How To Choose The Best Cut Of Steak
Choosing the best cut of steak is not easy. With so many choices lined up in the meat section at the grocery store, it can be difficult to select the beef cut to take home. When looking for a quality cut of steak, pay attention to the following tips:
- You want long lines of marble rather than chunks. The more marbling the steak contains, the juicier it will taste.
- Thickness: Thin steaks are challenging to cook and arent that impressive in taste. You want a steak that is at least one inch thick.
- Price: Higher-priced steaks promise more marbling and premium flavor. Cheaper steaks are usually thin and contain less marbling.
Wisconsin: Hi Point Steakhouse
Ridgeway
The most expensive steak at the Hi Point is a porterhouse clocking in at 20 ounces that can easily feed two. The steak comes with a choice of potato, side salad, and freshly baked garlic bread. Lots of classic cuts with the house special, a $35 special with a 12-ounce Delmonico cut rib-eye from the heart of the prime rib, plus all the sides.
Shouldn’t: Chuck Eye Steak
Cut from the same area as the chuck center steak, this is sometimes referred to as the poor man’s ribeye. The chuck eye steak features plenty of fat and has a marbled texture throughout the meat. Disappointingly it’s temperamental to cook and, if heated too fast, it quickly becomes unpleasantly chewy.
If you’re hoping that a chuck eye steak will deliver the beautiful buttery soft, melt in the mouth texture of a good ribeye, you’ll be disappointed. It has a similar flavor, but the meat is too coarse to be anywhere near as good. If you like to slow cook or braise your steaks, this may be a good option for you, but it’s not going to work for those who want rarer steaks cooked quickly on a hot grill.
You can pick up a chuck eye steak for about $11 a pound at Walmart. If tenderized, cooked well, and sliced thinly, a chuck eye steak can be tasty. However, there are several cheap steaks that are much tastier and simpler to prepare.
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Where To Find A Cheap Steak Downtown Las Vegas
Binions Cafe: If stopping in for breakfast, Binions Cafe offers a 6 oz. New York steak and eggs meal for $15.99, as well as a 10 oz. rib eye steak and eggs meal for $21.99.
For lunch, Binions Cafe also serves a sub $25 rib eye steak meal.
Magnolias at 4 Queens: Magnolias Veranda has you covered all day. For breakfast, they serve both a $16.99 6 oz. New York strip steak and eggs meal as well as a $22.99 10 oz. rib eye steak and eggs meal.
While not one of the best steakhouses in Downtown Las Vegas, Tony Romas is among the least expensive.
Freedom Beat at Downtown Grand: Offering a New York steak with vegetables and garlic potatoes for $23, Freedom Beat offers a cheap steak downtown Las Vegas, steps away from the Fremont Street Experience.
Another solid breakfast deal, Market Cafe offers a sirloin steak and eggs meal for $14.99. Notably, this meal is offered on their all-day breakfast menu.
Dennys in Neonopolis: Serving both a sirloin and t-bone steak meal for under $20, Dennys qualifies for our rundown of cheap steaks, albeit an unexciting option.
Hopefully, I was able to help you on your quest to find a cheap steak in Las Vegas! While celebrity chefs get all the headlines, quality mid-range options exist both on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.
See also: Check out other cheap places to eat on the Strip, and our rundown of cheap eats downtown. Buffets can also be a great source of value. Here are the cheapest buffets in Vegas on the Strip & downtown.
Shouldn’t: Eye Of Round Steak
There is nothing worse than a tough steak. The excitement builds as you cook it it looks great and smells incredible but ultimately ends in disappointment. The first piece you try sticks in your teeth, and no matter how much you chew, it remains inedible. This is what you can expect from an eye of round steak. This steak comes from the center of the long, tough muscle in the cow’s back leg. It’s only worth considering if you’re planning on making a stew, but even then, you’ll need to make sure you cook it low and slow for several hours.
This cut may tempt you because of its low price, which can vary between $7 per pound and $9 per pound. However, we recommend you give it a miss. Why spend ages perfecting your cooking techniques when many other cheap cuts are significantly more versatile?
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South Dakota: Waverly Steakhouse And Lounge
Waverly
Prices are under $20 for sirloins, rib-eyes, New York strips, and other menu offerings at this casual family restaurant in Waverly, which also offers Rocky Mountain oysters when available. There are specials and prime rib deals every Friday and Saturday, and entrees come with bread, potatoes, and choice of soup, salad or cottage cheese.
How To Cook Skirt Steak
As mentioned above, Skirt Steak is perfect to be marinated as the coarse grain helps absorb the flavor. But do not marinate it over 30 minutes because it will overwhelm the beef flavor and get wasted. Then, pat dry the steak after marinating to form a nice crust on the pan.
