Why does steak taste so much better at the steak house compared to home?
If you are a steak fan, you will have compared the texture and taste of the steaks at a steakhouse compared to what can be cooked at home. Somehow, no matter how much you try, it seems hard to get it just as delicious at home. Here are some of the reasons that steak houses cook such great steaks.
Better cuts of meat
Steakhouses get a finer cut of meat than you can source from a supermarket or standard butchers. They compared steaks that have been aged for different times, with the cattle grazed on different farms from different regions, to find the most tasty and tender meat. These can be much smaller suppliers than those that supply large chains, as they only sell a small amount of high quality meat.
The meat is also treated well, and it doesn't get consigned to the freezer before coming out for a later dinner. Keeping meat out of the freezer prevents the toughening of meat fibres that can be caused by freezer burn.
Even grills
Steak houses have well-maintained flat and evenly heated grills. This helps them to get a consistent warming and cooking through the meat, preventing the home cook's worst combination of partially raw, partially burnt steak!
The cooks are familiar with the cooking processes that bring out the best in each cut, so they don't need to prod and over turn the meat 'to check if it's ready'. As these cook throughout the evening and the grills run constantly, your steak also goes onto a grill already at full cooking temperature, which helps to seal in juices. (Try leaving your pan or a grill an extra minute at home to see the difference it can make to any cut of meat!)
A splash of this and a pinch of that
The health conscious home cook tends to use a light hand with salt and animal fats such as butter. Unfortunately, higher fat cuts of meat tend to taste better and adding animal fats such as butter also enhances the flavour. Salt also helps to seal the juices in the steak, making it a tasty and mouth-watering meal. Chefs at steakhouses know all about this so they tend to use a little more salt than you use at home and choose higher fat meat cuts and use a little more oil on the grill.
By now your mouth is probably watering as you contemplate a dinner at a steakhouse like Ball & Chain Grill. Restaurants that specialise in both steaks and grilling meat will provide a superior steak-eating experience.