A different twist on steak prep

[Jenise]

From a Garagiste mailer (yeah, he sells wine but occasionally goes rhapsodic about food):

Contrary to popular trend, the steaks are not aged - they start out as 2.5 inch thick, huge pieces of steak (also against popular trend, they are not Prime) pounded with a massive iron mallet that reduces and compresses the mass into approximately 1.5 inches thick, still very thick but the mallet takes away an entire inch. What you are left with is the densest piece of (already dense) steak one can imagine. New York Strip by nature is extremely dense but at Chez Andy, it’s in another zone.

60 minutes prior to cooking, the pounded steaks are coated with coarse sea salt, cracked black pepper and very high quality extra virgin olive oil from the area around Lucca, Italy. 30 minutes prior to cooking, the steaks are then rubbed with green peppercorns, rosemary, a proprietary salt (my guess is that it’s the same coarse sea salt that has been smoked over an open wood fire), a touch of raw sugar and last but not least what I believe (after many visits) is a blend of fire grilled peppers (ancho and chipotle?) minced with garlic and onion that were roasted to a black state (whole) in a 1000 degree coal-fired pit, allowed to dry and then (skins removed) minced with the peppers. This blend of peppercorns, ancho/chipotle and the garlic/onion mixture, together with an exotic hint of rosemary and olive oil is heady when first applied (you can smell it 10 feet away) - when cooked it is heaven.

The steaks are grilled in one fashion only - over a brutally hot coal grill that sears and blackens the steak to an almost crisp outside coating. The are only cooked medium rare....

Anyway, I'm struck by the method here and frankly unable to imagine what is gained texturally by compressing the steak down by about a third. Anyone do steak this way or think it's a good idea?

Might be a good idea if you're trying to make jerky.

[Jenise]

Might be a good idea if you're trying to make jerky.

My first mother-in-law prepared round steak that way, and then pan-fried it for about an hour. She was the worst cook I've ever met.

well, this person clearly doesn't like beef much - too many other flavorings. also, i like the taste of a well browned and even crisp surface to the beef. in this case, only the coating gets browned - or i should say blackened. to each their own i guess.

[Robin Garr]

Anyway, I'm struck by the method here and frankly unable to imagine what is gained texturally by compressing the steak down by about a third. Anyone do steak this way or think it's a good idea?

I think it sounds like an idiotic waste of a very good steak, but that's just me. (I'd choose rib eye over strip also, but maybe that's just me, too ... )

I tried unsuccessfully to convince my mother of the truth of this comment from A Manual on Cattle By Georgia Dept. of Agriculture, John T. Henderson, 1880. Didn't work -- she ruined many a beautiful steak by pounding them to death.

"The too common practice of pounding or chopping, steak for the purpose of making it tender has the effect of depriving it of its juices, its very essence, leaving only the fiber of the cellular structure. The prime object in broiling a steak should be to preserve the juices in the steak itself, and not in the gravy. Pounding steak before cooking, and then extracting its juices into the gravy, to be used with it, reminds one of grinding apples, pressing out the juice and then pouring the cider over the pulp to season it to make it palatable."

well, the pounding by itself isn't that unusual. its done with scalopine for instance and also in italy to chicken breasts before they are grilled. and it IS supposed to make them more tender.

while i would never 'mistreat' a steak in this way; it is the rest of the mistreatment that bothers me most.

I pride myself in being slightly contrarian but I think this guy must be a little misguided, to put it nicely.

Contrary to popular trend, the steaks are not aged

Since when are aged steaks a "popular trend"? The process has been going on for quite some time and usually the best steaks I have tasted were dry aged.

also against popular trend, they are not Prime

Again, since when is eating the best grade of meat a "popular trend"? I do not know of anyone that would prefer sub prime steak to grade prime steak and I do not think that is just some "trend" that is going to reverse in the future. Dogs may not care about the grade of beef they eat, but we humans seem to be a little more particular.

pounded with a massive iron mallet that reduces and compresses the mass into approximately 1.5 inches thick, still very thick but the mallet takes away an entire inch.

That is a great method for breaking down the muscle fiber and ensuring the finished steak has a mushy mouthfeel. But maybe that is how he likes his steak.

The are only cooked medium rare

My guess, and this is only a guess, is that his definition of medium rare would be what I call almost well done.