Re:Newbie Question

[Anonymous]

For my taste and that of my partner, I’ve decided to fully trim all of the outer hard dried crust of the aged meat off. We’ve tried cooking the steaks untrimmed and partially trimmed, and neither of us care for the flavor of that dried outer layer. The weight reduction resulting from full trimming doesn’t bother us. The taste and texture of the aged beef makes it well worth it. And even so, it’s still cheaper than buying prime aged beef from the butchers and high-end grocery meat markets that age and sell it sliced to order.

My routine now is to buy meat according to my planned use. For meat that I want to serve as steaks, I only buy prime grade beef from a local butcher. He lets me inspect and pick the subprimal I want. I generally buy rib eye or a strip subprimal.

For meat that I plan to use for shish kabobs or carne asada or fajitas or steak sandwiches, or for any dish where the meat will be marinated, I buy the best ribeye, strip, or sirloin I can find at Costco. A choice grade whole top sirloin aged 28 days is my favorite for these purposes.

My Costco very seldom has prime grade ribeye or strip, so I can only buy choice most of the time. The choice grade from Costco is typically about half the price per pound that I pay for prime grade beef from the local butcher shop. The result after dry aging a choice grade subprimal is significantly improved texture and beef flavor, especially with sirloin, but even the choice ribeye or strip isn’t tender enough, for my taste, to be used as a straight up grilled steak.