Laurent Tourondel Says You Should Be Wary Of This Cut Of Steak - Exclusive
A craving for steak is not as simple as it sounds; there are so many cuts out there, and weighing a steak's flavor, fattiness, and how it will hold up to your preferred cooking method is a more complex process than just slapping down any piece of meat on the grill and calling it a day.
Luckily, there are plenty of steak savants out there with plenty of advice to share. One is Laurent Tourondel, the famed chef behind the BLT Steak brand, and currently Skirt Steak in New York City. While sharing some of his best expert tips for cooking steak exclusively with Tasting Table, Tourondel mentioned that you should proceed with caution when it comes to New York strips.
While they are a steakhouse favorite across the board, Tourondel says "I don't buy New York [strip] steak because I feel it's hit-and-miss." The finished product and the mouthfeel won't be the same with every cut, elaborates Tourondel. And you're probably better off sticking to a piece of meat that you know will never let you down.
You never know what you're going to get with a NY Strip, says Tourondel
The New York strip earned its name, as you can guess, due to its popularity in NYC steakhouses. It's considered a higher-end cut of meat that tends to be pretty beefy and tender, while still retaining some texture. However, this perennial favorite may be overrated depending on who you ask. Chef Tourondel says he doesn't trust this cut to meet expectations every time. "Sometimes it's nice. Sometimes it's chewy," he says, which is why, "this is a cut of beef I would not buy to put on the grill."
The reason for this could be because of the variation within New York stips. Coming from the short loin of the cow, these steaks are cut away from the larger porterhouse. However, when they are butchered, they can be cut either with or without the middle bone. The conundrum here is that leaving the bone in makes the steak more difficult to cook correctly, but without the bone the steak has a higher tendency to dry out on the grill or skillet. Hence, Tourondel's warning about the inconsistency of this cut.
Tourondel says you're safer going with a ribeye or a prime skirt steak. "I look at the marbling on it, and then most of the time, it's good."