4 ms·

Doesn't matter how it's cooked as long you put enough ketchup on it.

by tedunangst 5y ago

errcorrectcode 5y ago
Wrong bottle. It's all about A1 sauce.
- cellularmitosis 5y ago
  As a child, my grandfather would serve filet mingnon at family holidays, and I would drown it in A1. It is only as an adult that I truly understand the severity of my sin.
  - tptacek 5y ago
    That's not much of a sin; there isn't much flavor in a filet to cover up. It's more a textural experience. But also just this idea that a steak is a pure thing meant to be enjoyed without a powerful sauce --- some of the best sauces in cooking were invented for steaks. Deglaze a steak pan, cook down some shallots, hit it with some cream and maybe a shot of whiskey, and break up some Roquefort in it while the sauce reduces. It's an overwhelmingly flavorful sauce --- invented for steaks. Steaks are delicious. Sauces are delicious. Steaks and sauces are synergistically delicious. Don't apologize for saucing a steak.
iqanq 5y ago
Why buy an expensive and tasty meat and put some sugary sauce on it? No offence intended, it's just that this baffles me. The only thing I would put on a steak besides salt is black pepper if I feel feisty.
- chrisseaton 5y ago
  > Why buy an expensive and tasty meat and put some sugary sauce on it? Why does anyone combine flavours and use sauces and different elements of taste? I don't put ketchup on my steak either, but let's not pretend that the idea of sauces or combining sweet and savoury is somehow unfathomable.
  - the_af 5y ago
    Agreed. However, effectively saying "I don't care about the meat, just drown it in sauce" is a different matter. The article is intended for those who do care about grilling good and flavorful steaks. With pork ribs I actually agree: I drown them in BBQ sauce and pretty much only care that they are tender. With steak and cow cuts... hey, I'm Argentinian, we care about our grilled meat [1], the thought of just not bothering about how much it's cooked personally offends me! [1] though not most restaurants. Given the importance beef cuts have in our diet, it's surprising most restaurants just don't care. They will either serve you meat so bloody the cow might as well still be alive, or something that is hard, chewy and not tender at all ("the sole of a shoe"). Honorable exceptions exist and tourists seem happy even in the worst restaurants, so what do I know?
    - ankaAr 5y ago
      Another argentinian here, 37 years old and after years to fight with matambre.., man.., no more fighting when you knows how to cook it... Im agree with fancy restaurants cooking meat without care about it. anyway, i think 33% is meat quality, 33% knowladge and 33% experience. 1% is the fernet or wine you are drinking while cooking.
- tptacek 5y ago
  Bearnaise, hollandaise, red wine reduction, roquefort cream, lemon + olive oil, salsa verde, green peppercorn, garlic butter, bordelaise, au poivre --- not saucing a steak is a wasted opportunity for deploying some of the world's great sauces.
  - CAPSLOCKSSTUCK 5y ago
    Beautifully put.
  - steak2 5y ago
    What's beautiful about a steak is that it transcends the collective human culinary craft. It's like this pure thing that prove god exists. All of those sauces, those creations of men, are more for making poorer quality steaks more palatable than elevating the best steaks. There is a reason restaurants that specialize in serving high quality steaks generally forgo the sauce.
    - tptacek 5y ago
      Go pull up a list of the top steak houses in NYC, or in Chicago, or in Los Angeles, and find me the steak house that doesn't have a steak au poivre, or a bunch of other sauce options. What you're saying about steak restaurants is just not true at all. Also, the best steaks that you're getting in steak houses are honestly pretty boring (at least, until you dry age them halfway to the point of rot) and if you think that a prime ribeye is the acme of cuisine, I really recommend you go out and find yourself some birria.
      - cthalupa 5y ago
