Prime
The highest grade. We keep some on Park Avenue.
Prime, Choice, Select
Three grades of beef in common use.
Choice
The medium grade. A good Choice steak is a good steak.
Select
The third of the three.
The steaks above are our drawings, to give you the idea. They aren't USDA's marbling cards.
“Prime may cost more per pound but it's worth it.”
Vincent Losavio, on the shop's old website. He's biased. He's also right.
Dry aging, in plain words
Take good beef. Unwrap it. Put it in a cold cooler with the air moving. Wait.
Two things happen while you wait. Water leaves the meat, so what's left tastes more like beef. And the beef's own enzymes go to work on the tough fibers, so it gets tender. That's all aging is. Nothing gets added.
The outside dries out hard and gets trimmed off, and the whole piece weighs less than when it went in. That's why dry aged costs more. You're paying for what's no longer there.
Most beef sold today ages in a sealed bag on the way to the store. That's wet aging. It tenderizes, but the water stays.
How long? Commonly a matter of weeks, and it depends on the cut.
What you're looking at
Marbling
The white flecks inside the red. Fat in the muscle, not around it.
It melts as the meat cooks, and it's a big part of what you taste.
Look for fine, even flecks all through the lean. A thick strip of fat on the edge is a different thing. That's the part your dog is hoping for.
This is what you pay for.
Where it all comes from
Tap a section to read about it.
The cuts
The forequarter
- Chuck
-
Forequarter, neck and shoulder
Pot roast, stew and the reason a good burger tastes like something. Flat iron, a tender steak, comes from here too.
Braise, stew, grind
- Rib
-
Forequarter, behind the chuck
Prime rib is the roast. A rib eye is the same meat as a steak, without the bone. Note that "prime rib" names the cut, not the grade, so USDA Prime is a separate question. Ask it.
Roast, grill
- Plate
-
Forequarter, under the ribs
Home of the skirt steak, which comes from the diaphragm: lots of flavor, and it loves a marinade. Short ribs come from this end of the animal too.
Marinate, braise
- Brisket
-
Forequarter, the breast
Tough until it isn't. Give it time and low heat. It's also what corned beef is made from. Corned beef and cabbage.
Low and slow, or corned
- Shank
-
The front leg
All muscle and bone, so it needs a long wet cook. On a calf, a shank cut across the bone is osso buco. Osso buco.
Braise, soup
- Pork, Lamb, Veal
-
Same layout, smaller animal
- Center cut chops. Pork, lamb or veal chops from the rib or loin.
- Crown roast. The rib section of a pork or lamb loin, tied into a circle with the bones up.
The hindquarter
- Short Loin
-
Hindquarter, middle of the back
The most tender stretch on the animal, in two muscles: the strip and the tenderloin. Most of the steaks you've heard of come from here.
Grill, broil, pan sear
- Strip. Also New York strip or shell steak. Beefy, with a good chew.
- Filet mignon. From the tenderloin. The most tender cut there is, and the mildest.
- T-bone. A T-shaped bone with strip on one side and tenderloin on the other.
- Porterhouse. A T-bone with a bigger piece of tenderloin. Bring a friend, or don't.
- Sirloin
-
Hindquarter, behind the short loin
Lean and beefy, usually sold as steaks or roasts. Not as tender as the short loin, and more to chew on.
Grill, roast
- Round
-
Hindquarter, the back leg
Lean and meaty. Eye round, bottom round and rump roasts come from around here. London broil is really a way of cooking: a thick lean steak, broiled hot and sliced thin across the grain.
Roast, slice thin
- Flank
-
Hindquarter, the belly
A long flat steak with a grain you can see. Marinate it, cook it hot and fast, and slice across that grain.
Marinate, high heat
Done is a number
- Steaks, chops, roasts145°F, then rest 3 minutes. Beef, pork, veal, lamb
- Ground meat160°F. Burgers, meatloaf.
- Poultry165°F. All of it, ground or whole
Those are safe minimums.
Buy a thermometer. It's cheaper than the steak.
What to say at the counter
- What you're making. The cut depends on it.
- How many people.
- Bone in or out, thick or thin.