Storytime Tapestry Newsletter

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Welcome to Fascinating Facts and Tantalizing Trivia

A Hartson Dowd Column

Nov 16, 2006

Steak

In Grandma’s day the supply of game seemed inexhaustible.  Indeed, I remember, in my youth and until very recently almost everyone who wanted to, ate wild game in season.  Twenty years ago when a man came home with a dozen or so ducks or partridge, he used to distribute them among his friends.  When a deer hunter arrived home, he had his buck cut up by the family butcher and immediately made the rounds of his friends, giving away roasts, steaks and chops.  Those days are going, if not gone, forever.  The game, if found, now goes into the deep freezer.  And the sportsman has his game over the entire winter.  For example, I can’t imagine anything more beautiful than a Thanksgiving Day buffet, with a cold roast turkey on it, a haunch of cold venison, three or four roast partridge and a couple of brace of cold roast wild ducks.  That and some red currant jelly, and maybe some wild grape jelly and a platter of thin bread and butter, and you’ve got a layout ready for a royal visit.

I also remember how little my Grandma cared for a treat of venison or game.  She liked steak.

Steak.

 The king of beef, the cat's whiskers for carnivores.

So, how do you eat yours?

A universal leveler for red meat lovers everywhere whether you're having it cremated with mushy peas and chips in Blackpool or minced raw with an egg and seasoning in a Parisian bistro, ? la steak tar tare. Other palate preferences include the popular medium-rare (pink in the middle) and blue (whopped in and out of a pan for a millisecond either side).

Know the best beef and impress your butcher: bright red and marbled with fine strands of creamy fat, which bastes the meat as it cooks and makes it tender and juicy.

Daisy the cow notwithstanding, choice breeds for steak include Aberdeen Angus, Wagyu, Chianina and Charolais, from which you can choose from a wealth of prime cuts, from flank to fore rib, shin to sirloin and ribs to rump.

How to Order in Steak House Chain

What makes a great steak? A few things: Prime beef, well marbled, and aged.

First thing first: Prime:

One of the most confusing things about beef is knowing what a restaurant means when it describes meat as "prime." The answer starts out on the range, with a head of cattle munching grass. Although some steakhouses make much of where their beef comes from, cattle from across the country are all genetically similar, according to Cattle-Fax. At 15 months, the typical steer or heifer is sold to a feedlot, where it spends about five months chomping on the bovine equivalent of ice cream: corn with some hay, wheat and protein supplements. As cattle eat their high-calorie rations, they develop various degrees of marbling, or thin lines of milky white fat running through their meat.

Next up: Marbling:

Marbling is one case in life where fat is a good thing: When beef cooks, those lines of fat melt and essentially baste the meat from within, making it rich and tender. Marbling is so important to the taste of a good steak that it is the basis of the USDA grading system. After slaughter, an inspector looks at the rib area of each carcass and labels it prime, choice, select, or another lower grade, depending on how much marbling he sees. About 55% of all cattle develop what the USDA terms "slightly abundant" marbling and are graded choice; 42% with less marbling are graded select or below. At the very top of the pyramid is the elite 3% of carcasses that have lots of white lines and flecks. They are graded USDA prime.

Last comes Aging:

There are two ways of aging beef. The expensive route is dry-aging, which involves storing large pieces of meat in a temperature- and humidity-controlled room, typically for two to four weeks. It is generally considered the gold standard, because the meat evaporates liquid as it ages, creating more concentrated meat with intense beefy flavor. But evaporation causes both weight loss and a thick, hard crust that needs to be trimmed, often by a salaried in-house butcher. Restaurants that buy dry-aged steak pay about a $4-per-pound premium

Finally, knowing the lingo can help you get a better piece of meat. Here are some essential terms:

Certified Angus Beef: Brand name for meat from Angus-breed cattle that is graded in the top two-thirds of the USDA choice category.

Filet mignon: Usually "choice or better" grade meat and never dry-aged, because it is boneless. The most tender but often least flavorful cut, it tastes best fairly rare.

Chateaubriand: is an extra-thick filet mignon.

Hanger steak: Some of the new, independent steakhouses serve this cut from the underside of the cow. Generally cheaper than other steaks, with a rich flavor and chewy texture.

New York strip: Also known as the Kansas City strip or sirloin strip (on-the-bone sirloin strips are sometimes called shell steaks). It's the choice of many connoisseurs, especially when it is USDA prime and dry-aged.

Porterhouse: The two-for-one steak, with a sirloin strip on one side of the bone and a tenderloin filet on the other. Often big enough for two diners (or one rich and hungry one), it's usually the priciest steak.

Rib eye: The fattiest steak and thus the best choice for people who like beef more well done -- the fat keeps it moist. Prime rib is the same meat roasted whole rather than sliced into steaks.

USDA choice: Grade given by a Department of Agriculture inspector to meat with marbling that ranges from small to what the USDA terms "slightly abundant."

USDA prime: Grade given by a DOA inspector to meat with the most marbling.

Hartson S. Dowd

hsdowd@telus.net