You only need to spend a few minutes to pan-sear over high heat on each side owing to its thinness. To enjoy, let the steak rest for a while and slice it against the grain. Why not taste it with tacos!
Summary
Enjoying yummy steak does not require spending a lot of money. You can also try some cheap cuts of steak with a high quality. Thinking about what to cook for dinner? Why not try the steaks mentioned in the above!
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Chinese Pepper Steak That Is Restaurant Delicious But Easy To Make At Home
This Pepper SteakRecipe rivals your favorite takeout but is healthier and made with pantry friendly ingredients. It boasts buttery tender beef and crisp-tender bell peppers enveloped in a dynamic stir fry sauce infused with garlic, ginger, sesame oil and chili sauce. This Pepper Steak recipe is easy to customize and easy to make ahead then its just a quick stir fry to dinner! You can serve the Pepper Steak with rice or low carb cauliflower rice or zoodles along with homemade egg rolls and crab rangoons then youll never want to order Chinese takeout again!
From Some Of The Best Cheap Steak Cuts To Pricier Delicious Ones
About time to change the players and pick some more expensive steaks to understand how things could go. This time the following beef cuts represent delicious and pricier alternatives to some of the best cheap cuts discussed above, worth trying out at least once.
The New York strip steakalso called a sirloin steak has a good amount of fat, pretty good marbling throughout, and its going to be more tender than any other beef cut from the chuck section.
The Tenderloin is the most expensive of all the options . Its coming from a very small part thats right under the spine, which makes it so tender, melting into your mouth. Although the price covers its soft texture and rarity, the filet could not necessarily be the best flavor, as some people would argue.
Rib-eye is one of the most preferred steaks because, for its higher price, there is a good balance of marbling texture and flavor, not needing much seasoning, just salt, and perhaps some pepper. In case you are looking for a medium-rare steak center while getting a nice crust, then go about one and a half to two inches and season the beef cut for at least one hour before you are about to cook it.
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Montana: Sir Scott’s Oasis Steakhouse & Lounge
Manhattan
Homey, funky, and super cool are how customers describe Sir Scott’s. It has outdoor seating and prices most steak entrees under $36 the priciest is a 16-ounce sirloin with 16 ounces of king crab for $55. Limited-portion dinners are served with a fresh relish tray, cracker basket, daily soup, fresh salad greens, baked potato, garlic toast, chocolate sundae, and coffee for under $30 deals.
Never A Cold Shoulder: Flat Iron Steak
Versatile and untraditional, the flat iron cut comes from the shoulder of the cow. A trendy cut popular among food chains and upscale restaurants alike, a flat iron steak can be grilled, braised, pan fried, marinated, and everything in between. The bonus? Its affordable. This meat although tougher than a sirloin or fillet has delicious flavor and marbling beautiful enough for Lady Gagas wardrobe.
Get creative: this cut can be cooked in many ways, just be sure to not overcook it.
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Delivered To Your Doorstep For A Fine Dining Experience At Home
To maximize freshness and preserve quality, our products are frozen in a blast freezer and packaged individually. This locks in all of the natural juices and preserves texture. Each steak is then carefully nestled into a polystyrene cooler containing more than enough dry ice and/or gel packs to ensure safe delivery. Our painstaking shipping process spares no expense in providing you with a superior-quality steak delivered straight to your doorstep.
Cheap Steak Cuts: 4 Less Expensive Alternatives To Pricey Steaks
According to our favorite butcher and the author of The Everyday Meat Guide, Ray Venezia, a big factor in determining what a piece of steak will taste like is where the meat comes from on the cow. This affects how much the muscles are worked and how much fat there is.
Based on this knowledge, Ray is suggesting four alternative cuts to buy from the chuck, or the front of the animal, that taste great but are much less expensive than pricier cuts from the rib, loin and round.
The chuck section of the cow has the most marbling, Ray points out. As you move toward the back of the cow, you get less and less. So the first cut, such as in a first cut rib roast, is actually from toward the back of the animal the leaner section.
Expensive Cut #1: Rib-Eye Steak Alternative: Chuck Eye
The chuck eye is the piece at the end of the chuck that is going right into the rib section, according to Ray. It has the same flavor profile as the rib, but at a much lower price. You can buy the entire boneless chuck eye roast and cut it into steaks, the butcher says.
Expensive Cut #2: Boneless Short Ribs Alternative: Beef Country-Style Ribs
Rachael Ray Show
Boneless short ribs also come from the chuck, so still using the chuck eye, Ray slices it like a steak, but thicker. Then, he cuts right down the middle for light, flavorful beef, country-style spareribs.
