When done right, steak is f**king lovely, and provided you give it the proper care and attention, it's not actually that difficult to do right.
Brush it with oil, coat it with salt and pepper, daub it with any other herbs or spices of your choosing, and then cook it for however long you like to get it where you want on the rare-to-well-done scale.
It often forms the key component of those eating challenges which people like to tackle from time to time, where they have to munch down on a frankly gargantuan cut of meat, along with all sorts of other things that go with it.
One of the beautiful things about steak is that it can be both an aspect of fine dining and the main ingredient of a lovely sandwich at the same time. Yes, steak truly is a wonderfully versatile thing.
Advert
And by the way, that red liquid coming out of your steak isn't actually blood. You might assume it would be, but it's actually a protein in the muscle tissue called myoglobin, which is what carries oxygen through the muscle and gives meat a red colour.
Personally, I like mine rare, but it's very much diner's choice when it comes to how you have it.
When you choose which cut of steak you want ending up on your plate though, a chef has warned people away from one particular choice.
American chef David Burke told NJ.com that the cut of steak he'd steer clear from was the fancily-named filet mignon, saying that while he doesn't dislike it, 'it's certainly not the best cut of meat'.
He said that the cut of steak got famous in France and became popular among chefs because it didn't have a bone in it, and was thus easy to carve and clean.
The chef said it was a 'safe bet' for those working in the kitchen, because they could sauce it easily, but it paled in comparison to other cuts of steak.
Butcher Will Messmer said to NJ.com in the same piece that while he gets why people buy filet mignon, 'nobody who works here buys it'.
Meanwhile, in a Thrillist piece asking chefs for their most overrated and underrated cuts of beef, filet mignon cropped up as overrated multiple times.
Chef Bryce Gilmore said the cut had 'no flavour because there's no intramuscular fat' in filet mignon, while others called it 'one dimensional, flavourless and downright boring', saying 'don't ask me to order and pay for it at a restaurant'.
Ouch, tell us what you really think.
Another chef who put it in the 'overrated' category, Hosea Rosenberg, said a lot of chefs saw the cut as a 'beginner' steak, while kitchen guru Carlos Torres said it was 'definitely the last thing I'd ever order in a steakhouse'.
I mean, it can still be very good, but when you have so many options, why would you pick the worst one?
Topics: Food And Drink
Joe Harker