We have a butcher shop in our town, but I haven’t been there in years. Question: Do butcher shops generally sell aged steaks? That’s the key to steaky excellence. We went out for Mr K’s birthday Saturday and I’m still coming down from my aged steak high. It’s just a whole 'nuther experience.
I mean, I’d love to go out once a week to the swanky steak joint, but at $120, it ain’t gonna happen. I would, however, do them at home if I could pick them up all ready to go. I don’t want to age them myself.
It depends on your butcher - the key is to go in and talk to them. If they aren’t willing to spend the time to answer your questions, don’t buy from there.
And if they do sell aged steak, ask if it is wet or dry aged. My personal view is that if it is wet aged, don’t bother.
Wet aged has it’s own charms, but dry aging is a bit more time and energy intensive task. Either way, if you can find a butcher that sells dry aged beef, you’re going to choke on the cost before you can choke down a bite of steak as a 20oz porterhouse can expect to fetch between $40 and $70. Sure, you could cut two 10oz steaks out of that, but it’s still rather expensive. Plus you’d have to cut the mold and fungus off yourself, which is rather unpleasant.
I know all sorts of crafty guys, from brewers to smokers to sausage makers, but I don’t know anyone who has the time or the money to build an aging cooler to dry age a side of beef. But that would be rather awesome.
Which is why when I want dry aged, I let my good friends Mr Morton, Ms Chris, or Mr C. Grill pick up the slack for me, and just pay them for their time.
Being someone who’s always looking for a bargain and appreciates good steak, I will sometimes go to Costco or Sam’s. Our local Albertson’s usually has good sales on various cuts, and they have a fresh (meaning not pre-packaged) meat department. I’ve gotten bone-in rib-eyes for $3.99 a pound on sale–I prefer the bone-ins because, for me at least, gnawing the last bits off the bone is an essential part of the whole steak experience. I like T-bones and Porterhouses for the same reason.
Lately, though, I’ve discovered Fresh & Easy. It’s a chain of small grocery stores here in the West with excellent quality meat. Now, here’s the trick: If you go there around noon-1 PM, the friendly F&E elves are going around the store marking down all the refrigerated goods that are to expire on that day by 50%. And unlike the “marked-down” meats in some standard markets, there’s no gray spots, discoloration, or holes on the packaging–it is indistinguishable from the newly shelved stuff. I’ve picked up boneless rib-eyes for about $3.50 a pound! Just cook them that day or shove ‘em in the freezer–good eatin’!
I’m lucky to have three excellent meat sources all within a couple of miles from me. I get regular steaks at the DeKalb Farmers Market - a couple of miles from my house - and they are very good. They will hand-cut steaks to my specifications on the spot.
Special occasion steaks (when I don’t mind paying the extra $$ for restaurant-quality beef) come from here, about a 10 minute walk from my house, or Shields, a couple of miles away, an old-school multi-generational butcher shop that carries USDA prime meat.
That is definitely the option I prefer, but it’s too pricey to do every week (we like our filets at least once a week). Food always tastes better when someone else cooks it and waits on me.