        Minor nit about an offhand comment, but, to be fair, a proper dry aging setup really has minimal to no risk of actual rot. Sanitary conditions and good air circulation will let you go pretty much indefinitely without worry, though from what I've seen of 400-700 day dry ages, you're really not getting much left that's usable as steak.
- buescher 5y ago
  Me too, but you just didn't get the joke.
- screye 5y ago
  I am tired of people acting like their bang average pub steak has any semblance of an exquisite culinary experience. Yeah, don't sauce your A5 Wagyu or beauty marbled meat from a cow that lived like a queen. But, the 20$ filled mignon that grew up without getting shoulder massages is as mundane as any other 'decent cut of an animal'. That's not to say that I don't like a good simple steak, but there is nothing extraordinary about a grocery store cut of meat to warrant eating it with just salt and pepper all the time. Hell, at least goat, elk or salt water fish are gamey enough to have enough complex flavors going on by themselves. Steak is honestly, a little one dimensional. IMO, a medium rare, dry brined and cast iron seared fatty steak with some chimichurri on top is admittedly excellent. Also, complaining about a welldone steak not being as juicy as a medium rare steak is ridiculous. But if thats what they like, then making fun of people's culinary tastes because you have a specific classist hangup about your food is snooty and stupid.
bdittmer 5y ago
Ahh the Mahomes Method. A classic!
41b696ef1113 5y ago
I found this painful to read.
technofiend 5y ago
Hah. Try ordering a steak any temperature above medium or up at some NYC steak houses and they'll give you a charred hockey puck because they're assuming you're going to drown it in ketchup and can't taste the difference anyway. It's not always about meat quality or whatever stick the chef has up his butt about serving it barely warmed over. For some of us uncooked / undercooked bloody and gelatinous steak is downright disgusting. It's a texture thing: I don't want rubbery meat in my mouth. At least for me, I love it when a place serves steak on a hot metal plate. They usually sear it and go under a little, assuming it'll be cooked further just from the plate during delivery. I can cut my steak into little pieces and push it the rest of the way myself. The chef doesn't try to substitute strip for filet because he's a pretentious snob and I don't have to eat gelatinous, bloody steak for the same reason. Not every wants beef sashimi.
- tptacek 5y ago
  That doesn't make sense, because the major difference between a properly cooked steak and a "charred hockey puck" is texture, not flavor, and ketchup isn't going to mask that.
  - technofiend 5y ago
    Trust me when the meat's so burnt and dried out that you have trouble getting a knife through it, you don't want any part of the flavor that's left behind. I haven't set foot in Bobby Van's on Park Avenue in a decade after that fiasco.
- halpert 5y ago
  Have you tried just ordering your steaks medium rare? That's what I do, and I've never had the type of trouble you speak of ordering at steak houses in NYC.
  - jjulius 5y ago
    OP said: >Try ordering a steak any temperature above medium or up... Medium rare is below medium. ;)
tasha0663 5y ago
I think this went over a few heads. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/trumps-first-dc-dinner-as-president-an-overcooked-54-steak-with-ketchup/2017/02/27/c98895b4-fd19-11e6-8f41-ea6ed597e4ca_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/trumps-first-d...
- tptacek 5y ago
  Plus, some chefs respond to “well done” with a lesser cut of steak, figuring the recipient isn’t respecting the ingredient. This is also a myth (it comes from Kitchen Confidential, I think?). What's really happening is that you're probably getting a thinner cut of steak (same weight, different shape) so your entree finishes at the grill station at roughly the same time as everyone else at your table's does.
shaklee3 5y ago
I upvoted you just because your blog is great.

