A couple of years ago I bought both the grass-fed steaks and the hamburger patties.

I liked the hamburgers okay. They had a little tang that worked well in the context of mustard, ketchup, onion etc.

I found the steaks too grassy. Not just that I missed the sweetness of corn-fed beef, but that they had a grassy note I found kind of unpleasant. I'd have enjoyed more gaminess, but I really didn't like this.

I'd be curious to try other grass-fed beef, just to see if I have the same reaction, but I didn't care for this at all.

Pucca wrote:

Mike G wrote:Actually, you can get frozen, grass-fed Australian steaks at Trader Joe's. At least sometimes.

Have you tried any of the frozen steaks at Trader Joe's? I've always been curious.

We've decided that they are pretty good "weeknight" steaks, but if we really want really good meat we go to the butcher or Costco (of all places) for fresh. I think even the Costco steaks, if I freeze them, are better.

They definitely do cook more quickly than US-grown beef of similar size and thicknesss.

leek wrote:I think even the Costco steaks, if I freeze them, are better.

I agree- due to the size of the beef tenderloin at Costco, I inevitably put one part in the freezer. I defrost it and then dry-age it in the fridge pursuant to the method in Cook's Illustrated. I will do the same to the fresh one, but ten out of ten times, I think the one that had been frozen tastes better.

I've been reading and enjoying this thread, learning a bunch as y'awl've gone along. But one thing has been bothering me a bit.

I like to make a quick wine reduction sauce of the leftover bits after frying the steak. But I found out pretty quickly that the black iron pan and the wine didn't do very well together--esp. when I used my own wines, which are pretty acidic (usually pH < 3.4). I could taste the iron, like sucking on a cut finger.

Then Cook's comes along and does one of their 92-variant tests and ends up recommending that stainless composite frying pans, heavy ones, be used. So I got one, tried it, and was much pleased with the lack of iron taste in the sauce. And that's what I used ever since.

But no way I'm going to put that puppy into a 500° oven. 350° or so, sure.

Thoughts?

Geo

Geo wrote:I've been reading and enjoying this thread, learning a bunch as y'awl've gone along. But one thing has been bothering me a bit.

I like to make a quick wine reduction sauce of the leftover bits after frying the steak. But I found out pretty quickly that the black iron pan and the wine didn't do very well together--esp. when I used my own wines, which are pretty acidic (usually pH < 3.4). I could taste the iron, like sucking on a cut finger.

Then Cook's comes along and does one of their 92-variant tests and ends up recommending that stainless composite frying pans, heavy ones, be used. So I got one, tried it, and was much pleased with the lack of iron taste in the sauce. And that's what I used ever since.

But no way I'm going to put that puppy into a 500° oven. 350° or so, sure.

Thoughts?

Geo

Geo:

Yes. I started making steaks in the pan back when I was young muchacho in Belgium, where steaks are taken seriously and typically cooked on the stove-top. There are various approaches and I switch from one to another depnding on various factors (some mentioned above), but for a pretty basic approach: I use a heavy bottomed stainless steel pan with a touch of oil on the meat, sea salt, pepper. After initial searing at high heat, lower heat and add butter. No problem making a sauce there.

Antonius

Tnx Antonius--

Your simplicity of approach appeals to me. It makes much more sense to add the oil to the meat rather than the pan; I've typically put it in the pan, which--as several noted earlier--discommodes the smoke alarm seriously.

Do you reduce the heat very much after searing? I quite like the idea of adding butter at that point--the sauce will make itself, once the wine is added.

Geo

Geo wrote:Tnx Antonius--

Your simplicity of approach appeals to me. It makes much more sense to add the oil to the meat rather than the pan; I've typically put it in the pan, which--as several noted earlier--discommodes the smoke alarm seriously.

Yeah, I think it's just good to keep the oil level down. Just a touch to get it started, if the meat has a good bit of fat, a little touch more if it's fairly lean. It's also possible to do it in a dry pan (just salt on the meat), but it depends on the pan. And it's been a while since I did it that way.

