give a man a hamburger, feed him for a day. Teach a man to cook beef, you can relax a lifetime with
Steak… Need I say more?
There’s nothing more American than a big juicy steak with potatoes. Now there are quite a few ways to prepare your beef, depending on the cut of you will want to stick to specific kinds of cooking. For meat with a lot of connective tissue you will want to do a long slow roast in the oven. Are you on a budget? The buy some butchers scraps and turn them into fajitas (this has been said to be how fajitas started, if you want to believe Wikipedia). Have a 6 foot snow drift outside your front door? Lest make a pot roast or a beef stew. But always remember to remove the silver skin first. Silver skin will not break down in the heat, it has no flavor, and you can’t chew through it with any measurable amount of success. To remove silver skin, take a paring knife (or any other small bladed utensil) insert under the silver skin, make enough room to fit two fingers, and then remove the blade. Insert your fingers then PULL! It will take some time to master this technique, but it will make for better eating.
If you are concerned about the prices of meat, don’t buy Kobe, Angus, or Prime cuts of meat. Choice will be a lot less per pound, and the flavor isn’t that different. If you are concerned about the cattle having been mistreated then buy Kobe beef. Kobe beef is fed well, and drinks only beer and sake, plus daily massages. I could only be so lucky.
Now would be a good time to mention two things about meat when it is cooked. The first is called carry over cooking. When you take meat and most other foods off the heat, the temperature of the food itself will still cook it. It takes about five minutes (depending on size of the cut) for carry over to stop, and this will make your rare medium-rare, your medium-rare medium, and your mediums well done. The other thing to know is that meat needs to rest before you cut into it. As the meat settles after cooking, any juices left inside the meat will evenly spread out and go back to its nooks and crannies. This will help with your meat to be moist and not dry. If you think meat needs to be burnt to a crisp to serve, then you should try a rare steak. You will change your mind. The redder the meat the better the flavor.
Brisket can be the most amazing thing you ever put in your mouth, or it can be the toughest. Your briskets will on average have tons of fat and tons of connective tissue. First remove any silver skin you find, and then remove the excess fat. You will not want to remove all the fat, that’s where a lot of the flavor comes from in meat. Just remove the huge slabs that have a tendency to be attached to the brisket. I usually cut mine in half and freeze one half for later, cook one half for now. Although I am a huge fan of making my own rubs, for brisket I haven’t come up with anything (yet) that beats the supermarket “brisket rub”. Lots and lots and lots of brisket rub, wrap in two layers of foil, throw it into the oven at about 250 for three to five hours. As for the brisket to freeze, tons of brisket rub, two layers foil, and freeze for up to three months for best results. When cooking a frozen brisket you will want to heat the oven to 275, and cook for five to seven hours.
Chuck Roast is another nice and underappreciated cut of meat. Chop this bad boy into one to one and a half inch cubes, sear in a pan, then stew it up! Add some potatoes, carrots, various spices, and chicken or beef broth with the meat into a crock pot. It’s simple. If you feel like making it an ethnic meal, then throw in some corn on the cob, chilies, cumin, and cilantro and you have caldo del rey.
Bleu Steak. This is an interesting one. What you do here is take your steak cut and two frying pans (Iron works best, aluminum based worst) and get them both REALLY hot. I’m talking gas range on high for ten to fifteen minutes, burn you if you aren’t careful down to the bone hot. When they are very hot place the meat (rubbed lightly in oil and your spices) in one pan, then take the other pan and place it on top of the steak, bottom down, with a brick or another two to five pound weight that won’t melt or burn in the pan to weigh it down. Let sit for three to five minutes and you have a perfectly seared steak. Rare to medium rare on the inside, cooked well on the outside.
Everything else is a matter of placing it on the grill and flipping it only once.
Stay tuned for pork.
There’s nothing more American than a big juicy steak with potatoes. Now there are quite a few ways to prepare your beef, depending on the cut of you will want to stick to specific kinds of cooking. For meat with a lot of connective tissue you will want to do a long slow roast in the oven. Are you on a budget? The buy some butchers scraps and turn them into fajitas (this has been said to be how fajitas started, if you want to believe Wikipedia). Have a 6 foot snow drift outside your front door? Lest make a pot roast or a beef stew. But always remember to remove the silver skin first. Silver skin will not break down in the heat, it has no flavor, and you can’t chew through it with any measurable amount of success. To remove silver skin, take a paring knife (or any other small bladed utensil) insert under the silver skin, make enough room to fit two fingers, and then remove the blade. Insert your fingers then PULL! It will take some time to master this technique, but it will make for better eating.
If you are concerned about the prices of meat, don’t buy Kobe, Angus, or Prime cuts of meat. Choice will be a lot less per pound, and the flavor isn’t that different. If you are concerned about the cattle having been mistreated then buy Kobe beef. Kobe beef is fed well, and drinks only beer and sake, plus daily massages. I could only be so lucky.
Now would be a good time to mention two things about meat when it is cooked. The first is called carry over cooking. When you take meat and most other foods off the heat, the temperature of the food itself will still cook it. It takes about five minutes (depending on size of the cut) for carry over to stop, and this will make your rare medium-rare, your medium-rare medium, and your mediums well done. The other thing to know is that meat needs to rest before you cut into it. As the meat settles after cooking, any juices left inside the meat will evenly spread out and go back to its nooks and crannies. This will help with your meat to be moist and not dry. If you think meat needs to be burnt to a crisp to serve, then you should try a rare steak. You will change your mind. The redder the meat the better the flavor.
Brisket can be the most amazing thing you ever put in your mouth, or it can be the toughest. Your briskets will on average have tons of fat and tons of connective tissue. First remove any silver skin you find, and then remove the excess fat. You will not want to remove all the fat, that’s where a lot of the flavor comes from in meat. Just remove the huge slabs that have a tendency to be attached to the brisket. I usually cut mine in half and freeze one half for later, cook one half for now. Although I am a huge fan of making my own rubs, for brisket I haven’t come up with anything (yet) that beats the supermarket “brisket rub”. Lots and lots and lots of brisket rub, wrap in two layers of foil, throw it into the oven at about 250 for three to five hours. As for the brisket to freeze, tons of brisket rub, two layers foil, and freeze for up to three months for best results. When cooking a frozen brisket you will want to heat the oven to 275, and cook for five to seven hours.
Chuck Roast is another nice and underappreciated cut of meat. Chop this bad boy into one to one and a half inch cubes, sear in a pan, then stew it up! Add some potatoes, carrots, various spices, and chicken or beef broth with the meat into a crock pot. It’s simple. If you feel like making it an ethnic meal, then throw in some corn on the cob, chilies, cumin, and cilantro and you have caldo del rey.
Bleu Steak. This is an interesting one. What you do here is take your steak cut and two frying pans (Iron works best, aluminum based worst) and get them both REALLY hot. I’m talking gas range on high for ten to fifteen minutes, burn you if you aren’t careful down to the bone hot. When they are very hot place the meat (rubbed lightly in oil and your spices) in one pan, then take the other pan and place it on top of the steak, bottom down, with a brick or another two to five pound weight that won’t melt or burn in the pan to weigh it down. Let sit for three to five minutes and you have a perfectly seared steak. Rare to medium rare on the inside, cooked well on the outside.
Everything else is a matter of placing it on the grill and flipping it only once.
Stay tuned for pork.