4 Levels of Steak: Amateur to Food Scientist Epicurious

[IronLionZion]

I'm a solid level 2 here. I learned the important stuff a while back from watching cooking videos from Gordon Ramsey and other professional chefs. Searing doesn't seal in juices but can still be tasty if people are into that or want to make a pan sauce. Lodge cast iron also has useful videos on how to cook it and finish in the oven.

Anyone who likes their steak well done with ketchup should be impeached and removed from any position of power.

[mitch96]

1. Anyone who likes their steak well done with ketchup should be and removed from power

My friends father who made a good bit of coin in business would go to Peter Luger steak house in Brooklyn NY and do that.. ...... Just to piss them off....He said they were steak snobs..
OH THE HORROR!! Ketchup!
M

[IronLionZion]

2. Then they'll give him the worst cut of steak from the back of the freezer

since it doesn't matter at that point and the customer wouldn't notice

[mitch96]

4. He would not know the difference!!! Not a great palette as you can tell............ nt

[sir pball]

3. Searing is vitally important, nay, essential, to a steak.

Nothing to do with the old wives' take of sealing juices, but rather for that lovely lovely Maillard flavor.

Just try circulating a steak, or cooking it at 225°F, to medium-rare and then not searing it. "Flabby" and "disgusting" are the two adjectives that most spring to mind.

I'd call myself Level 5; I've passed circulating/reverse searing and honestly believe a 1400°+ broiler is the best way to cook a steak - once you master it

[Kali]

6. real fire

I prefer wood, but hot fire + fatty meat = the best flavors.

[sir pball]

7. Real charcoal is best, IMO

Not the pressed briquettes (there's a very interesting story behind them), proper pyrolized wood...but that's kinda hard to work with in a kitchen, so I prefer the broiler. Same concept though, monstrously high heat to cook the daylights out of just the outside while leaving the inside nice and mid-rare. And the flavor, yes

[Kali]

9. got to see a charcoal camp in Sonora last weekend

I like it but I have so much access to wood that is what we are used to.

[sir pball]

12. Interesting way of making it

Up here in New England there's a very long history of charcoal mounds, piles of wood covered in wet mud and allowed to slow-burn without air...I've seen a few of those, sadly no pix..

ETA - http://www.cornwallhistoricalsociety.org/exhibits/forests/charcoal.htm

[Kali]

5. um, close to OK was

chef 2, but she called her steak both a NY strip and a sirloin.

don't know what level I am, but ribeye cooked over anything but a charcoal or wood fire is just inferior. I will eat it seared in a pan, but with no evidence of fire...it is just meh. maybe that is why she felt the need to soak it in marinade and sauce?

number one should just throw hers in a crock pot with bottled bbq sauce, that is what she made. that is the steak I would have marinated.

marinating a ribeye is just wrong. why? might as well use ketchup. a good piece of meat has all the flavor it needs (especially cooking it over wood). save the marinades for cheap lean cuts. (not that flank steak is cheap any more )

[sir pball]

8. Strip is sirloin.

"NY strip" SHOULD be the upper sirloin, or "top sirloin", a little fattier and less-worked (more tender) than the tail - but ultimately it's all the same bit of cow. Cook it right and it's the same thing, you can just charge more for "NY strip". I've gotten full "NY strips" in at work and they're just the entire sirloin with more fat and less meat at the tail.

[Kali]

10. I know NY strip as the "main" piece of a T-bone

so that it comes from rib area. to me, sirloin is further back, but you are correct according to the google. (I also tend to get bone in strip so maybe that is why I have that impression?)

[sir pball]

11. A t-bone is sirloin+tenderloin

As is a porterhouse, but a porterhouse is cut farther back so it has more tenderloin and a bit chewier strip...I prefer porterhouses myself.

Bone-in strip can come from any part of the sirloin, but it usually comes from farther back as to keep the NY strips intact - they sell better.

I worked at a restaurant group that had a very good relationship with a certain famous NYC meat purveyor; we got to go see how they butchered and aged their beef, it was absolutely fascinating and very educational.

[Kali]

13. I should be better versed in primal cuts

since I raise cattle, but most of my knowledge is retail and personal use. I have never thought of Tbone and porterhouse as sirloin though I do call the tenderloin part tenderloin.

[sir pball]

14. Those aren't primal cuts!

"Primals" are whole-muscle cuts, e.g. tenderloin and strip - whole muscles cut off the bone. Putting the carcass on a bandsaw and carving tasty slices out of it, bones and all, is a uniquely American thing. I like both, but they come from vastly different styles of butchery!

[Kali]

15. aren't like the big 8 or so chunks called primals?

before cutting into retail pieces?

the first breakdown after quarters?

[sir pball]

16. No, a primal is specifically cut off the bone

A primal cut or cut of meat is a piece of meat initially separated from the carcass of an animal during butchering. Examples of primals include the round, loin, rib, and chuck for beef or the ham, loin, Boston butt, and picnic for pork.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primal_cut

[Kali]

17. I don't think those are all off the bone.

[sir pball]

18. The beef ones all are, the pork ones are a bit odd

I mean, a proper butt or picnic ham is boneless, but they're hard to find boneless...at any rate I always learned "primal" as whole-muscle boneless cuts. I'm not usually wrong but I can admit when I am

[Kali]

19. same here

I don't have formal training so I don't really have a clue. only butchered a few large animals and give total respect to the craftspeople that actually know how to do it. I am getting that "primal" term from market reports for beef and my understanding of that is those are cuts smaller than a quarter that will be further broken down for grinding/retail. I think you are right too, there are primal muscles.

this mentions primals and SUBprimals. who knew? https://opentextbc.ca/meatcutting/chapter/primal-sub-primal-and-secondary-cuts/