Your Guide to the Best Steaks for Delivery

For centuries, beef in general and steak in particular has been at the centre of European and North American cuisine. Nothing encapsulates French cooking quite like a simple, perfect plate of steak au poivre.

But steak can be intimidating as well. How can you know which cut is best? How should different steaks be cooked? Why are some steaks so much more expensive than others?

If you want to bring your cooking game to the next level, mastering steak is key. And to that end, we at truLOCAL have created a guide to some of our most popular steaks to help you understand what you’re buying, and to give you a few tips for how they should be prepared. 

Filet Mignon

Filet mignon is widely recognized as the king of all steaks. Cut from the tenderloin, filet mignon is not only the tenderest beef steak, it’s also the rarest: a whole cow generally yields little more than a pound of tenderloin, which is one of the reasons it is so highly prized among gourmands.

But if you want to get the most premium of all variants of this remarkable cut of beef, make sure to order grass fed and finished filet mignon from truLOCAL. Our grass finished filet mignon comes from the Heritage Cattle Co. just outside Lang, Ontario, in the drumlin fields north of Rice Lake. Heritage Cattle takes great care with their beef, dry aging it for three weeks for a rich, natural flavour.

If you want to taste filet mignon as it was meant to be, include some grass fed and finished filet mignon steaks in your next truLOCAL meat box.

Striploin

One of the best-known varieties of steak, striploin has long been synonymous with quality. After the filet mignon, the striploin is probably the most tender of the steaks, but because it comes from a much larger muscle, it’s more widely available.

Grass fed striploin is different from conventional grain finished striploin in a few ways, but probably the most significant is that grass fed striploin contains less fat than grain finished varieties, which come from cattle that were switched to a high calorie feed diet after their first year. This grain-based diet fattens them up more quickly, but it also changes the composition of the meat.

Opting for grass fed and finished striploins means you’ll be getting a steak that’s darker and richer in flavour, without as much fat marbling. If you want to get the most out of it you should make sure to brush it with butter before grilling to ensure it doesn’t dry out (you can learn about grass fed beef here).

We take pride in our grass fed striploin and encourage everyone to try it at least once. While cooking grass fed steaks might seem intimidating at first, so long as you reduce the cooking time and use plenty of butter, you should be able to produce a juicy, tender steak you’ll be proud to serve to family and friends.

Ribeye

To connoisseurs, ribeye means one thing: glorious, delicious fat. Cut from the rib primal area behind the shoulder, ribeye steaks contain rich deposits of marbled fat inside. When cooked this fat melts out, releasing plenty of rich flavour and a buttery sheen.

Ribeye is one of the most common steaks, and for that reason it’s the first most diners will ever try. Ribeye offers the essence of steak, striking the right balance between flavour, tenderness, and juiciness.

Consistently, ribeye has been one of the most popular steaks in our truLOCAL meat boxes, which is why we offer we offer so many ribeye options in our meat boxes. When you order your ribeye steaks online from truLOCAL, you have your choice of:

·      Grass fed and finished ribeye

·      Grain finished ribeye

·      Buffalo ribeye

Next time you order, why not make your box a ribeye special and see which of these three is your favourite?

Top Sirloin

Known in some corners of the market as a “weeknight steak” because of its low cost and popularity in simple North American cuisine, top sirloin is a deceptively simple cut of beef that can be truly delicious when cooked properly.

Because it comes from the hard-working lower loin muscles, top sirloin is a much leaner cut than its neighbour, the internal tenderloin. This means that cooking it is all about breaking down that toughness to release the delicious, earthy flavour.

Using a tenderizer is a common way of loosening up the meat, but this is also a perfect cut for slow cooking and braising in red wine sauce. If you want a great steak for everyday eating, top sirloin is a great choice. 

Fast Fry Steak

Sometimes, you just want a steak you don’t have to fuss with — a cut you can throw in the cast iron frying pan with salt, pepper, and butter for a hearty meal on the go.

If that’s what you’re looking for, including plenty of fast fry steaks in your truLOCAL order will ensure that dinner is always on hand. Just follow our 3 steps for easy meat deliveries and in a couple of days you’ll have a box full of high-grade local meat sitting on your porch or waiting at your apartment when you get home.

Steak is a staple of North American and European cuisine, but it is also so much more than that. Steak is an object of intense culinary reverence, and there is a reason famous chefs have written panegyrics to their favourite cuts.

Each steak has its own unique properties, and if you want to explore everything that steak has to offer, create your own custom steak box for delivery through truLOCAL today, and develop your own opinions about which steak is best!

Posted on February 9th, 2024