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sunshine

I'm scared of the Outback Steakhouse

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Heya Brains,

I bet they didn't pay you the premium required to dry age the beef for a couple of months either! I'm surprised nobody's brought up the CRITICAL element of aging yet ... there really is a difference as I'm sure you know. Of course, most people wouldn't care to pay the final price of said steer in a steakhouse, and many would complain about the "lack of sauce or toppings" that would ruin the complexity of taste and texture that a couple months of controlled rotting gives a good piece of meat [lip smacking icon]

The shitty thing about being a foodie is that there's damn near nowhere that you can dine and not whine about how you could do the job better.

(Chef-boy-ar) Dave


Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

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if you have to season your meat even slightly you are getting poor quality in the first place..



I've seen a few people say things like this... and I'm a bit shocked.

First, let me offer a definition.

Seasoning is the act of adding pure salt.

That's it. Not pepper, not oregano, not rosemary, not basil, not cayenne, nor any other conceivable spice or herb. If you're adding spices, you're not seasoning.

If you're a purist (and I am), then seasoning is not adding table salt either, because table salt contains iodine. If you're a purist then you season with kosher salt or sea salt. I use Kosher salt. This is important. If you add table salt, your meat will taste "salty". If you use pure salt, your meat will taste more like... meat. I'll get deeper into this below.

Seasoning all kinds of good quality meat is a must. Ask any butcher. Seasoning does two things. First, the salt draws out the liquids from the meat, causing them to collect on the surface of the meat. Later, when you throw the meat on a 500 degree surface, somthing happens called the Maillard Effect. This is one particular piece of goodness, because it's precisely the Maillard effect that causes the brown crusty tasty goodness to form on the outside of your meat. More salt = more liquids on the surface, which means more brown crusty tasty goodness on the outside of your steak.

Secondly, the pure salt will react with your tongue to "activate" your tastebuds. The salt will make your steak taste more like steak. It'll make your chicken taste more like chicken, and your pork more like pork. Salt is a good thing. There's a reason it's been the cause of at least 3 very large wars...

Allow me to step out on a limb and say that anybody who doesn't season their meat is not getting their money's worth. Nor are they a good chef. Meat must be delicately seasoned before cooking.

Lastly - Outback steak is by far not the best. Beef in America gets classified by the USDA as Grade A, Choice, or Prime. There are other ratings, but those are the ones you'll tend to see in grocery stores and restaurants. Exactly how the USDA assigns these ratings is pretty complicated, but they do a pretty good job of making sure the best tasting beef gets the best rating.... which is Prime. One step below prime is Choice. According to the Outback website, they serve Choice beef. Not bad, but certainly not the best. Secondly, I'd argue that the cuts of beef at Outback are just too thin. This means they aren't cooked long enough to allow the Maillard Effect to materialize properly, without overcooking the insides.

A good cut of beef should never be cooked more then Medium Rare, but that's another thread.

_Am
__

You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

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(the only thing that sucks about The Keg is their "Keg Spec" during hockey season ... they can show the game on the TV in their lounge, but they can't turn up the sound)




Hmm a Canadian bitching about a hockey game.. go figure.. I woulda thunk the pictures would be worth a thousand words..... EH



Normally it would be however, just LOOKING at Don Cherry in those god awful suits is tough! Ya gotta hear him rant and rave or there's no point ... ;)

'Shell
'Shell

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Great post Andy. Personally when I cook steak Kosher salt, a bit of pepper, sear it both sides and I like it bloody rare. Ate at Outback once, steak came back medium after I said rare several times. Hey also what's the whole process of ageing and salting entail. Someone said it's like "rotting." All this talk about steak is making me hungry.

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All this talk about steak is making me hungry





MMMMM Massive Quantities of Dead Animal Parts....

ONe of my favorite places to go for a good slab of dead bovine is in Portland.... Saylors Old Country Kitchen.. they have two locations one in Beaverton and the original out on the east side. I have NEVER had a bad steak there. always cooked as I asked for it.. and the prime rib... is realllly awsum.

Its also one of the 72 OZ steak dinner FREE if you can eat it. They have that monster in a display case out front.. now THAT is a nice chunk of steak..but I will leave that attempt to others:S

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steak came back medium after I said rare several times. .



thats odd, ussually the reverse is true, primarily from people not understanding the differences in how steaks are cooked...
____________________________________
Those who fail to learn from the past are simply Doomed.

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Best place in OK....hands down it has to be Cattlemen's Steakhouse. Opened in 1910, and they use the most incredible aged Prime cuts. *drool*



Yeah well, nobody from OK has invited me to come over for dinner. :(

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

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if you have to season your meat even slightly you are getting poor quality in the first place..



I've seen a few people say things like this... and I'm a bit shocked.

First, let me offer a definition.

Seasoning is the act of adding pure salt.

That's it. Not pepper, not oregano, not rosemary, not basil, not cayenne, nor any other conceivable spice or herb. If you're adding spices, you're not seasoning.

