Well obviously a T-bone is close, but give me the broader filet mignon side and smaller NY Strip side that the Porterhouse puts on the table any day of the week.
Sauteed in a super hot pan no more than 5 minutes total with a dab of evoo in the pan, lightly salted and generously peppered. Or grilled over real charcoal...
You wanna argue?
A closely related issue is that the two parts of a porterhouse cook differently, and it's tricky to do them both justice - especially for those of use who don't do steak all that often. Even high-end steakhouses seem to struggle with this, but it doesn't matter because hardly anybody checks both sections after being served, and even fewer will reject an expensive steak after cutting into it. (I did it once, reluctantly: I ordered medium rare, and my filet arrived without a trace of pink; I wound up eating the replacement while the rest of the party was having dessert.)
A bit of heresy: I actually prefer "flavor" cuts like skirt steak. I just like the way they absorb the flavor of a good marinade, and I find them easier to cook.
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The bone in rib eye is a worthy challenger no doubt. But I have two objections to it. The first and more serious one is that it invariably has thick streaks and even hunks of fat in its center that one must navigate if one chooses not to eat lumps of fat, which at my age I must. The second, which is also a problem in a different way with the Porterhouse, is that with a good sized bone on one end it tends to be really blood rare next to that bone when the heart of the steak is a perfect medium rare. For me, I just eat the blood rare part, but for my wife and kids that is inedible next to the bone, unless I overcook the whole piece to med or med well, G-d forbid.
A closely related issue is that the two parts of a porterhouse cook differently, and it's tricky to do them both justice - especially for those of use who don't do steak all that often. Even high-end steakhouses seem to struggle with this, but it doesn't matter because hardly anybody checks both sections after being served, and even fewer will reject an expensive steak after cutting into it. (I did it once, reluctantly: I ordered medium rare, and my filet arrived without a trace of pink; I wound up eating the replacement while the rest of the party was having dessert.)
A bit of heresy: I actually prefer "flavor" cuts like skirt steak. I just like the way they absorb the flavor of a good marinade, and I find them easier to cook.
Leaving aside the heresy of preferring cuts that take to a marinade well (I civilly chose to simply ignore that B^3, because you are a great football poster), the issue of the filet side cooking faster than the sirloin side is real. Frankly, any pro grill cook or chef in a restaurant who cooks several to many steaks during a given shift should have figured that out after a few shifts with any attention to detail.
On a grill with underneath flames or coals, there are hotter and cooler areas. In a restaurant often grills are actually angled so parts are closer or further from the heat. You simply need to cook the Porterhouse with the sirloin moiety oriented towards the hotter part of the grill.
As a saute in a hot pan, or restaurant style seared very quickly in a hot pan on both sides and then slid into a hot oven for a few minutes (best when a thick sizeable steak is at hand) one needs to slip a slice of potato under the filet side immediately after both sides have been seared. Removed from contact with the hot skillet, the fillet continues to cook much more slowly than the sirloin.
I actually taught myself this technique while cooking fillets of fish like salmon that often have a thick side and a thin one. And used a slice of lemon...
BTW, what are your favorite wine pairings for a good porterhouse? I've heard positive buzz about a 2012 called Liquidity, or some such. Know anything about it? ;o)
2011 Gala 2 by Luigi Boss from Argentina. I think you can find it between $25-$30 in the US. Terrific stuff, much in the style of my Liquidity, and reading the back label production notes made by a very similar process to the one I use. The barrel aging time (in new French oak barrels) is 14 months rather than the 19 months my Liquidity was barrel aged, so the spice and oak characteristics are a bit less prominent. But it's a heckuva wine for less than $30. Compares to Napa stuff at twice the price or more, but that's the economy of making wine in Argentina...
Found it in NYC linked below. The 2011 looks to be more than $30, but the 2012 is less.
Anyway an excellent wine and a good deal, comparable to far more expensive wines from Napa.
America's Wine Shop Manhattan - ( New Window )
I can't abide overcooked fish at all.
If a steak goes from med-rare to medium not that big a deal. Flat out rare still fine by me. Even med-well is edible. Ok well done is a disaster for fine cuts.
But fish simply has to be à point!
I have heard people say to use mayo instead of oil though. I'm going to try it the next time I grill my steak.
avacado oil is what I use when I need a high temp oil. But EVOO has a great flavor not found in your grape seed, etc
Oh, that and a nice bottle of Barolo.
But it's the cap muscle on the prime rib. You cut it off and serve it as steak and apparently it's awesome.
Quote:
One is that it's just too much meat for me to eat in one sitting. The simple answer is to share, but personally I'd rather just have either a filet or a strip, rather than combining them into one meal. Yeah, I know: first-world problem. But hey, you asked.
A closely related issue is that the two parts of a porterhouse cook differently, and it's tricky to do them both justice - especially for those of use who don't do steak all that often. Even high-end steakhouses seem to struggle with this, but it doesn't matter because hardly anybody checks both sections after being served, and even fewer will reject an expensive steak after cutting into it. (I did it once, reluctantly: I ordered medium rare, and my filet arrived without a trace of pink; I wound up eating the replacement while the rest of the party was having dessert.)
A bit of heresy: I actually prefer "flavor" cuts like skirt steak. I just like the way they absorb the flavor of a good marinade, and I find them easier to cook.
