pdxgriller's Profile
What is the best steak?
You had me at "cabernet"... A good steak and a glass of California's (or Washington's) finest is hard to beat! I think our friends will probably bring a local pinot however as they live close to where the wineries start. Never been a fan of those, although they are pretty popular here in Oregon.
Cocktail hour starts at 5:00 MonMauler, don't be late!!
What is the best steak?
I'm doing something similar this weekend. I dry-aged a bone-in NY strip roast for 30 days, will put a rub on it the day before and slow smoke it (250 degrees) indirect over charcoal and hardwood. Good with horseradish cream sauce (although it really doesn't need a sauce). The strip roast was on sale at the time, the rib roast wasn't. ;-)
I'm actually a big fan of beef tenderloin. I buy a whole tenderloin and roast the center cut (chateaubriand). Steak out the rest of it and freeze those for later. Pretty reasonable price when you buy it whole. Most grocery stores don't even sell the center cut, they just sell the butt tenders and steak those to sell at very high prices... And they stuff they sell as "chateaubriand" is actually a big top sirloin. Look for a whole tenderloin at COSTCO or your local meat wholesaler. Instructions on how to cut it up can be found on youtube if you aren't sure how.
Dry aged vs Prime?
You guys really need to look into dry-aging your own beef. It's easy to do if you have a "beer fridge" that doesn't have other food in it. You can do it with any grade or cut, but it's better if you have something like a rib roast or strip loin roast that has a good fat cap and bone to protect the meat from drying out. I usually do a strip loin (NY steaks). Basically you rinse off the meat, dry it, and wrap it in paper towels for a few days to absorb some of the excess moisture and then let it continue to age as long as you want. Trim off the dried stuff when you are ready to use it. I also use choice grade as the prime around here is not much better and it's allot more expensive. You can use smaller cuts but there is more surface area so you tend to lose more meat percentage wise. Trust me you can do this yourself (I have degrees in animal science and microbiology and 25 years in the food indusrty). I have gotten my friends to do this and they never buy dry-aged beef any more.
Look for more details on the internet.
What is the best steak?
To make it easier to understand, cows have 13 pairs of ribs. They are numbered starting from the head and increasing towards the tail. The lower numbered ribs are in the chuck primal section, while the higher numbers are in rib primal section. A whole rib roast consists of ribs numbered 6 through 12. In a whole rib roast, the highest numbered ribs are refered to as the "small end", and the lowest numbered ribs as the "large end" of the rib roast. The small end is closer to the loin section and considered to be the better roast as it has less fat and more tender. You can typically order from the butcher the size (length) of rib roast you need by the number of rib bones. So for example you could order a 3 bone rib roast, and have it cut either from the small end (10,11,12) or large end (6,7,8), or perhaps somewhere in between as CDouglas does (8,9,10). Hope that helps!
What is the best steak?
For the money, the Top Sirloin Cap Steak, also called the Culotte, is a steal. Some people confuse this with the Tri-Tip Steak as it has a similar shape, but it comes from the top sirloin not the bottom sirloin as does tri-tip. I use one of those multi-blade tenderizers before grilling and can get the steak nearly as tender as a real tenderloin, with the flavor top sirloins are known for and at top sirloin prices. If you like flat-iron or hanger steaks, these are much better.
