Butcher Explains Which Steak to Buy

Steak is expensive these days.

I'm here to help you pick out the best

and get the most for your money.

I'm Jake Dickson, owner and operator

of Dickson's Farmstead and Meats in New York City.

This is my ultimate ribeye buying guide.

There's a lot of different steaks you can choose,

but I love the ribeye because it's the best combination

of richness, beefy flavor and tenderness.

That's really [beeping] good.

The grading system is provided by the USDA,

your tax dollars at work,

to determine quality of beef

going through mostly large slaughterhouses.

Those slaughterhouses are paying extra

for the grading service.

That way they can charge a premium

for meat that grades at a higher level.

Mostly what you'll see at the supermarket

are the three primary grades of Select, Choice and Prime.

If you see it unlabeled or ungraded,

it's usually Select.

Still not terrible-looking beef,

but it's not very much marbling.

There are other things like color and shape

that go into the grading,

but 90% of that grade

really comes down to marbling

or intermuscular fat.

The reason we're looking for marbling when selecting steaks

is that fat will melt into the meat

and make it more tender and juicy when you eat it.

We experience juiciness not as water content,

but really the ratio of fat to water.

So more fat, less water

is going to make it seem really juicier when you eat it.

So in this case, the Select steak,

very little intermuscular fat.

It might have a big beefy flavor,

but it's not going to be very juicy.

The next grade you'll find in the supermarket is Choice.

So Choice is going to have nicer color

and significantly more marbling.

And then moving on to our Prime.

So as you can see on this package,

it claims Prime is only the top 3% of beef in our country,

and you can see significantly more marbling.

There's the fat on the outside

which will protect it during cooking,

but the grade really comes down to this intermuscular fat

in the eye. We're going to do a little taste test

and see if I can tell the difference.

[upbeat music]

All right, let's taste our first steak.

It's pretty tender.

It's got pretty good flavor.

It's hard to tell without tasting all of them,

but I'd say it's either going to be Choice or Prime.

Is that the steak number two?

[Production] Yep.

A little bit better texture.

I would say a little bit better flavor as well.

I'm going for steak number three,

and then I'm going to make my guesses.

By far the worst one.

Tougher, not as juicy, definitely Select.

The other two were pretty great eating experiences.

That one, I would say, not interested in.

All right, let's see how I did. So I got the Select right.

That one was significantly worse than the other two.

Very, very obvious.

These two, I switched.

I thought this one was Choice and this one was Prime.

Looking at them, like, they're pretty close.

My takeaway here is that both Choice and Prime

are good steaks to buy,

and I would avoid Select or ungraded meat.

[upbeat music]

There are a lot of claims on steak labels.

Here's what they actually mean.

So in this one, you're seeing, All natural,

and nothing else.

In our country, all natural just means minimally processed.

So it doesn't say anything about hormones, antibiotics.

That means typically that they were used

in the raising of that animal.

You really don't want antibiotics in your meat.

It helps promote the growth of antibiotic-resistant bacteria

and not great for everybody.

So this one's making a claim of no hormones or antibiotics

during the animal's life.

People are really concerned with growth promoters.

It's banned in most countries around the world.

So it makes sense to avoid if you can.

This one here is making a pasture-raised claim.

That should mean that the animal spent time outdoors,

room to roam.

This also has a third-party humane certification,

something I would always look for when buying meat.

That means they've had a third party come in

and verify the claims

that the animal is living a good life in good conditions.

This last package is certified USDA Organic.

That means not only did it receive no hormones

or growth promoters during its life,

but also all of its feed was certified organic.

But it doesn't mean that it was grass fed,

it doesn't mean it was raised on pasture either.

Generally, the more claims you're seeing on the package,

the better the product will be.

[upbeat music]

Let's talk about a big and growing category,

grass-fed beef.

It means that the animal was never fed grain

during any of its life cycle,

but it doesn't necessarily mean

that it was raised on a pasture or on a hillside.

It could be fed in a feedlot where grass was brought to it,

so it could be bales of hay or baleage.

There's some amazing grass-fed beef

raised on small-family farms,

but most grass-fed beef is coming from Australia, Uruguay,

and other far-away places on huge farms.

It's hard to make general claims about the flavor.

Grass-fed beef is going to be much more variable,

what kind of grass it's fed,

how much of it, seasonality.

But that being said, typically pretty beefy flavors

and not as buttery as you'll find on grain-finished beef.

Typically, grass-fed beef will be leaner.

Some people believe it's better for the environment,

better for the animal,

better from a health perspective

for the consumer as well.

Now we're going to talk about where it comes from on the rib

and why that matters.

So first off, what is a ribeye?

A ribeye is the large muscle group

that runs down the back

where it corresponds to the rib cage.

