[woodsyi]

Chateaubriand,  red wine sauce, (homemade with bone marrow and good wine simmered over 12 hrs) sauted mushrooms, garlic and baby potatos on the side make one of my favorite beef dish.  Fillet mignon can sometimes be over sauced or cooked and taste ho-hum, but a whole loin seared on the outside initially and slow cooked until medium rare retains a rightous beef flavor if you use a good prime tender loin.  Of course a good bottle or two of red is a must with it.

You have no idea how hungry you just made me......... This looks like a killer feast.

It sure is.  I love this stuff.  The key is the stock/sauce.  It's a labor of love to spend a whole day roasting, chopping, browning, simmering, monitoring the stock pot and finally reducing to get a couple of quarts of sauce.   Fortunately it can be frozen and I only do it a couple of times a year!

[JoshK]

Thanks for the Picanha tip, didn't know that was tri-tip.  I have been to churrascorias in both Brazil and in NYC.  I love Brazilian food but my wife isn't all that fond.

[woodsyi]

TRI-TIP!!!

Hell yeah!  Tri-Tip is the best by far!

 Next time you eat out take your significant other to a Brazilian style barbecue(churrasco a rodizio) - if you"re lucky to live near one- and you will be served 10/15 different types of meet. Ask for PICANHA (tri-tip) for the best beef you ever sunk your teeth into!! I've been barbecuing for 1/2 a century so what I say is etched in stone !!:lol:  

Hey I am suppose to go to one of these places in LA.  My sister and brother in law raved about the place and told me how they thought of me and my endless appetite for beef when they were there.  Do Brazilian steakhouses also offer those blood sausages that Argentinians do?  Pardon me for bringing up Argentina, but I really enjoyed them when I was down there.

[JoshK]

Love feijoada but the capirinhas will be the death of me.

[JoshK]

Pardon me for bringing up Argentina, but I really enjoyed them when I was down there.

Woodsyi, the sausages or the Argentinians?  

[MaxCast]

Ranch steak with ketchup !!!  yum yum!!!

Just kidding.  I think Porterhouse and marbled steaks like a ribeye are much easier to cook at home vs. a strip or fillet.  With that said I usually get a fillet in a restaurant and PH for home (where I can get messy).  A 2" fillet with 3/16ths  of brown on the sides and consistent red/rare through the middle is wonderful, but that sweet meat close to the bone is great too.

klh, hot fire, put steak on, wait 3 minutes, flip grill 2 minuets.  Add minutes to go from rare to well done.  Try on to open the cover.

what cut is a tri-tip?

[Andrikos]

Mr Alton Brown of Good Eats recommends for sirloin steak to start with low heat ( I know!) and then crank it up:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_24087,00.html

1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak, 1 to 1 1/4-inches thick
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven on broiler setting. Make foil 'snake' out of aluminum foil to use to keep oven door slightly ajar so that broiler won't turn off if it gets too hot. Brush steak with oil and salt and pepper, to taste. Place a piece of foil on the bottom rack as a drip pan. Place another rack in the position above this and put the steak directly on this rack. Cook steak in this position for 5 minutes. Flip steak and cook for another 5 minutes. Move rack with steak to top position in oven, moving rack with foil and drippings just underneath, and cook for 3 minutes. Flip 1 last time and cook for another 3 minutes. Transfer steak to wire rack and rest for 3 to 5 minutes. The above times are for medium doneness. Adjust cooking times up or down as desired.




This guy is money, I'll try it next time I buy some nice sirloins from Costco.

PS My vote is for NY strip steak, the ribeye is waaaay too fatty for my taste and the filet mignon is for ladies...

[Andrikos]

what cut is a tri-tip?

http://www.askthemeatman.com/tri-tip.htm

[PhilNYC]

Put me down as a rib-eye fan...although the best I ever had was a prime rib at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle...

[KT]

Put me down as a rib-eye fan...although the best I ever had was a prime rib at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle...

Phil,

When I was in highschool back in the '80's, I worked for the big computer store in Seattle, Ballard Computer.

For our Chrismas party one year, we went to the Metropolitan Grill. There was a 12' long table literally heaped with hors d'oeurves and appetizers (the little grilled Austrian or German sausages were my favorite).

For our main course, the staff wheeled out a side of prime rib that must have been 5' or 6'long. It was suspended at chest level on some sort of rack. One end was rare and the other well-done. They cut your piece to order depending on what you wanted. There was a beer-based sauce that went on top.

Delicious. Absolutely delicious.

I haven't had a chance to eat at Peter Luger (in Brooklyn), yet, but hopefully soon!

Best,
KT

[bubba966]

although the best I ever had was a prime rib at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle...

Haven't been to the Met yet (even though I've lived within about 5 miles of it for the last 28 years ).

I've heard it's quite good.

