ok ok
i know i know
it’s crazy
decadent
over the top
children are starving

but…

this was some mighty fine beef… and i mean ‘my-T-fiiine’.  so allow me to begin by saying – listen to me here.  do some overtime, sell something on ebay, cut your cable off for a month – or whatever works in your world.  and then go get you some lobel’s steaks.

after cashing in all our small change, we decided upon the natural prime strip steaks as opposed to the same cut in the corn fed prime.  i’ve got a thing about keeping it all grass fed (long story – not now).  and hell, they were only $64 a lb.  a mere $17 more than lobel’s average every day $47 a lb prime. 

oh yeah.  wait one sec.  umm, did i mention the overnight shipping?  it hikes up the price some but it could’ve been worse.  lobel’s isn’t scoring on the shipping which i appreciate.

all their beef is dry aged 6 weeks.  i think a lot of the dry aged beef you tend to get around town is aged for more like 2 weeks.  so see?  right there lobel’s has got to be 3x better which must explain why it is 3x more expensive.  and that calculation is based on the corn fed lobel’s up against the $15 a lb. choice graded that you tend to see.  at least in the quasi better markets in my neck of the woods.  but i’m in nashville so use these calculations – or not - and move forward.

i can tell you that ‘the fresh market’ - a chain of small boutique like grocery stores, sells their corn fed choice hereford steaks for $11 a lb.  at least that’s what they cost yesterday but i think they may have been running a special.  i bought one so that we could do a comparison taste test.  and people, let me just say that we’re talking two different animals here.  literally and figuratively, just not of the same realm.  btw – in the above pic the impostor is on the left, and unlike us humans, they may all look alike – but cook up those puppies and we’re talking barney’s vs. target.  the other is still doable, but for the masses.  not us.  never us.  ok… at least not us yesterday.

naturally, i always try to grill when it’s been 101 degrees that day – it’s like adding fuel to an already blazing fire.   but we switched on the TEC grill, got her going to a roaring 900 degrees and stepped back a pace or two.  the method was simple and i advise that you not to vary from it.  oil the meat up with evoo and then liberally salt and pepper both sides.  i used maldon salt and a good black tellicherry.  for the record, ours were 16 oz. each and about 2 inches thick.  we split the 3 steaks – impostor included - amongst the 4 of us.

then throw the steaks on.  give them about 3 minutes a side to get them all sealed up and to get that steakhouse crust happening and then lower the heat and let them finish.  we did a total of 14 minutes to get them medium rare.  when they come off the heat let them rest for a few minutes to allow the juices to redistribute before slicing.  we approximated our time for the most part and i guess we lucked out because they were just perfect – or close.  anyway, we were quite pleased with ourselves.

because, i rarely do steaks or much of any red meat.  maybe once a month but probably less.  maybe i’ll start to cook steaks more often.  maybe i’ll sell my car to support my habit.  because now it’s lobel’s or bust.  prime all the way.  leave the choice cuts for the plebeians.  oh and please note that lobel’s states: only 2% of all beef is certified prime and from there lobel’s gets the top 2% of the high prime.  and i wonder, just who the hell is calculating all of this???

as sides we had a multi-colored heirloom tomato salad because how could we not, corn on the cob with an irish butter that i like called kerrygold- and broccolini sauteed with evoo and garlic, finished off with some pecorino.

morton’s…  bite me.