Beef Nutrition

A steak guide without the coveted New York strip steaks, rib steaks, and filet mignon? Ludicrous? Well, not from our standpoint—“our” meaning any self-respecting butcher shop that has the availability, nay, we say pleasure, of buying whole animals, not just boxed muscles. Let’s clear the air right off the top: We have excluded the three most expensive steaks, the bread and butter for most butcher shops, from our list for the following reasons: 1. To celebrate the meat. Since industrialization in the meat industry kicked in—roughly fifty or so years ago—and the mass production of cheap boxed meat became commonplace, omnivores have become creatures of habit. To see these same three cuts on every restaurant and steak house menu, and to see these steaks take up the majority of display space in virtually every grocery store and butcher shop is, frankly, appalling and boring. We hate to break the news to anyone who thinks otherwise: A cow is not a walking loin. We owe it to our local farmers, the farmers who have a passion for what they do and how they do it, to explore their products in their entirety. Appreciation and exploration of whole animals is the sustainable way to eat meat. 2. Less-marbled cuts are more flavorful. Although a certified organic, locally raised, well-marbled, and dry-aged New York Strip† or Rib Eye steak is pretty much a piece of heaven (we’re not going to say otherwise), there is lot to be said about the flavor in tougher cuts of meat that is not present in the more tender cuts. Many argue that fat content is the sole factor in the determination of flavor, but chefs and food scientists have known for decades that there is an inverse relationship between flavor and tenderness, i.e. tougher cuts, regardless of fat content, are more flavorful. To this day, it is still a mystery, scientifically speaking, as to why tougher cuts tend to have more flavor. Our theory is that the increased flow of blood to a well-used muscle develops its meaty