Getting to Know Our Beef - Lunch

We had a really fun lunch today. We cooked steaks for lunch and used the opportunity to get better acquainted with our beef. We cooked several T-bone steaks and a sirloin steak. Each steak was cooked to different doneness. We cooked the T-bones from well to medium rare and the sirloin we cooked to medium. Each family member took a cut of each steak and judged it on tenderness, juiciness, and flavor. It wasn't scientific, and not everyone participated in the same process, but I think we were able to come to a consensus. We all agreed that medium rare was the most tender, juicy, and most flavorful. Some (the girls) couldn't look at that much "red meat" on the medium rare steak, but everyone liked it once they got it past their eyes. The toughest we all agreed was the well steak which was expected since the medium rare was picked as best. The sirloin which was cooked medium was picked in a tie with the medium rare T-bone. I had a medium rare sirloin the other night and it was even better than the medium rare T-bone, so I think that if it had been medium rare, it would have been the winner. Since we really felt that there was a significant difference between well and medium rare, we'll be posting tips on getting steaks to your desired doneness on our resources page. Hopefully you'll find a tip to help you make your next steak as tender as possible.