IntroductionIn the past year, whenever we mentioned to someone that we were working on a book about steak, the unfailing response would be, “Steak? How can anyone write a whole book about steak?”
That’s funny, as our sense has always been the opposite: “How can we ever meaningfully cover steak in just one book?”
But those two differing responses basically sum up the current state of steak in America and make a good case for why this book needs to exist. On the one hand, steak is among the simplest, most convenient, and most elemental of all foods. It is beef plus fire. Preparing steak requires very little in terms of money, thought, time, and equipment. But a
sublime steak? That requires a fair bit of moola, consideration, patience, and accessories.
Clearly, then, this book is meant as a companion in the pursuit of sublime steak. And to get there, we believe you have to think through the meat from its source until it comes off the grill.
The first section of this book is all about beef. It will help you to know a little bit more about its history, the industry in general, breeds and feeds, and some of the core issues surrounding steak consumption today. We tell you how to find the best possible raw materials from the best purveyors—ranchers, butchers, and more. We talk about the wide and wonderful world of steak cuts, from the usual suspects, like porterhouse and T-bone, to the new wave of “butcher’s cuts,” like hanger and bavette. In the second section, we share some tips and tricks for taking your steaks to the next level, dry aging being the big one. (Spoiler alert: It’s not that hard and, in fact, it’s really fun to dry age at home.) Finally, we get into cooking steak—how to prep the meat, build an effective and flavor-delivering coal bed, and cook the steak to perfection. And to finish up, we offer a handful of ridiculously uncomplicated sides (because simple is best, in our opinion) and a few suggestions on what to drink. Along the way, we try to offer a limited global appreciation of delicious steak and some personal anecdotes of steaks past. Easy!
Hopefully, this information will help when you’re trying to make choices about what kind of steak to buy and how to cook it. Of course, humbly, we answer the question above—How can you cover steak in just one volume?—with the admission that we can’t. There are, inevitably, gaps here. For one, we would have loved to delve far deeper into the timely questions of cattle and environment, and the debate among those who think cattle are heavily responsible for destroying the environment and those who think cattle will be the ones to save it. So many fascinating issues surround the science behind grass and grain feeding, and we’ve barely scratched the surface. But just because we didn’t include that topic here doesn’t mean we’re not interested.
Finally, a note to those savvy about cattle: Yes, we know that technically much of the steak we eat comes from steers. And we know the technical differences among heifers, steers, cows, bulls, and the like. For convenience and flow, though, we chose to use the familiar and eternal word cow when describing the sacred and venerable animal whose sacrifice graces us with steak. With that, happy cooking and may you never overcook your beef!
Copyright © 2019 by Aaron Franklin and Jordan Mackay. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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