How to Slice Beef for Hot Pot and Shabu-Shabu at Home

To slice beef for hot pot, shabu-shabu or sukiyaki at home, start with a well-marbled cut such as chuck or ribeye, firm it in the freezer until a very sharp knife goes through it smoothly, then cut it across the grain into slices as thin as you can manage, using long strokes. If you live near a Japanese or Korean grocery store, beef already sliced for shabu-shabu is a perfectly good shortcut.

Choose the cut

Namiko Hirasawa Chen at Just One Cookbook uses well-marbled chuck or ribeye for shabu-shabu. In her words, the marbled beef adds flavor to the broth and the thin slices take seconds to cook.

Buy a compact, boneless block rather than a thin steak, so you have something solid to hold while you slice. This page is about paper-thin slices for cooking at the table; for strips of flank for fajitas or a stir-fry, see our guide to slicing flank steak.

Buy it sliced, or slice it yourself

Be honest about the effort. Chen suggests choosing well-marbled meat labeled for shabu-shabu at a Japanese or Korean grocery store, and her thin-slicing tutorial notes that those stores sell convenient pre-sliced packages. If you have one nearby, that is the easy route. Slicing at home makes sense when no such shop is close, or when you want a particular piece of beef, and her recipe points to slicing good-quality chuck or ribeye yourself in that case.

Firm it in the freezer

Firming the beef is what makes thin slices possible at home. Just One Cookbook puts the meat on a metal tray in the freezer until firm, and says it is ready when a very sharp knife goes through smoothly and the meat is firm enough to slice thinly. Its tutorial freezes pieces of about 1 lb (450 g) for 1½ to 2 hours, and notes that freezing time varies with the size and fattiness of the meat. RecipeTips gives 30 minutes to an hour for partial freezing. Check by feel rather than the clock: a thick block takes longer than a thin one.

Starting from beef that is frozen solid, RecipeTips says to slice it before it is completely thawed. FDA’s safe ways to defrost are the refrigerator, cold water or the microwave, never the counter top, so let it soften in the refrigerator until a knife will go in.

Slice it

1. Trim the block. Take off any thick outer fat cap and square the sides, so the block sits flat and every slice comes out the same width.
2. Find the grain. Look for the lines of muscle fiber and turn the block so the knife crosses them. Just One Cookbook calls cutting against the grain the secret to tender meat.
3. Keep your guide hand clawed. Hold the block with your fingertips curled under and your knuckles against the side of the blade, moving back a little after each slice.
4. Use the length of the blade. Start near the heel and draw the knife back toward you in one long stroke. Chen’s tutorial cuts 1/8-inch (3 mm) slices; her shabu-shabu recipe asks for paper-thin, so go as thin as the block allows without tearing.
5. Lay the slices out. Spread them flat on a plate, slightly overlapping. Cover and refrigerate them until the broth is ready.
6. Re-chill when it softens. If slices start to tear or come out thick, Chen’s advice is to put the meat back in the freezer until it is firmer.

If the block is so hard that the knife stops, wait a few minutes. Do not force, twist or rock a thin Japanese edge through frozen meat.

Which knife

A long, thin, very sharp blade does this best, and Chen’s first step is to sharpen it. A sujihiki is built for long, single slicing strokes; a gyuto you already own will also do the job. Keep the board for raw meat only, as our guide to the cutting board for raw meat explains.

At the table

The slices cook in a pot of simmering broth at the table; if yours is a clay pot, our guide to the donabe covers its care, and our napa cabbage guide includes pieces for hot pots. Chen suggests one person cooks the meat so everyone gets it at the same time. Keep raw and cooked apart: FDA says never to place cooked food on a plate that held raw meat, so use separate serving chopsticks or tongs for raw slices, and make sure each slice is cooked before it is eaten. Refrigerate leftover raw beef within 2 hours, wash your hands for at least 20 seconds after handling it, and wash the board and knife with hot soapy water. For other cuts, see all our how-to-cut guides.

Sources: Namiko Hirasawa Chen, Just One Cookbook, Shabu Shabu (chuck or ribeye, marbling, paper-thin, buying it labeled for shabu-shabu, one person cooking); Just One Cookbook, How to Slice Meat Thinly (freezing until firm, readiness test, against the grain, 1/8-inch slices, pre-sliced packages, sharpening); RecipeTips, Partially Freeze Meat for Easier Slicing (30 minutes to an hour, slicing before fully thawed); FDA, Safe Food Handling (safe thawing, plates, 2-hour rule, handwashing, cleanup).