The Reluctant Gourmet's Top Steak Buying Tips

A lot of visitors ask me about buying steaks so I thought I would start putting together some tips on buying steaks, describing various cuts and what to look for when purchasing a good steak. I'll start with some basics and add to this page as I learn more from my resources. You may also be interested in How to Grill a Good Steak? and where to buy steaks online and why just below....



cooking cartoonsTop Steak Buying Tips

1. My #1 tip is get to introduce yourself to your local butcher and become friends.
2. Buy the best grade of meat you can afford...Prime, Choice, Select in that order.
3. When possible, buy from the butchers counter not the pre-packaged section.
4. Look for steaks with fine texture and firm to the touch.
5. You want the color to be a light cherry red color, not deep red. And by all means stay away from gray meat.
6. Look for a steak that has marbling. It is the thin threads of fat running through the meat that makes it Prime and gives it that incredible flavor.
7. Dry aging is considered better than wet aging but that may be a matter of taste. However, avoid meat that has no aging and is too fresh.
8. If you do buy packaged meat, stay away from any with excessive moisture, tears or that are past their sell by date.
9. Just because the label says Angus, doesn't mean it is Certified Black Angus (CBA)
10. Visit the Reluctant Gourmet Web Site often and sign up for my free newsletter!



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steak buying tips#1 Getting to know your butcher

It doesn't matter if you buy your steaks at the supermarket or a gourmet butcher shop. If you want to learn about meat, how to purchase it, what's a good buy today, how to cook it, start a relationship with your butcher. These are the folks who know what you don't and will be glad to help if you just ask.

My own local butchers tell me that customers don't take advantage of their knowledge and experience. They come in with their own preconceived ideas of what a good steak should look like and end up buying an inferior product. A good steak is expensive so why not ask the expert who handles the products everyday what they think is a good bargain. You may be surprised by getting better cuts for less money.


#2 Buy the best grade of meat you can afford

Most of us rarely have the opportunity to buy and taste Premium beef. That's because only 1 - 2.5% of all beef processed in this country is good enough to be graded by the USDA as Prime. The inspector takes in all sort of things when grading for Prime but as a consumer, we are mostly looking at marbling, that network of fat that traverses throughout the meat.

beef and meat grades

Given a choice at the market between a perfectly lean piece of meat and a Prime cut with lines of fat running through it, most of us would pick the lean steak. But it's the marbling that gives the Prime cut the incredible rich, juicy, tender flavor and texture that we are looking for.

Just because Prime isn't that readily available or in a price range we can afford, there is nothing wrong with Choice. There are different grades of Choice so you may want to shop where they consistently buy beef at the higher end of the Choice grade. How will you know? By getting to know your butcher and asking.

Select has the least amount of marbling making it lean but not so tender or tasty. More importantly, you are not going to pay that much more for Choice than you are for Select, so if you can, spend the extra dollars and buy Choice. In my opinion, there's nothing worse then chewing and chewing and chewing through a tough, flavorless piece of meat.

steak buying tipsonline sources: Steaks

It's my opinion, you should find a reputable meat market or supermarket to buy your meat but some of you may not have that luxury.

You may find yourself in a situation where your local market doesn't have a good selection of choice meat. You may want to serve a Prime cut for a special occasion. Or you may want to send a friend or client some steaks for a special occasion or as a thank you.

In that case, there are some good online sources where you can buy a wide variety of steaks. I highly recommend MyButcher.com

You probably never heard of MyButcher.com but they offer both USDA Prime Beef & Premium Black Angus. All their beef has been aged for a minimum of 21 days which is a good thing.

They also cut the meat to order rather than pre-cut the meat so your steaks are fresh. The steaks at MyButcher.com are never frozen and are sent to fresh which really makes a difference when buying quality meat.

A Brief History of Chocolate

* Confectionery history has a record of at least 4,000 years, when Egyptians displayed
their pleasures on papyrus. Sweetmeats were being sold in the marketplace in 1566 BC.
Yet chocolate didn't appear on the scene until the ancient Aztec and Mayan cultures
discovered the value of the cacao plant. It is reputed to have originated in the Amazon
or Orinoco basin.

* In 600 A.D. the Mayans migrated into the northern regions of South America,
establishing the earliest known cocoa plantations in the Yucatan. It has been argued that
the Mayans had been familiar with cocoa several centuries prior to this date. They
considered it a valuable commodity, used both as a means of payment and as units of
calculation.

* Mayans and Aztecs took beans from the "cacao" tree and made a drink they called
"xocoatl." Aztec Indian legend held that cacao seeds had been brought from Paradise and
that wisdom and power came from eating the fruit of the cacao tree.