Leaving aside the heresy of preferring cuts that take to a marinade well (I civilly chose to simply ignore that B^3, because you are a great football poster), the issue of the filet side cooking faster than the sirloin side is real. Frankly, any pro grill cook or chef in a restaurant who cooks several to many steaks during a given shift should have figured that out after a few shifts with any attention to detail.
On a grill with underneath flames or coals, there are hotter and cooler areas. In a restaurant often grills are actually angled so parts are closer or further from the heat. You simply need to cook the Porterhouse with the sirloin moiety oriented towards the hotter part of the grill.
As a saute in a hot pan, or restaurant style seared very quickly in a hot pan on both sides and then slid into a hot oven for a few minutes (best when a thick sizeable steak is at hand) one needs to slip a slice of potato under the filet side immediately after both sides have been seared. Removed from contact with the hot skillet, the fillet continues to cook much more slowly than the sirloin.
I actually taught myself this technique while cooking fillets of fish like salmon that often have a thick side and a thin one. And used a slice of lemon...
But it's the cap muscle on the prime rib. You cut it off and serve it as steak and apparently it's awesome.
Is this it?
Quote:
oh crap..I forgot the name of it.
But it's the cap muscle on the prime rib. You cut it off and serve it as steak and apparently it's awesome.
Is this it?
+100000
Seasoned with an espresso rub over hardwood coals. Nothing like it.
I love porterhouse and t-bone which I always thought were the same thing only the porterhouse is bigger, so they'd taste almost the same, just more meat on the porterhouse (unless I'm mistaken - Lou is the expert here).
the problem I have with t-bone/porterhouse is cooking it the strip side cooks slower than the filet side, so I always err to the less done-ness an wind up with a closer to rare strip, which is fine, they're so expensive I rarely buy them.
the NY strip is my go-to because I can usually get them pretty cheap or at least on sale, they're easy to cook and they taste great.
I do also do in fact cook some steaks that almost (ie always) require marinating. Cuts like steak tips (not sure if they sell outside of new england as steak tips, maybe a different name, but they are very tough, and if you don't marinate them to break down some of the fibers you wind up with a very chewy piece of meat. the less done, more chewy, some places char-grill them. I usually use a red wine marinade or make teriyaki - my kids love teriyaki steak tips.
the last cut of meat I'm getting out is a filet, it's tiny (healthy since it's so low fat, but tiny) and IMO always has some kind of sauce on it because despite the tenderness, without the fat it lacks some flavor.
My second is tied with Filet and Skirt steak. I have never been a big fan or the NY Strip.
I will say recently in my area I have found Tri-tip and have been buying that. I have never cooked with it before and pretty impressed with the flavor. To me kind of a milder short rib flavor very good IMO.
2. Skirt steak.
3. Porterhouse.
In that order
Not for my blasphemies: I often prefer steak frites (hanger) from a bistro to a fancy primal cut. I generally think lamb chops are better than steak, by a healthy margin. And I might feel the same way about Italian sausage.
Now here is the odd part. Most steaks I eat rare to medium rare. For ribeye I like it close to medium. This gives the extra fat time to render and bast the meat. It also gives more time to breakdown some of connective tissue, something the ribeye has more of than a porterhouse. Let it rest for 5-10.
avacado oil is what I use when I need a high temp oil. But EVOO has a great flavor not found in your grape seed, etc
We found an avacado spray oil in the supermarket and put it on all meats while grilling. You can put on the Evoo after it's grilled if you want the flavor.
Another great thing to do with thinly cut filet is to make a steak diane. It's my go to "impress a girl" meal. I linked to Gordon Ramsay's recipe. It's outstanding.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rWZNHkrsNg - ( New Window )
I mentioned my objection to the streaks and nodes of fat running through the ribeye and apparently that doesn't annoy many here like it does me. But you should at least understand that those nodes and streaks are NOT what makes this or that cut "tastier". It's the fine grained fat within the flesh that gives real prime grades and cuts their superior flavoring, as well as dry aging which is kinda rare to find nowadays (pun intended.) Thick streaks of fat that one finds within the rib eye as well as outside it when butchering or trimming a whole rib eye bone in roast, as well as on the entire perimeter of a Porterhouse or T-bone, barely contribute to flavor. They do increase to the greasiness of the steak, if left untrimmed. But it's no substitute for good marbling.
Filet mignon, or tenderloin, the smaller side of the T-bone or Porterhouse, is indeed a less flavorful cut than the ribeye or the sirloin side of the Porterhouse because it is in fact less well marbled. But in this specific flesh you don't need the marbling for tenderness at all; it is by far the tenderest cut of the entire animal.
And one person's "less flavorful" is another's "more delicate".
When we can find a large thick cut of Porterhouse, as one might find in rural Tuscany when ordering bisteca Chiantigana, the less flavored, less marbled, half step more cooked filet side goes to my wife. I take the rest and gnaw on the bloody meat at the bone...
Have another comment or two to make later.
Another great thing to do with thinly cut filet is to make a steak diane. It's my go to "impress a girl" meal. I linked to Gordon Ramsay's recipe. It's outstanding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9rWZNHkrsNg - ( New Window )
That sounds delightful.