Les Jones

Best steak cuts for the least money

Thursday, May 28th, 2009 | Food & Drink | Permalink | 1 Comment |

Washington Post - Affordable Steaks That Make the Cut

There are bargains to be had in the meat case, for $5 to $7 per pound. Affordable cuts of beef tend to fall into three groups: hanger and flatiron steaks, long prized by chefs; flank, flap, tri-tip and skirt steaks, which used to be even cheaper when they were less popular; and gems such as chuck eye, chuck shoulder and top sirloin steaks, which are, for the moment, the least expensive of the lot (less than $5 per pound).

There are some good grilling tips there, too. One I’ve gotten in the habit of is pulling meat out of the fridge before grilling so it can warm up a bit. That makes it easier to get the inside and outside of the meat cooked to the right levels. It’s especially helpful with thick cuts.

When I grill or sear marinated meat I use paper towels to remove excess marinade before cooking. If you don’t the outside of the meat gets boiled and doesn’t develop the texture it should get from the heat of grilling or pan searing.

P.S. I’ve added a grilling tag to older posts for easier browsing. Have I mentioned how much I like keyword tags?

Previously

• Zenreich’s Tri-tip Steaks
• Grilling: Flat Iron Steak

Tags: grilling, This Here De-pression

Grilling: Flat Iron Steak

Friday, July 27th, 2007 | Food & Drink | Permalink | 5 Comments |

Tonight I cooked a flat iron steak, billed as a new cut of meat. It was much more tender than the tri-tip steaks from a few months ago, though I’ll repeat my admission that I’m not 100% sure that what I got back then was a tri-tip cut. The flat iron was more expensive, at $6.99 a pound from Kroger’s, but well worth it. I used a rub suggested on the package, but it was responsible for just a hint of the incredible flavor.

I’ll tell you exactly what the grilled flat iron steak put me in mind of. It brought back fond memories of the Brazilian BBQ beef we had the last time we were in Manhattan. Great flame-cooked beef that’s juicy, tender, and naturally delicious.

We loved it, and we’re going to buy it again the next chance we get. Confessions of a Butcher has more about the flatiron steak:

Why haven’t we heard about this cut until now?: Well, as previously mentioned, this is an non-traditional cut. But, in 2002, the National Cattleman’s Assc. used the Checkoff Program, (a very cool program itself) to commission a muscle profiling study. In this study between NCBA’s Center for Research and Technical Services in partnership with the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska where every major muscle of the animal was analyzed separately for flavor and tenderness. The reason behind commissioning this study was to find better, more efficient cuts from the Chuck and the Round for both retail and food service uses. The results were pretty surprising. One of the most surprising things the study found was that the Flat Iron is in fact, the second most tender cut of meat from the steer, after the tenderloin. This cut then became the center star in a new promotional push by the NCA entitled “Value Cuts”.

Is it a worthwhile cut of meat? The Flat Iron is, in this butcher’s mind, one of the most versatile pieces of beef. It takes to a marinade like no other, it’s tender beyond belief, and you can cook it with much success in many methods. Plus, it’s cheap. Since it is from the shoulder, it can be found for as little as $3/lb here in the Midwest, and probably not much more than that elsewhere. You can grill it, use if for stirfry meat, use it for fajitas, braise it, fanfry it. Really, it is a great little cut that hopefully you will want to go out and try. If your butcher doesn’t carry it, ask them to do some for you. IF they dont know how, refer them to the NCA’s site, beef.org, or explain to them what I just showed. It will be worth your time.

More from Wikipedia. Shoulder top blade or top blade seem to be synonyms for flat iron steak. Even more from Gourmet Sleuth with recipes and name origins.

Photography note - There were a bunch of orange flames in front of the steak, but you can only see a hint of them in the photo. Gotta work on that.

Tags: grilling

Tri-tip Steaks

Sunday, April 29th, 2007 | Food & Drink | Permalink | 1 Comment |

This afternoon I used the tri-tips steak recipe I found recently. The cut used was described as a “sirloin bottom.” I’m not 100% sure that’s the right cut of meat, but for $4.28 a pound the price was right. ‘Course, Zenreich paid nearly three times that for his meat, which further makes me think I didn’t get the right cut. Oh, well, the proof is in the pudding, right?

I used Zenreich’s recipe for J.J.s rub. If you don’t want to follow the directions, just throw your entire spice rack into a bowl and stir. Seriously, it’s a huge variety of spices. I had everything except coriander, but the recipe wiped out my supply of savory, thyme, paprika, and white pepper.

I got the grill hot and seared the meat for five minutes on each side on the bottom rack. Then I moved it to an aluminum foil boat on the top rack and added wood chips. They caught on fire instantly. Next time I’ll let the grill cool first. I turned the grill to low and 10 minutes later added chips again.

The picture above is a test cut/appetizer cut about 30 minutes later. After cutting both ends for appetizers and cutting the meat in half I turned one side of the grill off and left the tri-tip to slow cook for an hour on the cool side. After that it was cooked through with some pink left in the center. It was good, and tender as long as it was cut thin. I actually think I overcooked it just a bit, out of fear of not cooking it enough.

We served the thin-sliced beef on baguette rolls with mayonnaise, dijon mustard, and sliced tomatoes, with sides of potato chips and homemade carrot salad, and with apple pie for desert. Delicious.

P.S. - J.J.’s rub was fantastic. It’s very spicy, though, so you may or may not like it. Little kids might not. I liked the flavor, but I’m also still looking for other rubs. Preferably some that are a bit simpler. You could probably take J.J.’s and throw out the spices with the least volume and have 90% of the flavor. Also, if you don’t have a food processor or grinder leave off the bay leaves - eating a chunk of bay leaf would not be fun.

Tags: grilling

Smokin’ Ham

Sunday, April 22nd, 2007 | Food & Drink | Permalink | 2 Comments |

I’m just getting started in smoking, and something I read suggested starting with cooked ham. Since it’s already cooked you don’t have to worry about getting the meat to a safe temperature. Smoking it just adds flavor and warms the meat to serving temperature.

I cut a cooked ham in two to double smoke on the grill. One side gets the Hickory Smoked Ham recipe, the other maple syrup and dijon mustard. I’ll let you know which one the family liked best.

UPDATE: The maple syrup and mustard ham won hands down. And talk about a recipe that’s easy to remember - one part dijon mustard to one part maple syrup.

I cut a crosshatch pattern on top of the hams to hold the sauce and develop a little texture. Meanwhile the insides of the hams stayed plump and juicy. I cooked them for about two hours with one side of the grill on low and the other side turned off completely, and the hams on the cool side on the top rack. I put a pan of water half on top of the burner and half off and then threw in wood chips periodically for smoke flavor. Good eats.

Tags: grilling

Zenreich’s Tri-tip Steaks

Sunday, April 15th, 2007 | Food & Drink | Permalink | 5 Comments |

Sounds delicious and he has some other interesting recipes. I also like this other guy’s soy/whiskey marinade.

I cleaned up my grill yesterday before it started raining and installed a new stainless burner. I’d be grilling today if the rain hadn’t decided to stay with us.

Tags: grilling