I'm weird but do any of you ever do 'taste tests'?...

M

music-city-missy

Well-known member
We had an early 'Father's Day' Dinner since my parents are up this weekend. So I did everything on the grill.

Grilled marinated shrimp for appetizer

Grilled Romaine salad

Grilled yellow squash with honey cardamom butter

And the weird part - a skirt steak, a flank steak and a tri-tip - all cooked rare, sliced thin against the grain with just salt and pepper served with grilled lime wedges, horseradish sauce, and chimichurri sauce

Grilled peaches for dessert

Any way, we tried all three cuts of meat to see which we like the best taking some hints from Cooks Illustrated. Have to agree - the skirt steak definitely has much more flavor. Tri-tip came in second and the flank steak last. All were good DH said but it was fun.

 
Not usually, but last night we did, on two different cuts of steak.

I am not a huge beef fan, but on the butcher's recommendation, I tried two different cuts of beef. I must say that I liked his recommendation. However, in my usual tradition, I cannot remember which was which, or which was what. Which is why I had to ask the butcher in the first place. Or maybe it is because he is such a cutie. I guess I will have to ask him again. Oh well. (smile)

 
I had to keep everyone straight last night....

but it was fairly easy to tell by the shape of the cut and the grain on the three I was doing. I've also been going through this whole thing of trying to get a real good handle on what cut is what - where does it come from, what is it good for. Butchers seem to play games with the cuts and labeling. Maybe I should start a movement for truth & uniformity in butchering!

 
Tri tip is not a very common cut here. Skirt steak is definitely the most flavorful.

Flank steak is just plain too expensive for the taste. I would rather use London broil, if I'm grilling.

 
Tri-tip comes and goes here as does skirt steak....

flank is the one most commonly found but I find it rather disappointing (again). They carry the tri-tip at Costco and they were selling it whole and cut up into these strips that are horrible in my opinion. Now that they only carry the strips, I buy the WHOLE cryovac bag that typically has 8 to 10 in it and I freeze them. Our family loves them. One is just about perfect for the three of us with maybe one serving left over for someone's lunch. The skirt steak os hard to find but they had it on sale at Harris Teeter - since we really liked it, think I am going to go up there today and buy some for the freezer and I'll check with Costco cause I think I have seen it in there before but not often.

 
We do taste tests occassionally - their fun! We've done sausages, cuts of beef, pork, BBQ sauces.

Oh, and let's not forget champagne and vodka!

 
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