alrighty! i never liked steaks up until now(my chemo therapy has really changed what i like and dislike). i use to be just chicken and fish, never beef or pork.

now i enjoy the heck out of steaks, i only ate them out at restraurants so far, went to the store today to look at buying some and cooking them up...and....what kind to get???

i saw all kinds there and they all looked the same to me, but with different names. actually they looked different but i don't know how to tell which ones are better.

what is the best steak to buy? and what is also the best bang for the buck steak to buy? and any tips on how to cook it in a pan on a stove would be appreciated also. thank you.

 

There are mis-conceptions about quality or the best steak cut.
Porterhouse or Filet Mignon always seem to get that allocation.

In my experience cooking steaks for 40 plus years.
The best tasting and most tender is the in the makeup of the meat.

Look for Marbling and length of time it has been sitting.
Most stores have a 2-3 week period before they cut and market the beef.


Note: I can get a piece of AA Top Sirloin taste and be just as tender as a Porterhouse no matter what way I cook it..

Best Bang for the buck !
What I usually purchase at my local butcher or Grocery store is AA or AAA Top Sirloin.

Here is the order of BEST that most people know:

Filet Mignon
Porterhouse
New York Strip
T-Bone
Top Sirloin
Rib Eye
Sirloin Tip
Inside round
Outside Round
Chuck

Note: The New York Strip is taken from a T-bone cut.They charge you big time for cutting that piece off.The small part of the T-bone is the Filet (Filet Mignon), They charge you a fortune for cutting this pice of as well

By the way, I live in the Beef Country party of Canada and no one has one Gone Mad yet

Maybe read this page ?

http://www.hormel.com/templates/know...emid=23&id=357

 

a porter house and a T- bone are the same thing. the porter house just has a bigger filet because its cut futher down. the T-bone and porter house are a newyork strip and a filet in one cut of meat (the filet is the smaller one). when you pick out one of those look for one with the largest filet. i would put the filet as the best than the newyork strip and put the top serloin and ribeye about the same

 

Down here in the 'States, the restaurant industry snaps up most of the 'Prime' grades of beef - the top of the line in meat grading quality. What's left in supermarkets is the 'Choice' grade, a step down. Meat still varies considerably in quality even within the same cut. However, to cut to the chase for your needs, I would look at a Rib-Eye steak that has some marbling (fat streaks) in it. This is usually the most consistent in terms of quality from one time to the next.

 

I like the rib eye. A bunch of us would get together and buy a case or two of the ribs. We would cut our own (1" thick) The butcher didn't have to do any cutting so we saved there. Last time we did this it was $2.76 per pound. Since it jumped up to$7-8 a pound we stopped doing it.

 

Mil1ion, I've been to your part of the world a few times. There's no doubt that the steaks up there are the best I've ever had.

 

Rib steak, cut from prime rib roast. Boneless or bone in, the best steaks I've ever had.

Not much of a T-bone guy; the fact that it's named after a bone and there's a big honkin bone in it doesn't turn me on.

 

thanks for the replies everyone, it clears it all up very well, now tomorrow i am going to get some steaks and get to eat'n!

 

Whatever it is, I like it cut thick. I happen to like Ribeyes and NY Strips. They need to be cut 1 1/4" minimum, 1 3/4" would probably be ideal. More important is how you cook it

 

Ummmmm! Steak. I think Mil1ion summed up the best cuts, but to me it's all in the way it's prepared and cooked. I've never met a steak that was properly seasoned and grilled that I didn't like. Living in Texas though, I'm suprised at how often they can screw a steak up pretty bad. The best for me seems to be a steak seasoned with salt, pepper, and garlic powder and then grilled over mesquite.

 

My vote is for the Ribeye. Look for one with a large eye ( the center, main part of the cut). The ideal, acording to what I've been taught in FFA Meat Evaluation, would be a lean cut with plenty of Marbling. By lean I mean fat thickness around the edges. A good steak will have maybe 1/4-1/2 inch. If you can see the "cap" and "tail", you know its fairly lean. the cap is a semi-circular piece of muscle that surrounds the top corner of the eye, and the tail is a small, round piece opposite the cap. Like everyone has said, marbling is key. A lot of little white flakes in the eye = higher grade = better taste. If the ribeye is out of your price range, wait a few weeks and the grocery stores will have them on sale. Often bone in Ribeyes are clearanced and you can get a pretty good deal. Or like GLR said, get a ribeye roast and cut your own steaks. If you still want a cheaper steak, look for top sirloins like mentioned before. They're like the sirloin you would buy in a restaurant. Watch the paper, you can get a deal on any cut of beef if you keep your eyes open, filets, NY Strips (technically a top loin), or the combination of the two, T-Bones and Porterhouses (basically the same) all go on sale at some time. I hope this has helped and anyone feel free to correct any of my facts, as I'm still learning all of this and your corrections could help in a contest.

 

Pretty good advice overall here, but I'd disagree slightly on the order given. I would always put a ribeye above a top sirloin within a given grade of meat. That being said, I think the most bang for the buck is probably the sirloin. Grilled properly it can be very tender and tasty, and isn't near as expensive as the others above it.

Jason

 

It's pretty much a landslide..............a choice or PRIME Rib-Eye is the cut of kings!!!


Filet is the most over-rated cut out there........while probably the most tender cut available it lacks in taste to almost everything else. Ever notice how "fine" restaraunts will "bacon wrap" or cover a filet in Hollandaise sauce??


That being said, I bought a Lynx grill with 3-25,000 BTU burners (don't be fooled by grills that only rate their TOTAL BTU's) I can sear a THICK Rib-Eye in just a few minutes on each side.............HEAVEN I TELL YA!!!

 

Rib Eye for me. Although I did get some bad tasting ones on sale at Smiths. It was hard to believe that they were really rib eye steaks that I was eating. (i stocked up). But more likely, I find my favorite to be the rib eye. Probably due to the marbling. Probably not the best steak for you as it does have a little more beef fat compared to some of the more lean cuts. Still my fav.
Another is T bone. The New York and Fillet are also a couple I will enjoy immensly.

Dang, now I'm hungry for a nice thick medium rare slab of red meat. So much for trying to eat healthier.

 

Steaks on sale................that's a sign.

I can make any cut of steak taste good. You just have to know how to work them.