Gerald, my small local grocery actually has a butcher, they get whole/halved carcasses and cut them up on site, and I can get "speciality" cuts if I want. I don't, because I raise my own beef and have it cut to my specifications. We don't have any fresh fish, though, only frozen and canned, so that's the trade off. Well, we do have fresh salmon, lake perch and walleye, if I'm lucky enough to catch some but then I'm responsible for my own filets. Are solutions/injections/etc. evil? Not in and of themselves, but hiding them in tiny print that I can't see without my reading glasses and charging prime beef price for it, now that's wrong. It's unethical, it's sneaky, and it's prevalent. Annie

"I can’t understand why people are so emotional about sous vide. You seem emotional about it, too, no? :) " Possible. I try not to. Because there is no mystery and no excitement to the science of temperature control. It’s not a new invention, and it is just plain cooking with control heating. Very boring stuff. Funny it can get people very upset that I cook meat with electronic temperature control instead of poking with my fingers. Take a look below a PM I got recently in another cooking forum from a chef: [““You sir, are a belittling, know it all, think your better than everybody else, piece of trash. ------- You are ignorant, arrogant, and aren't worth a peas weight in food knowledge. Your a foodie hipster.-------Congratulations on your little home cooking competition wins. Your dishes look atrocious and wouldn't even be found and on a 1M star menu. Your technique and style bogus and outrageous.------- Get lost on your other forum where immersion circulators and SV are all buzz. Hippie. Good day sir.”] “I think any negative emotions are in part a reaction to the seeming fanatacism of some. “ Frankly, I don’t know which side is more fanatic. Each time all I said my dinner was cooked sous vide, a ton of people will immediately blame me for taking over the cooking world. “You're right, meat isn't smart, on the inside it does not know what the external heat source is. BUT, meat reacts differently to heat over time, hence so much discussion about cooking times. So while technically it may be true that you cannot overcook a steak in a SV bath, I'm here to say that in my experience a naturally "good" steak starts to go south with times stretching past what is needed to bring the core to temp.” And you are not wrong in your statement above. But why would anyone cook a steak longer than necessary? SV does not mean long cooking. It means by controlling precise temperature, if the kind of meat requires longer cooking time, you will not be over cooking it in the SV method. “An aside, the notion of saving money because the steak retains more water doesn't fly with me. Water is cheap. I don't think you can value the water loss at $10/lb or $20/lb or whatever. You're not going to be more full because you ingested a tablespoon or two of water. The question really becomes whether the water retention is beneficial to the final cooked product.” I am very confused. I hope you are not saying meat shrinkage is not a bad thing to meat texture. “In the case of our modern day pork chop, I'll say yes. In the case of a prime steak, I'm not sure. “ When you have a nice prime steak, SV will not take any longer than other cooking methods. But tell me do you have a way to cook London Broil into tender steak using any normal method? I am not talking about cutting the meat thinly across grain kind of tender, I am talking about tender as in butter tender. Well, that takes me 48 hours in the SV cooker. Do you have a way to cook brisket medium (cheap select grade, not prime) fork tender ? I just had pulled brisket tonight, fork tender. It took 72 hours. Good luck with you steaks. A billion people have enjoyed a billion steaks cooked the normal way. No doubt another billion for sure will be done the same way and enjoyed the same way. dcarch

It was just wonderful. So tender and juicy. Managed a nice quick sear in a cast iron wok. I did lightly salt and dry them in the fridge on a grid rack but just for the 6 hours i had. Then into a 220 oven for 1hour 15min. I did all three. One for the meal that night i left open, the other two i folded like a book and tied. The surface was nice and dry and did not steam at all when it hit the hot pan. The other two i seared later, rare. One for sandwiches and one for the next night fajitas. (the open one not booked was about 45 min in the oven) Impressive cut. More flavor than our usual flank. But flank i often wet marinade. This i wanted to dry a bit without even a dry rub. Did not need it. Not a cooking method usually recommended for hangar steak, but i felt it worked well by paying close attention. dcarch-we have similar shopping options and i also prefer to shop conveniently. I can't even look at my local stop-n-shop meat/seafood area. All store are very different. Possibly management etc. The fairway is brand new. I pass the Harlem store a few hundred times a year via the WestSideHway but rarely have stopped. 3-4 times a year but now have one as my local, daily if needed. I'm not that interested in the tenderloin. Gearing up for a big grind tomorrow and merguez sausage making. So i need to pick up a leg of lamb and such. We'll see tomorrow. Maybe i'll take the tenderloin challenge.... Had i know i would have suggest you pick up a cod fillet. They look really good right now... I do believe Fairway has better quality and when they have a special it is not the big red grocery sticker saying 'reduced for clearance'.

Well, I cooked 1/4 of the steak for dinner tonight. I took note of everyone’s suggestions. Unfortunately, I had an ant attack in the kitchen late in the afternoon. Once I got that taken care of, I wasn’t in much of a mood to do anything particularly creative. I ended up cutting the portion into thick strips. Patted them dry with paper towels and seared them in a hot pan. Added a sprinkling or salt, and that was dinner. Actually, it was very good. I enjoyed the meat. A bit chewy but very flavorful. I’ve still got 3 portions left, so possibly tomorrow evening I can be a bit more inventive. Thanks for the good suggestions.