Do you reduce the heat very much after searing? I quite like the idea of adding butter at that point--the sauce will make itself, once the wine is added.

A fair amount but then again, I don't think you need to have the pan insanely hot for the first stage. If it is, it won't cool down enough and you can easily burn the butter. But on the other hand, if you turn it down too low, even with a good sear, you might end up stewing your meat and that's bad. Maybe I'd put it this way: very high (not super or insane high) to low high or high medium...

Sorry to be vague; this is one of those things I've been doing for a very long time and I've developed, I think, a 'touch', but now it's so many years that I haven't thought about it consciously, it's hard to explain. Next time I do it, I'll hopefully pay more attention and make a more accurate note of the steps.

Home-made steak and fritten op z'n Belgisch is hard to beat -- that's how I got Amata to propose to me. (Een waar verhaal! -- vraag haar maar.)

Antonius

Antonius says:

"Home-made steak and fritten op z'n Belgisch is hard to beat -- that's how I got Amata to propose to me. (Een waar verhaal! -- vraag haar maar.) " [Debbie--TODG--isn't here at the moment or I'd get her to translate--she lived for 8 yrs in Aachen, so I always call her over to see what bijoux flemandes you've laid upon us!]

Ohhhh, *real* steak frites, Belgian frites. Damn. Doesn't get any better than that. You've got me thinking...

BTW, there's a local set of shops here in Montréal called Frites Alors, which styles itself a "fritterie belge"--their frites really are very good, the hamburgers ditto, and they've got Leffe on tap, plus some *extremely* good local micros.

But no steak frite... dommage!

http://www.fritealors.com/fr/info.html

And tnx so much for the further into. I've got a trip to Costco scheduled for the weekend. Time to get some steaks and do the job. I'll report back.

Geo

Antonius wrote:Home-made steak and fritten op z'n Belgisch is hard to beat -- that's how I got Amata to propose to me. (Een waar verhaal! -- vraag haar maar.)

http://lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?p=5393#5393


Amata (writing in from NC -- last night's dinner: crab cakes and hush puppies)

Antonius says it's the steak AND frites. Amata says it's the frites.

I think we need some coming together on the story here! Antonius notes that it's a good story... well, it's certainly beginning to *sound* that way!



Geo

Geo wrote:Antonius says it's the steak AND frites. Amata says it's the frites.

I think we need some coming together on the story here! Antonius notes that it's a good story... well, it's certainly beginning to *sound* that way!

Omai omai... I said it was a "true story" (een waar verhaal), though I think it a good story too (een goed verhaal)... As to reconciling the two versions of this tale, I would say just that Amata was moved to utter the proposal by the taste of the perfectly, twice fried fritje, but I feel reasonably certain that the idea of the proposal was developing before that, in reaction to the Gesamtgestalt of the meal and -- crucially -- the smell of the pan-cooked biefstuk.



Na, wa' segde-ga', Emée?

***

And let this be the first U.S. based internet culinary chat-site to include a bit of poetry in Aachener dialect -- Öcher platt:

Schriv mich, wenn de schrive weels.
Freu mich övver jeddes Wooet.
Denn woe et noch Fröndschaff jet,
weäde Hazz än Siel net ooet.
------------------------- Karl Wimmer

Aachen / Aken is a great little city with a fine transitional dialect ('twixt Dutch and German)... And note the following old Dutch saying:

Keulen en Aken zijn niet op één dag gebouwd.

Antonius

Yeah, I remember when you guys were on The Newlywed Game and this came up.

Antonius--

Finally got TODG to sit down a moment, and here's what she and a pal got from your Aachener poem:

Schreib mir, wenn Du schreiben willst
Ich freue mich über jedes Wort
Denn wo es noch Freundschaft gibt
wird Hass sein Ziel verfehlen

which even *I* can read, but I can't do Aachener! [Altho', I must admit to finding your Berliner man quite comprehensible--and I certainly go along with his motto!]

But perhaps we've hijacked the cast-iron steaks enough already. I want to say a few more things about Aachen--foodish things--so how's about I start a new thread?

