A week or so ago, I bought a lump of beef labelled “economy scotch fillet steak.” It cost about $AUD45. I asked the butcher to cut it into 3 cm slices, and I ended up with five steaks.
From the butcher, each slice weighed about 300 g. The meat costs $AUD29.99/kilogram. I know what some readers are thinking; $AUD30 for a kilogram isn’t cheap. I agree. I can buy chuck or eye round for a lot less. For scotch fillet steak (also known as ribeye steak in North America), it’s possible to buy cheaper quality meat. That said, the upper limit on the cost for a scotch fillet steak can be five or more times the cost I paid for this piece of beef.
I acknowledge that I have a well-paid job and can afford meat at this price. However, I’m conscious that many people cannot afford meat at this price.
While scotch fillet steak is usually tender, cheaper meat can be chewy to tough. A poorly cooked 3 cm steak can be very tough and unpleasant. I think a tough and chewy “economy scotch fillet steak” is poor economy.
Based on the methods available, the best way to approach this was using a water bath and a precision cooker. To save cooking time, I cooked all the steaks at once and refrigerated them in their plastic vacuum-sealed bags. Each day I wanted a steak; I’d pop it into the water bath and heat the steak to 57 °C for about 20 minutes and then sear the meat with a gas torch. Instead of 15 hours of electricity use, I reduced that to about 4 hours and 20 minutes.
I shared some photographs already in another post (Chifley’s Bar and Grill at the Hotel Kurrajong).
I liked this “economy scotch fillet.” When cooked like this, it had a great taste and mouthfeel, and it wasn’t tough.
I agree that $AUD9 a steak isn’t as cheap as $AUD6.50 for 500 g of beef mince, but for me, it means I can eat for less than $20 each day, assuming I’m only eating two meals a day. This includes coffee and carbonated water, too.
If you’re interested in doing this, here is my approach:
- Buy meat from a butcher and choose a piece of beef you want.
- Ask the butcher to slice the steaks to the thickness you want. This is usually done free of charge.
- Dry brine the meat.
- Bag and vacuum seal the meat after dry brining.
- Cook all the steaks for 3 hours at 57 °C.
- Refrigerate the bags of steak.
- Warm up the steak for about 20 minutes at 57 °C.
- Remove the steak from the bag and pat dry the surface of the meat with a paper towel (after the dry brining and cooking, the steak weighed a bit over 200 g).
- Sear the steak with a gas torch or a hot frypan or over a hot grill.
- Slice the steak, season the steak, and serve it with some butter.
Here are some examples of the steaks I enjoyed from that piece of “economy scotch fillet steak.”
Select one image and then scroll through the gallery.
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