So essentially from here to here on the animal.

This is what it comes from,

and this is what it looks like in the store,

or should look like.

It's really important you know what proper butchery is,

because if any of this extra stuff

that should be trimmed off is left,

you're essentially overpaying.

Here I have a whole seven-bone rib roast.

Sometimes people call it prime rib.

This is the entire section of the ribeye,

in this case, prepared as a roast,

like you'd find for Christmas.

If we cut this into steaks,

you've got an entire rack of ribeyes.

From one end of this roast to the other,

the steaks are going to be wildly different.

So from this end,

it's essentially where the ribeye

meets the New York strip.

It's essentially a New York strip.

You can see it's just one solid muscle,

that's the longissimus.

Whereas if we go to the other end,

this is where the ribeye meets the chuck or the shoulder,

you're going to see all different muscles.

So the longissimus is now smaller.

We have the complexus is getting bigger

and we have a bigger cap muscle as well,

which is the spinalis.

So from one end, we're essentially getting a New York strip,

and the other end, we're turning into a chuck steak,

and everything in between.

I'm going to start on the chuck end

where it meets the shoulder.

That's our chuck end.

I have the far extreme of one end of the spectrum.

And as we keep going,

it's going to be a progression.

Each steak will change a little bit.

And you'll see the range from one end to the other.

On this side here,

we have where it meets the New York strip.

This is essentially a New York strip.

It's one solid muscle, the longissimus.

Really tender, great, big eye muscle.

As we go down, you'll see the longissimus,

or eye muscle, is shrinking,

and we're getting additional muscles

coming into the picture.

So we've got the spinalis or cap muscle here,

and as we go down, it's getting bigger and bigger.

And you'll see there's a small side muscle here,

the complexus,

that starts to get bigger

and figures in more as we get down to the chuck end.

Even though they're all ribeye

and they're all from the same animal,

this one is going to eat differently than this one.

So on the strip end,

it's going to be a little bit leaner,

we're not going to have as much fat,

and different muscle groups.

If you like your steak more rare, medium rare,

this is a great steak for you

'cause it's going to cook the same all the way through

and the fat is going to render really evenly.

As we head this way,

you'll see that the cap muscle or spinalis

is figuring into it.

We still have a really big eye,

but we're also getting

some of that really tender, delicious spinalis

in there as well.

It's really a progression.

So we keep going down,

we're getting a little bit less of one,

more of the other.

And as we start getting to the last two steaks,

you're getting quite a small eye.

A really big cap muscle here.

So if that's your favorite cut,

I would choose that.

But there's other things happening here

that maybe will influence if you'd like this steak or not.

So if on one side, it works really well

as rare or medium rare,

this one you can say we've got some big chunks

of fat in there,

that might not render out

if you serve this rare to your guests.

Sometimes you call that star fat.

It's not going to soften or render

and it's going to be a very unpleasant eating experience,

even though this is a spectacular steak.

I love my steaks medium rare,

but if I brought this one home,

I'd cook it to medium

or even a little bit farther.

I might slow my cooking time down

and cook it almost like a roast instead of a steak.

So just to recap a little bit,

if you like your steak more rare, medium rare,

I like the loin end or New York strip end,

if you want to cook it a little bit more,

but want a richer flavor, maybe more fat,

I would go for the chuck end over here.

Now we're going to cook one of these up.

I'm going to pick this one here

because it's going to show us a real distinction

between the cap or spinalis

and the eye of the steak.

In this case, we've got a bone-in cowboy steak,

which means a one-bone ribeye.

So nice thick cut, we cut between the bones.

An extreme version of this would be the tomahawk steak,

which is essentially just the same steak with more bone.

For me, I would never buy a tomahawk steak,

super inconvenient to cook,

you need a really big pan

for a small amount of meat.

That being said, some people just love that presentation.

We're just going to turn it

into a thick-cut boneless steak really easily.

I'm just running the knife right along the bone

to remove it from the meat,

leaving as little meat as possible on the bone.

[upbeat music] [pan sizzling]

A lot of people are asking us at our store,

Should I go boneless or bone in?

I don't have a strong preference either way.

The big difference I find

is that your window for perfect cooking

is going to be a little bit smaller

when you're cooking a boneless cut versus a bone in.

The bone acts as a heat sink,

so it's going to slow the cooking down.

So instead of that perfect medium rare

hitting in a small two-minute window,

maybe you get five minutes.

So if you're really particular about your doneness,

maybe go bone in.

The one thing about them when you cook them

is that it changes how it's going to cook

in terms of where your center of doneness is.

In a bone-in cut, the rarest part

is going to be right along the bone there.

Whereas when we cook it boneless,

the rarest part during cooking

is going to be in the middle.

