You know I spent over seven years as the manager of the meat and deli division of a $83 million Super Store. My division’s average sales topped $4 million annually. While I’d never place my experience as a manager above the experience of a well seasoned meat cutter, I learned a thing or two. I’d never make it as a vegan. Though I’m not one of those people who turn their nose up at vegetables, I prefer mine on the side paired with a great cut of meat.
Pork chops seasoned and grilled; spareribs or pork butt rubbed with spices and smoked with hickory until tender and mouthwatering certainly take center stage when thinking barbecue. Chicken has its place as well, especially in the smoker. And those ol’ boys from Louisiana have proved you can smoke almost anything that walks, crawls, or swims.
However, beef is my meat of choice. I can tell you that I love a good steak, and a tender brisket with a deep smoke ring and a heavy bark just can’t be beat. There are so many cuts of beef that have their own unique flavor and use. A marinated skirt sliced and sizzling on a hot cast iron platter heading toward Fajita status; a great roast surrounded by onions, carrots, potatoes, and brown gravy on a fall Sunday afternoon; a cubed steak, tenderized and heavily battered, deep fried to a crispy coated comfort food creation, smothered in cream gravy – so many choices and ways to cook, the beef cuts have to be king of the supermarket meats.
However, when it comes to steak my choices tends to run against the grain. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not gonna turn down a good steak, no matter what cut it is. Beef steaks all have their own unique taste and texture. The ribeye is one of the more tender cuts, getting much of its flavor from the fats that run through it and around it. It is a great, juicy choice, especially when cooked over flame or direct heat. The T-Bone a combination of flavor and tenderness. The medallion side of the steak, which alone would give us the filet, is a tender flavorful piece of meat heaven. While the filet sits on one side of the bone, the loin sits on the other side. The T-bone without the filet is a loin steak. It answers to a number of names including New York Strip, KC Strip, loin strip, and loin steak.
Though perhaps not as tender, it packs a wallop of flavor, especially when it is flecked with fat marbling. Those little veins of fat acts almost like sprinkles of sweet creamy butter scattered throughout the meat, locking in flavor when grilled. The loin strip is actually my favorite steak. I know that doesn’t fall with popular opinion, but a thick cut loin seared to lock-in juices just can’t be beat, in my humble opinion.
Another steak that doesn’t get a lo. t of attention is the Chuck-eye steak. Billed as the poor man’s ribeye, it is nearly as tender as the filet and about the same size. It carries a flavor similar to the ribeye.
Not being a girl of knowledge about such things, when we first got married, my wife tried to impress me with a steak dinner. She thought that if it had the word “steak” in the name, it was good. And being rather in the classification of “poor” by financial status, she thought she was being frugal when buying flank or round steak. Now had she taken a tenderizer mallet to the round steak and turned it into the battered and crispy chicken fry I mentioned above, should would have scored huge points, but cooking those particular cuts with no attempt at tenderizing or flavoring was like eating shoe leather. She learned quickly, that steak does not necessarily mean good steak.
We’ve come a long way since those early days of our wedded bliss. My wife is now a steak connoisseur. However, there is one more beef cut that one must try before they can claim to be a true beef aficionado. Known by a variety of names — Rocky Mountain Oysters, Cowboy Caviar, Prairie Oysters, Swinging Beef, Dusted Nuts, Criadillas, The Original Sack Lunch, or simply Calf Fries, beef testicles are nothing to turn your nose up to. I know. I know. Just hearing those words — beef testicles is enough to send some folks running, and for a long time, I was in that group. Even after my first foray into the world of fried fresh filleted calf nuggets, I wasn’t convinced. Until I learned that its all about the preparation.
Having tried a gourmet sampling of the little buggers, I was committed. And my wife, who was nearly convulsed at the mention of such things, was finally swayed by the same thing. Having learned after devouring half a platter of the fried bovine bonanza that Mountain Oysters are not in fact Oysters, she came to realize that Calf Fries are actually good — as long as she hasn’t been personally introduced to the donors beforehand. Somehow getting past the fact that she knew the calves who had contributed to the meal was a little harder than actually trying them. I was so proud once she crossed that final hurdle to call her a TBA (True Beef Aficionado).
Of course there’s other parts of beef that round out your status as a 100% beef lover — ox tail, beef liver, cheek meat (great for barbacoa tacos), and tongue to round out your beef expert status. So many flavors and recipes for using all of beef as our ancestors would have. Once you’ve eaten beef from nose to tail, I just can’t see how anyone can argue against the fact that Beef is Best.
