Any Peter Luger patrons here?
The trouble is, it’s all expensive. When skirt steak is selling $10.00 a pound, we’ve gone over the edge.
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Sousvide is essentially the reverse-sear method, just done with a different heat application method. very many high-end steakhouses use souvide because it guarantees consistent, perfect results each time - pull out a steak cooked to the exact needed internal temp, sear it, done. Without a doubt one of the greatest uses of rhe tech.
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I visited my local butcher in hopes of getting some of that cheap, tough, easy-to-marinade flap meat… and saw it was $9.75/lb.
On the other hand, they had London Broil for $3/lb, because the ‘secret’ hasn’t gotten out yet, I suppose.
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Is flank steak cheaper where you are? It’s not quite as awesome but often cheaper (because there’s more of it per animal).
Failing that, the “flap meat” (bottom sirloin or bavette for our Quebecois friends) is a GREAT alternative, and since it’s a larger muscle, also tends to be cheaper, too.
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One of the many, many reasons I know Trump is a horrible human being is that he always has his steak cooked “Well Done” and served with ketchup. That’s inexcusable at any income level, but downright unfathomable for a billionaire who has master chefs at his disposal.
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Well, as Johnathan Swift proposed, there’s always babies.
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Remember Hugh Hefner and his fried chicken? He ate out, the chef at the restaurent was given his mother’s fried chicken & mash recipe. It’s what he wanted. Regardless.
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I can appreciate rich people eating comfort foods like fried chicken. But when I see someone take a perfectly good steak and cook it to the consistency of boot leather I feel like Gollum watching Sam make that rabbit stew:
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This:
That might be a Donald thing. That’s exactly how I ate my steaks until I was, like, in my mid twenties, and I got all kinds of shit for it.
Now I get them medium rare, and only indulge in the ketchup if I want to annoy someone.
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When I can get T-bones for $6/lb (they were on sale…) And yes, London Broil always seems to be cheap. smh
It’s kind of like how I can find boneless skinless chicken breasts for less than chicken wings.
Not really, and, I really don’t find it too often around here. Where flank steak is going nowadays, I have no clue. To the restaurants??? But it’s not showing up in the stores that I frequent. London Broil is the cheapest beef I can get right now.
It probably is. It’s super popular for fajitas and stir-frys.
I figured this was because half the weight of those breasts is injected salt water. Grocery store chicken shrinks by half, or more than that. Pricey local free range chicken doesn’t shrink like that, and has more flavor.
Of course, a person can only buy what they can afford, but the meat with a list of ingredients on it is cheap for several reasons.
I was always taught that ordering beef well done was a sign of little exposure to good quality meat. That being said, our cows primarily eat grass from a nice green meadow, but are also given hay and sweet feed twice a day. Sweet feed is grain based, but has vitamins, minerals and molasses added. Feeding them this way keeps their diet balanced, encourages them to come when called, and stay in the general area.
When I was little, we ate lots of Kobe beef. I had no idea that it was such a luxury item, just that it was my favorite thing to eat.
But we eat essentially the whole cow, so that means all the cuts. Some beef is best chicken fried, or marinated and put into the smoker for most of a day.
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Well it depends on the cut. Some cuts should never be anything but well done. A chuck roast is one such thing. It needs that time to break down all the fat and connective tissue and it turns into that melt in your mouth pot roast so many new englanders certainly cherish.
Same for many braised cuts like shanks, short ribs, shoulders, etc. not everything should be medium rare. Nor should everything be well done.
Heck I even vary my steaks. If it’s a filet I prefer it more towards medium. A good rib eye, porterhouse, or tbone at medium rare. And if it’s a strip steak. Especially if it’s very lean and not very fatty (as most are here in the US.) then I want it rare. Nearly black and blue.
For me the cooking temp is about texture. The method is about flavor. Reverse sear and sous vide as mentioned by folks above doesn’t impart the depth of flavor I like in a steak. Seating in a pan and finishing in the oven isn’t bad by any stretch. But only over a grill preferably charcoal or wood do you get that depth I so love. Gas grill can work fine too but it’s a notch below.
This is of course all incredibly subjective.
And whatever you do no matter how you cook a steak. ALWAYS let it rest and top it with some butter. Preferably a compound butter while it does rest.
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I’ve noticed a trend in some stores of selling beef cuts fit for grilling as ingredients for stews, which is a marketing stunt to sell you more expensive meat than you need.
[quote=“quorihunter, post:37, topic:102554”]
chuck roast[/quote][quote=“quorihunter, post:37, topic:102554”]braised cuts[/quote]
I was in the impression that terms like “rare”, “medium-rare” and “well done” applied exclusively to grilled meat, like their equivalents in French. Was I mistaken? Do they also apply to stewed meat?
Certainly doesn’t really apply with stewed. But broiled or roasted yes. Braised meat tends to always be well done based on how it’s cooked. However some of those cuts that are normally reserved for braising can also be butchered and used for grilling, pan searing, and roasting. They are still best even in those cooking methods left to well done.