Let's cook up this ribeye

and see how all the different parts taste.

I like to season my steak pretty heavily.

You're going to lose a lot of salt in the pan,

so I go heavier than you think you need.

Also, the salt in here is going to be seasoning

the entire cut,

not just the surface area.

If you want, for the cut this big,

I'd even season a day or two days in advance

because the salt will penetrate further into the steak.

I'm going to use a little bit of oil, but not too much.

This steak's going to start to render fat,

so it's just kind of to start the process.

When we're cooking 2-, 2 1/2-inch steak,

you got to be pretty patient.

We're not trying to get there super fast.

I'm going to cook it probably three minutes on this side,

flip it.

Everything is starting to like render out

and the ribeye is frying in its own fat.

And then we'll actually keep flipping it every few minutes

to slowly build up a crust

and get a nice even cooking on it.

I always use a meat thermometer

because it takes all the guesswork out.

When I'm trying to cook to medium rare,

I'm usually and I'm aiming for pulling it at 110

and then letting it rest.

I want it to hit about 130 in the end.

The bigger piece of meat,

the longer I'm going to let it rest.

The heat's going to migrate in

and continue to cook the steak as it sits here.

All right, our steak has been rested.

Let's give it a taste.

You can clearly see the three components of this ribeye.

So we've got the cap muscle,

the center muscle and the tail.

Each of these are totally different,

so I'm going to cut them up differently.

First, I'm going to remove the tail.

This is mostly fat, super decadent.

Now I'm going to separate the center muscle

from the cap muscle.

Now, you can see there's a nice guide here,

a huge ribbon of fat.

I'll probably trim some of that off afterwards

so you can kind of see if we reassemble,

this is our ribeye.

The nice triangle of the tail.

Half the time when I'm cutting this for a party,

I don't even let this come to the table,

just because it is literally 90% fat.

This one's about 50/50.

But as we get actually farther back,

it's like almost completely fat.

Really delicious.

I kind of think of it like this is what I eat in the kitchen

before the food hits the table.

That's really [beeping] good.

The next piece I'm going to cut is the longissimus.

This is the center muscle of the ribeye.

When we're at the New York strip side of it,

it's basically the entire ribeye steak.

But as this is more towards the chuck end,

it makes up about half of the ribeye steak.

I will say, I nailed it.

This is kind of like a perfect medium rare.

This was a super well-marbled ribeye.

So as you can see, all this fat

has kind of melted into the meat.

There's not big chunks in there.

It's different from this piece here,

which is kind of like big chunks of fat

that aren't going to go away.

So even though this looks leaner,

it's going to eat really rich

'cause the meat has absorbed all that fat

during the cooking process.

The exceptional marbling, the richness of it,

this is why people really love ribeye.

Super tender, nice and rich, big beefy flavor,

truly an exceptional cut.

Finally, we're going to cut up the cap muscle.

So you can see it has a totally different grain

than the heart muscle or the center muscle.

Really loose, really marbled.

I'm going to take off some of this fat here

because that's excessive.

And this one, because it kind of falls apart a bit,

I find even like cutting with the grain

doesn't even matter,

it's going to be so tender and so flavorful.

But you'll see it's totally different cooking

as the same steak here,

because its grain is different,

because it's farther towards the edge of the meat.

It's almost like medium well,

but so much juiciness

and so much fat in that cut

that it doesn't matter,

it's still going to be incredible.

Flavor's over the top, super buttery,

big beefy flavor, awesome texture.

There's a reason that people seek this cut out.

So three different sections.

Got that cap muscle, really, really decadent,

then that perfectly cooked middle section,

and then the ultra-decadent tail,

which is mostly fat.

Half the time, doesn't even make it to the table.

This is why the chuck-end ribeye is so appealing,

'cause you've got so many different varieties.

So when you pick out a ribeye steak,

if you want more of this middle experience here,

make sure you're picking out one

that's closer to the New York strip.

If you want more cap muscle,

pick one closer to the chuck.

[upbeat music]

When you go to the supermarket,

you might see all different thicknesses of ribeyes

in the meat counter.

All of them are great,

but I use different ones for different purposes.

These thin-cut ones

I'm going to fry up in a pan really quickly,

for tacos, steak and eggs, Korean barbecue.

It's going to be more about the surface texture

and less about the doneness in the middle.

If I'm grilling

or want something a perfect medium rare in the middle,

but still getting a nice seer on the outside,

I'll go with something inch and a quarter, inch and a half.

And if I'm entertaining,

I often go for that big wow factor.

I'll go with the cote de boeuf, or cowboy steak,

two inches, three inches,

I'll do a reverse seer method,

and I'll finish right when my guests arrive.

All right, let's talk about cattle breed.