* Ancient chronicles report that the Aztecs, believing that the god Quetzalcoatl traveled
to earth on a beam of the Morning Star with a cacao tree from Paradise, took his offering
to the people. They learned from Quetzalcoatl how to roast and grind the cacao seeds,
making a nourishing paste that could be dissolved in water. They added spices and
called this drink "chocolatl," or bitter-water, and believed it brought universal wisdom
and knowledge.

* The word "chocolate" is said to derive from the Mayan "xocoatl"; cocoa from the Aztec
"cacahuatl." The Mexican Indian word "chocolate" comes from a combination of the
terms choco ("foam") and atl ("water"); early chocolate was only consumed in beverage
form. As part of a ritual in twelfth-century Mesoamerican marriages, a mug of the
frothy chocolate was shared.

* Arthur W. Knapp, author of The Cocoa and Chocolate Industry (Pitman, 1923) points
out that if we believe Mexican mythology, "chocolate was consumed by the Gods in
Paradise, and the seed of cocoa was conveyed to man as a special blessing by the God of
the Air."

* Ancient Mexicans believed that Tonacatecutli, the goddess of food, and
Calchiuhtlucue, the goddess of water, were guardian goddesses of cocoa. Each year they
performed human sacrifices for the goddesses, giving the victim cocoa at his last meal.

* Swedish naturalist Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) was dissatisfied with the word
"cocoa," so renamed it "theobroma," Greek for "food of the gods."

* Christopher Columbus is said to have brought back cacao beans to King Ferdinand
from his fourth visit to the New World, but they were overlooked in favor of the many
other treasures he had found.

* Chocolate was first noted in 1519 when Spanish explorer Hernando Cortez visited the
court of Emperor Montezuma of Mexico. American historian William Hickling's
History of the Conquest of Mexico (1838) reports that Montezuma "took no other
beverage than the chocolatl, a potation of chocolate, flavored with vanilla and spices,
and so prepared as to be reduced to a froth of the consistency of honey, which gradually
dissolved in the mouth and was taken cold." The fact that Montezuma consumed his
"chocolatl" in goblets before entering his harem led to the belief that it was an
aphrodisiac.

* In 1528 Cortez brought chocolate back from Mexico to the royal court of King Charles
V. Monks, hidden away in Spanish monasteries, processed the cocoa beans and kept
chocolate a secret for nearly a century. It made a profitable industry for Spain, which
planted cocoa trees in its overseas colonies.

* It took an Italian traveler, Antonio Carletti, to discover the chocolate treasure in 1606
and take it into other parts of Europe.

* "With the decline of Spain as a power, the secret of cacao leaked out at last, and the
Spanish Crown's monopoly of the chocolate trade came to an end. In a few years the
knowledge of it had spread through France, Italy, Germany, and England." (The Nestle
Company, Inc., White Plains, New York, The History of Chocolate and Cocoa, p. 2.)

* When the Spanish Princess Maria Theresa was betrothed to Louis XIV of France in
1615, she gave her fiancé an engagement gift of chocolate, packaged in an elegantly
ornate chest. Their marriage was symbolic of the marriage of chocolate in the Spanish-
Franco culture.

* The first chocolate house was reputedly opened in London in 1657 by a Frenchman.
Costing 10 to 15 shillings per pound, chocolate was considered a beverage for the elite
class. Sixteenth-century Spanish historian Oviedo noted: "None but the rich and noble
could afford to drink chocolatl as it was literally drinking money. Cocoa passed currency
as money among all nations; thus a rabbit in Nicaragua sold for 10 cocoa nibs, and 100 of
these seeds could buy a tolerably good slave."

* Chocolate also appears to have been used as a medicinal remedy by leading physicians
of the day. Christopher Ludwig Hoffmann's treatise Potus Chocolate recommends
chocolate for many diseases, citing it as a cure for Cardinal Richelieu's ills.

* Chocolate traveled to the Low Countries with the Duke of Alba. By 1730, it had
dropped in price from $3 per lb to being within the financial reach of those other than
the very wealthy. The invention of the cocoa press in 1828 helped further to cut prices
and improve the quality of chocolate by squeezing out some of the cocoa butter and
giving the beverage a smoother consistency.

* With the Industrial Revolution came the mass production of chocolate, spreading its
popularity among the citizenry.

* Discussing the introduction of coffee, tea, and cocoa into Europe, Isaac Disraeli (1791-
1834) wrote in his six-volume Curiosities of Literature: "Chocolate the Spaniards
brought from Mexico, where it was denominated chocolatl. It was a coarse mixture of
ground cacao and Indian corn with roucou; but the Spaniards, liking its nourishment,
improved it into a richer compound with sugar, vanilla and other aromatics. We had
Chocolate houses in London long after coffee houses; they seemed to have associated
something more elegant and refined in their new form when the other had become
common."

* Prince Albert's Exposition in 1851 in London was the first time the United States was
introduced to bonbons, chocolate creams, hand candies (called "boiled sweets"), and
caramels.

