Steaking New Territory

Grilling Secrets

Guide To Summer Grilling

Testing For Doneness

All About Beef
Understanding • Buying • Preparing

Beef, a special-occasion meat in the colonial era, is now a staple of the U.S. diet. The animals are large when mature and deliver a great variety of cuts that demand different treatments. The final product is a rich, earthy-tasting meat, and despite the ebb and flow of dietary fashions, beef remains a nutritious part of most Americans’ intake.

To determine the ideal preparation for a piece of beef, it is important to look at the muscles and fat, as well as the tissue that connects them. The simple rule for shopping is that fat equals flavor, but fat can also render the cut tough. The parts that get the most exercise—the shoulder and leg, for example—tend to be tougher as well. Stewing meat will have larger sections of flavorful muscle and broad webs of somewhat stringy fat, while a filet mignon will have very slender muscles and little fat, making it tender but less flavorful. Somewhere in between is the rib section, which is less tender than the filet but has a lot of flavor thanks to the marbling (the integration of fat and muscle in the meat).

The two main determinants of flavor in beef are breed and feed. Certified Black Angus is a breed created by producers in response to the USDA’s relaxing of the beef-grading system. Nevertheless, beef that’s graded “prime” (less than 2 percent of graded beef) will generally be the most well-marbled and tender. Black Angus tends to be a pretty luxurious piece of meat. Wagyu, the breed name of the famed Kobe beef from Japan, is now raised around the world and prized—as well as priced—for its deep flavor and good marbling.

The vast majority of beef consumed by Americans comes from cattle that are weaned from grass while young and then fattened on grain in feedlots. This practice began only after World War II and was the result of a corn surplus. Grass-fed cattle produce leaner and often chewier beef. Proponents claim it has a cleaner beef taste and is more healthful, while naysayers find its chewiness and lack of fat unappealing. This is changing as farmers work to rediscover the ideal match of breed and feed. A word of warning: Take care in cooking grass-fed beef; it is leaner and more prone to drying out.

Another chance to influence flavor in beef is through aging. There are two types of aging: dry and wet. In dry-aging, meat is kept uncovered in rooms where the temperature and humidity are controlled to evaporate moisture in the meat and concentrate the flavor. Most beef lovers believe that dry-aging produces a superior product to wet-aging, a process in which the meat is aged in sealed plastic bags. Aged beef in general will have a gamier aroma than beef that hasn’t been aged at all.

A good butcher will give you a small lesson in cuts, grades and appropriate cooking methods every time you step into the shop. For steaks alone, you have the tender filet mignon; the more flavorful but somewhat chewier sirloin strip; the rib eye, which is a bit chewier still and home to perhaps the most coveted slender muscle on the animal; and the porterhouse, which contains both the filet and the sirloin. We’ve also borrowed the hanger steak from France for steak frites—it tends to be pretty chewy and gamy.

While steaks are best grilled quickly or given a turn in a hot iron pan—usually with just a little salt and pepper—most steak cuts also make good roasts. Prime rib is simply several uncut steaks roasted together, usually on the bone, and beef tenderloin is a long, uncut piece of filet. For these roasts, size and fat content will guide your cooking. The rib roast will take some time—generally about 20 minutes per pound at 350° F for medium-rare—but is less likely to dry out than the tenderloin, which should be seared quickly on the stove and then roasted at 400° F for 20 to 30 minutes (that translates to about 5 to 7 minutes per pound). The tenderloin can be grilled even more quickly. That said, there are a number of cuts that are better for roasting or braising than for grilling because they require a longer, lower cooking temperature in order to tenderize: Chuck from the shoulder and round from the hip are good examples, as are brisket and ribs.

Gauging your cooking time and heat are crucial, but it also helps to cook in liquid and to cover the meat for some portion of the cooking. A braising liquid, even just a little wine or broth in a pot roast, will keep the meat moist for its long stay in the oven. A stew—which incorporates large, browned pieces of stewing meat, vegetables and stock or wine—should bubble as gently as possible in a covered pot for 2 to 3 hours in order to thicken the sauce and render the meat perfectly tender.

COOKING BY INTERNAL TEMPERATURE

Personal preference is probably the best guide to doneness in meat; one person’s definition of rare might be different from another’s. The following temperature guideline is a rule of thumb—as always, the best way to determine what works is through experience. Please note that these temperatures reflect the doneness of the meat once it has been removed from heat; the numbers will increase by another 5 to 15 degrees upon resting. The USDA recommends temperatures that are slightly higher.

Degrees of Doneness for Beef
Rare	125° F
Medium-rare	135° F
Medium	145° F
Well	160° F

HOW TO GET BEEF