Is there a happy medium for a great steak?

Most restaurants do have some sort of steak seasoning 'secret' which gives them their taste IMO. They also use tenderizers which make the steaks all the more juicy.

Make sure you tenderize the steak for at least 24 hours.. ive found that makes the difference in texture. As for taste, i think seasoning has some to do with that.

 

Peters... you're making me crave a steak REALLY badly! Once I recover from this food poisoning i'm heading straight to a steak house!

 

I've heard they have really good meat to cook at home. http://www.omahasteaks.com/servlet/OnlineShopping?PCR=1:100

I've never tried them though.

I stopped eating red meat a while back but have slowly gotten back into it. I am never really happy with steak I get anywhere either. I had a filet at a place in Hammond once, one end of it was rare and one end was close to well done. I don't know how they pulled that off.

My biggest complaint is when they don't cook it how I ask followed by when the meat has a lot of rubbery fat all through it. What cut has the least of this?


Don't some restaurants age or do something to their meat where they keep it in certain conditions for a week or so to where enzymes start to break it down? I'm sure I read something about this somewhere.

 

i had the worst meal at ruth's chris...

 

Go to Steak-o Bell!

 

You gotta learn how to cook it.

Someone told me once - I forget most of it. But a big part of it was putting the hot plate to about 500 degrees and flash-searing the steak on it for some quantity of seconds, and then finishing it off in the oven.

The flash searing seals in the juices. When you get a steak made by someone who really knows how to cook it, you will know it. The best cust don't make up for bad technique (or sub-optimal technique). A great cook can make a mediocre cut taste great, and a medicore cook can make a great cut taste mediocre.

 

"This is the place that showed the world how great a steak can be. Carefully selected and aged for tenderness. Cut thick to ensure juiciness. Seared to perfection at 1800 degrees. Seasoned simply with salt, black pepper and a touch of parsley, because a steak like this needs nothing else. Topped with fresh butter that sizzles seductively on your plate, announcing the arrival of a great steak."

That's the official Ruth's Chris recipe

In seriousness, the key word is aged. Most top end steakhouses use dry-aged steaks, which are left in dry cellars to collect mold for a couple months (apparently the mold helps induce flavor but also pulls out fat, making for a lean, yet tender steak) then it's shaved off the outside just before cooking. The searing is also imporant, but get a good, dry aged cut of beef and cooking is secondary. I've personally never looked for dry aged beef on a consumer market, I just used to get cuts of it from an ex who used to work at a very nice place in upstate NY, so I don't know if it's readily available or not. If you don't find a place that sells dry aged, I find a nice 1 hour marinate in worcesteshire sauce helps flavor the steak nicely without being as over the top as crumbled gorgonzola. I also recommend a good cracked pepper like a Talamanca, it helps a lot with the flavor.

edit: just found this - http://www.americangrassfedbeef.com/dry-aged-beef.asp

 

I'm shocked that you think Ruth Chris and Morton's are the gold standard. Have you ever eaten at Peter Luger's in Brooklyn? It's like comparing an exotic car to an American rental car, so different is the experience.

The kind of beef that they use is pretty difficult to get even at a specialty store in NY, because it would be extraordinarily expensive.

The aging makes a huge difference.

As do the temps at which these things are cooked. I think you can approximate the latter with those fairly expensive outdoor jobs that have the ceramic thingies.

If you are ever in NY, I'll buy you one. (A steak at Luger's, not a gas grill)

 

Have you tried this?

 

A steak cooked Pittsburgh rare is great, but so is a medium rare (more rare than medium) at Ruth's Chris. Personally, I love to cook steak. Try this, get a rolling steak, sprinkle Montreal seasoning on it, heat up some extra virgin olive oil and then sear the steak for about 10-15 seconds on each side. Dab off the excess oil, top it cucumber ranch dressing, and throw some texas toast on the side for a great dinner (IMHO).