Doesn't matter how it's cooked as long you put enough ketchup on it.

errcorrectcode 5y ago

Wrong bottle. It's all about A1 sauce.

cellularmitosis 5y ago
As a child, my grandfather would serve filet mingnon at family holidays, and I would drown it in A1. It is only as an adult that I truly understand the severity of my sin.
- tptacek 5y ago
  That's not much of a sin; there isn't much flavor in a filet to cover up. It's more a textural experience. But also just this idea that a steak is a pure thing meant to be enjoyed without a powerful sauce --- some of the best sauces in cooking were invented for steaks. Deglaze a steak pan, cook down some shallots, hit it with some cream and maybe a shot of whiskey, and break up some Roquefort in it while the sauce reduces. It's an overwhelmingly flavorful sauce --- invented for steaks. Steaks are delicious. Sauces are delicious. Steaks and sauces are synergistically delicious. Don't apologize for saucing a steak.

iqanq 5y ago

Why buy an expensive and tasty meat and put some sugary sauce on it? No offence intended, it's just that this baffles me. The only thing I would put on a steak besides salt is black pepper if I feel feisty.

chrisseaton 5y ago
> Why buy an expensive and tasty meat and put some sugary sauce on it? Why does anyone combine flavours and use sauces and different elements of taste? I don't put ketchup on my steak either, but let's not pretend that the idea of sauces or combining sweet and savoury is somehow unfathomable.
- the_af 5y ago
  Agreed. However, effectively saying "I don't care about the meat, just drown it in sauce" is a different matter. The article is intended for those who do care about grilling good and flavorful steaks. With pork ribs I actually agree: I drown them in BBQ sauce and pretty much only care that they are tender. With steak and cow cuts... hey, I'm Argentinian, we care about our grilled meat [1], the thought of just not bothering about how much it's cooked personally offends me! [1] though not most restaurants. Given the importance beef cuts have in our diet, it's surprising most restaurants just don't care. They will either serve you meat so bloody the cow might as well still be alive, or something that is hard, chewy and not tender at all ("the sole of a shoe"). Honorable exceptions exist and tourists seem happy even in the worst restaurants, so what do I know?
  - ankaAr 5y ago
    Another argentinian here, 37 years old and after years to fight with matambre.., man.., no more fighting when you knows how to cook it... Im agree with fancy restaurants cooking meat without care about it. anyway, i think 33% is meat quality, 33% knowladge and 33% experience. 1% is the fernet or wine you are drinking while cooking.
tptacek 5y ago
Bearnaise, hollandaise, red wine reduction, roquefort cream, lemon + olive oil, salsa verde, green peppercorn, garlic butter, bordelaise, au poivre --- not saucing a steak is a wasted opportunity for deploying some of the world's great sauces.
- CAPSLOCKSSTUCK 5y ago
  Beautifully put.
- steak2 5y ago
  What's beautiful about a steak is that it transcends the collective human culinary craft. It's like this pure thing that prove god exists. All of those sauces, those creations of men, are more for making poorer quality steaks more palatable than elevating the best steaks. There is a reason restaurants that specialize in serving high quality steaks generally forgo the sauce.
  - tptacek 5y ago
    Go pull up a list of the top steak houses in NYC, or in Chicago, or in Los Angeles, and find me the steak house that doesn't have a steak au poivre, or a bunch of other sauce options. What you're saying about steak restaurants is just not true at all. Also, the best steaks that you're getting in steak houses are honestly pretty boring (at least, until you dry age them halfway to the point of rot) and if you think that a prime ribeye is the acme of cuisine, I really recommend you go out and find yourself some birria.
    - cthalupa 5y ago
      Minor nit about an offhand comment, but, to be fair, a proper dry aging setup really has minimal to no risk of actual rot. Sanitary conditions and good air circulation will let you go pretty much indefinitely without worry, though from what I've seen of 400-700 day dry ages, you're really not getting much left that's usable as steak.
buescher 5y ago
Me too, but you just didn't get the joke.
screye 5y ago
I am tired of people acting like their bang average pub steak has any semblance of an exquisite culinary experience. Yeah, don't sauce your A5 Wagyu or beauty marbled meat from a cow that lived like a queen. But, the 20$ filled mignon that grew up without getting shoulder massages is as mundane as any other 'decent cut of an animal'. That's not to say that I don't like a good simple steak, but there is nothing extraordinary about a grocery store cut of meat to warrant eating it with just salt and pepper all the time. Hell, at least goat, elk or salt water fish are gamey enough to have enough complex flavors going on by themselves. Steak is honestly, a little one dimensional. IMO, a medium rare, dry brined and cast iron seared fatty steak with some chimichurri on top is admittedly excellent. Also, complaining about a welldone steak not being as juicy as a medium rare steak is ridiculous. But if thats what they like, then making fun of people's culinary tastes because you have a specific classist hangup about your food is snooty and stupid.

bdittmer 5y ago

Ahh the Mahomes Method. A classic!

41b696ef1113 5y ago

I found this painful to read.

technofiend 5y ago

Hah. Try ordering a steak any temperature above medium or up at some NYC steak houses and they'll give you a charred hockey puck because they're assuming you're going to drown it in ketchup and can't taste the difference anyway. It's not always about meat quality or whatever stick the chef has up his butt about serving it barely warmed over. For some of us uncooked / undercooked bloody and gelatinous steak is downright disgusting. It's a texture thing: I don't want rubbery meat in my mouth. At least for me, I love it when a place serves steak on a hot metal plate. They usually sear it and go under a little, assuming it'll be cooked further just from the plate during delivery. I can cut my steak into little pieces and push it the rest of the way myself. The chef doesn't try to substitute strip for filet because he's a pretentious snob and I don't have to eat gelatinous, bloody steak for the same reason. Not every wants beef sashimi.

tptacek 5y ago
That doesn't make sense, because the major difference between a properly cooked steak and a "charred hockey puck" is texture, not flavor, and ketchup isn't going to mask that.
- technofiend 5y ago
  Trust me when the meat's so burnt and dried out that you have trouble getting a knife through it, you don't want any part of the flavor that's left behind. I haven't set foot in Bobby Van's on Park Avenue in a decade after that fiasco.
halpert 5y ago
Have you tried just ordering your steaks medium rare? That's what I do, and I've never had the type of trouble you speak of ordering at steak houses in NYC.
- jjulius 5y ago
  OP said: >Try ordering a steak any temperature above medium or up... Medium rare is below medium. ;)

tasha0663 5y ago

I think this went over a few heads. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/trumps-first-dc-dinner-as-president-an-overcooked-54-steak-with-ketchup/2017/02/27/c98895b4-fd19-11e6-8f41-ea6ed597e4ca_story.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/trumps-first-d...

tptacek 5y ago
Plus, some chefs respond to “well done” with a lesser cut of steak, figuring the recipient isn’t respecting the ingredient. This is also a myth (it comes from Kitchen Confidential, I think?). What's really happening is that you're probably getting a thinner cut of steak (same weight, different shape) so your entree finishes at the grill station at roughly the same time as everyone else at your table's does.

shaklee3 5y ago

I upvoted you just because your blog is great.