Steak I'm Frustrated

[rotuts]

thanks for the 'tip' on David Burke's Prime House

i went to their site and will be drooling all day

I also appreciated that you can order and take home some of their meat and deal with it yourself.

what a treat that would be. has anyone done this?

Yum Yum.

[gfweb]

Grass fed beef in Wisconsin.

Last summer I put in an order from a farmer about 4 miles west of us who I had been buying pigs from and had gotton to know fairly well. He raises steers also and has some very good looking animals grazing.

I ordered a small 1200# steer. In our discussions, he and other farmers I have talked with locally made it very clear that you cannot raise strictly grass fed beef in Wisconsin, you have to supplement. One farmer about 40 miles away has a very extensive website extolling the virtues of his grass fed beef. Whether or not you believe the hype is up to you.

The local processor would only hang 21 days as the local inspector doesn't want anything longer.

We settled on how to cut and package, no ground beef, trim packaged so we grind our own, steaks 2", roasts 3# and the list goes on. We have used this processor for about 40 years,

Animal weighed 1157#, a couple of cents above market price.

Processing, over $400 at this time. It's been over 10years since we last bought a steer and the processing price certainly had changed.

The beef has the cleanest taste I or other family members have ever experienced, it's really astonishing how good it tastes. Now it was partially grass fed and fed corn raised on the same farm.

We decided to go back to purchasing whole animals because of the contamination problems occuring at large packing plants and the unknown source of feed for those animals. We will purchase a local lamb at the 4H Auction as we had done many years ago.

Anyway, the farmer wanted to know what we thought of the beef. He also asked about marble and whether I wanted the next one fed corn longer. I would describe the beef as USDA Choice. While I would like Prime,my wife likes the beef the way it is. We will see.

In tems of aging, hanging with the Primals still within the carcass, doesn't do to much. The processor does not dry age the Primals once removed from the carcass. For the next beef, I am going to speak with the Inspector about dry aging the Primals. I'm not sure what his jurisdiction is after hanging and processing but it seems like the dry aging I am familiar with in both restaurants and butcher shops, is all done in house so to speak.

So at least here in SE Wisconsin, 100% grass fed beef is not possible, Prime as we already know is a hard target to hit which is why Luger's selects which Primals they Dry Age. Dry Aged beef from a local processor doesn't look possible but I need to do some more investigation.

The beef we purchased exceeds our expectations but there is a trade off between a Choice 21 day hanging steak and a Prime Dry aged steak. In my case, I want to avoid factory beef as much as possible and only source my beef, pork, lamb, fowl locally.

So I think for the future I will confine my Dry Aged steak eating to David Burke's Prime House.-Dick

Do you find that freezing has any effect on the beef?

[budrichard]

"Do you find that freezing has any effect on the beef? "

To answer that question quantatatively we would have to perform blind tasting with beef from the same carcass unfrozen and frozen then thawed and both prepared the same.

To answer that question qualitatively, no.

When thawing, the beef has practically no moisture that is in the wrap.

My son who does the grinding of the trim says that the trim has very low moisture compared to an unfrozen round of factory sirloin that we would purchase and grind.

Burke's has the ability to put the best crust I have ever experienced on a steak whether with just with a commercial broiler or finished in a salamander, I don't know. I cannot prepare a steak at home on coals or in my Viking with its ferocious broiler as god as Burke's.

Go to Burke's, order nothing but steak. You will be happy.-Dick

[rotuts]

then bring a couple of steaks home for the freezer/SV !

[pufin3]

Steak houses' and other places that serve a lot of steak by them from commercial butcher shops. The average grocery store shopper will never get their hands on the same quality. The meat is likely air dried longer meaning it contains less water. But the steak house factors this into their price to their customer. That's the most important element.

Steak houses etc often use a drop of liquid smoke rubbed on the steak.'Try this: From a busy local butcher spend the money to buy say a couple of bones thick rib eye. Room temperature of course. Medium hot grill. Not screaming hot. Black pepper gives off a bitter flavor when the oils in it get scorched. Rub the steak on both sides with a good quality balsamic vinegar. This will caramelize and help with that nice dark surface you want. Grill to 5 degrees F less than you want the steak to 'finish' at. Let the steak rest longer than you might think you should. Steak could be eaten at just above room temperature. Check this outhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bk96BgsXMFg

[budrichard]

The top steak houses purchase Primals from commercial supplers that they personally inspect before purchase. I wouldn't term the suppliers commercial butcher shops but just commercial suppliers because they don't break down the carcasses to indivdual cuts. The loss/waste comes from two factors, as mentioned, water loss but also the outside aged, dried portions must be trimmed form each steak. I have been in the aging room at Burke's and have watched as my steaks were cut and trimmed at local retailers who specialized in dry aged Prime. There is a lot of waste/trim.

Breaking down to individual cuts for other steak houses or grocery stores is either done at the retail level or at the large Packing Houses for grocery stores.

The top steak houses then age the Primals in house. When ordered, the steak is cut from the Primal, trimmed, cooked and served.

None of the Steak houses I know of use liquid smoke.

One can find retail butcher shops that do thier own aging of Primals and cut to order. You just have to look. There are two in the Chicago area that I use.

I have never heard of anyone using balsamic vinegar on a steak for carmelization?

Black pepper on a properly coooked steak is not scorched, so no problem with black pepper.

We grill to 100F internal and then let rest depending on the original thickness.

We eat when ready but certainly not just above room temperature. Cold steak is not for me.

At the retail level in most grocery stores what you are getting, no matter what the USDA Grade, is beef hung to minimum time, cut trimmed and boxed at Packing House and then shipped for final wrapping at the retail level. Some cuts are in fact wrapped also and have an overpressure of co2 to increase the visual shelf life. This packaging can be ascertained by bulging wrap.

The lower tier steak houses (chains) purchase thier steaks. cut and enhanced for potion size control and artifical palatablity. Find a Commrecial supplier website and investigate the options, quality of beef, portion size, mechanical enhancing as well as chemical enhancing and in the case of 'Prime Rib'(I use the term loosely) au jus supplied.

There are still Grocery stores that purchase Primals that are higly trimmed and cut thier own steaks and will cut to order. The steaks are usually in the USDA Choice range.

In my experience purchasing USDA top Prime from butcher shops perfomring thier own in house dry aging and then properly cookking said steak is not comparable to a place such as David Burke's.

Doesn't stop me from trying but every once in a while, it's back to Burkes.-Dick

Edited February 19, 2013 by budrichard (log)

[rotuts]

not quite sure what you mean by this:

"In my experience purchasing USDA top Prime from butcher shops perfomring thier own in house dry aging and then properly cookking said steak is not comparable to a place such as David Burke's."

id like to learn what shops you mean if you can mention then

the only 'Prime' shop Id had dealings with is Schwab's meat market in the Stanford Shopping center and Dewar's Meats in Eastern MA

Schwab's ages their own primals, but cant give you any details. there house ground chuck priced similar to Safeway Chuck has a lot of those prime trimmings in it and is to die for.

[BKYLN]

Your problem is using Select beef.

[BKYLN]

In my experience purchasing USDA top Prime from butcher shops perfomring thier own in house dry aging and then properly cookking said steak is not comparable to a place such as David Burke's.

it's so much better at a restaurant because they are smothering the steak in butter, herbs, and probably garlic during and after the cooking process.