I bought and grilled up a nice porterhouse for dinner as I watch football. A bit more porterhousey than I usually buy, the T-bone was so narrow it was pretty much bendy cartilage rather than bone at the long end of the T-junction. It seemed well marbled, so I spent a bit more than I usually do on a dinner steak.
The weird thing was, the strip side was really tough, and I was really pretty fuckin disappointed. Tough enough for me to have to bring out the sharp knife, something I never do for my good dinner steak.
But the fillet side was amazing. Absolutely melt on the tongue tender and lots of great seared in flavor.
Is that normal for the tippy “fat end” of the T-bone/Porterhouse? Such a disparity in muscle quality? Or did I just have a freak cow who just did his crunches wrong? Usually I though a good Porter was good on both sides?
did you marinate it? too much marinade could dry out and harden the strip side. the barbecue pit boys avoid marinating and use just a slathering of basting or dry rub. and most of the rub goes to the tenderloin part as it’s usually bland. but hard as it was i wanna ask, did the stip side still taste good?
Nope,no marinade at all.
Just a quick flavor rub, and a sear till real rare. I can’t believe there was anything in the method, it was a quality of the steak, just one I haven’t run into before.
It makes sense in my head that the farther back on the rib you go, the closer you are to sirloin than prime rib, while at the same time the larger the tenderloin. I suspect you got the last porterhouse on the steer, and given that the rules are not black and white and they can charge more for a porterhouse than a sirloin, the butcher was probably stretching the definition of porterhouse as far as possible.