The Deleted Scenes - Beef Two Ways
I’ve been writing about our recent trip to Croatia here, but I also had a piece in The Bulwark recently inspired in part by the trip—specifically, by a meal at a steakhouse in the historic city of Split. The original headline was “Have Your Steak and Eat It Too.” Yes I wrote the headline; I couldn’t resist. Here’s the steak we ordered: a Croatian Simmental dry-aged bone-in ribeye (and a bottle of Croatian red wine, not pictured!) The steak was excellent. But what caught my attention was that it was rather lean, compared, say, to a USDA Prime steak that will usually be dry-aged in an American steakhouse. Simmental is a leaner breed, generally, and it’s not very common in the U.S. This got me thinking about how we define what “good beef” is. I wrote:
I ended up delving into a bunch of articles talking about beef from older animals as well as from dairy cows, neither of which are eligible for USDA grading and are generally used, at best, for ground beef, and at worst, for dog food. But there are chefs out there who prize this beef, and even consider it to be better than what we conventionally consider good beef to be. There’s also a company, Mindful Meats, that sources this meat from farmers for much more than they’d usually get, and markets it as a sort of specialty.
In an American context, this can look like boutique foodie-ism. But it’s the kind of resourcefulness that was typical of things like farming and household management up until pretty recently. So much of what we think of as the mainstay of the American middle class—beef, cars, detached houses—is unimaginable luxury for most people in most places. I don’t want to take it away from anyone, but it’s heartening to see hints of more gratitude and humility for what we enjoy. I detour with a look at the notion of the “end of beef,” courtesy of the New York Times, which I find silly. But I conclude:
I had no idea my steakhouse dinner would turn into this. But, as I like to say, writers don’t really get vacations. Read the whole thing over at The Bulwark! Related Reading: Culture, Nostalgia, Cuisines as Living Things Thanks for reading! Please consider upgrading to a paid subscription to help support this newsletter. You’ll get a weekend subscribers-only post, plus full access to the archive of over 300 posts and growing—more than one full year! And you’ll help ensure more material like this! You’re a free subscriber to The Deleted Scenes. For the full experience, become a paid subscriber. |
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