Did you know that for a while now the cost of prime beef has been very low? It’s true, the internet says so. According to this WSJ article, prime steaks can be had for under $10/lb at Costco. $10 isn’t exactly bargain basement, but when the cost of a 16oz NY strip at Bone’s approaches $50, it’s quite enticing to me to try to make my own for one fifth of the cost. Not to mention I don’t end up paying 300-400% over retail for average wine at most steakhouses. Yeah, I do realize that not all prime beef is created equal, and there’s wet aged vs dry aged, but most of the time the difference isn’t enough to make me want to shell out the extra money. That being said, I did have a dry aged prime strip from Star Provisions about six months ago that blew me away. I think I paid around $24/lb for the steak. Last time I was in there it was closer to $30/lb.
Back to the story at hand; I wanted to cook a steak dinner for some friends, so I made the excursion to Costco to peruse my options. There was indeed prime strip steaks for $10/lb, but what caught my eye was the whole primal for $7.99/lb. I realize it’s a little more effort to butcher my own steaks, but I considered it a cost savings and a learning experience. It was $79 for almost 10lbs. I strapped that baby in and was on my way.
FYI – They also had prime ribeye primals for a couple of dollars per pound more.
Here it is, ready to be broken down. There are plenty of good videos on YouTube that can show you how to do it. NY Strip is fairly easy.
There was a fair amount of fat, well over a pound, which does cut into the cost savings. But of course, the fat is saved to be rendered.
I ended up with 12 steaks, 6 of which I cooked that night. The others were wrapped tightly and frozen. Individual steak cost – $6.54
I didn’t get any good photos of the prepared steaks that night, because once I get going with the final push in the kitchen, I don’t have a lot of time to snap photos. I did enjoy this aftermath photo though.
The next day I took some leftovers, warmed it up in a pan, sliced it very thin, then topped it with veal demiglace/red wine butter.
I’ve made a few prime burgers out of the frozen steaks. The trimmings (the hard/clean/white fat) can be used for additional fat content in the burger if it’s too lean.
I definitely recommend this purchase. It’s not the best prime beef I’ve had by any means, but you can’t beat this value.
And now, as if this post wasn’t long enough, here are some wine pictures from that evening. Some incredibly informative descriptors from these bottles are: bubbly, wet, crisp, jammy, earthy, young, acidic, flabby, zingy, value-play, caramel, toast, and austere. You figure out which ones belong with which.
