Interesting, in the US, strip steaks generally look like this.



And are usually a little more marbled.

No, not really, other than making sure it doesn't get past medium rare.

I cut a very thick steak and cut it in half fwiw

Were you content with the color you got on the inside, and what was the internal temperature of the final product?

I ask because this is generally the best gauge as to how to adjust the time in the oven. If the crust was satisfactory but you feel the inside was overdone, then trim two minutes off the time in the oven.

While it might not seem like it, small increments of a minute or two in the oven will have a significant impact on the final product. Being that ovens can vary greatly as can the thickness of your steak, you'll have to fine tune the process to your particulars. Exactness about oven time will be a big deal.

My opinion:

That is striploin. It is from the very end of the primal from next to the ribeye primal. It was cut like ****, and is probably from a grass pastured old bull given the lack of marbling and the yellow fat cap, indicating age, and the fact that you said it was a cheap cut.

Honestly, I'd grind the rest.

The rest of the steaks cookie cuts should look like this.

ETA: Too much fat was trimmed from these steaks, leave the cap that would be on each of these steaks at the bottom of the picture as oriented.

hats off for buying a cheap cut and trying to make something out of it. Ive always been one to run a mile from a cliche, but at the end of the day you cant make a silk purse out of a sows ear!

I heard about a method where you cut the steaks, salt them and let them rest for 12-24 hours (not sure about exact time). Never tried it but the article said that it can make good steaks from bad meat.

Edit: Should be 24 hours from what i can remember, cant find anything in the web. Article was in a newspaper, from what i can remember it said that salt first takes water out of the steak, but after some time chemical stuff starts that brings the water back and makes steak very tender.

Here's an article:

Steak: How to Turn Cheap “Choice” Steak into Gucci “Prime” Steak

It says 15 min – 1 hour before grilling depending on thickness. Unless you like eating a salt block.

Steaks was not over. Heated to 34 C in the oven, then about 2 mins on each side on the cast iron pan. Steaks where nice and red inside. I still believe it is just from an old milking cow or something as suggested by someone else.

as;dljfas;dfj, nigiri. Maki is for impressing westerners, especially girls. Think of it like this: Nigiri is all about presenting the quality of the fish while maki is typically used to hide the taste of a poor quality fish

The rice consistency is so so so crucial. It's not pretentious at all, I hate that people think rice is just rice because it's cheap but it's so far from true. Cookie, I love your cooking, but the rice in the maki seemed too moist :P

For anyone watching Top Chef:
last week's episode @ nasa, why was anthony bourdain so tilted by Kevin using sirloin? I don't know my meats, it looked pretty damn good to me.

Great link!

I thought stuff was expensive in denmark but 21$/kg for tenderloin seems pretty cheap. Thats what we pay for striploin. Tenderloin is 35€+, so about 48$...

How do I make the rice good? I just do what it says on the back of the pack.

On offer at metro, and a minimum of 2 kg. If I went for tenderloin steaks at my local supermarket it would be about 50 dollars/kg.

Most likely going to metro on saturday first time. They have north and south american beef... any recommendations?!

How much goes qualitity down when i freeze the steaks? Just in case i have to take 2 kg as well...

I often buy 2+ kg, cut it up to steaks, and freeze individually or 2 in each freezing bag, dont cut them too thin. I dont think it effect quality a lot.

Beef from USA is way pricier than beef from south america. I dont know about quality, I usually get brazilian or argentinian or sometimes some euro meat is on offer.

I dunno, they supposedly go to school for 10 years to learn how to make sushi.

You know how the texture of rice is really important for risotto? It really applies to sushi as well (not al dente but seasoning and cooking it just right)

Going out for a 6 course dinner with wines + welcome champagne + coffee etc tonight with girlfriend.

Here are some tips for maki making. Bear in mind this still won't be as good as the rice at a top sushi place but it will at least bear some resemblance.

1. Buy the right rice. Buy a premium japanese short grain rice. will run about $2 to $4 a pound. Yes this is expensive for rice but you won't be using a lot so its ok.

2. wash the rice. Yes, this step washes away some of the nutrients but it also lets you catch any small amount of grit that might have fell through and also washes away some of the extra starch on the outside of the rice.