If you're a purist (and I am), then seasoning is not adding table salt either, because table salt contains iodine. If you're a purist then you season with kosher salt or sea salt. I use Kosher salt. This is important. If you add table salt, your meat will taste "salty". If you use pure salt, your meat will taste more like... meat. I'll get deeper into this below.

Seasoning all kinds of good quality meat is a must. Ask any butcher. Seasoning does two things. First, the salt draws out the liquids from the meat, causing them to collect on the surface of the meat. Later, when you throw the meat on a 500 degree surface, somthing happens called the Maillard Effect. This is one particular piece of goodness, because it's precisely the Maillard effect that causes the brown crusty tasty goodness to form on the outside of your meat. More salt = more liquids on the surface, which means more brown crusty tasty goodness on the outside of your steak.

Secondly, the pure salt will react with your tongue to "activate" your tastebuds. The salt will make your steak taste more like steak. It'll make your chicken taste more like chicken, and your pork more like pork. Salt is a good thing. There's a reason it's been the cause of at least 3 very large wars...

Allow me to step out on a limb and say that anybody who doesn't season their meat is not getting their money's worth. Nor are they a good chef. Meat must be delicately seasoned before cooking.

Lastly - Outback steak is by far not the best. Beef in America gets classified by the USDA as Grade A, Choice, or Prime. There are other ratings, but those are the ones you'll tend to see in grocery stores and restaurants. Exactly how the USDA assigns these ratings is pretty complicated, but they do a pretty good job of making sure the best tasting beef gets the best rating.... which is Prime. One step below prime is Choice. According to the Outback website, they serve Choice beef. Not bad, but certainly not the best. Secondly, I'd argue that the cuts of beef at Outback are just too thin. This means they aren't cooked long enough to allow the Maillard Effect to materialize properly, without overcooking the insides.

A good cut of beef should never be cooked more then Medium Rare, but that's another thread.

_Am



Andy you shit - I was just getting ready to eat some dinner - pasta and piece of chicken - the only thing left in my fridge that couldn't run away from me, and now I read your post. That's just wrong man. Now all I want is a big, fat, juicy, steak, that's bigger than my head, a giant baked potato and, and, and aaawwwww maaan.....Damn you, AndyMan! ;)






Action©Sports

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Was wondering how you heard about the Cattlemens. I posted about it earlier in the thread. One of the single nicest steak house chains I've ever been to (been to 3 of them).


They just opened one in AZ!:)
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You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

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Was wondering how you heard about the Cattlemens. I posted about it earlier in the thread. One of the single nicest steak house chains I've ever been to (been to 3 of them).


They just opened one in AZ!:)



The one here isn't a chain. It was opened in 1910. The rest are imitators.;)
Sky, Muff Bro, Rodriguez Bro, and
Bastion of Purity and Innocence!™

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Actually someone from socal PMed me and mentioned cattlemans too. But so far nobody from socal has invited me over for dinner. (hey it worked on kris, maybe it will work on JP too) :P

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

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Ruth's Chris is pretty good but I think Mortons is a bit better for steaks. They roll a cart out with the steaks on it and you pick which one you want and tell em how you want it.
If you want a real steak you need to go to Argentina. I don't each meat much anymore but I think I ate a whole cow the week I was there. Steaks from the US taste really bland to me now.

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I have an "ex" that is a bartender at the local Outback... so I gave myself "teh ban" and don't go there anymore. :P

I am not up for dirty looks even though SHE is the one who broke up with me. :S



"The" local Outback? You mean, your town is not like mine, and you don't have, like, TWELVE of them within a fifteen minute drive?! :P

-
-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

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First, let me offer a definition.

Seasoning is the act of adding pure salt.

That's it. Not pepper, not oregano, not rosemary, not basil, not cayenne, nor any other conceivable spice or herb. If you're adding spices, you're not seasoning.



Never heard of this before. Isn't seasoning just putting whatever spices you want the flavor of on your meat? I myself use some Lawry's Seasoned Salt, garlic powder, onion powder, and sometimes paprika, and also Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce. I do this because I like the flavor of it with the steak, and that's what counts, right?

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Allow me to step out on a limb and say that anybody who doesn't season their meat is not getting their money's worth. Nor are they a good chef. Meat must be delicately seasoned before cooking.



LOL! :D What is there to be "delicate" about, when all you're doing is "salting"? Is it in how much you put on, or how gently you put it on? What am I missing here?

Lisa (reading card): "Come to Homer's BBBQ. The extra B is for BYOBB." What's that extra B for?

Homer (sheepishly): That's a typo."


Homer, Marge, and Bart: "You don't win friends with sa-lad! You don't win friends with sa-lad!"


-
-Jeffrey
"With tha thoughts of a militant mind... Hard line, hard line after hard line!"

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...I would invite you out to dinner, Sunny, but then you'd have to put out. :ph34r: :ph34r: :ph34r:

Kidding...:)



Oh, you order from that side of the menu;)...
Z-Flock 8
Discotec Rodriguez

Too bad weapons grade stupidity doesn't lead to sterility.

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