How to choose the right meat for your steak

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Filet mignon, porterhouse, ribeye - reading these words, you understand that making a good steak is not an easy task. Below we will tell you how to choose meat for a steak in a store, what types it is and what are the advantages of each of them.

I won't be mistaken if I say that every man, in addition to scrambled eggs and fried potatoes, should be able to cook a steak. At least there is such a legend. I didn’t know how until recently. However, even now, if you show my steak to a knowledgeable person, he will most likely take a picture of it and post it on his Instagram with the hashtags # lol, # what is, # think about this steak.

Despite the fact that my experience in cooking steaks is still small, I try to learn everything new diligently, and therefore I started with a theory - how to choose the right meat for a steak.

Types of steaks

None of the types of steaks have a Russian translation. In addition, if you order a pork or chicken steak in the presence of a knowledgeable person, you will most likely be looked at with condescension. It is believed that the steak is made only from beef.

Depending on which part of the carcass is used for cutting, there are several (up to ten) types of steaks:

1. Ribeye - the subscapularis of the carcass. Contains a lot of fat, so the meat is juicy.
2. Club steak - the back part of the carcass is used as a tenderloin. The steak has a small bone.
3. Filet mignon - is considered the most tender meat, it is not cooked with blood.
4. Chateaubriand - the same filet mignon, but laid out on a plate in length.
5. Tornedos - small pieces of cut, from which medallions are made.
6. Skirt steak - beef flank meat. It is considered quite hard, but tasty.
7. Porterhouse steak - divided by a T-shaped bone, contains a large amount of fat, which makes the meat juicy.
8. Roundrumb steak - a round piece of tenderloin from the hip.
9. Striploin steak - a tenderloin that looks more like a sirloin than a steak.

How to choose

Despite the variety, each steak suits different situations. Ribeye, for example, is considered the most unpretentious in cooking and at the same time very tasty. The tenderloin is high in fat. Striploin steak is a softer meat than ribeye and is the steak most commonly served in steakhouses. Filet mignon is the most tender, almost "buttery" meat, but it does not have such a rich taste due to the small amount of fat.

Randy Irion, Marketing Director of the National Association of Beef Breeders, here are some tips on how to choose and cook the right steak:

1. Buy thick pieces that are at least 2 centimeters thick.
2. Do not avoid fatty cuts: fat gives the steak flavor, makes it juicy and retains its shape during frying.
3. If you want to cook the perfect steak, you have to buy a thermometer. The required temperature for a steak with blood is 51 ° C.
4. Do not pay attention to the labels "organic", "non-GMO", "natural product".
5. Ideally, you should buy meat from a butcher shop, not from a supermarket.
6. If the meat emits a slight smell of ammonia, it is stale.
7. When you get home, taste the steak. If your fingers stick to the meat, then it is close to disappearing.
8. Ribeye is the best choice if you don't want to choose for a long time. According to Irion, almost any butcher or chef will tell you that ribeye is his favorite type of steak. It is not the most delicate, but it has the most intense taste.