Lobel's Online Store

[dimitri steinberg]

I am getting the steaks today and want to make sure that I don't screw up the preparation. I live in an apartment, so outdoor grilling ain't an option. I have read the various posts about on the stove/in the oven with a cast iron pan.

Unfortunately, I don't have such a pan. I do have a Wolf stove, so I can do the broiler thing. What confuses me, however, is what seems to be quite disparate instructions with respect to the amount of time the steaks should go under the broiler. Also, to the extent, I put oil on them (as per the Lobel site instructions), should I use olive or something else. I read somewhere that olive oil burns at too low a temperature?

Thanks

[Fat Guy]

Anybody who tries to tell you by remote-control how many minutes to cook a steak is lying. The only person who can judge doneness is you. With a room temperature steak of a certain thickness, I can somewhat reliably predict how quickly my specific broiler will cook it assuming the rack is placed a certain way and various other factors are equal. But your broiler will be unique. You may be able to achieve the steak you want in 2 minutes per side, or 6 minutes per side, or more -- it all depends. Just remember, you can always cook it more; you can never cook it less.

The best way to test for doneness is of course with a thermometer, with the point inserted sideways and positioned dead center in the steak. There are several tables available online to show what temperatures correspond to what level of doneness, and you want to cook 5-10 degrees less than your target on account of carry-over cooking. The next best way to test doneness is by feel. You'll need a bit of experience, but if you start feeling every steak you cook -- pressing it with your thumb -- you'll start to see how raw, rare, medium, and well-done meat feels. For me, the way I like a cooked steak to feel is like the soft part of my palm right under my thumb. That's a nice rare steak. Much springier than that and it's likely cooked too far through. Finally, you can judge doneness by cutting into the steak as unobtrusively as possible and taking a peek.

Olive oil works just fine in this application. That's what I use and what the Lobels recommend.

[dimitri steinberg]

FG:

Thank you very much. I am thinking of cooking a strip from Citerella at the same time to assess the marginal gains at the high end.

[Blue Heron]

I also took pictures before and after grilling and will try to post.

that would be awesome blue. i was so wrapped up in cooking these things just right, i couldn't be bothered with a camera. my 10 oz strips turned out perfectly r-m/r. i grilled them. they could have used a *bit* more crust, but the grill just can't do that in 2 minutes on each side.

good stuff.

The pictures don't do my steak justice. It tasted even much better than these pictures reflect. Mine was a 12 oz boneless NY Strip steak. I just plopped it over a hot grill and cooked it just over 3 minutes each side, and it was cooked rare. Sprinkled with coarse salt and pepper. Delicious. I shared it with my husband and it was a good amount for the 2 of us, served with grilled corn on the cob, salad and potatoes.

Edited July 27, 2003 by Blue Heron (log)

[elyse]

How long is this offer lasting?

[hjshorter]

Our tournedos were fantastic. Scott unwrapped them and was so taken with the raw meat smell that he brought them into the living room for me to get a whiff. He pan seared then finished them in the oven briefly. The result was perfect little medium rare nuggets of pure beef heaven.

We're ordering strip steaks next.

[melkor]

How long is this offer lasting?

No idea, I haven't seen anything saying how long the offer is good for.

[tommy]

made a thai beef salad with my extra strip. seasoned the hell out of it, and it turned out fantastic. wanted to cook it to medium for this particular application, and it was still beautiful.

[terrarich]

Wow,

What a promotion. I can't believe that Lobel's will come out ahead in this scenario. I just ordered the Wagyu shortribs and Rib Steak. Can't wait to braise with all of that wonderful fat in the shortribs!

Terrarich

[Fat Guy]

I can't believe that Lobel's will come out ahead in this scenario.

Look how easily, with the expenditure of a few hundred dollars in product (which they buy wholesale), Lobel's has created a huge piece of nearly free advertising for itself. Thousands of affluent, educated gourmets read this site. Even just the people on this thread are likely, over time, to spend money at Lobel's now that they'd never have spent before. You couldn't buy this kind of publicity with a $50k advertising campaign.

[elyse]

made a thai beef salad with my extra strip.  seasoned the hell out of it, and it turned out fantastic.  wanted to cook it to medium for this particular application, and it was still beautiful.

Oooh pretty. You're more stylish than I thought, tommy.

[tommy]

Oooh pretty.  You're more stylish than I thought, tommy.

if you knew that bottle in the background was "peach chardonnay" you might think differently.

[browniebaker]

I might be one of Lobel's new regulars. I bought two eight-ounce Wagyu boneless rib steaks (net price: 93 cents each, as my husband and I each had a $50 credit). They were sheer bliss to eat: rich and unctuous with the well-marbled fat, extremely tender, and full of deep beefy flavor.