“Slow cook just like you would your short ribs, save money and have a great flavor,” he says.
Rachael Ray Show
Rachael Ray Show
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Is It Cheaper To Buy Meat From A Butcher Or Supermarket
Its cheaper to buy meat at the supermarket, but its better to buy from the butcher.
Though hes expensive, your meat guy has fresher and higher quality meat stock than the supermarket.
So you dont have to worry about your meat being clogged up with preservatives or antibiotics that could be harmful to your health.
Enjoyed our juicy piece on the best steaks to buy? We also have grocery guides to help you find your way around supermarkets. You can check them out below:
Grilling Tips For Amazing Steaks
These grilling tips apply to any steaks, but certainly to these cuts as they can be a little tough or chewy if not treated correctly.
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What’s The Best Steak To Buy For Your Budget Check Out Our Insider’s Guide For Choosing The Perfect Steak
There are a lot of things to consider when buying a steak: the USDA grade, bone-in or boneless, the name of the cut and the overall weight and thickness of the steak itself. It can be overwhelming!
As a former restaurant chef, Ive spent a lot of time weighing price to value when it comes to steak. While I might serve a high-end steak like ribeye or filet mignon in a restaurant, thats not necessarily the cut I choose when Im cooking dinner.
Whats the best steak to buy for your budget? How do you navigate all those choices? Keep these insider tips in mind as youre browsing the meat counter. Dont be afraid to ask your butcher for suggestions, either they know the best cuts of meat you should ask for.
Sirloin Tip Side Steak
This sirloin cut is relatively obscure and may be sold either as a roast or as individual steaks. Its a lean cut of meat, with little marbling throughout and any excess fat removed from the edges.
The leanness is one reason that this is such an inexpensive cut. It also means you need to be careful when cooking it. Slow cooking the steak works best. You can grill or pan sear it too, but its best to marinate the steak before doing so.
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The Best Cuts Of Steak
There is nothing like a big and juicy steak. There are cuts of steak for every occasion. The more laid-back family dinner roast beef with french fries, or the five-star ribeye paired with Italian wine and shallot-roasted red-skinned potatoes.
Regardless of the occasion, steak is a favorite protein among meat eaters, and when given the proper cuts, its buttery tenderness goes above and beyond any other type of poultry or fish.
We are excited to explore some of the most famous and best-known cuts of steak to present you with our top 13, ranked from the best cuts for home cooking to those served at five-star steakhouses.
Our Top Quality Products
Our products are sourced from the finest ranches, are hand cut by experienced master butchers and go through a quality control process that ensures every cut of meat is far superior to those generally available to consumers. Additionally all our steaks are wet aged for a minimum of 21 days, with most for 28 days. Our hamburger is all 100% Black Angus and some of the finest dining restaurants in the country trust only us to provision their meat.
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Cuts Of Steak Ranked Worst To Best
Pretty much everyone loves a good steak. After all unless youre vegetarian or vegan theres nothing quite like a nice cut of beef, grilled or fried nicely with a little bit of seasoning, and served with a nice batch of fries or potatoes. Sounds great, right? The problem is, however, that there is such a thing as a bad steak.
In fact, the rift in quality between a great steak and a bad steak is perhaps greater than any other food just as the best can make your day, so too can the worst totally ruin it. And there are plenty of ways to mess up a steak, of course: you might overcook or undercook it, you might cut into it too soon, or, of course, you might start things off with the wrong cut of beef. There are so many different cuts that can be cooked as steaks, and lets just say some are better than others. These are some of the most famous cuts of steak, ranked from the very worst to the very best.
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To Freeze Before Stir
- Stir Fry Sauce: whisk together, add to a freezer bag or freezer safe airtight container, label and freeze for up to 3 months.
- Steak: you can freeze the steak after combined with the marinade or after its seared. After you sear the steak, let it cool completely then transfer it to an airtight container or plastic freezer bag and squeeze out any excess air. Freeze for 2 to 3 months. Defrost in the refrigerator before using.
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Should: Top Blade Steak
The top blade steak is one of the most tender steaks available and is still incredibly affordable. It’s cut when butchers slice across the top blade muscle in the cow’s shoulder. This relatively new cut delivers rich flavor and a smooth texture. The price of top blade steak can be as low as $5 per pound, but in some areas, it costs closer to $11.
The only downside to the top blade steak is the seam of sinew that runs down its center. It’s this that keeps the price down and has prevented it from becoming popular in the past. However, the top blade can still provide excellent value and tastes great.
If you place it in a pan and braise it with good beef stock, you’ll retain the fantastic taste while the meat and connective tissue soften up. If you prefer to take less time cooking, you can also cut the sinew out and pan fry or grill the meat on high heat.
