Choose the Best Steak
Steak is not the cheapest meat cut and choosing good quality for your money is important. This can be done easily by making sure that you select the steak according to various key features. The more you look for these features, the faster you'll learn how to select a great steak by eye.
Contents
Steps
- Familiarize yourself with the names of the various cuts of steak. There are steaks that come with bones and without. For example:
- Fillet steak: the most expensive cut, often consumed when eating out as a treat. This cut does not have a bone. Also known as eye fillet steak; fine texture and most tender.
- Sirloin: this cut is large in size and can include a bone or may be boneless. The fillet and thin minute steak form a part of the sirloin. It can also be termed a "contre-filet".
- T-bone, Porterhouse steak: these contain a large bone. Also known as strip loin steak. Good barbecued or grilled.
- Rump steak: the tender, lean cut. Taken from the upper part of the round (hindquarter). Great for barbecuing.
- New York cut: Boneless strip loin steak.
- Skirt steak: This piece comes from the inner thigh and is coarse-grained, lean and flavorsome. Best for stews and casseroles, requires slow cooking.
- Select your steak according to your taste. Do you prefer tender pieces or is a tougher texture fine for you? The more tender the steak, the higher the cost.
- Ask your butcher about the background of the meat. If it has been hung prior to sale, it will be more tender. This is more likely to occur with a boutique butcher rather than a supermarket butcher. A good relationship with your butcher is very handy and will help teach you about the best types of meat, as well as having the opportunity for getting choice pieces of meat set aside for you!
Tips
- Examine the color of your steak. It should have a rich, purplish-red color with white marbling running throughout the cut (some more than others). Try to avoid cuts with large pieces of fat in the interior.
- Marbled meat is flavorsome; however, it is also fat and some people prefer a leaner piece. Choose yours according to taste.
- Each person needs about 4 ounces of steak, so count on this when purchasing enough for your dinner guests. The inclusion of a bone, however, can increase the need for more weight to ensure that there is enough flesh to consume.
Warnings
- Meat gains in toughness the closer it is to hoof or horn; the price should reflect this. It is still fine for long-duration stewing.
