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Steaks Defined: T-Bone vs. Porterhouse

January 22, 2009 By Chip Carter

Hey Roy, “Love Ya Meat” from up here in Buffalo! Need you to settle a bet: What’s the difference between a Porterhouse and a T-bone?

Devon
Buffalo, New York

Thanks Devon. Lets start with what they have in common (other than being delicious and ideal for grilling!!!). Both the T-bone and the Porterhouse consist of a ‘T’ shaped bone with meat on each side. The larger side contains meat from the striploin while the smaller side contains meat from the tenderloin.

Example of Porthouse Steaks

Example of Porthouse Steaks

The Porterhouse is a big beautiful steak – pushing 2 to 2 ½ pounds. It’s cut from the large end (rear) of the short loin and contains more of the tenderloin than the T-bone. Usually pretty pricey, but worth every penny when the mood strikes you.



The T-bone is cut from the narrow end, which is further forward in the short loin and also very tasty!

But in case you need numbers to settle this bet, the good old USDA is here to help. According to their Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications document, the tenderloin must be at least 1.25 inches (32 mm) thick to be classified a porterhouse, while the tenderloin must be at least ½ inch (13 mm) thick for the steak to be classified a T-bone.

Nice.

Devon, you gotta let us know who won the bet and what the ‘steaks’ were!!!

Until next time – like I always say…

Love Your Meat,

Roy

Filed Under: Love Your Meat Tagged With: beef, porterhouse, steak, striploin, t-bone, tbone, tenderloin, USDA

Schwartz’ Steak and Beef Spices

January 14, 2009 By Chip Carter

Schwartz’s Steak Spice

I’m definitely not the kind of guy who’s ever going to be tied down to one rub, especially not a commercially prepared one. There are just too many spice combos to try and whip up myself! However, every now and then Bubba comes across a spice blend he’s gotta write home about! So I’m gonna  tell you about a rub I discovered on a trip to Montreal, Canada to visit some buddies – Schwartz’ Steak and Beef Spice. I’m not saying it’s all I’ll ever use on my BBQ, but it did cause me to go through a bit of a “Schwartz’ phase”.

Now, before I go any further, I’ve gotta warn you that I have no idea if you can get this stuff anywhere but in Montreal. Still, it’s so good that I just had to share it with the Nation. If you find yourself there or have some friends or relatives who can get it and ship it to you, consider it. It’s really that good.



Schwartz’ is a hole in the wall delicatessen in downtown Montreal – one of these places with line ups around the block at any time of the day. They’re specialty is Montreal Smoked Meat, an awesome, greasy, spicy smoked meat that’s great with hot rye bread and an even hotter mustard (smoked meat is something you should definitely try when in Montreal. Schwartz’ is the “classic” place to go, but you can get it elsewhere, so I’ve been told).

So I’m eating my Smoked Meat Sandwich elbow to elbow with my friends and everyone else in the place, and I’m really into the spice on the meat. It’s a blend of all sorts of things, but what really stands out is the coarseness of all the herbs and spices, chunks of salt, peppercorns and garlic and mustard seeds and other good stuff. I don’t know about you but I find that a lot of commercial blends grind everything up so fine and let salt dominate the whole mess that there isn’t any pow left, if you know what I mean. Schwartz’ spice blend is still salty, but there are so many other things going on and they haven’t pounded the smack out of everything – this blend “gets it” and gets it right. (Side note – of course, finely ground chili powders, cumin, and paprika can all have their place in a rub – I’m talking about those packets that basically look and taste like fake fire-engine colored salt.)

So anyway, I’m eating my smoked meat sandwich, and I notice they actually sell their spice blend. Naturally, I buy a couple to take home as a souvenir, the best kind being the kind you can eat, of course. And I also buy a couple of their Poultry Spice Blend thinking that it’ll probably be good, too.

I take it home and try it out, first on steak. Whoa! It’s just awesome. And I’ve had a lot of steak with a lot of incredible homemade rubs in my time. This leads to me trying it on pork and burgers and even a beef roast. I’m even adding dashes of it to gravies and sauces as the week goes on. Pretty soon, I’m regretting picking up only two little bottles. And the poultry seasoning is no slouch either (less salty than the Beef Blend, more herbs). It’s great on chicken, and I even tried it on pork – I actually preferred the poultry blend on the pork.

They don’t actually list their exact ingredients, stating only that there are spices, garlic, salt and herbs. The good folk at Schwartz’ is protecting a secret lasting generations, I guess. But they’ve really hit on a genius blend of simple things.

Anyway, from a die-hard do-it-yourselfer, a rave review for a prepared blend is a rare thing. Then again, it’s a good family recipe and one that’s not available at any ol’ store, so I won’t feel too bad.

Next time you’re in Montreal, you know where to go. And if you are heading there, let me know, will ya? Now excuse me while I call up my Canadian buddy and see if he wouldn’t mind running down to Schwartz’, and then to the mail box for Bubba…

– Bubba

Filed Under: Sauces & Rubs Tagged With: montreal, schwartz, spice, steak

What is Marbled Beef? Does it Taste Better?

January 14, 2009 By Dr. T

Marvelous Marbling

Question:
Hey Roy, loved your porterhouse post. Got a question for you concerning ‘marbled beef’. Does it really taste better and what do you look for?
Scott in Ann Arbor, MI

Answer:
Thanks Scott. I really like this question because ‘marbling’ is a term that gets tossed around a lot in cookbooks and on cooking shows, but I don’t think is really understood by a lot of people.

First let’s take a look at what we are talking about here:

Example of Perfectly Marbled Beef

Example of Perfectly Marbled Beef

So the ‘marbling effect’ pictured above is produced by the fine evenly distributed flecks of white intramuscular fat distributed throughout this steak – NOT the dense outer fat around the outside.



Compare this to the steak below:

Example of Poorly Marbled Beef

Example of Poorly Marbled Beef

Pretty obvious that there is no marbling in this cut.

Now that we are all on the same page, the next part of your question gets really interesting. Does marbling make for a juicier, more tender better tasting steak? There is no doubt in my mind about the answer here – YES – and if the years of experience aren’t enough for you, believe it or not there is data to support this!

In the May 31, 2007 issue of the well respected Journal of Food Quality, author G.C. Smith published “RELATIONSHIP OF USDA MARBLING GROUPS TO PALATABILITY OF COOKED BEEF”. Their conclusions – and I’ll just cut to the chase here, because you know I could go on for hours about this stuff – “as marbling increased from practically devoid to moderately abundant … steaks were more palatable about 2/3 of the time …”. Don’t you just love science?

Until next time – like I always say…

Love your meat,

Roy

Filed Under: Love Your Meat Tagged With: beef, butcher, marbled, marbling, ribeye, steak, striploin

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