3. soak the rice for min 1 hour. Soaking the rice actually gives you a bit of leeway in terms of water to rice ratio when cooking. I typically use anywhere from 1 : 1 to 1 1/4 : 1 water to rice ratio. Typical rule is that the longer you soak it, the lower your ratio can be.

4. cook it in a rice cooker, optimally one with fuzzy logic but if thats too pricy, then a rice cooker in the $25 range will work ok. It just gives you much better results without you having to worry about it at all.

5. take the hot cooked rice out and mix with rice wine vinegar, sugar, tiny bit of salt, mirin optional. The exact ratio of these will differ by recipe and personal taste. Mix in a wide stainless steel bowl unless if you have one of those traditional wooden tubs.

6. Use wooden spatula to mix. While mixing, if you could put it next to an electric fan or if you have a partner fanning it by hand, that would be great. If not, try to expose as much of the rice surface to the cold air to cool it down quickly. Also be careful not to use a chopping motion as you want the kernels to be intact and not cut.

7. your finished rice should be slightly sticky but still clearly retaining individual kernels and you should be able to pick up individual kernels. It should also be shiny. try to make your sushi quickly before the rice hardens. covering the rice with a clean damp towel helps a bit.

8. Use a unflavored roasted seaweed. You want a seaweed that is very dry and crisp. Try to use quickly as soon as its exposed to the air as moisture in the air will make the seaweed less palatable.

9. Use saran wrap. This is more important than the bamboo mat which is actually kind of optional but nice to have.

10. spread the rice over the seaweed in an even layer quickly. line your items in a line on top of the seaweed/rice mat. if you are using crisp items such as cucumber or carrot, cut it very very finely. There is nothing worse than biting through the soft rice when eating than hitting a tough piece of carrot that you can't chew through. Don't overfill. roll it up quickly.

11. Use a very sharp knife, and dip in warm water, wipe dry and cut quickly.

Typically nigiri is considered a higher grade of sushi than maki and also considered harder to make because you need to cut the fish well so that you remove tendons so that its tender and cut it the perfect size so that when you place it on the rice, it looks nice. Its similar to butchering your own steak.

At some restaurants, the fish used for nigiri and the fish used for maki will be the same fish but the maki fish will be more the trimmings. Analogous to trimming a steak and using the trimmings in a hamburger, you trim out a piece of tuna then slice it up for nigiri, and chop up the trimmings to use in your spicy tuna roll. Other restaurants might have more customers order rolls instead of nigiri and thus use a cheaper fish for the Maki ie use Blue Fin or Big Eye tuna for the nigiri but use Yellowfin tuna (ie ahi) for the maki.

Ugh just wrote a big TR of trip to fleur de lys in vegas then browser crashed. will try again tomorrow

Forgot camera, but was very very good, no pics though.

Look at the pics here for generel idea, menu breakdown tomorrow or whenever i get the chance

http://www.frederikshoj.com/viewcont...&p2=39627&p3=0

lol okay so i just bought another entire beef loin for filet mignon lol
I bought some bacon to wrap around it, and i'd like to hear what others say about wrapping filet mignon in bacon as well, and also how many peices they are using. thanks!

I suppose if you don't want to just buy steaks that already have delicious fat in them, you can try and fix the boring flavorless steak with external pork fat.

And just use as much as it takes to wrap it around the circumference. Definitely don't double layer it or anything.

cook...some steak tips

check out egullet for a thread about dry aging beef in a home refigrator.... its da nutz

never buy cheap beef for steaks.

season 24 hours in advance

you could also try brining whole cuts before cutting them into steaks (I get flack for this a lot but brining isnt just for poultry imo)

leave the steak out in room temp for 45 minutes before cooking.

if you're using a pan it needs to be hot enough that it makes a lot of smoke

oven finish your steaks after getting a good sear

when resting your steak make sure its elevated, like on a cooling rack.

and lastly...
pass up the beef and go for lamb

Compared to top quality cuts, sirloin is quite dry. It is a good steak for a home cook, it grills great, and is tasty, but I think Bourdain would expect a ribeye.