The most common breed you'll see named

in our country is Angus.

It's been a little bit watered down over the years,

but the main idea to be labeled as Angus

or certified Angus

has to meet certain quality

and characteristics of the breed.

Anytime that people are putting more effort

into raising higher quality and labeling as such,

it's probably good for you as a consumer.

It might make you a little bit more comfortable

about the quality of the product you're buying.

On the other end of the spectrum,

we've got the American Wagyu.

Japanese Wagyu is a specific breed

raised in a specific way and region

that gives incredible over-the-top marbling.

American Wagyu is typically crossbred,

so probably 50/50 or some percentage

of Wagyu and Angus cattle.

And it can mean a lot,

it can have great-quality marbling.

But it's very variable.

Some of it, it could mean almost nothing

and be Choice or Select.

In this case, you've got gorgeous beef,

definitely would rate Prime.

I would take this home in a second

if I saw it in the supermarket,

and it'd have a lot of marbling,

so it's going to eat really, really juicy.

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All beef after slaughter has to be aged.

After slaughter, the meat tenses up

and there's an enzymatic process

we need to break down the meat

to make it more tender.

It's either wet age,

which means age in a vacuum sealed bag,

or dry age, which means age in a temperature,

air velocity and humidity-controlled environment.

For dry aging, we're going beyond

just that bare minimum of tenderization.

By doing it with a lot of airflow,

with a certain humidity,

we are making it more tender,

drying out the meat.

And because we experience juiciness

as the ratio of fat to water,

less water means it's going to eat juicier,

even the same piece of meat after dry aging.

And the last thing is that we are creating new flavors,

just like aging cheese,

through bacterial endometritic process,

as well as other molds and spores in the air.

Dry aging is both science and art.

So when our beef comes in,

we put it right in front of the fans,

and we form this crust really, really quickly.

We basically want to create a seal

so it doesn't rot or mold.

This actually forms like this,

really hard and black, like beef jerky,

in like 72 hours.

But if you see, right on the other side of it,

even like 1/4-inch in,

it's perfectly fresh meat.

These three that we've got here are more typical aging.

Two weeks is my standard that we sell at our store.

You'll find it pretty widely at supermarkets.

30 to 45 days is more your premium dry-aged product.

Most steakhouses around the country

are going for that 28 to 30 day.

I think that's where you see the biggest jump

in quality improvement from a fresh steak

to a dry-aged steak.

And then as we get into 75 days and beyond,

you're really starting to create an ultra-premium product,

big flavors, really concentrated beefiness, more tender,

but you're going to pay for it.

So we look at these steaks,

you're going to see really different texture.

So this is going to be like much softer, right?

It's definitely wetter.

It's because it has more water, it's that simple.

As we age, meat starts to firm up a little bit.

Like, sometimes with the really aged stuff,

I can put a thumb in it and it kind of stays,

'cause the meat fibers have been starting to break down.

It's becoming more tender, there's less water.

It's a premium price for sure,

but especially something in like that 30, 45-day age,

I think it's worth the price.

The more aged stuff is a bit of an acquired taste

or personal preference,

but everybody in my experience

will like a 28-to-45-day, dry-aged steak.

[upbeat music] [pan sizzling]

Let's cook up the two far ends of these

and see how they compare.

So we've cooked off our two-week dry age

and our 75-day dry age.

Let's give them a taste.

Two week is looking pretty nice,

cooked to like a pretty nice medium rare,

nice and even throughout, good char on it.

And this over here is going to be the 75 day.

This has a lot less water content,

so it's going to have a bigger, beefier flavor,

'cause the water to fat ratio is lower.

This one's super juicy feeling,

a lot of fat, pretty excited about it.

A lot of time when you're cutting dry-aged beef like this,

especially where the fat is,

it's going to have like a stronger flavor,

almost like a blue cheesiness.

You'll find you taste the age flavor the most

in the fattier cuts

and closest to the bone.

So these are all sliced up.

We've got our two week here

and our 75 day here,

our two-week dry aged.

Nice beefiness.

It's got a good richness 'cause it's a ribeye.

I'd say a really solid steak for sure.

Let's get into the 75 day.

This is something special.

You don't find this everywhere.

Way more tender, really, really buttery,

and it's got a really big, beefy flavor.

Just like reducing a stock,

we've taken more water out,

so we've got a lot more concentrated flavors.

Dry aged definitely adds cost to your product,

but if you're in the mood to splurge

or a special occasion,

definitely worth it.

There you have it, everything you need to know

to buy a fantastic ribeye.

Feel free to take a pic of this chart

and bring it shopping with you.

Know which part you like,

pick your thickness,

check the grade and the breed,

read that label,

try a dry aged,

and go make a great steak.

[upbeat music]