Steak disaster

[smokyYank]

Hello all,

I’m pretty good at grilling steaks by now, been doing it a long time, and consistently well. Same grill for 10 years. Pretty much the same 2” Costco NY strip steaks.

Tonight was a disappointment. Cooked them the same way, cautiously monitoring the internal temp, whisked off the grill at 130.

They sat for a few minutes while eating salad. Cut into those beauties, looked perfect, and a little juice coming onto the cutting board. But the steak was pretty dry.

Any thoughts on this? All help is appreciated, and TIA.

[ItsAllGoneToTheDogs]

Sometimes the animal just did enough different in it's life to make the meat bad...

Sometimes our thermometers and timing aren't perfectly synched

Also a chance they went through a few freeze thaw cycles?

[Alan Brice]

An occasional bad piece of beef is the price we pay. Everything being the same as you said, had to be the meat.

[DavidNorcross]

No question that every piece of meat is different.

[captainlee]

As mentioned it could of just been that particular animal. Personally I have given up on Costco steaks. Too many disappointments with the end results. They do tenderize those steaks, that tells me something.

[jfmorris]

Yeah - USDA Prime especially should NOT need blade tenderizing. I've always been shocked at that, and tend to buy Angus/Choice steaks at Sam's instead. Or cut my own steaks from a prime rib or NY strip loin.

[captainlee]

We don't eat a ton of steak so we decided to buy at the butcher shop. We spend a bit more but the quality is there.

[smokyYank]

Thank you, all.

So where do you buy your meat and is it very consistent?

[STEbbq]

Costco is good naturally but maybe not in this case.

You can try Wild Forks and Fresh Market for retail pricing or Porter Road if you want a really premium cut. The best steaks I have had are from Porter Road but you pay for it.

[Draznnl]

For N.Y. Strip steaks, I order from a full strip loin from Creekstone Farms when it goes on sale each year, slice my own steaks from it, vacuum seal them and freeze them.

[Alan Brice]

Find a local butcher. He will appreciate your biz n answer all yer questions. As long as he is not busy.

[jfmorris]

You just had bad luck with that pack of steaks.

I buy most of my beef either on sale at local supermarkets (Publix, Kroger, The Fresh Market), or at Sam's Club, where I find their Angus/Choice steaks to be very good.

Most of the steaks I've had here in the past several years came from USDA Choice Prime Rib roasts, bought at Publix during the holidays for $5.99 to $6.99 a pound. I buy the full roast, trim a 7 bone slab of beef back ribs off it, sometimes peel off the rib eye cap steak (or spinalis), which is VERY good and somewhat like a skirt steak, and then slice the remaining roll into nice thick ribeyes that I vacuum seal and freeze individually for steak cooks throughout the year. I've not had a bad steak going this route.

In the past, before I discovered the sale on prime rib during the holidays, I would buy NY strip loins, which are boneless, and easy to slice into steaks. I've bought both prime and choice in those, at various grocery stores, usually when on sale.

I feel the urge coming on soon to buy the biggest chuck roll I can find at Sam's Club, and butcher it per gboss excellent tutorial a couple of years ago, so that I can have some Denver and Sierra steaks, some Chuck Eye steaks, and a couple of small chuck roasts, along with 4-5 pounds of ground chuck from the trimmings. The price is up high now ($5.29/lb I think), but still cheaper than any other "steak" cut out there.

[Huskee]

Went on a trip to bourbon land few years back, bought some Prime strip steaks from Costco when we were at a hotel in Frankfort KY. I trimmed them and dry brined them and seasoned them up for my family and my BIL's family who were with us. I used my Thermapen during the cook (hotel had a nice Napoleon gas grill for guests to use). They hadn't seen anyone put so much TLC into steaks (normal for most of us to do all this) so they were excited. The steaks were miserable. Dry, full of gristle. Why? Bad coupla steers I assume.

Conversely I've bought cheapy 'manager special' old half-brown steaks from Walmart that were indescribably great.

Sometimes we do everything right but the meat still has to play its part and sometimes it just can't.

[HawkerXP]

'manager special' I call them "store aged"

[drobinson]

Some days you're the bug and some days you're the windshield!!

[smokyYank]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the feedback.

Funny thing is, today is the "day after" when I take the leftovers, trim and slice them thin, and put them between two nice slices of lightly toasted bread, and salt the steak. Oddly, it wasn't dry, but quite good!

Go figure!

[HawkerXP]

It just needed to rest for a bit.

[bbqLuv]

That is what steak sauce is for, comer up the ooops.
Dice em up and put them in gravy "As Planned".

[smokyYank]

Steak sauce? BLASPHEMER! LOL

[HawkerXP]

Next, he'll be pushing pellet grills and PBR! smokyYank

[Prof Bunky]

Hello all,

I’m pretty good at grilling steaks by now, been doing it a long time, and consistently well. Same grill for 10 years. Pretty much the same 2” Costco NY strip steaks.

Tonight was a disappointment. Cooked them the same way, cautiously monitoring the internal temp, whisked off the grill at 130.

They sat for a few minutes while eating salad. Cut into those beauties, looked perfect, and a little juice coming onto the cutting board. But the steak was pretty dry.

Any thoughts on this? All help is appreciated, and TIA.

I see we both come from the land of Iffy Meat.