Choice Ribeyes are Tough?!?

[boogiesnap]

Sometimes ya' just get a bad chunk of beef.

How was the marbling? I've seen some Choice ribeyes that have big ribbons of fat, and very little marbling, and others that have marbling on par with Prime. You need as many of those thin lines of fat as possible to get a tender, juicy steak.

As for salting, I often sprinkle my ribeyes with k-salt, and put them on a wire rack in the fridge for 24 hours -- a mini dry age. What drains out is just water, which doesn't make a steak tender or juicy. Rendered fat does that. Losing that water makes the beef flavor more intense.

But, I think you just got some Choice steaks that probably shouldn't have been rated Choice. You have to do some of your own grading. Look for good, marbling throughout the whole steak. It is not so much the amount of fat that matters, but how well and evenly the fat is distributed.

CD

i kinda disagree CD, fat is not juice, it's flavor. a juicy steak has both moisture(water i.e med. rare to rare), and melted fat(flavor).

and i too ask what gordon would say to a tented steak.

 

[RevZiLLa]

Get your money back! Choice ribeye should be pretty much foolproof. If the meat was pink in the middle after cooking and TOUGH...bad meat

 

[BBQchef33]

Sometimes ya' just get a bad chunk of beef.

How was the marbling? I've seen some Choice ribeyes that have big ribbons of fat, and very little marbling, and others that have marbling on par with Prime. You need as many of those thin lines of fat as possible to get a tender, juicy steak.

As for salting, I often sprinkle my ribeyes with k-salt, and put them on a wire rack in the fridge for 24 hours -- a mini dry age. What drains out is just water, which doesn't make a steak tender or juicy. Rendered fat does that. Losing that water makes the beef flavor more intense.

But, I think you just got some Choice steaks that probably shouldn't have been rated Choice. You have to do some of your own grading. Look for good, marbling throughout the whole steak. It is not so much the amount of fat that matters, but how well and evenly the fat is distributed.

CD

i think this is the answer right there ^^^^.

Ive gotten crappy 'choice' ribeyes from costco, so bad that i wont buy them there any longer unless i can get a prime, or close to prime, that I determine, not the label.

theres a large window between grades. A high end choice can overlap a low end prime, and a high end select can be better than low choice. Its all about the marbling. If it looks lean, its gonna be tough.

I ignore the grades, and select my own steaks. If im not happy with the marbling and expect it to be tough, i hit it with a jaccard and marinade it for a bit, but i learned that its better to pay a little extra and go for the prime.

one of our stores here sells only prime cuts, and when they run sales, i stock up.. got 40 ounce porterhouses for 6.99 lb a few weeks back.. we bought 6 of them. 3 left, and those suckers cut with a fork. :bow:

 

[BigBellyBBQ]

you simple had a cow that was chased around the pasture instead of being grained out..even aging will only help a little....as it is almost impossible to toughen a rib eye ...be carefull aging a steak once cut..

 

[Titch]

you simple had a cow that was chased around the pasture instead of being grained out..even aging will only help a little....as it is almost impossible to toughen a rib eye ...be carefull aging a steak once cut..

I tend to agree with that,if a beast is overly stressed when being Slaughtered it will be tough.

 

[silverfinger]

I can look at a steak and tell you weather it's going to fall apart or be tuff as leather. Been cooking rib eyes and t bones since I was a kid. The marbling is something to consider no matter what they label it as. Many times if you look at a cut of meat you can see it already falling apart before you even cook it. That's the one you want. If the meat looks solid before its cooked it will probably end up that way. SAMs club seems to sell some good rib eyes and I will pick through every pack before I decide. Once you get an eye for what your looking for, chances of getting a tuff steak will be rare.

Best of luck and hope that helps!!!

 

[El Ropo]

=Hoss;2404864]This is ONLY an opinion.

Holy Moly, that was hard to read.

 

[Hoss]

Holy Moly, that was hard to read.

True.It was poorly written.I type with one finger and was too lazy to go back and edit/rewrite my opinion.

 

[Big George's BBQ]

I salt fos about an hour. I recently got some choice bone in rib eyes and watched them cut it I was awesome Maybe it was labled choice and was not. I may have been bad luck and a bad cut of meat

 

[Motley Q]

anyone who posted who didn't think that salting 3 hrs before grilling made beef tough...


try it and post your tough beef results.