4 ms·

> its just a signaling thing That makes a lot of sense. Also what on earth makes a steak worth $200? I bought a 1/4 beef this fall for something like $700, an

> its just a signaling thing That makes a lot of sense. Also what on earth makes a steak worth $200? I bought a 1/4 beef this fall for something like $700, and that includes all the nice steaks and roasts along with like 50 lbs of ground beef.

curiousllama 6y ago
Well, a nonlinear demand curve for luxury goods comes into play. Also, $200 steaks are typically prepared (at which point you're paying for restaurant ambiance and the chef's time). Raw steaks don't get up that high unless aged or pre-prepared in some way. But more generally, steaks just scale well to the high end. They keep getting better and better as cut, livestock, and preparation improves. That's not necessarily true for other foods. E.g., most pastas (while obviously delicious) will only get so good barring a virtuoso chef. I recommend a test. Find a friend who's really good at preparing steaks. Have them cook a good cut & a regular cut from your 1/4 beef, and you cook one of each too. You'll taste the difference from cut and preparation quality.
- war1025 6y ago
  Where would you suggest getting a "good" steak? In my experience direct from farmer beef is so superior to store bought beef that I avoid eating beef bought from a store.
  - Afton 6y ago
    My experience with buying quarters was 'so-so' enough that I stopped. Even when the meat was good enough, I found that I felt like I was being ripped off. There is just so much opportunity between the farmer and butcher to cheat you, and you don't have any insight. Maybe it's just me. I can really only imagining this working out consistently if you really developed those relationships, and for a purchase I'd make a few times a year at most, it didn't seem worth it.
    - war1025 6y ago
      I guess, yea, do business with people you trust. I've found butchers and farmers to be generally upstanding people. I'm also in the heart of farm country. I would be a lot more leery of people targeting a more urban market.
  - samatman 6y ago
    A good compromise is an actual butcher, the kind who has a relationship with farmers and breaks down primal cuts. I live alone so a quarter beef would be a real challenge to finish off. Instead, I can go to the local butcher and get the usual cuts, and the unusual cuts, soup bones, hard fat for tallow, and so on. Where I live, at least, it's all local, beef, lamp, goat, chicken, doesn't matter.
jdmichal 6y ago
In addition to what others have mentioned, a $200 steak is probably -- hopefully?! -- dry-aged. Something like 1/3 of the weight is evaporated away during dry-aging, so that 16oz steak was originally 24oz. There's also loss to trimming, which is required due to both a desiccated crust and fungal and mold growth on the surface. And it is typically a high-grade beef to start with. And it's time intensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_aging#Dry-aged_beef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_aging#Dry-aged_beef
- war1025 6y ago
  I know they aged the carcass for two weeks on my beef before they broke it down into cuts. I think the "dry aged" stuff is generally aged even further than that, right? I think I read somewhere that mass-market beef is generally not left to hang after slaughter, is that correct?

curiousllama 6y ago

Well, a nonlinear demand curve for luxury goods comes into play. Also, $200 steaks are typically prepared (at which point you're paying for restaurant ambiance and the chef's time). Raw steaks don't get up that high unless aged or pre-prepared in some way. But more generally, steaks just scale well to the high end. They keep getting better and better as cut, livestock, and preparation improves. That's not necessarily true for other foods. E.g., most pastas (while obviously delicious) will only get so good barring a virtuoso chef. I recommend a test. Find a friend who's really good at preparing steaks. Have them cook a good cut & a regular cut from your 1/4 beef, and you cook one of each too. You'll taste the difference from cut and preparation quality.

war1025 6y ago
Where would you suggest getting a "good" steak? In my experience direct from farmer beef is so superior to store bought beef that I avoid eating beef bought from a store.
- Afton 6y ago
  My experience with buying quarters was 'so-so' enough that I stopped. Even when the meat was good enough, I found that I felt like I was being ripped off. There is just so much opportunity between the farmer and butcher to cheat you, and you don't have any insight. Maybe it's just me. I can really only imagining this working out consistently if you really developed those relationships, and for a purchase I'd make a few times a year at most, it didn't seem worth it.
  - war1025 6y ago
    I guess, yea, do business with people you trust. I've found butchers and farmers to be generally upstanding people. I'm also in the heart of farm country. I would be a lot more leery of people targeting a more urban market.
- samatman 6y ago
  A good compromise is an actual butcher, the kind who has a relationship with farmers and breaks down primal cuts. I live alone so a quarter beef would be a real challenge to finish off. Instead, I can go to the local butcher and get the usual cuts, and the unusual cuts, soup bones, hard fat for tallow, and so on. Where I live, at least, it's all local, beef, lamp, goat, chicken, doesn't matter.

jdmichal 6y ago

In addition to what others have mentioned, a $200 steak is probably -- hopefully?! -- dry-aged. Something like 1/3 of the weight is evaporated away during dry-aging, so that 16oz steak was originally 24oz. There's also loss to trimming, which is required due to both a desiccated crust and fungal and mold growth on the surface. And it is typically a high-grade beef to start with. And it's time intensive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_aging#Dry-aged_beef https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef_aging#Dry-aged_beef

war1025 6y ago
I know they aged the carcass for two weeks on my beef before they broke it down into cuts. I think the "dry aged" stuff is generally aged even further than that, right? I think I read somewhere that mass-market beef is generally not left to hang after slaughter, is that correct?