 

For homecooked steaks:

1.25" - 1.75" thick steak of your choice at room temperature - plain yellow mustard coating both sides - then coated in kosher salt. After cooking you'll never know the mustard was there.

Seared at 800 degrees for 90 seconds on each side - on your Big Green Egg - then shut down the Egg and leave for a couple of minutes.

Big Green Egg is a steak cooking machine - www.biggreenegg.com

 

I prefer Bryant & Coopers in Roslyn, over Peter Lugers. Though both have amazing steaks. Had a nice Porterhouse for 2 about a week and a half ago. It was just amazing. Made me want another.

PeterS have you tried contacting some steakhouses to see if they will ship their meat? I believe some places do that. You already will have a nice cut it would be up to you to cook it good.

 

There is a well known restaurant here in LA that soaks their New York Strips in chicken fat for three days before cooking.

 

Mortons and RC are incrediable but the best I had was the 48oz at Don Shula steakhouse here in Philly. You eat it all, you get a plaque on the wall.

 

Hogs Breath Cafe in Sydney has steaks you order 24 hours in advance. The steak is seared then slow cooked for 18 hours straight. I've Never tried it, but I wonder if that actually does achieve anything in taste/texture.

 

I have been to Schula's Steak House in Troy, Michigan and the experience is worth the price. They will cook the steak to order then bring a flashlight so that you can inspect the steak in "proper lighting" before the waiter leaves the table. That being said, probably the best steak dining experience I have ever had was at The Palm in Troy (seems to be a steak hotbed since there is a RC steak house there too). The steak was perfect 12 oz filet cooked to a perfect rare with a side of half and half (half home made potato chips and half fried onions)...damn, tomorrow is my birthday maybe I will go there for dinner...the service was perfect too, wait staff was knowledgeable and polite the dining room manager came over and introduced herself and offered us a free desert since it was our first time at the restaurant. I was raving for days about the service that my wife and I received at The Palm then 3 days later I got a 'thank you' card in the mail from our server...that is above and beyond, this is the service that should be tipped well and recommended often!

 

Now thats service. They know how to keep their clientle.

 

Just had to Google it Looks like a cool place....

 

Very cool...the menu is printed on a football. Makes for a raucous time when the guys from college get together for dinner and start tossing the pigskin around the dinner table...not that I would know that from personal experience

 

I buy and cook my own steak with a special spicy home made sauce. I tend to like mine well done also. I prefer porterhouse or new york. Filet mignon is good to rapped in bacon I love my steak! Restaurants rarely ever do it right imo.

 

Man if you guys like Rith's Chris and Mortons you need to come to Texas for a real steakhouse. They are just above average here. There are many better far better steakhouses. I worked at one for a while when I was younger. Pappas Bros Steakhouse. The quality and preperation are far above Ruth's Chris. They only accept about 1 in 1000 steaks. They hand pick each and every prime steak. Then it is aged a minimum of 35 days.
The real problem with cooking steaks at home is your average oven or grill does not get anywhere near hot enough. You need very hi heat to seal the juices in. This is where searing it in an iron skillet heated to hi for 10 minutes comes in handy. Sear it and then finish on the grill. Salt and pepper only. Many fine steakhouses put butter on top after cooking. Personally I like the brasilian way of cooking churrasco myself. I take a whole ribeye maybe 4-10 pounds depending on how many guests. I age it for a week in the fridge wrapped in fresh towels daily. I poke holes in it 1 inch apart and stuff it with garlic. I then make a paste of olive oil, rock salt or sea salt(no table salt ever on steak) and a little herbs de provence. I coat the steak and leave it another day. Then I slow smoke it at about 250 degrees. Cut into steaks and serve. Very juicy and tender.

 

Montreal Steak Spice...and a hibatchi grill with the charcoals in there. That I find gives it the best taste..so damn good.

 

The key word is: prime

http://www.primesteakhouses.com/

Anyone been to Bob's Steak and Chop - which, (for peters benefit) has location in San Francisco? Or Spencer's which has a location in San Jose?