Beef Steak

[Ben]

I'm baffled by my friends who think steak is hard to do right. Even hopeless bachelor cavemen like me can do it.

Preheat your oven to 350-375. Let your meat come to room temperature and then pat it dry. Season the meat liberally with whatever you like. Salt and pepper are fine. Garlic powder burns less than fresh.

Pour three fingers of bourbon over ice. Slap anyone who tries to yell you how you should drink the bourbon that you paid for.

Open the windows and turn on the fans.

Heat a non-non-stick pan over med-hi heat. Get it damn hot. Cast iron works best here, but stainless is fine, too. Just no teflon, since you want stickage. Add a small amount of fat (oil, butter, whatever - everyone has their preferences, and far be it from me, etc.)

Pitch your steaks in the pan. Resist the urge to turn them for 3 minutes or so. Resist. Breathe in the deliciously acrid smoke. Flip your steaks, and marvel both at the tasty crust you've created and the fond that's sticking to the bottom of your pan. Let the other side sizzle and smoke for 3 min or so.

Pitch the steaks in the oven. 6-8 minutes gets you med-rare, depending on the thickness of your steaks. When the steaks are done, let 'em rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

While the steaks are in the oven, turn your attention to the pan with all those delicious charred steak bits stuck to it. Deglaze the pan with something -- red wine is the standby, but plenty of other things work well, too. And anything else you want -- sliced white button mushrooms are cheap, easy and delicious. Let the red wine cook down and the mushrooms soften and release their liquid. When your sauce is right, spoon it over your now-rested steaks (And maybe some potatoes roasted with garlic, rosemary and parsley? Yes, let's.)

Pretend you're a brilliant chef.

[Britishbane]

I'm baffled by my friends who think steak is hard to do right. Even hopeless bachelor cavemen like me can do it.

Preheat your oven to 350-375. Let your meat come to room temperature and then pat it dry. Season the meat liberally with whatever you like. Salt and pepper are fine. Garlic powder burns less than fresh.

Pour three fingers of bourbon over ice. Slap anyone who tries to yell you how you should drink the bourbon that you paid for.

Open the windows and turn on the fans.

...snip


Pretend you're a brilliant chef.

Dinner tonight. Thanks.

[Ben]

Dinner tonight. Thanks.

Enjoy it. Oh, and if you're going to snip, cut it down to the really important parts:

Pour three fingers of bourbon over ice.

...snip

Pretend you're a brilliant chef.

Or, as one of my idols once quipped: "What you need for breakfast, they say in East Tennessee, is a jug of good corn liquor, a thick steak and a hound dog. Then you feed the steak to the dog."

[jitahs]

Everything in the Latino market is sliced thinly. Sear, chop, mix with rice and beans in all kinds ways. Sensible portions to keep the colon together.

I am, right now, eating "Chunk Steak".

[Britishbane]

Dinner tonight. Thanks.

Success.

[Too Tall]

Perfect.
One thaing'. As long as we both are going to the cardiac ward toss in a knob of butter to the reduction.

I'm baffled by my friends who think steak is hard to do right. Even hopeless bachelor cavemen like me can do it.

Preheat your oven to 350-375. Let your meat come to room temperature and then pat it dry. Season the meat liberally with whatever you like. Salt and pepper are fine. Garlic powder burns less than fresh.

Pour three fingers of bourbon over ice. Slap anyone who tries to yell you how you should drink the bourbon that you paid for.

Open the windows and turn on the fans.

Heat a non-non-stick pan over med-hi heat. Get it damn hot. Cast iron works best here, but stainless is fine, too. Just no teflon, since you want stickage. Add a small amount of fat (oil, butter, whatever - everyone has their preferences, and far be it from me, etc.)

Pitch your steaks in the pan. Resist the urge to turn them for 3 minutes or so. Resist. Breathe in the deliciously acrid smoke. Flip your steaks, and marvel both at the tasty crust you've created and the fond that's sticking to the bottom of your pan. Let the other side sizzle and smoke for 3 min or so.

Pitch the steaks in the oven. 6-8 minutes gets you med-rare, depending on the thickness of your steaks. When the steaks are done, let 'em rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.

While the steaks are in the oven, turn your attention to the pan with all those delicious charred steak bits stuck to it. Deglaze the pan with something -- red wine is the standby, but plenty of other things work well, too. And anything else you want -- sliced white button mushrooms are cheap, easy and delicious. Let the red wine cook down and the mushrooms soften and release their liquid. When your sauce is right, spoon it over your now-rested steaks (And maybe some potatoes roasted with garlic, rosemary and parsley? Yes, let's.)

Pretend you're a brilliant chef.

[rickygarni]

a few additional things I do:

garlic and rosemary and kosher salt and fresh ground pepper on the roasted potatoes (or: combo of buttermilk, sour cream (little bit), mustard, horseradish, salt, pepper and rosemary)

for the steaks: butter blended with ancho, poblano or hotter peppers - lime zest and juice and then rolled into a fiery citrus log, then atop the steaks when served.

