About steaks: an impossibly stupid question to start out your week

[Gail]

I am a Southern Californian. When you order a steak in a restaurant here, it is customarily charcoal broiled. Your waiter or waitress serves you a little jailbird piece of meat, striped and charred on the outside, hopefully juicy and tender on the inside.

Imagine my shock the first time I ordered a steak Somewhere Else. Virginia, for example. It tasted different and I couldn't figure out why. I turned over the meat a few times, added salt and squinted. Why did the silly thing taste so different? Unsteaklike, it seemed... Then it hit me: no stripes.

So, I'm curious now, since we come from All Over. How is steak customarily served where you live? (Even if you don't eat red meat or meat at all, surely you've noticed...) Enlighten this poor soul, who doesn't eat steaks away from home base very often.

[Gina O]

I would have to say that here, it may depend upon where you get it. If I remember correctly, Ruth's Chris, which has the best steak I have tasted, cooks their's on a flat grill, seasoning with only salt, pepper and butter. Most other steakhouse type places tend to cook them on a grill around here. Gina

[Gail]

... but no charcoal? No stripes, right?

[slknight]

Originally posted by Gail
... but no charcoal? No stripes, right?

Am I missing something here? Why can't you get stripes without charcoal? You could still have it on a gas grill which would create the stripes. Or, you could use a grill pan which has the ridges on it. I think this would still give the steak stripes.

[Peggy]

Gail,

Up here in Northern California, we see a lot of stripes on our steaks also. Must be a California thing!:cool:

Peggy

[funnybone]

I've NEVER had a steak anywhere WITHOUT stripes. To me, grilling = stripes, and no stripes would mean pan frying.

I rarely order steak at a restaurant - I find what we make at home much, much better!

[Gina O]

Gail-

I would say that at about 1/2 the places there are stripes and no stripes at the others. I think that around here there is no set way of doing it. Gina

[sneezles]

When we eat steak out I usually order the bacon wrapped filet. It doesn't have stripes. Usually in the description on the menu it will say char-broiled or grilled. Grilled doesn't mean it will have stripes.

[claire797]

When we go out, DH always orders prime rib and I usually get chicken so it's hard to recall. At Ruth's Chris, there is no prime rib so DH gets porterhouse. No stripes. I've had the filet at Saltgrass Steakhouse and I don't think it had stripes either.

Now that I think about it. Stripes always remind me of fake steak.....Sizzler, Bonanaza or Burger King hamburgers. I think a lot of steakhouses here must cook on a flat grill. Hmmmmm. I'll have to go look at some pictures of steaks.

[val e girl]

Up here most steaks served in restaurants are striped---but if you BROIL your steak (like many CL recipes) they will be stripe-free. Sometimes it is just too darn cold out to fire up the grill so I will admit I've served many a stripe-free steak.

[claire797]

Well. Saltgrass Steakhouse and Houston's steaks both have stripes. I just looked at the pictures on their websites.

[SandyM]

I usually don't order steak at a restaurant, but DH does. I can't recall whether or not it has Steak Stripes or not, but I'm pretty certain that around here, steaks aren't pan-fried unless it's stated as such on the menu. I think they're all done on huge indoor grills in the kitchen - the kind I lust for on a Viking......

[ashell]

OK, former Outback Steakhouse waitress checking in here. I think it just depends on the restaurant or restaurant chain. Outback steaks are "seasoned and seared on a flat-topped grill." (Scary that i remember that five years later.) We always told people that the searing really sealed in the flavor, but who knows whether or not it really made much of a difference. I suspect they realized that people would get that negative Burger King image in their minds, and came up with all that verbiage to compensate.
Also, most restaurants with "lines" on their steaks don't actually cook over charcoal, though the steaks are grilled. And while they may attribute some of the flavoring to the cooking method, just as often they'll attribute it to, oh, special seasoning, or aging, or marinating...

[Gail]

Originally posted by slknight


Am I missing something here? Why can't you get stripes without charcoal? You could still have it on a gas grill which would create the stripes. Or, you could use a grill pan which has the ridges on it. I think this would still give the steak stripes.

That is true and you're right there. I guess what I should've said was that the menu specifies charcoal-broiled and they usually have stripes, too. Plus you can TASTE the charcoal...

I had a perfectly marvelous steak in Nevada last month which I guess they'd grilled. It was pretty black on the outside and strewn with caramelized chopped garlic. I rarely order steaks out I think before that one, the last was last April in Virginia) but I did notice what seems a regional difference in the way they were served, so I figured I'd ask.

I'm gathering then that grilling seems pretty much universal across the nation, then, but the charcoal isn't as widely used...

(Oh, and thanks for the insider's info, ashell :) )