Choosing a Great Steak
If you want to end up eating a great steak, there is no other way to do it than by starting with one that is already great. Unfortunately, it can be rather difficult to determine whether or not a steak at the market is of high quality. There are plenty to choose from, but if you don’t know what you’re looking for, finding the best one will be pretty tricky. Here are a few things to look for when you go steak shopping that’ll help you get a better result.
The first thing you will need to pay attention to is the grade of the meat. Grading is performed by a government agency or third party organization, and is determined by fat marbling and the age of the animal. Remember that the carcass is graded whole, and then the individual cuts are made, so there may be some variance across different cuts. In the US, the major grades are prime, choice, and select. Prime is the best and select is the lowest grade available to most consumers.
Prime is responsible for about two percent of beef production in the US, and you will not find it in most stores, since it is often sold to restaurants or exported. Select and choice are more commonly found on store shelves. You may notice a difference between them if you take the time to try them, however.
Marbling is a factor traditionally used to determine the quality of a steak. Leaner meat will have little fat and be more tender, but much less flavorful. Streaks of fat generally produce steaks that have more taste to them. However, many people are discovering that other factors influence taste as much or more than marbling. For instance, raising the cattle on grass instead of grain, and finishing them on grass alone, or a mixture of grass and grain seems to result in a steak with more taste, even though it has less attractive marbling. You may have to try a few different kinds to discover what the best option is.
There are lots of different cuts of meat available on the market, with some making better steaks than others do. Steak comes from three major portions of the animal – the sirloin, short loin, and rib, and each cooks a little differently. The rib is less tender, and needs more attention and longer cooking than you’d use if you were deciding how to cook boneless top sirloin steak.
The short loin produces familiar high quality steaks, including T-bone, Porterhouse, top loin, and tenderloin. Sirloin is responsible for classic sirloning steaks and the top sirloin. You may also see round, chuck, and flank meat described as steak, but you will probably want to cook them as stew, not as a steak, due to their toughness. Pick the best steak to begin with, then find a method of cooking that suits. In the end, you will be much happier with the results you get. No marinade, no matter how good, will fix a bad steak, but a good one will make a great steak the best one possible.
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