What Quality Steak Do You Buy?

I usually buy filet mignon from costco, but because there are only 2 of us in the house, and you have to buy a package of 4 huge steaks at around $28-$33, we find the quantity is out of line and we don't freeze any meat as a rule. Fresh only, except for bacon.
So we have been experimentibg and have found the Safeway store in Charleswood excellent- AAA beef, very tender , 20% higher is the cost by the kilo , but less money spent because we can buy what we actually need.
I tried steak from Foodfare at 2300 Portage Avenue last night, a New York cut and it was fantastic, and the cost seemed very low, $11.98 a pound, but you can choose the steak from a very good selection. $5.99 per 8 ounce steak is a neat way to merchandise them, because 4 ounces is the recommended portion size, so one 8 ounce steak should feed 2. I ate the whole steak and it was delicious.

Where do you shop and what cuts do you buy?

We shop at that same foodfare, I really like the T-bones.

Millers for rib-eye steak. Just fricken awesome.

I have tried Miller's 6 times and had a good steak 3 times, so we stopped shopping there. I complained once and got no where, and the last time the steaks must have been frozen because when we got home there was a load of water in the bag, and I wassn't happy about buying water.

rosencrentz wrote:I usually buy filet mignon from costco, but because there are only 2 of us in the house, and you have to buy a package of 4 huge steaks at around $28-$33, we find the quantity is out of line and we don't freeze any meat as a rule. Fresh only, except for bacon.
So we have been experimentibg and have found the Safeway store in Charleswood excellent- AAA beef, very tender , 20% higher is the cost by the kilo , but less money spent because we can buy what we actually need.
I tried steak from Foodfare at 2300 Portage Avenue last night, a New York cut and it was fantastic, and the cost seemed very low, $11.98 a pound, but you can choose the steak from a very good selection. $5.99 per 8 ounce steak is a neat way to merchandise them, because 4 ounces is the recommended portion size, so one 8 ounce steak should feed 2. I ate the whole steak and it was delicious.

Where do you shop and what cuts do you buy?

Why don't you ask the butcher to make some 2 steak packages? I'm sure they can spend a few more pennies just to be able to satisfy their customers.

Costco have minimums on all their purchases of meat, so we have prety well stopped going there and probably won't renew, because we were going there because we had tried 8 other meat stores and found them very inconsistent in quality. Now , since moving to Charelswood we have found Safeway, who I don't think were selling AAA before, as well as I am hoping that the Foodfare meats work out.
G.O.M. uses Miller's and we had terrible steaks from them.
What I did notice at FoodFare was I was able to choose the steaks that were really marbled and I wonder if that perhaps is the difference? Miller's had fewer steaks cut and out on display.

For ribs - M&S meats on Main Street
For Kuby - Metro Meats
For flank steak - the Vietnamese butcher in the Sun Wah Bldg
For REAL hamburger meat - Metro Meats
For Manitoba lamb legs - DeLuca
For veal - La Grotta de Fromaggio
I check the flyers for steak bargains (rib steaks primarily) and find that Stupid Store usually comes out near the same cost as Costco....last week they were on for 4.77 per lb(?)....anyway a two pack of nicely marbled, thick cut rib steaks with not huge bones ran about eleven bucks. Not bad. Sobeys will sometimes have some good deals too. I do however like Costco for the fact I can buy a whole ribeye, par freeze it for 3 hours and then cut it up to my liking (usually getting 14 steaks out of one). I calculated the one day that by doing this I saved around thirty to forty bucks. I seal in double zips two steaks per package with a dry rub on them or some heavy soy....they keep very well that way.

i like the foodfare on maryland and thats probably close your place rosie, downside is they dont have the food fare corned beef but always a great suppy of OC kubassa

oh and they have filet there that we tried twice now and we not disappointed at all

A whole cow annually from a local farmer. Breed is "speckled" something or another. The selling point on that one was that it is the leanest of lean. Never buy that one again because it's just too lean and therefore tasteless. It's all about the right amount of fat.

Lean meat is seemingly flavourless. A nicely marbled and aged steak provides the very best steak eating experience IMO.

I usually get thick cut Top Sirloin at IGA for $8.80/kg.

We've managed to figure out new recipes to get through those boxes of skinny cow and now I'm on the lookout for the fattest cow in Manitoba. I might have to hit the ag auctions (and learn that auctioneer language first).

We stopped freezing meat years ago, after we figured out that meat at the bottom of the freezer was tasteless, and after factoring in that tasteless meat meals were in bad taste, we buy what we need and now actually try and figure out portions.
We have wasted way too much meat buying 12 ounce portions for the girls, when all they want is 4 ounces and serving the guys 20 ounce portions and watching them have heart attacks.
There is a huge saving buying a New York cut at 11.98 a pound, with the 8 ounce steak portions at FoodFare.
I got a great steak and if I served 2 gals the 8 ounce portion , with the salalds, the corn and the desert , no one would go hungry. $4 per person for the gals and $8 for the guys is a litle steep, is that too high a cost?

Personally I pretty much only buy rib steaks/ rib eyes and t-bones. Usually 12-16 ounces each at least, the more marbling the better. Since I'm usually short on time I usually just buy the Sobey's Sterling Silver or Safeway meat counter cuts. I just go in and pick what looks best (most marbled) that day. I don't bother with striploins as the girls are always complaining it's too tough since they like their steaks medium or medium-well, and well striploin does suck if cooked anything over medium-rare. I'll occasionally pick up tenderloin, but as much as I love the texture I find the baseball cut makes it really difficult to cook medium (for the girls) without killing it.

Now if anyone knows a butcher that sells Kobe or Kobe-style beef, hook me up. I would kill for one of these babies
http://www.primetimemeats.co.nz/assets/images/products/KobeBeefRibeye.jpg

Mmmmmm......Kobe and Wagyu - pure fat heaven.

Is Wagyu the beef that gets pampered and massaged during it's life?

Wagyu is the cattle breed and Kobe is the place where certain methodologies in terms of the "pampering" were developed. Wagyu cattle come from Australia and have become quite the fashionable breed to raise in other locales.....like how when one changes a pig's diet two to three weeks before slaughter (feeding it nuts and apples for example to make a beautiful sausage product) the same is done with the Wagyu breed of cattle.

http://www.wagyucanada.com

MizP- go to sleep so I can phone you for a 6AM?, 7Am?, 8AM?, 9AM?, 10AM? breakfast- 87% chance that I can get away!

grumpy old man wrote:Lean meat is seemingly flavourless. A nicely marbled and aged steak provides the very best steak eating experience IMO.

Agreed. When it comes to steak, the more marbled and aged, the better. While I love a good filet mignon, I enjoy a medium rare ribeye more.

Tenderloin unless wrapped in bacon (filet mignon) or served with a sauce or demi glace is essentially flavourless. In the kitchen we always knew when someone was out on a first date as that was what would be invariably ordered along with the lobster tails....the classic surf and turf. A ribeye or rib steak, those are king and just rubbed with coarse salt and fresh pepper, flash grilled and allowed to rest, served with some simple roasted veg - those cuts are stand alone and need no embellishment. That is the hallmark of a great cut of beef.

How do you tell great hamburger meat?

For burgers one wants a three to one ratio of lean ground beef to ground pork.....that is how they do it at Metro....great flavour that way, a bit of shrinkage yes, but never a dry burger.

Well, seems the mixing of pork has changed too. Pork is so lean now that you must add fat to prevent it from burning.

I do not know which cuts Metro grinds into its hamburger mix but the results are fairly consistent and tasty.