What should you ask the butcher when buying steak?
In this modern era, when most
people shop for steaks, they simply grab one that looks good and is wrapped in plastic at their local supermarket.
They are ignoring a whole wealth of information that they can
get from a butcher. Here are some of Blue Butcher’s tips on what questions you can ask your butcher to get the best steak for the meal you have planned.
How were the cattle fed? ď‚— Cow raised on grain will have
more marbling and a fat cover on the outside. On grain fed beef, the marbling should be white or cream colored.Your butcher can tell you what the cows were fed with before you make a choice of what steak to buy.
ď‚— Cow raised on grain will have more marbling and a fat cover on
the outside. On grain fed beef, the marbling should be white or cream colored. Your butcher can tell you what the cows were fed with before you make a choice of what steak to buy.
How were the steaks aged?
Most supermarket meat is “wet aged.” This method means it
is put in shrink wrap to age. A butcher will tell you that you are paying for the extra weight of the liquid that stays in the shrink wrap, which can be up to 20 percent of the total weight. Traditional butchers age their meat differently in a way that doesn’t hold in all that excess water. Instead of wet aging the meat, butchers will hang their meat in cold dry aging rooms for weeks. With this method of aging you’re just paying for meat.
What cuts would be best for what I’m making? If you come into the butcher’s shop
with a plan for your meal and know how many people you will be serving, you can ask the butcher to advise you on what cuts will be best. Butchers have a lot of knowledge of all cuts and can help you pick out cuts that will be delicious for what you are making.
ď‚— The cuts of meat a butcher can tell you about
include the cheeks, the chuck, the clod, the shanks, the brisket, the flank and skirt, the prime rib, the sirloin, the rump, the silverside, the gigot and eye of round, and the round steak. Most of these cuts also have alternative names that can be confusing for the customer. The most tender cuts of meat come from muscles on the cow that don’t work as hard as the other muscles. A butcher will be able to tell you which cuts those are if you ask them.
ď‚— To eat the best steak in Hong
Kong, go to Blue Butcher Steak House, where they hand select the best cuts of meat to serve their customers from top ranking farms and then dry age them. With the right questions to ask the butcher, you can enjoy a better steak.
Blue Butcher 108 Hollywood Road, Central,
Hong Kong 2613 9286 reservations@bluebutcher.com http://www.bluebutcher.com