I got a thin, cheap steak, about half the cost/lb. of a decent ribeye.
I fried it in a pan med-rare to med, but it was so tough & chewy I couldn't even eat it, like eating cartilige.
Is there some trick to cooking cheap steaks so you can at least chew them?
Or must steaks be cooked well done (like Mexican carne asada) if they're of low quality?
The last part. Cut it up for fajitas or cheesesteaks or some shit
You're going to want to marinate it. Carne asada you can cook rarer, but it's usually marinated in a citrus (lime/lemon) and then smoked in mesquite. You don't have to cook it well done though, it's not dangerous not to. The marinade does a lot of the tenderizing anyway.
Like the other post said cut it up, make fajitas, or stir fry.
However, you can marinade the shit out of it with vinegar and spices of choicd after tenderizing, if you like microplastics sous vide it then sear for no more than a minute, if you don't, heat both sides on high heat lower to the lowest temperature, cook 7 to 10 minutes. This will guarantee tenderness. It will not guarantee doneness you will like. Buy inch thick minimum steak, it's worth the money.
guy pronably bought flank or round and just thought it was steak because he's retarded
Also, just to be clear, steak is a way of slicing a piece of meat, and not necessarily a specific cut of meat. The cut determines much more about the flavor and tenderness then the fact that it's sliced as a steak.
What cut of meat was it? Different cuts require different cooking methods
I don't remember. The label was in the trash can, but I'd since poured grease in there and it dissolved the ink, kek.
I'm guessing it's something this guy said:
Just learnt to cook steak, got fairly good with ribeye, and thought I'd try my luck cooking a cheap one--didn't know there was a difference or that it wasn't even a steak to begin with.
round steak is steak, just a shitty tough cut.
you can make london broil with it, or tenderize the fuck out of it and make chicken fried steak, or you can sous vide it for 18 hours at 130 degrees then seer it. it will be tenderish that way.
I mean you really can't fuck up a ribeye. It tastes fine well done and med-rare. Other steaks on the other hand are easy to fuck up.
>I got a thin, cheap steak
>it was so tough & chewy
cheap steak [ ]
tender steak [ ]
choose one.
"low quality steak" I assume means round or chuck cut like a steak.
round is lean hardworking muscle and it really needs to be sliced as thin as possible against the grain, it doesn't really improve with more cooking. All you can do is essentially pre-chew it with a sharp knife by cutting across the muscle fibers.
Chuck needs to be cooked to shit until the fat and connective tissue melts, e.g. pot roast
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>med-rare to med
This might be your problem. You might be aiming for medium rare but still overcooking it. I've been eating a lot of thin pre-sliced steak like in your pic (because cheap lol) and the key has been experimenting with the absolute minimal cooking time.
Get a pan hot, use a stopwatch, and try frying the steak for maybe only 45 seconds on each side. So it gets a decent sear but it's still pretty much raw in the middle. If this is too rare for you, adjust up but still don't give it much more than 1 minute per side. It's very edible and juicy this way
>How do you cook thin steaks?
with heat
It's best to combine physical tenderizing with chemical tenderizing. Use a mallet, puncture the meat repeatedly with one of the meat needling/tenderizing tools, or you can cut across the grain very shallow many times to physically tenderize the meat. Then you can chemically tenderize with salt or meat tenderizing powder (uses enzymes from dried fruit). You can also use marinades, thats the best way. Include an acidic ingredient like red wine, soy sauce, liquid amino, lemon, vinegar, pineapple, and so on. Experiment with different flavors. Always dry your meat after taking it out of the marinade, if you don't you'll just have burnt marinade, and if cooking inside probably set off your smoke alarm. You can keep the remaining marinade often and make a sauce out of it.
I cook all my steaks Pittsburgh rare in a cast iron pan with butter garlic salt pepper and thyme
A fellow oldthymer I see
If it's a skirt or hanger steak, marinate it then blast the hell out of it on high heat (preferably a grill). Also, don't forget to slice it against the grain when you serve, that helps make it less chewy
sear, flip, add butter on top, sear
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gee, thanks
kys frogshit
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>anime poster
Opinion discarded
If it's a bad beef cut you mince it, if it's pork of any cut just throw it on the grill.
i usually only fry them on one side
sounds retarded
probably is retarded
but for me that makes the most enjoyable result out of these kind of cuts
sous vide then sear
You gotta cook it in a convection oven and blast it with the broiler for a few seconds when it's done cooking.
Marinade. Throw some baking soda in for extra tenderness.
*Marinate
Retard.
>cheap steaks
Nothing you can do to make it taste good. They're cheap for a reason. The best thing you can do is cut it up into small pieces against the grain to turn it into taco meat.
How does one differenciate shitty and gud steaks?
one is inedible
Slice it thin, then marinate the shit out of it or outright fry it in a thick sauce.
I'll only eat steak of its done on a charcoal BBQ or flame grilled. I fucking hate pan fried steak.
so you didn't want to help OP, just come here to say your likening
schnitzel them
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I like seasoned steaks, and thick ones too, more margin of error when cooking.
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The coals need to be nice and hot, and the steak rested, so it's not cold in the middle.
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I used to measure temp, but really, you should be going by feel, poking the steak with to tongs or a fork.
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Medium rare is just right. But I'm fine with rare as well.