Why is american steak so much tastier than our cacky british steak?!
Why is american steak so much tastier than our cacky british steak?
Answers: A lot depends on how long a carcass is hung. Time is the secret. We tend to buy meat here (ie steak, etc), that has not been hanging long enough. Where as in the U S A they don't have such restrictions and can often hang their meats for upto 12 weeks or more. Not sure on regulations here, but it is possible to find a good butcher who knows, and recommend good steaks for frying, grilling etc . and suggest cooking times for these and joints of beef, lamb etc.
Leanest meats are not always the best as the fat content can give more flavour, especially with beef, and no need to add any oils, fats to pan or oven roasting. To keep juices in the meat, never over cook. Steaks are best cooked in very hot pan, count to 10 and turn steak over, cook for 10 on other side for rare. Obviously increase count to 15 for medium and 20 or 25 each side for well done (count slowly as in 1 and 2 and 3 and etc). If oven roasting joint.....heat frying pan large enough for your joint, brown on both sides and all around, lightly, place in warm roasting tin and pre heated oven, gas mark 6 and cook to your desired requirements. A small piece of beef (weighing around 2/3 lb, I don't do metric prefer good old fashioned english weights and measures!) should
be cooked for no longer than 20 minutes for rare to light medium. The longer you roast the more it will cook, obviously and will be tougher, depending on how long it has been hanging at the butchers.
Another secret, NEVER stick anything in the joint or steak as it cooks,,,,all the juices run out and the meat immediately begins to toughen. Let it cook......dont mess about with it. If you have paid good money for a nice piece of meat, you will waste your money prodding at it to see if juices are clear. They don't need to be clear to have a nice tender steak or roasting joint.
One other thing everyone tends to forget....you are cooking animal muscle! When you get burned your muscles tense up with the pain....similar principal here.....obviously the piece of meat you are cooking can't scream at you in pain!!!!
When you remove any cooked meat from the heat of pan or oven, take out of the container and let it rest on a flat wooden board for at least 5 minutes. It will relax and all the juices inside will keep it moist and tender. It will then be ready to eat or to be carved.
So, to go back to your question..it isn't that we have cacky british meat at all...it's all to do with how you cook it and season or not, and how long it has been hanging. If you want to marinade before cooking, ideally prepare your marinade and place the meat in it, ready for cooking either diced for barbecue or frying or roasting. Leave in the marinade, covered with cling film, in the fridge for 24 hours. It will taste so much better, especially if you cook it carefully and don't keep checking by sticking, a knife or fork or skewer into it every 2 minutes. If you are marinading a large joint, ensure there is enough marinade to just cover the meat, or turn the joint over in the marinade at least once to ensure all the flavour soaks in to the meat.
I hope this helps and from now on, you will find a good butcher who can help. Source(s):
over 40 years of cooking for a fussy family! Cant say I'd noticed! UK Steak is lush! Maybe because ours is so expensive it's just too hard to swallow!! Because the houses of parliament nick all the decent stuff and the rest of it is given to us. The tax payers. The best steak I had was in Greece. It melted in my mouth. Restaurant was called Sizzlers and was in Faliraki - so if anyone is going there on hols this year, I totally recommend it. Because they feed their cattle with growth hormones .....banned in the UK....and so they grow bigger. PS the growth hormones are banned here because they can be passed to humans...perhaps that's why Americans are so BIG. I have rump steak every now and again from our local butcher and have to say it is excellent, think it`s all to do with how you cook it.It took me a long time to realise this but now i know what i`m doing it`s great. I'm going to guess it's two things.
1. The US spends much more money on farming research and breeding.
2. Not long ago the UK beef industry was completely destroyed by a BSE outbreak, and may not have fully recovered yet. I don't eat my friends!! When you look at that wet nose and those long eyelashes do you still want to eat them? Switch to soya and help save the planet. It is all about how you cook it. This works with most steaks: Marinate it in olive oil, black pepper, and garlic, with a touch of red wine. Leave it for about an hour, til it reaches room temp (don't cook steak right out of the fridge.)
Get a cast iron grill pan and heat it til it is very hot. put the steak into the hot pan, and cook til your desired doneness. You can tell if it is still quite red in the middle by the feel of the meat. If it still feels very squidgy to the touch, it is still not done all the way. I prefer my meat to be a bit pink in the middle, but not too much.
Leave the meat on a plate to rest for about 5 minutes (this allows the fibres to relax). I usually only salt the meat before eating it, if at all and not during cooking, as this can make it tough. This is lovely served with grilled onions and mushrooms, a rice pilaf or thick chips, and a nice mixed salad. I hope this changes your mind about British meat. Bon apetite! Funny, I always thought it the other way around.
It depends on what you buy and where you buy it. Don't go buying this bright red stuff from the supermarket and expect it to be good - you need to go to a reputable butcher and and get some fully matured well hung stuff with a marbling of fat that will melt during the cooking - that's what gives it flavour.
I find the Americans drown everything in sauce so as you can't taste the meat If you think british steak is cack you ain't cooking it right! Good British steak is the best in the world. The problem is that most people buy their meat from the supermarkets and with the odd one or two exceptions, they are selling absolute rubbish. I had to laugh recently when some of them started stating that their beef was now matured for longer to give it better flavour. Hanging beef is part of the process but it won't won't do squat if the meat is crap in the first place. I used to recommend 28 day hung Aberdeen Angus which came from Scotland. Problem is that now the Argentinians are breeding Aberdeen Angus cattle and flogging it to us so you can no longer tell where it comes from.
Find a good butcher who buys quality stuff and who knows its source and how to mature it and sell it in its prime. Always remember, good things cost a bit more but it is worth it. Don't forget, if you buy it at Tesco's or Asda you deserve to be chewing on cack. Meat that has lots of fatty streaks in it is generally tastier. Its called 'marbling'. In Japan they eat Wagyu beef which is extra fatty & extra tasty.
...then again it could be all those delicious hormones like someone else said ha ha (c; Because American steaks are leaner and are not as fatty as the ones that you get in the UK. Don't get me wrong not all steaks in the UK are fatty you can get decent steak here but you do have to search for it. Whereas in America can always get a good one I'd like to taste the difference. I've only had American beef and I live in Texas where beef is big business. I can't afford to buy the organic and free range beef here (the one without antibiotics and hormones). It would be interesting to see how cattle raised differently taste different. Try Aberderen Angus . or if you are not into good Sctish Beef
Try Venison. its Deer but. ha ha. Failing that become a Vegie.