The "Manhattan Filet Steak" and other BS

[weinoo]

Some things really annoy me; which I guess if you've read some of my posts over the years isn't that surprising.

 

Here's the latest I've seen - and it's actually being pitched as some great new discovery: The Manhattan Filet Steak.

 

This yutz on the Food Wishes Blog actually has the gall to call it a new cut. It's not. It's just a NY Strip totally trimmed. But he learned about it on a "foodie field trip to Las Vegas," so it must be great.

 

And then, to top it off, a video showing how to do it.  What the video is good for is showing how a pan-fried steak gets nice and grey around the edges; in other words, a good reason to sous vide.

 

[CatPoet]

I Have an American friend , who thought why not  write a book about  different cuts of meat of America.... she started  in 1979, she is still adding new names for the same pieces of meat...

[paulraphael]

A butcher in my neighborhood is selling "Beef Chuck Tenderloin."

[weinoo]

Jeffrey used to sell "eye of chuck" to me to grind for burgers!

[Unpopular Poet]

It makes me sad that all of the potentially crispy bits were cut away.

[weinoo]

It makes me sad that all of the potentially crispy bits were cut away.

Exactly. If you want a filet mignon, just buy a filet mignon.

[rotuts]

well, I do this sort of thing w high end steaks for the grill etc.

 

Im just not interested in the fat and grizzzzzle.

 

on the vid the guy only does it correctly about 3/4 of the way through :

 

you put the steak on its side, and with a sharp boning knife take only the fat etc off and leave the meat.  

 

like a fine dissection

 

I if there are decent bits outside the main steak, I add those meaty parts to the main steak and simply tie them to the main

 

steak with string.  horizontally .

 

the fat etc,  in moderation,  even after freezing it,  got micro'd until sizzling and given to my Lab at the time w his dinner.;

 

Ever seen a Labrador  ( 90,lbs + , lean etc ) dance ?

Edited June 18, 2014 by rotuts (log)

[paulraphael]

Jeffrey used to sell "eye of chuck" to me to grind for burgers!

Chuck eye is great! Delapietra's is dry aging  8lbs of it for me right now ... going to cut into steaks, cook s.v. for 48 hours, and bring on a trip to maine where we're cooking for a crowd. It's like rib-eye for 12 people for $60.

[cyalexa]

I have often wished that meat was labeled with the name of the muscle. So many names seem to be made up and relatively meaningless. I have links to a couple sites with names but it is cumbersome to whip out the smart phone when I am at the store wondering from what primal a "patio steak" has been cut (just an example, no need to explain). There is only one semi-knowledgeable "butcher" in my small town, at a grocery store.

[paulraphael]

The trouble is that most cuts go across multiple muscles. There's a butchering method that's basically disection, where you actually separate everything along the seams down to the individual muscles, but this isn't a traditional or common method.

[cyalexa]

The trouble is that most cuts go across multiple muscles. There's a butchering method that's basically disection, where you actually separate everything along the seams down to the individual muscles, but this isn't a traditional or common method.

 

That is a legitimate point. I would at least like to know the primal when a cut has a made-up name. 

[CatPoet]

What my friend has figured out is it depends on where people came from, which words they use  for the cut of meat and then you have  just the made up ones to make a crappy meat part  sound cool. Like in  ground beef  can be sold   as hamburger,  hamburger ground,   ground hamburger,   minced meat  ( this is rare in the USA), ground beef .   Here comes the problem in some areas  Hamburger is sold as patty / rissoles / slider  / hamburger  and  in those areas the meat isnt called hamburger but  ground.  

 

It must be hard for you lot, think how it is for some one who for the first time  tries to make an American recipe?  Well I  didnt use ground beef  but hamburger patties the first time I did a  recipe called for 1 pound hambugers, it did taste good  but yeah  was a bit weird.

[Ann_T]

Who knew cutting fat off a steak was a "new technique".  Worthy of a video.

Edited June 21, 2014 by Ann_T (log)

[Arey]

Try buying beef in an where I live.  My butcher is very obliging, if he doesn't have what you want he'll tell you that something he does have is the very same thing just a different name.  Also the minute anyone walks into the shop and mentions the Phillies or the Eagles you have totally lost his attention and could order a mastodon cutlet or a rack of wart hog, and he won't notice.  For example, America's Test Kitchen did a Swiss Steak recipe starting with a blade roast. which they cut down into blade steaks.  Well, he doesn't even carry them, so he  me what he assured me was the equivalent. I don't recall what it was but it sufficed.   The next time I was at a farm market in Williamstown, they had what they had labeled as flat iron steaks but were actually blade steaks, so I bought them. The last time I was there they didn't have blade steaks or mislabeled flat iron steaks.  The butcher convinced me to try a flank steak so I bought two nice sized ones.  One I broiled  as   I usually do with flank steaks when I can get them, and turned the other into Swiss steaks.  Flank steak makes an edible Swiss Steak.  However on the way home from the farmers market I stopped at my favorite Italian grocery store, and they had two blade steaks. They were labeled "Petit steaks".  But there were only the two little ones, and they were "reduced for quick sale" so I didn't buy them.  My local butcher knows what a flank steak is, but rarely carries them since they don't sell well.  But, he will always cut you a London Broil, and assure you it's about the same cut.  To get his undivided attention say "Whaddaya think 'bout them _(Phillies or Eagles depending on the time of year)____________"

[paulraphael]

It must be hard for you lot, think how it is for some one who for the first time  tries to make an American recipe?  Well I  didnt use ground beef  but hamburger patties the first time I did a  recipe called for 1 pound hambugers, it did taste good  but yeah  was a bit weird.

It can even be confusing going from one part of the U.S. to another. Different names for the same things. Before then internet it must have been worse.

 

At least here the differences are mostly just regional naming conventions. If you go from one region of Italy to another the actual cuts are different. And they're different in France and in Germany and just about everywhere else. You have different cuts of the same muscles, sometimes with similar names, and different names for identical cuts. It's a mess.

 

I bought beef once in Rwanda from a butcher whose French was only a little better than mine. I eventually figured out the cut by pointing to different parts of my own carcas and getting him to nod.