When ordering a juicy beef steak in a cafe or restaurant, we often think about why at home beef never turns out so tasty and juicy. The fact is that every self-respecting restaurant chooses the best types of meat. In order for the finished steak to melt in your mouth, you need to take animal fibers with uniform thin layers of fat, in other words, marble.
One of the most famous types of meat that have proven themselves in the market of deli meats since 1788 is Australian beef.
Australia is an ideal place to raise livestock
Today Australia is the third country in terms of meat production, one of the largest exporters of marbled beef. The Australian mild climate, vast areas overgrown with grass full of nutritional properties, crystal-clear air are ideal conditions for the growth of elite thoroughbred calves. Marble meat is achieved by alternating feeding livestock with fresh grass and dry hay with selected grain, as well as changing modes: physical activity and dormancy. The readiness of the heads for slaughter is checked daily by feeling the barrels of animals.
Preparing meat for sale
To produce Australian beef of high quality and elite rank, paired carcasses go through the process of ripening meat. First, the pieces are checked for sufficient marbling. Ideally, they should be a bright burgundy color with small splashes of fat, creating a characteristic mesh pattern. Selected marble pieces undergo a dry method of ripening in refrigerators for three to four weeks. If the meat is devoid of a specific marble pattern, it is aged in vacuum packaging, which is called "wet fermentation". The process of ripening meat is necessary to improve taste characteristics, thanks to it it acquires an additional nutty taste.
Quality checking
Quality control authorities subject Australian beef to inspections at all stages of meat production. After aging, it passes a series of checks for compliance with the requirements of the variety: prime (highest category), choice (selected beef), select (category of least marbling). In accordance with the degree of marbling, age of livestock, and taste, beef gets a class and is labeled with state Australian and international standards. If the degree of marbling is more or less clear, then the age of the livestock is determined as follows:
- up to a year - veal;
- up to 2 years - young beef;
- over 2 years old - beef.
Taste is determined by the consumer who tests the cooked meat, in accordance with the juiciness, tenderness, taste and overall impression.
Australian Beef Steak: A Story
For centuries, meat has been preferred in our country. Bird and fish always faded into the background after beef and pork. Everyone loves meat, regardless of gender, age, social status, with the exception of a small number of people who choose a vegetarian lifestyle. To date, an incredible variety of meat dishes has accumulated, but beef steak is the most popular, as evidenced by the number of orders in Russian restaurants.
Steak appeared in England in the Middle Ages and quickly became popular throughout Europe. Since that time, the name beefsteaks (steak) has come to us, which literally translates as "beef steak." A photo of an Australian beef steak can be seen in the article.
Steak in translation from English means “tenderloin”, that is, it is a rather thick piece of meat (from 3 to 5 cm), cut from fixed sections of the animal’s muscles in the transverse direction. There are quite few such areas in the animal’s body, so the steak is considered a delicacy. In addition, the steak is made from the meat of young individuals of the Agnus and Herford breeds. The best raw material for steak is Australian marbled beef called CAB (Certified Angus Beef). Cross cutting allows you to open pores, which, in turn, helps heat penetrate deeply and warm the piece much faster.
Cooking steak
In addition to choosing a steak, it is important to observe a certain temperature regime during its preparation. To begin with, a piece is quickly fried in a hot frying pan at a temperature of about 250 ° C, which allows you to form a crust that prevents juice from flowing out. After that, the steak is brought to the desired degree of readiness at a temperature of 150 ° C. Next, the meat is sent to the oven for a couple of minutes, so that the juice is evenly distributed throughout the piece. It would seem that cooking a steak is a completely simple task, but to achieve a certain degree of frying, not allowing the juice to run out, is very difficult.
Steaks are of varying degrees of frying at the request of the cook or guest of the restaurant:
- very rare - very raw (cooking costs only the formation of a crust);
- rare - raw (meat is fried for a minute on each side);
- medium rare - half-baked with blood (two minutes on each side to pink-red blood discharge);
- medium - medium rare (meat is cooked for about 10-12 minutes until pinkish discharge);
- medium well - almost fried (cooked 15 minutes before the release of clear juice);
- well done - fried (fried for 18 minutes until cooked).
The degree of frying depends on the selected temperature regime, which differs by about 3-4 ° C. Nevertheless, experienced chefs can determine this difference by eye.
Australian Beef Steak Recipe
In the cookbooks you can find a huge number of recipes: ribeye, strip, cowboy, filet mignon. These also include Australian beef barbecue steak. Prepare it in a variety of ways. You can do this in a pan, frying surface, but the dish is not intended for barbecue.
Professional chefs prepare Australian marbled meat in special charcoal kilns - hospers. But for lack of such, we can use a conventional oven.
So we need:
- ribeye steak 3-4 cm;
- salt and black pepper to taste;
- butter - 25 g;
- garlic - 1 clove;
- thyme - 1 sprig.
Let the steak lie down at room temperature for about two hours. Dry the meat with a towel, then moisten it with a small amount of vegetable refined oil on both sides and roll in a salt-pepper mixture.
We heat the pan with a thick bottom (ideally - cast iron).
Cook the steak on high heat for a minute and a half on each side, evenly pressing on the surface.
Reduce the heat, add garlic, butter, thyme to the frying pan, stir and pour the steak with the mixture for about six minutes to a medium degree of frying.
Remove the meat from the pan, transfer it to a slightly preheated oven for 5-10 minutes.