Although the last time I had friends over for tenderloins the one guy that works at Microsoft said that the steak I'd cooked that night was the best he'd had in at least 5 years. Which for him included a few trips to the Met, Ruth's Chris, and a couple of other severly spendy places that probably would even let me in the door.

I seriously wish I knew how to replicate that experience. I got lucky that time. Mainly was just guessing as it was dark enough outside I couldn't really see what was going on.

[Tweaker]

Rib-eye, and the best I've ever had in a restaurant was at Houston's Trails' End Restaurant in Kanab Utah.

[zybar]

Put me down as a rib-eye fan...although the best I ever had was a prime rib at the Metropolitan Grill in Seattle...

Hey, I have been there as well when I was out visitng MS on a customer visit.

Very good food!

George

[klh]

I've been to Ruth's Chris and Peter Luger's... I was surprised by how informal it was at PL's. We went with my sisters immediate in-laws two days before her wedding. Her new grandfather has gone there every week for 35 years and all but one time had the same waiter. Pretty amazing. Oh yeah, and the steak, bacon, and spinach were incredible.

[bubba966]

So for all of you listing Porterhouse as your preference over Tenderloin, is this at home or in a restuarant?

[PhilNYC]

Phil,

When I was in highschool back in the '80's, I worked for the big computer store in Seattle, Ballard Computer.

For our Chrismas party one year, we went to the Metropolitan Grill. There was a 12' long table literally heaped with hors d'oeurves and appetizers (the little grilled Austrian or German sausages were my favorite).

For our main course, the staff wheeled out a side of prime rib that must have been 5' or 6'long. It was suspended at chest level on some sort of rack. One end was rare and t ...

KT, that sounds absolutely amazing!  

Btw - I will be a contrarian and say that I've never been all that impressed with Peter Luger's.  It's pretty good, but IMHO not anything more than what you can get at any other pretty good steakhouse.

I haven't been to that many places in NYC, but my favorite is Del Frisco's in the McGraw-Hill building on 6th Ave and 52nd St....

[jqp]

I have had porterhouse and T-bone at many places ranging from Morton's (where they serve a 64 ounce Porterhouse hunk of meat shaped like a small ham, as well as 32 oz and less) to Texas Road House (actually not bad for $13, but not a great cut of meat) I can hardly stand the meat they serve at Lone Star and Longhorn these days because of those foul flavoring sauces.

I belive the Porterhouse is a crosscut of the tenderloin on the one side. (and the other side of the bone is some other cut) So you should always get a great piece of tenderloin/filet minion in a Porterhouse. A T-bone is simply a "poor man's" Porterhouse, with a smaller, less tenderloin-like small side, maybe a dollar or two less per pound.

In my mind tenderloin is usually more of a "baked" cut of meat, not cooked on the grill as much. Porterhouse usually has that seared outer crust which can really give it the flavor. Try it with not much pepper and very little if any salt until it is on the plate. The steak should have lots of flavor just from the charcoal grilling.

T-Bone looks alot like Porterhouse, except in Porterhouse, the filet minion side is bigger and should be distinct from the other side (smaller, denser, more tender, richer flavor).

Cuts of meat can vary widely, even from the same store. It really helps to have someone who is experienced and an honest butcher to get to a good cut of meat.

The steak should be thicker than what most restaurants serve. Then you can cook it over wood charcoal, three flips is ideal I think.

Most run of the mill steak houses use weirdly flavored sauces, disguised as natural juices,  to hide the bad cuts of meat they serve (Sweet, artificial smoke flavoring, etc.) Also they are  often less than 1/2 inch thick which is hard to cook properly over a charcoal grill.

Usually I can judge a good cut of meat by looking at it in the package, but I have gotten some tough stringy ones that looked good. It is best to rely on a trusted butcher. Ask the butcher in the grocery store if he can cut you some Porterhouse steaks, maybe an inch thick, for charcoal grilling. He will usually give you as good as he can at that time.

My stepfather has is a semi-expert on grilling meat - he has been disappointed in grocery stores like Winn Dixie or Harris Teeter after having great success previously with their meat depts. Their beef was just not good quality anymore, after they formerly had some of excellent quality.

[lonewolfny42]

The good news...beef prices will be coming down now that the ban on Canadian beef is lifted....fire up that b-b-q.

Link...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-5150788,00.html[/list:u]

[Dan Driscoll]

So for all of you listing Porterhouse as your preference over Tenderloin, is this at home or in a restuarant?

Both, although I almost never order either at a restaurant. When I go out I generally order either ribeye, sirloin or prime rib.

[klh]

I talked to a premium beef seller last night and he said they don' sell porterhouse because Mad Cow disease is located in the bone marrow and thuse the porterhouse steak is more risky. Is this guy covering up for not having it, or does his argument seem legitimate?