Tell yall what: Loves me a great T-Bone, or Porterhouse Steak...
I always make way more then I can eat at one sittin, on accounta cause I got th fire an smoke rollin, anyhow...
Oftentimes, I'll chunk up some leftovers, give it a lil CI kiss in some butter, and/or bacon grease, along with my onions/peppers, etc., an toss into a pot of chili...
Not sure about industry-wide but I do know the last 10 years or so I have gravitated towards ribeye and NY strip when I want a good steak where the previous 10 years the porterhouse would have been my go to. Can't think of any logical reason why.
As far as the general public is concerned I would guess that cuts that used to be "butchers cuts" like tri tip, picanha, flank, hanger, etc. Ahave grown in popularity and that is taking some attention off the regular steakhouse cuts like ribeye, porterhouse etc. So that could have something to do with it as well.
And now I guess I need to go to my butcher and get a couple nice porterhouse for dinner soon.
Well I was not cooking them when they were popular (and my dad was/is not good at grilling) so I did not grow up eating steak, or good food for that matter, but I do enjoy the cooking process of that cut, and like you, I want nothing to do with a thin t-bone/porterhouse. Personally I want the two inch cut. I like the hardiness of that cut, you can use really strong (to me) flavors (blue cheese, rosemary black pepper, etc.. with it and not over power the cut. Add in a good Red Zin or Petite sirah, and the fixings, you have a really great meal.
Last edited by Richard Chrz; September 15, 2019, 10:37 AM.
I’d say for me it has. Like you, the t-bone was what I always asked for as a kid when we were having steak, which wasn’t often. As I got older, I still picked up t-bones and tired my hand at grilling them, college days we thought we were cool and would pack T-bones for camping outings and grill them and pour some beer on them for added flavor.......
as ive entered the culinary world, I’ve found my preferences have changed to the marbling of steaks, going for ribeyes. But as I’ve been on this site for a few years, even that has changed a bit to some of the other cuts that are even better than a ribeye in my opinion, like flat iron or the Coullette cuts I get. I still do the ribeyese, but only on the weekends and it’s usually my dry aged ribeyes.
But it I couldn’t tell you the last time I had a t-bone or porter house steak.
I would say no especially the Porterhouse. Peter Lugar in NYC still serves the same aged one it has since it opened. I think it is 36 ounces but would have to look it up As do a lot of the steak houses still serve it.
The porterhouse is not hard to get even chains like Texas Roadhouse and higher end chains like Ruths Chris have them on their menu.
Last edited by mountainsmoker; September 15, 2019, 10:15 AM.
Reason: Added more thoughts on porterhouse
As a life long native of the Midwest I too have consumed a lot of beef in the form of t-bones and porterhouses... mostly t-bones though.... I never remember getting these as extremely thick cuts... I would say most at inch or so.
Not it sure why but it seems your observation is correct. I don’t see these cuts as much but some... not sure if the rise of all all things boneless contributed or what... some things tend to fall in and out of favor.
When I was a kid growing up in the Midwest, the Porterhouse Steak, along with it's baby brother the T-bone, were the absolute king of steaks. I've eaten so many in my life that I've lost count. In fact I want one for a pillow in my coffin. In recent years; however, with the advent of so many different cuts of beef, I've ventured out into the great beef unknown and have kind of abandoned my cherished friendship.
So yesterday I decided to venture over to Costco to pick up 20# of pork butts for a large cook (different topic and future post) and I happen upon some smaller choice t-bones. Didn't really appeal to me, I like them at least 1-1/2" to 2" thick. I saw the meat cutter wandering around so I asked him where all those prime, thick porterhouses they used to sell were? He says they kind of fell out of vogue and folks stopped buying so they quit carrying them. WHAT? Has this cut lost it's luster? Are people abandoning them for rib eyes and tri-tips?
The good news is my butcher will always have them available. He sells CAB so they're good. Will probably venture over there sometime this week and gorge out on a big thick one.
An on that same topic, there's a YouTube blogger that travels the world and videos his experiences. He's a Scandinavian by the name of Harold Bladr. My wife and I have been watching his travels through the Philippines and Vietnam because we're gearing up to make the trek in 2021. Anyway I ran across this video of his in Florence, Italy. The guy travels Italy extensively and loves the place.
In this episode he goes to a Trattoria that specializes in steak, something you'd see like in NYC at a high end steak house. They have this 1 kilo steak challenge. Eat this 36 or so ounce Porterhouse, aged and cooked to perfection, and you get it comp'd (which he does in the end). He gets a little wordy so feel free to skip through a lot of the intro. At the 4:30 mark he ventures into their meat locker. Killer steaks !!!
So back to the original question, has the Porterhouse/T-bone lost it's luster in the world of beef steak ??
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