[1] An 1863 dictionary defines it as: ...una larga fetta di carne, tagliata dalla culatta o d'altronde, poco arrostito sulla gratella, or altramente, e che si mangia così guascotta.

...a thick slice of meat, cut from the rump or elsewhere, lightly cooked on a grill or otherwise, and eaten undercooked.

[1]Bistecca alla fiorentina is obtained from the cut of the sirloin (the part corresponding to the lumbar vertebrae, the half of the back on the side of the tail) of a young steer or heifer of the Chianina breed: in the middle it has the T-shaped bone, that is, a T-bone steak, with the fillet on one side and the sirloin on the other.

The Italian gastronomist Pellegrino Artusi, in his 1891 cooking manual Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (La scienza in cucina e l'arte di mangiar bene), defines the cut of the steak as follows: "Florentine steak.

The meat must be very close to the coals at first, so that an aromatic crust is formed as quickly as possible via the Maillard reaction, then after the first minute it must be raised to a gentler heat.