[rickygarni]

one additional, if you have time or a friend to help: crisp fried shallots (like baby onion rings) atop the steak also are nice. just requires dredging the thin sliced shallots in flour/corn starch (tiny amount of that) with much salt and pepper, and then into a pretty hot pan with an inch of olive oil inside. shake off the excess before dousing, and after, too. place on a napkin to drain, in a slightly warm oven to hold them til ready.

[Cookietruck]

heres how i do
buy a nice steak, ribeye is my fav...want this sucker 1.25" thick or so
let warm to room temp
rub with olive oil, sea salt and course pepper

fire on the weber, coals getting close to orange add a few chunks of pecan that you just chopped with yr artisan hatchet
once those get really hot
drop that steak on there, 3.5minutes a side or so if the fire is real hot
if you want it really charred leave the weber lid cocked a little so the pecan chunks flame up

eat with whatever you please, asparagus, brussels, potatoes, bread, salad, broccoli...you get the idea

[Shinomaster]

Must have Bourdelaise sauce imho. Getting/making the Demi Glace is the hard part. Bourdelaise is good on anything! Filet Mignon with Bordelaise Sauce Recipe - Saveur.com

[bking]

its the meat, its the meat, its the meat. sauces, spices, technics and temperature are all a distant secondary consideration in our home. If i start with a great cut the worst it will be is good. A good cut never gets better.
If i get a great cut for me it's it's loaded with sea salt and fresh cracked pepper, clarified butter, bit of peanut oil on a hot cast iron, outside needs to develop that bit deep brown (flavor) crust. A fork and knife and that's it.
If we start with a good cut of meat, bring on the sauces.

[WadePatton]

And do you have cut of meat/quality of meat selection ideas or do you depend on the butcher to get it right?

I recall a BBQ man explaining how he selected a fattier/most marbled brisket (another thread yo) by the way the cut "hung" when held horizontal, supported only at one end.

mass meat packing has emphasis on speed and efficiency and uniformity. Butchers are people pleasers.

[Shinomaster]

And do you have cut of meat/quality of meat selection ideas or do you depend on the butcher to get it right?

I recall a BBQ man explaining how he selected a fattier/most marbled brisket (another thread yo) by the way the cut "hung" when held horizontal, supported only at one end.

mass meat packing has emphasis on speed and efficiency and uniformity. Butchers are people pleasers.

Depends on the cow and the how it was raised and fed.. Most of the really fine (prime) cuts go to restaurants and we the public are left with choice and select options.

[WadePatton]

Depends on the cow and the how it was raised and fed.. Most of the really fine (prime) cuts go to restaurants and we the public are left with choice and select options.

So, i read this as HAVE A BRO (owner, mgr, chef, waiter, busboy) who can get prime from the restaurant or restaurant supplier. Probably not that difficult in the cities.

Or grow your own...I do has some pals who grow them own. As I did say earlier, local grown and processed makes some dang fine meat. This is probably mostly due to less shipping stresses and doping of the animals. (Cattle don't like to travel-and have to be over medicated for the exposure to all the "new" disease and contagion they'll be exposed to while stressed out getting trucked/railwayed all over hell and this country).

But even half a beef is a lot of freezer space, and tha's how most folks do it. They "split" one with a neighbor. I just don't eat that much beef.

My logger has about 500 head on hoof at all times...mebbe I get some from him or his restaurant bro.



SPEAKING of restaurant "quality" Do you folks in the rest of the world have these guys driving around with a freezer in the back of the truck selling "restaurant quality" steaks and other cuts of beef--for "WHOLESALE"?

Been a common thing 'round here for 20 years. I never bought any but i've tried to eat some that others bought. Total garbage. The "restaurant" they're referring to WRT quality is quite obviously

Waffle House.

[jitahs]

World Famous Steaks -- notorious around here for their door-pounding strong-armed tactics and belligerent won't-let-you-say-no word cacophony.

Forgot where I read the story, fatting up cattle for market with a water-holding drug; usually I get my meat for SoSoCal (read Mexico & Guatemala) food from the local mercado. It's flavorful, sliced thinly (as mentioned) and a bit chewy, but zero problems when cut across the grain for filling.

Anyway checked out Safeway's meat selection -- $3.99/lb. for tri tip -- way, way beyond the pale price-wise. Brought it home, sliced thin. Full well knowing it was full of water, put the pan on the outdoor burner for a couple of minutes at stun strength. Sure enough, it wouldn't take a sear; I mean when the meat is using the pan as a bidet how could it?

$3.99. Holy fuck.

[Cookietruck]

get good steak at central market here
worth the price when you don't eat the steak that often




ps most of the steaks you get from the small nice restaurants here will come from local farms
if i wanted that for home i'd have to go to the farmers market or straight to the farm i imagine

[nrs5000]

Cheap steak defeats its own purpose.

[jitahs]

Cheap steak defeats its own purpose.

I'd say the flavor was better than decent for the application. Deep and somewhat long, balanced the rest nicely without being the star of the show. On the flip side the industry is turning out good product at that price point. Very good.

Of course I could drop a name or two of really great stuff I've had, though I had a Chop Bar burger the other night -- locally grown, wild-pastured, sourced (in)directly from the farmer. Very disappointing relative to earlier visits.

Goes to prove, once again, there is no inherent quality in many brands with cache.