After debating whether to cook in a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop or to grill over charcoal outdoors, my husband persuaded me that he would do right by these two babies if he grilled them. He left the house with my admonition to make sure the steaks ended up RARE. I cautioned him that these two were very thin (3/4" to 1" thick) and would not take very long on the grill. You'd have thought someone was taking custody of my actual babies, I was so worried. (My husband and I both prefer medium-rare, but we wanted to taste-test this meat under optimum conditions, and we thought rare would let the texture and flavors really come through.) Well, I neglected to tell my husband that he would have to under-shoot for rare, or he would end up with medium-rare -- I thought he knew!

So we had the steaks medium-rare, and they were still superb. Both steaks were beautifully marbled, but one steak was very evenly marbled throughout, while the other had some huge pockets of fat here and there in addition to the thorough marbling. At the end of an excellent dinner, when I went to clear my husband's plate, there was a small pile of fatty chunks that he had cut off and was intending to throw away uneaten. Of course, I ate it! Excoriated him as well, for almost wasting this delicious, charred-at-the-edges, pearly-white fat. It's all good.

So now I have this hankering to try some more Wagyu, in larger cuts and in other cuts as well -- and this time, I'll do the cooking.

Edited July 28, 2003 by browniebaker (log)

[dimitri steinberg]

At the risk of prompting of all hell breaking loose, here goes.

I went ahead Friday night with the plan of doing a side by side with the Lobel strips and those from Citeralla - 2 of each. Seasoned with S&P and oil and then broiled them in the oven. They all came out wonderfully medium rare (probably let them cook a minute or so too long) as the steaks were of the same thickness. I combined the drippings from the steaks with a generous slab of butter and spooned that nectar over the steaks a la lugers.

Both were wonderful, but my wife, in-laws and I all found the ones from Citerella to be a bit better. The lobels steak were a bit tougher and in fact I found the Citeralla steaks flavor to be somewhat more to my liking. I was surprised to say the least and will need to try this again as we are dealing with organic materials that vary.

As a point of reference, the Citeralla strips are $21.95/lb. The lobel strips were 12oz and the ones from Citeralla were probably around 14oz. As a second point of reference, I am not one of those wackos who has trouble recognizing a great steak (ie, I am a firm believer in the pre-eminence of the Luger steak for two).

OK - let er rip.

[tommy]

OK - let er rip.

please leave this thread immediately. heretic.

[elyse]

Oooh pretty.  You're more stylish than I thought, tommy.

if you knew that bottle in the background was "peach chardonnay" you might think differently.

I don't care what's around the meat.

[Fat Guy]

Both were wonderful, but my wife, in-laws and I all found the ones from Citerella to be a bit better.  The lobels steak were a bit tougher and in fact I found the Citeralla steaks flavor to be somewhat more to my liking.  I was surprised to say the least and will need to try this again as we are dealing with organic materials that vary.

There is of course variation, but I've had enough steaks from both places (and also from Fairway and Vinegar Factory) to say that it's virtually impossible to get a better steak from Citarella than from Lobel's if you're applying the same criteria I am. Based on flavor and texture, my assumption is that Lobel's ages its steaks significantly longer than Citarella does. When dry-aging, longer aging doesn't necessarily lead to increased perceived tenderness. Muscle fibers continue to break down, but moisture is lost as well. A properly aged steak is tender but not mushy or wet. It is more like a cool stick of butter. Additional aging will also develop funky, gamey flavors that many people don't fancy. Luger's ages to a relatively mild state of agedness. Lobel's ages longer than anyplace I know of, and the steaks go beyond Luger's in that regard.

[tommy]

A properly aged steak is tender but not mushy or wet.

i noted that mine felt like a piece of tuna. that's interesting, as i've never held a raw piece of aged beef in my hands. at least a raw piece of lobel's steak.

[dimitri steinberg]

I wasn't being particularly eloquent in terms of describing the differences, but, as usual, FG, you hit the nail on the head. Funky it is and funky it was. And, given your comment, I should not be surprised that funkiness is not something I recall at Lugers, either.

There is no doubt that I would not have noticed the difference absent the side-by-side tasting.

[Fat Guy]

At some point we need to arrange a big steak-tasting. I know Luger's sells its steaks retail for some ridiculous amount of money, as do a few other steakhouses, so we could do a pretty good meat-quality-judging experiment. We're also going to try to get Evan Lobel on for Q&A.

[dimitri steinberg]

That should be a difficult sell

[Superflytritone]

I was just on Luger's site...they actually sell it for less than Lobels. I think a 36-38oz Porterhouses cost about 66.00, while Lobel's is 77.00

[Fat Guy]

Oh I didn't mean to imply that anybody is more expensive than Lobel's!

[Superflytritone]

I've been searching around the web ...I haven't found anybody who comes close yet to Lobel.....

[TheBoatMan]

You know whats more expensive....hold on to your hats....its omaha steaks private reserve. 2 of their 20oz tbone steaks will run you 130 dollars (omaha here), same at lobels is 80 dollars (lobels here).

I learned about those prices from David Rosengarten. He did a great article on mail order steaks a couple years back. He ordered from 23 purveyors, including lobels, he states the most expensive and worst of the bunch were the omaha steaks. Heres the link