Thursday, March 5, 2009

Incredible Buys on Beef!

Notice to all of you carnivores out there: This is an excellent time for stocking up on your favorite cuts of steak. With the markets being down and consumers holding on to every last cent until they are forced to part, the prices of beef have plunged. For those of you who don't have a membership to Costco - get one! Now! Do not pass go, do not collect $200. Go directly to Costco and stock up on some of the best beef you can lay your hands on without shelling out big bucks for Kobe or Wagyu (American Kobe). Those two are still going to cost you a pretty penny IF you can find them.

I'm not sure if the grocery store prices have dropped accordingly, but wholesale vendors have certainly cut prices and Costco is a good alternative to opening a commercial food establishment and dealing with vendors. Trust me, you don't want to go there! Go to Costco... They have recently started carrying Prime cuts of steaks. If you're unfamiliar with the grading system for beef, there are 8 grades: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, Commercial, Utility, Cutter and Canner. The first 3 are the only ones you should ever worry about. Prime is the best. Select is fine for sandwiches. Choice is the most common. We use only Prime or Choice in our kitchens depending on the application.

We were in our local Costco store and just browsing, killing time when we stumbled onto some really beautiful beef. These steaks had incredible marbling (veins of fat running through the meat). In the Culinary World, fat is flavor and these were QUITE flavorful. We immediately started rummaging through the cooler bin to find the most appetizing candidates and picked out the best 3. Luckily most people were buying the less expensive Choice cuts. I tried to tell'em, but they weren't listenin'! $8.99 for cut Prime ribeye steaks is an incredible buy! Their loss was certainly our gain!

We brought them home and seasoned with olive oil, salt & pepper, and some garlic. I prefer to season them well ahead of cooking. Place them on a plate in the refrigerator on a lower shelf for several hours prior to cooking. We use only natural hardwood charcoal. It gives the food a nice smoky flavor. I've seen on cooking shows where many people will place the steaks on the counter for 30 minutes prior to grilling. I personally disagree with this for a very good reason. I like my steaks to stay on the grill as long as possible to pick up as much of the smoke flavor as possible while staying as rare as possible.

We let the steaks rest for about 5 minutes prior to service so the juices could redistribute. Let me tell you these steaks melted in our mouths! We had some demi glace that we make for private dinners that we serve at our kitchen and in our clients' homes. The combination of the steaks, the demi, and a very nice red wine (the blood with the beast as Lynda likes to say) were enough to send us to a state of bliss rarely reached at the dinner table... this was GOOD!
I highly recommend you give these steaks a shot. If you have questions, send me an email for tips or have us over and we'll cook them for you! Bon Appetit!