* An 1891 publication on The Chocolate-Plant by Walter Baker a Co. records that, "At
the discovery of America, the natives of the narrower portion of the continent
bordering on the Caribbean Sea were found in possession of two luxuries which have
been every where recognized as worthy of extensive cultivation; namely, tobacco and
chocolate."

* Chocolate was introduced to the United States in 1765 when John Hanan brought
cocoa beans from the West Indies into Dorchester, Massachusetts, to refine them with
the help of Dr. James Baker. The first chocolate factory in the country was established
there.

* Yet, chocolate wasn't really accepted by the American colonists until fishermen from
Gloucester, Massachusetts, accepted cocoa beans as payment for cargo in tropical
America.

* Where chocolate was mostly considered a beverage for centuries, and predominantly
for men, it became recognized as an appropriate drink for children in the seventeenth
century. It had many different additions: milk, wine, beer, sweeteners, and spices. Dri
nking chocolate was considered a very fashionable social event.

* Eating chocolate was introduced in 1674 in the form of rolls and cakes, served in the
various chocolate emporiums.

* In 1747 Frederick the Great issued an edict forbidding the hawking of chocolate.

* By 1795, Dr. Joseph Fry of Bristol, England, employed a steam engine for grinding cocoa
beans, an invention that led to the manufacture of chocolate on a large scale.

*Around 1847, Fry & Sons sold a "Chocolat Delicieux a Manger," which is thought to be
the first chocolate bar for eating.

* Nestle (The History of Chocolate and Cocoa, p. 3) declares that from 1800 to the present
day, these four factors contributed to chocolate's "coming of age" as a worldwide food
product:

1.The introduction of cocoa powder in 1828;

2.The reduction of excise duties;

3.Improvements in transportation facilities, from plantation to factory;

4.The invention of eating chocolate, and improvements in manufacturing methods.

* By the year 1810, Venezuela was producing half the world's requirements for cocoa,
and one-third of all the cocoa produced in the world was being consumed by the
Spaniards.

* The invention of the cocoa press in 1828 by C.J. Van Houten, a Dutch chocolate master,
helped reduce the price of chocolate and bring it to the masses. By squeezing out cocoa
butter from the beans, Van Houten's "dutching" was an alkalizing process.

* In his 1923 volume The Cocoa and Chocolate Industry, Arthur W. Knapp attributes
the rise in popularity of cocoa to these innovations:

1.The introduction by Van Houten of cocoa powder as we now know it.

2.The reduction of the duty to a low figure which remained constant for a number of
years.

3.The great improvements that have taken place in the methods of transport.

4.Improvements in the manufacture of eating chocolate.


* Daniel Peter of Vevey, Switzerland, experimented for eight years before finally
inventing a means of making milk chocolate for eating in 1876. He brought his creation
to a Swiss firm that today is the world's largest producer of chocolate: Nestle.

* In 1879 Rodolphe Lindt of Berne, Switzerland, produced chocolate that melted on the
tongue. He invented "conching," a means of heating and rolling chocolate to refine it.
After chocolate had been conched for 72 hours and had more cocoa butter added to it,
the original "fondant" was created.

* Cadbury Brothers displayed eating chocolate in 1849 at an exhibition in Bingley Hall at
Birmingham, England.

* Swiss confiseur Jules Sechaud of Montreux introduced a process for manufacturing
filled chocolates in 1913.

* The New York Cocoa Exchange, located at the World Trade Center, was begun October
1, 1925, so that buyers and sellers could get together for transactions.

* Brazil and the Ivory Coast are leaders in the cocoa bean belt, accounting for nearly half
of the world's cocoa.

* While the United States leads the world in cocoa bean importation and chocolate
production, Switzerland continues as the leader in per capita chocolate consumption.

* In 1980 a story of chocolate espionage hit the world press when an apprentice of the
Swiss company of Suchard-Tobler unsuccessfully attempted to sell secret chocolate
recipes to Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, and other countries.

* By the 1990s, chocolate had proven its popularity as a product, and its success as a big
business. Annual world consumption of cocoa beans averages approximately 600,000
tons, and per capita chocolate consumption is greatly on the rise. Chocolate manufact
uring in the United States is a multibillion-dollar industry. According to Norman
Kolpas (1978, p. 106),

"We have seen how chocolate progressed from a primitive drink and food of ancient
Latin American tribes -- a part of their religious, commerce and social life -- to a drink
favored by the elite of European society and gradually improved until it was in
comparably drinkable and, later, superbly edible. We have also followed its complex
transformation from the closely packed seeds of the fruit of an exotic tree to a wide
variety of carefully manufactured cocoa and chocolate products. Beyond the historical,
agricultural and commercial, and culinary sides to chocolate, others: affect on our health
and beauty, and inspiration to literature and the arts."