Femme Fatale Brewing

Not the dance, the steak. Lindsey got me a wonderful present, a full top loin primal (primals are the butcher cuts of beef from where smaller commercial cuts come from). She orginally was going to get me a full short loin primal (my favorite cut of steak, porterhouse, comes from it) but Costco didn’t have any. A top loin primal is one part of a short loin primal. The other part, tenderloin, is where filet cuts come from.

The top loin is typically cut into strip steaks and that is exactly what I did with it. I cut them into 1 inch thick steaks, pretty much what you would expect in a restaurant. The job was made much easier by using a high quality large and sharp chef’s knife. For my first time doing it they turned out very good. A few slip up here and there at the bottom of the cuts but the meat was so tender I just shaved off any mistakes. We gave some of the shave offs and trimmings to the dog and some we made into some awesome carne asade.

Ended up with 14 steaks which isn’t bad at all. You can see my scrap pile on the side.

Lindsey then took the cut steaks and vacuum packed them so they would last for a while. Some of the steaks we vacuum packed preseasoned with kosher salt and pepper. That should give the steaks some nice flavoring. We rubbed 2 of the steaks with a little olive oil for dinner later in the week. Vacuum sealing the meat makes the meat marinate much faster so they should be nice and juicy by the time we cook them (not that the meat needs it ).

Overall, great experience. Thanks go out to my wife for helping and giving me the chance to finally try my hands at some butchering. Should be a great 4th of July!