What Kind Of Steak Do I Want?

Cafe Society
#1

I’ve taken to eating steak for lunch quite often. It’s easy; I melt some butter in a heavy pan, toss in the steak, cook it up medium-rare, season it with grill seasoning on both sides. Then I throw it on a plate, a side of steak sauce, and go to town.

I like steaks that are fairly thick, nicely marbled with fat, and very little gristle. What’s the best kind of steaks for me to look for?

Oh, and while I won’t say “cost is no object”, the fact that a cut’s a little pricey won’t stop me from buying it.

#2

Rib-eye. Personally, I’d stay away from the grill seasoning and just go with salt & pepper, but that’s just me.* If you’re cooking in a heavy pan and not making a pan sauce, you are wasting all the good brown bits in the pan at the end.

*Of course, being me, I am always right, and my not-so-humble opinion should be taken as fact and law.

#3

Yes, you definitely want ribeye. Best steak there is for your purposes. And PLEASE, don’t overcook it! I like my steaks rare as rare can be – “Just run it through a warm room,” I often say.

#4

Ribeye is my favorite as well, but if you like your steak thick, well marbled, and rare in the middle, you should treat yourself to a tenderloin/filet mignon once in a while.

#5

Ribeyes are good, but too often are full of gristle in my experience. I’d go with a Porterhouse; all the goodness of a T-bone with a bit of Tenderloin attached.

#6

Tenderloins are not well-marbled. They have almost no fat at all.

Rib-eye is good, but also NY Strip for a steak with some fat.

I prefer to buy my NY Strip on the bone, but you can get them boneless, too.

The T-bone and the Porterhouse contain a strip on one side of the t-bone, and a portion of tenderloin on the other. It’s a nice streak for the variety.

#7

Filet mignon is good, but can be expensive. Ribeyes are cheaper, but still good.
Do you have Safeway where you are? Their meat selection is very good.

#8

Unfortunately, no. I have Martin’s and Super Wal Mart. Oh, and if I feel like going all the way to Frostburg (about 8 miles west), I have a Food Lion.

Okay, mister smarty pants, since you know it all, what kind of (simple) sauce should I make with the pan drippings? Remember, this is lunch for one, I want to keep it simple.

#9

I like sirloin too, but I’ve never minded chewing my food.

Mrs. Moto prefers filet, which is far too refined (and tasteless) for me.

#10

A bit of butter and a splash of red wine should do the trick… Salt and pepper to taste.

#11

Most simple – just give 'er a dash of red wine (or brandy or cognac), scrape up the bits, then give it a dash of stock (chix. or beef). Drop in a pat of butter, or splash of heavy cream, and mix it all together with salt & pepper.

Ideally, you want to add your alcohol, reduce by half. If you use brandy or cognac, you can light it.

Add you stock, reduce.

Let the cream/butter thicken the sauce.

You can add herbs (dried or fresh). If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, you can add finely diced onion/shallots or garlic to the pan before adding the alcohol, and strain the sauce when you’re done.

It’s nice to let a steak sit for a fw minutes anyway, so you’re not losing much.

#12

Rib Eye
Nothing to add here except you might be on the lookout for better grades of meet.
**Select **- OK but its a lower grade
Choice - more marbling in the rib eye
There are actually multiple sub grades of choice (see fig 1 page 9 on the link and a butcher can tell you the sub grade. choice 3 or better is usually fantastic)
Prime Every Prime rib eye I’ve ever had was very good

#13

RibEye fits your desires perfectly. It’s marvelously tender, no gristle and the fat is fairly concentrated and easily removed after cooking. They generally come in thin and thicker cuts, bone in or bone out and the butcher can cut them thicker still if you desire.

We pay anywhere from 6.99 to 11.99 for bone out, depending.

For the record, I think they’re much more tender than a NY Strip and the strip seems to have a thin, slightly gristly section about midway up.

Usually, we’ll let the RibEye warm up to room temp before cooking. I’ll pour a little olive oil on it, then a generous sprinkle all over with sea salt and ground pepper. Then it’s off to the grill.

#14

While I’ll never turn down a nice rib-eye if someone else is buying, the Butler household prefers “flap meat” for all of our steak needs. It’s the same cut that the supermarket (and butchers) sell as “Sirloin tips” after they cut them into strips & chunks.

I buy a primal (cryovac package) of it from BJs club, and cut it myself into 3/4-1lb pieces, and freeze them. I pay about $3.69/lb, and the markets are selling them for $5-6/lb. I do lose a little in the cutting, but it’s the removal of the fat & silverskin that butchers often don’t remove.

We generally cook them as “whole pieces”, then shave very thin at service. This cut is great by itself, or served over a garden salad. Just a bit of Montreal Seasoning also purchased (in the largest size) at BJs.

#15

Ah, meat.

Ribeye is divine but it has a bit too much fat for an everyday steak. NY Strips are good but don’t have as much flavor as other cuts IMHO. I like NY strips for grilling.

For an everyday steak I’d go with a nice simple top sirloin. A good sirloin can match about any other cut of meat. Pick out your own. Make sure it has a lot of white flecks interspersed throughout (well marbled). When you sit down to eat it cut against the grain.

#16

Thanks, Trunk - exactly what I was thinking. A good steak should rest 10 minutes, and that sauce will be ready by the time the steak is ready to eat.

#17

I only eat fillet. OK, I sometimes will try other cuts, but so far I only enjoy fillet.

#18

I’ve just eaten an amazingly good rib-eye - not a cut I’ve seen that often in England where rump, sirloin and fillet are more usual for home cooking. It got seared in a pan with no added fat, left to rest in a warm place for 20-odd minutes because I was home late, and served up just as it came with side salad and French bread. With a good steak knife it was like cutting butter even though it was very rare with blue tendencies. Life sends us the odd good moment to compensate for the shit. :slight_smile:

#19

No, no, fat is good. Fat is my friend. I had some weight loss surgery a little over a year ago, and malabsorb about 80% of the fat that I eat. I also tend to lose weight better when I eat more fat (we buy butter 4lbs. at a time from Costco :wink: ).
So, AFIC, there’s no such thing as “a bit too much fat”.

Trunk, thanks for the advice on the sauce. I’ll have to try that tomorrow.

#20

Me, 9 AM: “Jeez, I’ve gained weight recently. I ought to do something about that.”

Me, after glancing at this thread: “I need steak, now.”

Thanks a lot.