Steak dinner party for a dozen?

[Robin Garr]

Who's interested? Check the price tag ...

http://www.costco.com/D%E2%80%99Artagna ... 82950.html

Too rich for my blood, but look at that marbling. My limited experience with true Kobe/Waygu is that it's so rich that a smaller portion suffices, so I could feed 20 with an 11 pounder

[Robin Garr]

Too rich for my blood, but look at that marbling. My limited experience with true Kobe/Waygu is that it's so rich that a smaller portion suffices, so I could feed 20 with an 11 pounder

We went to a local steakhouse with Mary and two of her friends, and they split a $96 18-ounce tenderloin flight - 6 ounces each of Michael’s Meats choice, Kentucky-grown CAB-standard Black Angus prime, and Snake River Farms Idaho-grown Wagyu tenderloin - three ways, and they each ate what they liked and took a tidy doggie box home. An alpha male carnivore might have done more, but still, a little goes a long way. (They also liked the choice best - most flavorful, more interesting texture. We speculated that so much marbling in the context of a tenderloin yields a luxurious but actually somewhat boring piece of cow.)

Tenderloin is among the least-interesting beef cuts.

[Jenise]

I agree with Jeff--tenderloin isn't that interesting. That said, I once had a piece of super-prime tenderloin--seared in cast iron that was hotter than Hades--that was superb. The flavor of the searing and eating it immediately while the fat oozed was essential to the experience, however. Any deviation from that would have been just another boring tenderloin-give me rib eye!

Speaking of rib eyes, our Costco is cutting the eye out of the rib eye and packaging it as a tenderloin substitute (in which case it's far better than the original IMO), while the rest is rolled and sold as prime rib cap.

I look at that marbling and feel strange. I've never bought beef with that much marbling. Hell, apart from pictures on the net, I don't think I've ever seen beef with that much marbling. None of our local butchers sell it. In our neck of the woods, people favour lean, grass-fed beef.

As fate would have it, the Francophile and I had steak for dinner tonight. We don't cook it much at home, but recently we went to a flash restaurant where we both enjoyed a steak with anchovy butter. So, tonight, the Francophile put the anchovy butter together and I did the steak. Panfried with a minimalist splash of EVOO, then rested in the oven for about 12 minutes before serving with plain steamed veg and The Anchovy Butter of Magnificence.

Delicious. The steak was pink all the way through with a crusty brown-seared layer top and bottom, gently seeping a little pink juice onto the plate.

I don't think I'd trust that cooking method to mobilise all that marbling. So tell me: if you cook for rare, medium rare, or even medium ... what happens to the fat in heavily marbled meat?

[Jenise]

I don't think I'd trust that cooking method to mobilise all that marbling. So tell me: if you cook for rare, medium rare, or even medium ... what happens to the fat in heavily marbled meat?

It stays within if you sear it right, and kind of oozes in your mouth. It's wonderful--though you'd certainly have to appreciate beef fat to think so--and as Dale and Robin mentioned, very rich and therefore filling. You don't want a large portion.

[Robin Garr]

[img]I%20don't%20think%20I'd%20trust%20that%20cooking%20method%20to%20mobilise%20all%20that%20marbling.%20So%20tell%20me:%20if%20you%20cook%20for%20rare,%20medium%20rare,%20or%20even%20medium%20...%20what%20happens%20to%20the%20fat%20in%20heavily%20marbled%20meat?[/img]

It looks like you pasted text rather than an image link in there, Jenise ...

[Jenise]

Wasn't even meant to be an image, just a quote from Matilda's post that I was attempting to answer. Got rusty while I was away!

[Robin Garr]

Fixed it for ya.

H'mm. Oozing fat. Doesn't sound like my cup of tea, to mix a metaphor.

The fat on a steak is where most of the flavor is -- for most of my life I have cut off the edge fat but sometimes I eat a bit of it (YUM) and appreciate it. But when I buy prime steaks at Costco I go for the most marbling and the steaks come out SO tender and tasty! When I have had grass fed beef sometimes it has seemed a little tough and tasteless to me. But I am sure some grass fed is better than others. And I know enough about the biochemistry to realize that the fatty acids in grass fed beef are much healthier than corn fed. Grass fed is almost like eating fish, in terms of the "omega" numbers.

Still we eat steak rarely and when I eat it I want it to be succulent and delicious.