What’s YOUR favorite cut?

A couple years ago, I shared a steak marinade recipe that I picked up from a fellow Big Green Egg fan at a local Eggfest, that was especially good on cuts like tenderloin, sirloin, and anvil or flatiron steaks.

In that post I also wrote about the difficulty of finding a well-marbled steak in our part of the country (eastern Washington), where USDA Select and grass-fed beef seem to be what people are looking for.  In particular, I singled out Safeway for pulling all their USDA Choice beef steaks as they were ramping up their “Rancher’s Reserve” branding program.

However, Safeway was recently purchased by Albertsons (itself owned by Cerberus Capital Management) and among the changes they’ve been making in the store is a return to selling USDA Choice grade beef.  It’s a step in the right direction and I hope this signals an improvement in their steak offerings.

Still, finding a well-marbled steak remains a challenge, and there are times one must settle for “b-a-d” – the best available deal.  In the hope of improving the flavor of some ribeyes that fell into that category, I came up with a surprisingly tasty variation of the previous recipe, wanting not so much to color the flavor of the steaks as to simply intensify their natural beefiness.  Here’s the recipe for my rib steak marinade.  It’s simple and astonishingly good.

Rod’s Ribeye Marinade for less marbled steaks:

1 tall can Guinness Stout
2 shots Bourbon whiskey
1 generous teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon EVOO
1 teaspoon sesame seed oil
Half-teaspoon coarse black pepper

Whisk ingredients together and pour into 2-gallon size zip lock baggie(s) with steaks.  Will marinate 6 steaks.

Try it and let me know what you think.