Having a Cow About Steak Quality

WSJ ^ | 08 May 2010 | MARK SCHATZKER

[Palter]

Mass output and U.S. rules have diminished flavor; what aficionados should demand

Let's talk about steak for a moment. Was the last one you ate good? How about the one before that? Be honest.

The first bite, in all probability, was juicy and tender. Not bad. A brief hit of beefiness, enough to spur you on to bite No. 2. But by bite No. 4, there was a problem: grease. The tongue gets entirely coated in it. It is at this point that many hands reach for that terrible abomination called steak sauce. It's acidic and zingy and cuts through grease, but it blots out the weak flavor of the steak.

At steak houses all over the country, wine drinkers know the variety of grapes used to make the wine, the patch of earth where they were grown, and the year they were picked. They might even know whether the wine was aged in a barrel made from oak grown in France or America.

They don't know nearly as much about their steak.

Not the breed, not what the cow ate, or where it was raised. All anyone seems to know about steak today is this: It doesn't have much flavor. The great American steak is great in name only. It has become like its hated nemesis, boneless chicken breast: bland.

The decline started back in 1926 when the U.S. Department of Agriculture began grading beef. Like the rest of the country, steak had undergone a big change in the preceding decades. It was being churned out of factories like the famous Chicago and Kansas City stockyards and being distributed throughout the country. Hotels, restaurants and butcher shops were buying beef sight unseen. Some was good, and some wasn't. So the government stepped in to make things right.

[9YearLurker]

The prototypical “man food” wussified and metrosexualized into another foodie obsession.

[Frenchtown Dan]

We cook it many ways, I especially like it smoked with either apple or cherry wood, or marinated then grilled. Only have stew during the colder winter months.

I don’t believe my wife braises it first for her stew, and the flavor is not lost. The meat and the broth that comes from the stew are full of flavor, perhaps because it’s covered the whole time it is cooking.

I know what you are saying though, many people have the same comment, and think we are nuts for treating such a fine piece of meat this way.

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Braising" is a cooking term quite frequently misinterpreted. Braising is a method of cooking food, most commonly meat, low and slow in liquid of some sort. Braising meat is most often reserved for long-muscled, lesser cuts of meat where the fiber of the meat is tenderized by the lengthy slow cooking. Most anything prepared in a crock pot (now commonly referred to as a slow cooker) has been braised.

All of that aside, I do understand what you're saying ... which is that your wife's stew is a savory, full-flavored meal to behold ... and I don't doubt that a bit. I also fully understand having so much meat in the freezer that, near the beginning of another hunting season, you are looking for anything and everything to do with the meat you currently have.

[Frenchtown Dan]

And all this time I thought braising was quickly searing over high heat for just a moment or two.

Anyway, it’s been nice conversing with another omnivore, and enjoy your meat that isn’t regulated by our gov’t.

[GOPJ]

Old style aging of beef might cause modern beef eaters to think the meat was a bit spoiled.

Those parts that are too "ripe" can be cut off - also buy steak at COSTCO - they have the best at the best price...

[JustaDumbBlonde]

"Anyway, it’s been nice conversing with another omnivore, and enjoy your meat that isn’t regulated by our gov’t."

Agreed on both points. ;)