If your prefer top loin over tenderloin that's your preference. I guess I should say skirt steak or something.

Your point goes against the spirit of his post.

Regardless of your preference there, I don't think anyone would consider a shell steak a cheap cut. It's not like london broil.

An alternative to the butcher shop is to go to the farmer's market. Depending where you live, you can buy directly from local farms and get organic, grain fed, non-pesticide etc meat. It's still expensive, but it's cool to know exactly where your meat came from.

Yeah, pretty much no one. I used to go to a ****ty butcher shop near my old apt in Brooklyn, and I would buy the NY strip. It was chewey the first time I bought it, so I started marinating it. That's what the words New York Strip Steak mean to me, didn't mean to say it's a **** cut.

Grain-fed is the bad kind. Most supermarket beef is grain fed. The advantage of local farms/farmer's markets is usually grass-fed beef.

Expensive and often frozen. I wouldn't trust any label like organic and grass fed at a farmer's market, anyway.

...and that's where I stop listening to you about anything.

You're a guy who named himself "punkass" on the internet. Let's not get ahead of ourselves here.

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There has been some confusion about "Butcher". I am in New Zealand and we are fortunate to still have lots of owner operated Butchers Stores here. If you said "I am going to the butcher" no one here would think I was going to a supermarket to see the guy who cuts the meat (although he is an actual butcher). Sure the supermarket guy could hook you up with the best he has available but he has very little if any choice as to what stock is purchased for resale. Whereas the butchers I am talking about are usually owner operators who have a real love for their products and give good service. If they don't, it is very easy to go to the supermarket. Sure the meat is a bit more expensive but you are also paying for the quality and service, which you don't get at a supermarket.

Also, absolutely nothing wrong with a frozen tenderloin for for doing a Wellington. When they are baked I would challenge most people to try to tell if it was a frozen one or not. However I do not know how to do a "quick" one !

If you want the best chance of cooking the best meat, go with personal experience over marketing ploy.

Like I said, it depends where you live. I live in cattle country, so you can trust farms like this:

http://www.hovenfarms.com/

On another note, has anybody ever ordered steaks over the internet? It comes in the mail.

This is the one that BLT suggests:

http://lobels.com/

Just wanted to saw TY to the people said throw some Kosher Salt on the meat before cooking it make a world of a difference. I stopped marinating steaks and just using kosher salt I find it to taste 10x better.

nothing wrong with frozen meat in general but cooking a wellington from frozen sounds to me like you'll have some soggy puff pastry (not sure if this is what you meant).

Comically absurd. Grass finishing v grain finishing isn't even close. The grain finished will be infinitely superior.

Yeah, a lot of premium beef will be grain fed. Grain fed beef will be richer and fattier than grass fed.

Almost all supermarket beef is grain fed but that doesn't mean there aren't high quality grain fed beef out there. Kobe beef is largely grain fed for example.

Wasn't talking about flavor. Grass-fed beef is considered more humane for the animal and healthier for the consumer. I've never seen any farmer's market advertising the fact that their beef is grain-fed. Nobody would pay $20+ a pound for grain-fed beef when they could just get that at the grocery store. That's sort of the allure of beef from a small local farm.

you're making it sound as if the feed is all the difference in a steak when it comes to quality and or price when it is just one of many important factors. also the two categories are extremely broad as there are huge differences in what is exactly is fed.

when you say it is considered more humane for the animal and healthier for consumers, who is "it"?

what are you talking about?

1) he clearly states that the feed is not the only difference in steaks when he says "i'm not talking about the flavor" implying that the feed is at minimum a factor in humaneness of the treatment of the cows but definitely not the sole determinant of the flavor.

2) the sentence "when you say it is considered..." is one where it is impossible for "it" to be a "who." did you mean "by whom?"

He means feeding it (the cow) grass. Its (the argument he's making) a ******ed argument. It (grass) makes your meat taste worse. If it (feeding a cow grass) was so ****ing awesome, why has this only become a sweet orthorexia nervosa obsession recently?

Well, if you read that sentence to yourself, you will see that "it" does not refer to a person/people at all, but rather the act of feeding a cow grass. If you're asking me what evidence exists that grass, the dietary staple cows were meant to graze on, is healthier for the cows and for humans, there's too much to mention in this thread.

For one, E. Coli has become a much bigger problem for humans because of grain feeding. Because cows aren't accustomed to processing grain, their rumens have to work extra hard to try to digest it. In turn, the E. Coli bacteria has evolved to withstand higher thresholds of digestive acid. So now when we eat tainted beef, our stomach acid is no longer capable of killing the bacteria.

Plus you can't really deny that allowing a cow to roam freely (for the most part) grazing naturally is more humane than sticking it in a feed lot.

I mean, all you really have to do is google "advantages of grass-fed beef." You'd get a lot more useful info than I'm able to provide.

he said,

"Nobody would pay $20+ a pound for grain-fed beef when they could just get that at the grocery store."

what do you interpret that to mean? for those who comprehend communication it means if its just not grass fed its identical to an average grocery store steak. this is so far from true as there are many more factors to consider.

yes. blanket statements like "grass-fed is considered better" begs for the information of who considers them better and why.

Well, dummy, I'm not a grain-feeding expert, but I would guess that if you take into account the history of raising cattle, grain feeding would look like the recent trend. Grass-fed beef is a return to original practices, not a revolution.

I don't eat grass-fed beef, but are you really not getting this?