My Meals are on Wheels

One of America’s Favorites – Steak

A beef steak dinner, served with mushrooms

A steak is a thick cut of meat generally sliced across the muscle fibers, sometimes including a bone. It is normally grilled or fried. Steak can be diced, cooked in sauce, such as in steak and kidney pie, or minced and formed into patties, such as hamburgers.

Steaks are cut from animals including cattle, bison, buffalo, camel, goat, horse, kangaroo, sheep, ostrich, pigs, turkey, and deer, as well as various types of fish, especially salmon and large fish such as swordfish, shark, and marlin. For some meats, such as pork, lamb and mutton, chevon, and veal, these cuts are often referred to as chops. Some cured meat, such as gammon, is commonly served as steak.

Grilled portobello mushroom may be called mushroom steak, and similarly for other vegetarian dishes. Imitation steak is a food product that is formed into a steak shape from various pieces of meat. Grilled fruits such as watermelon have been used as vegetarian steak alternatives.

Exceptions, in which the meat is sliced parallel to the fibers, include the skirt steak cut from the plate, the flank steak cut from the abdominal muscles, and the silverfinger steak cut from the loin and including three rib bones. In a larger sense, fish steaks, ground meat steaks, pork steak, and many more varieties of steak are known.

In the United States, steak cut from cattle is also called “beefsteak”.

Livestock for meat to be used as steak cuts may be raised on a farm or ranch. The meat from various wild game may also be used for steak cuts.

A steak topped with sautéed mushrooms

Countries with enough suitable land for grazing animals, in particular cattle, have a history of production and culinary use of steak. Such countries include Argentina, Ireland, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, the United States, and the United Kingdom. In Asian countries, such as China and South Korea, steak is traditionally sliced and stir-fried and served in smaller amounts as part of a mixed dish.

In the United States, cuts of beef for retail sale include various beefsteaks, as well as stew meat and hamburger meat.[20] In the U.S. circa 1956, about 24% of retail beef cuts were steaks.

Beef production is the largest single agricultural venture in the United States, with 687,540 farms raising cattle and over a million in the production process, as of the 2007 Agriculture Census. On average, a single farm typically raises about 50 cattle at a time, with 97% of the cattle farms classified as one of these small family farms. These smaller farms average a gross cash income of $62,286 per year as of 2007.

Beef steaks are commonly grilled or fried. Grilled beef steaks can be cooked at different temperatures, or for different lengths of time; the resulting cooked steak ranges from blue (very rare) to overdone. The most common characteristics of a rare steak is a soft, cold, red center. The outside is seared for flavor, while the inside is cooked to suit the diner’s preference. Steaks cooked well done are usually cooked throughout the entire cut of meat. For example, a beefsteak cooked well done will not have any pinkness in the middle when sliced. Uncooked beef steak can be served raw, such as in steak tartare.

Fish steaks are generally cooked for a short time, as the flesh cooks quickly, especially when grilled. Fish steaks, such as tuna, can also be cooked to various temperatures, such as rare and medium rare. Different cuts of steak include rib eye, sirloin, tenderloin, rump, porterhouse, and t-bone.

Cuts of steak differ between countries owing to differences in farming the animal and butchering the carcass. The result is that a steak found in one country is not the same as in another, although the recipes may be the same, differing “only in their sauces, butters, or garnitures”.

London broil is a North American beef dish made by broiling or grilling marinated flank steak, then cutting it across the grain into thin strips.

Most important is trying to achieve Maillard reaction on meat to ensure that restaurant-quality steak results each time.

A steakhouse is a restaurant that specializes in beefsteaks and other individual portions of meat. Chophouses started in London in the 1690s, and served individual portions of meat, known as chops. The houses were normally only open for men; for example, women were only admitted to Stone’s Chop House in 1921. Accounts of travellers in 19th-century London refer to their “dining off mutton chop, rump steak and a ‘weal’ cutlet”, as well as hams and sirloins.

Delmonico’s restaurant in New York City, which opened in 1827 and stayed open for almost 100 years, has been described as “the most famous steak restaurant in American history”. Delmonico steak refers to a method of preparation from one of several cuts of beef (typically the rib cut) prepared Delmonico style, originally from the mid-19th century.

Hundreds of restaurants continue to specialize in serving steak, describing themselves as “steakhouses”.