The Right Steak, Grilled the Right Way, Makes for a Happy Home
By Burt Rutherford Contributing Editor
Can choosing the right steak lead to a happy home? Don’t discount the idea, says Stephen McCabe, meat manager at Edwards Meats in Wheat Ridge, Colo. And he may be on to something. After all, he’s been a meat cutter for 41 years, 19 of those years at the neighborhood meat market on the west side of the Denver metro area.
“One of our biggest sellers is a Prime ribeye, cut about an inch-and-a-quarter to inch-and-a-half thick, aged 30-plus days.” It’s the men who generally prefer a ribeye. “The ladies love filet mignon. And that’s just the way a happy marriage is – she gets a filet mignon, he gets a nice ribeye and we’re all happy.”
During an evening meal at the recent Cattle Industry Convention when I tasted the asparagus and opined that I could do better, Betty Jo Gigot voluntold me that I could write CALF’s next Hot off the Grill column. Which led me to sit down with McCabe and Sue Aberle, business manager at Edwards Meats, to discuss backyard grilling. This happened while our daughter was recovering from ankle surgery to repair the effects of more than 15 years of playing soccer. Her recovery was taking longer than anticipated, so I thought steak would raise her spirits.
I thought I’d try flat iron steaks for something different. However, rather than individual steaks, which I expected, the meat cutter handed me the whole muscle. Prime, well marbled but differently than a Prime ribeye or strip steak, it was a wonderful opportunity to try a different cut.
According to McCabe, cuts from the chuck like the flat iron and hanger steak aren’t well-known yet by many of his customers. “They don’t know what they’re missing,” he says. “The flat iron is a great cut of meat. If it’s properly trimmed and properly cooked, it’s just an amazing steak.”
He prefers to cook a flat iron in a medium-warm skillet with onions, garlic and butter. “On the grill, there’s no margin for error,” because it’s thinner and a little leaner. “I call a rib steak a one-beer steak. By the time it takes me to drink a beer, it’s done. Now, a flat iron could be a quarter-beer, and if you mess it up, a case of beer.”
For grilling a flat iron, he advised preheating the grill to medium-high and flipping the steaks every minute or two, for a total of 6 to 8 minutes. To make it more interesting, I cut the flat iron into three steaks and seasoned each differently. With a nod to tradition, one was seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic powder. Another was seasoned with Kinder’s Cowboy Butter, and the third was seasoned with McCabe’s suggestion of Porterhouse & Roast Seasoning from Lindberg-Snider.
This led to a learning moment. He suggested the Porterhouse & Roast Seasoning because it contains less salt than other seasonings. On leaner cuts, a lower salt seasoning won’t dry the meat like a high-salt seasoning can.
So I headed to the grill with steaks, fresh asparagus and the appropriate libation. I grilled the steaks as McCabe suggested but extended the time to get a better char on the outside. The steaks grilled for 9 minutes, coming off the grill nicely charred on the outside and rare everywhere else. While all three steaks were delicious, we preferred the Porterhouse & Roast Seasoning.
I spent more time concentrating on the meat than the greens, so the asparagus was a little overdone. But prepped with olive oil and Kosher salt, the greens were still good. And the flat iron? A very tender, flavorful steak regardless of the seasoning, quick to prepare and delicious. The cut weighed 1.5 pounds, making each individual steak about the right size for my wife and daughter.
And at $16.49 per pound, it made a very affordable meal. Next time, however, there will likely be a ribeye that sneaks into the bag. The guy thing, remember?
But for a great change of pace, a flat iron is hard to beat.
