Me, I love me some wine with dinner. Preferably dark, brick-red, from Italy, to complement my perfectly grilled NY steak. The meal is less than complete without the wine – in fact, if the wine weren’t available, I’d probably rather go with a burger and fries.
What do you drink with your steak dinner? Is there an alternative to vino that is as good? Is there (shudder to think) a non-alcoholic alternative?
I prepared a family Steak Dinner two nights ago…grilled a couple of thick pasture-fed Delmonicos, baked a few russets with butter and lots of sour cream, steamed broccoli with olive oil and lemon. The whole American schmear.
We drank a Spanish rioja. Not too heavy, and with a bit of spice to it. Perfect.
I’ve served this meal with beer, too. Beer is also good.
I’m not a big fan of the taste of alcohol and generally only drink to get drunk so I avoid beer and liquor with my meals and usually drink tea* with steak.
*With sugar, ice, and lemon. Sorry, owlstretchingtime.
Barbecued steak on a hot day calls for a vigorous ale. If it’s really hot, and there’s also sports, I may even go for a lager. Non-alcoholic alternatives include a good strong iced tea (lemon, no sugar) or ice water.
Milk. After 30 years, I am still unable to reconcile the tastes of alcohol and food together. For me, one just wrecks the other. And I’ve never tasted a wine that didn’t cause me to make a nasty face. So milk. Maybe a Coke.
I’ve found that most non-alcoholic beverages don’t have enough alcohol in them to be a credible alternative.
But seriously folks…there’s nothing finer than a big red wine to go with steak. My preferences are Bordeaux, Rhone Valley or California Cabernet.
Eating at a nice steakhouse sometimes changes my plans though. The markups on California Cabs especially, can be astronomical. I’m sorry, but I just can’t pay $90 for a wine that I can get at the store for $30. In those cases, I often use Zinfandel as an alternative. You can typically get a very nice Zin at a fraction of the price of Cabernet.
Water is ok, but it really doesn’t add to the experience. A great glass of wine can turn a good meal into a great meal. (But you’re right, it can be expensive!)
If given the option, I’ll drink a nice Irish or Scottish beer (Harp or Belhaven, to be exact) and follow the meal with a nice Single Malt Scotch or an Irish whiskey.
I’ve started cooking steaks at home so that I can afford to have decent wine with them. I also like malbecs, zins, cabs and, heresy of heresy, often a good Bordeaux with my steak. Also some meritages go well. I usually avoid Beaujolais, Spanish and Italian wines with steak. Frankly I don’t know enough about Italians to sort them out, so it’s trial and error there. Spanish wines I like to drink with cheese or proscuitto and melon, or even “Italian” food. In this case Italian food usually means stuff I make, so it’s not really Italian.
The only other thing I’d drink with steak would be water. Anything else would fight with the flavor.
Nothing, most of my private stock is French; it was a wink at the conservatives here. I fired a babysitter in Cincinnati because she was teaching my children to say “freedom fries”.
For me, the only real thing to drink with steak is a big, robust kick-in-the-balls South Australian Shiraz. Failing that, beer. Failing that, Coke or water. But Don’t Ask mate, steak and orange juice? I’m not quite sure I could do that.
Uh, so you don’t take your dates to steakhouses do you? Hehe, I would be a little taken aback by that kind of order. Screw it, why lie? I’d be like, “Wtf, I gotta get outta here, what kind of person drinks milk with steak???”