Geo
PS. Can't get the Dutch: Something (?kuelen?) in Aachen wasn't built in a day--but can't figure out what that something is...

My buddy the Amsterdammer physicist says to me "idiot, it's "Cologne and Aachen weren't built in a day, either"--a very famous saying in Holland."

So now I know!

Geo

Geo wrote:My buddy the Amsterdammer physicist says to me "idiot, it's "Cologne and Aachen weren't built in a day, either"--a very famous saying in Holland."

So now I know!

Geo,

Ja fürwahr! Dat wor der Najel op der Kopp jetraufe!... Not Rome but Cologne... and Aachen... From the perspective of the Low Countries in the Middle Ages, especially before the real rise of the cities in Flanders and Brabant, it makes perfect sense... the city of Karel de Grote and the big town down the Rhine...

Your consultants did very well with the Wimmer poem but I think they're a little off on the last line...
Öcher platt: weäde Hazz än Siel net ooet
Dutch: worden hart en ziel niet oud
German: werden Herz und Seele nicht alt

So, did you make any steaks in the pan?

Skol/Santé/Proost!

Antonius

P.S. Fleäsch es et beiste Jemöss!*

'Meat is the best vegetable!'

Antonius, what you've done to me with this talk about Aachen... it's gotten TODG and me to reminiscing and dreaming and whatevering. [As evidence, witness my matjes thread! ... oh to be tightly captured by a remembered taste/experience. ]

Now, as to the steak. No I haven't done it yet. Didn't get a chance to go to Costco until yesterday afternoon, and was too rushed to cook them last night; tonight TODG has her long evening class at Concordia, and will need something simple and fast for her restauration when she arrives zu Hause, or, as the locals say, chez nous.

So, the plan is for tomorrow evening. I've got a couple of nice Idahoes, sour cream from Liberty (dang that's GOOD sour cream!), and a couple of Romaine hearts plus Costco's selected baby greens.

I've also got a very nice Ribero del Duero to go along.

So how does all this strike your ear/eye/fancy, Mijnheer?

Geo

Herewith my report.

OK, first admission: I overcooked the steaks. Not a lot, but enough. We had to buy a new fridge and stove for the flat here in Montreal. Got a GE glasstop* and, man! is that thing HOT. I'm still getting used to it. Still? huh. Basically I didn't get the temp down fast enough after the initial browning.

But they tasted fine --KC Strip, Canadian equivalent of high-end Choice-USDA.

Second admission: OK, I didn't have any sour cream (TODG had used it up in some confection unbeknownst to me.) But not to panic: I had creme fraiche and plain yoghurt, both from Liberté. Mixed 3:1, it was ab fab.

Final admission: Man was that Ribera del Duero¶ disappointing. Short
R& R called for here.

Contemporary winemaking has come under the spell of the Davis-Bordeaux Model, enology's very own Axis of Evil. Main principle: wine should taste like grape juice. Fruit Forward, it's frequently called; 'fruit bomb' is what us guys in the biz call it. Long, cold pre-ferment soak, maceration with the new enzymes; frequently a loooonnnng post ferment soak, to polymerize the tannins, which softens them enormously.

These new World Wines don't tast like wine anymore. I'm distressed to discover tht RdD, my favorite Spanish district, has now apparently gone over to the Dark Side, as well.

Anyway, I deglazed the pan with this wine, probably its high point of the evening!

I'll get things more better next time.

Geo






*There's no residential gas in Montreal; one's stove must be electric.

¶ Prado Rey '03

I also work on a GE glasstop. I have given up waiting for the burner to come down in heat when I reduce to a simmer and whatnot.

I get a burner going on hi/med-hi and then another one on a lower temperature and just move the pan.

Tnx gastro gnome--that sounds like what I should do, too. It must be that the glass itself just has such a high specific heat that it doesn't cool down when you turn off the radiating element. I've used electric stoves before, but this one has its own quirks.

Now I must admit that there are times when I'm really glad that I can melt lead on the stove top! For stir-fry there's nothing better.

And it's sure easy to clean up afterwards!

As always, it's a case of getting used to what you're using.

Geo