day dry-aged beef at $60 a plate. Our maximum price point is now $35."

Consumers are seeking out information and recommendations about these cheaper meats and becoming less intimidated in the process. They’re searching for value, yes. And, as Toronto’s Healthy Butcher owner-operator Mario Fiorucci suggests, this trend is also reflective of society’s growing interest in being educated about what we eat and how. Sustainable eating and the locavore movement are but two examples of this trend, embodied in the popularity of farmer’s markets, backyard garden plots and chicken coops, and organic foods—to name a few.

"Sustainable Steaks" is The Healthy Butcher’s most popular "Live to Eat" website feature, a steak guide that actually excludes the most familiar cuts of beef (tenderloin, strip-loin and rib steaks) and hails the more toothsome cuts like tri-tip and vacio (the Spanish word for the French bavette).

Fiorucci reminds me that the most tender cuts of beef are also the most bland. "The lack of use of a muscle, which is the reason it is tender, is also the reason for the lack of flavour. We shouldn’t be intimidated by the slightly tougher cuts. That’s why we have teeth!"

Kelly Jones is a freelance writer and editor. She teaches Food Writing at George Brown College.