I always like to take a look at grocery stores around Trinidad to see what they have to offer in terms of steaks. Most of the time the steaks you come across are frozen cut clod steaks, with the occasional portion controlled strip or tenderloin.
I was browsing a store in Diego Martin and came across a line of steaks that I had only seen once before. A while back we had actually researched the brand to see if it was something we wanted to carry.
For a minute, let’s forget the fact that these Ribeye steaks are selling for $100TT per pound. If you read the fine print, you’ll notice that these Ribeyes (and every other type of steak in this line) are ‘Enhanced with 20% of a FMI patented solution’. What exactly does that mean?
There are several different reasons that a consumer would want and a company would ‘marinate’ their steaks with a solution prior to end-use. Sometimes, this is done with a natural tenderizer that helps ensure the steak is cooked tender each and every time, even when cooked thoroughly. A lot of restaurants will use these steaks because they are required to cook steaks to ‘well done’ for some customers. It allows them to provide the customer with a tender steak, no matter what the end temperature. Tenderized steaks are perfectly fine and are usually delicious. We carry a few tenderized brands for this reason, but we will have done quite a bit of research to make sure the line of tenderized steaks we offer are marinated correctly.
In the case of the steaks above, the ‘patented solution’ being used is a salt solution with a few additional ingredients (water, ammonium hydroxide, etc). This is done to allow them to take a cheaper cut of meat and make it cook/act like a more expensive cut of meat. Remember, steaks like Ribeye are tender because of the marbling of fat throughout the meat. When that fat heats up, it melts into the surrounding muscle/meat and makes it tender. With lower-end/cheaper cuts of beef, you lack the marbling throughout the steak. Therefore, when the steak is cooked you do not get the ‘tender’ effect.
So, are tenderized steaks fine to eat? Sure. A lot of people prefer them because they help achieve a very tender steak even if you aren’t a ‘Pro Griller’.
Should they be $100 a pound? Absolutely not. The steaks pictured above are not Choice or even Select grade Ribeyes. They are what the beef industry calls Utility. These primal cuts are much much cheaper than purchasing a Prime, Choice or Select version of the meat. The usual reason is the marbling and/or the size of the primal cut. So the steak above was probably very cheap to begin with, it was cut into 16oz portions and then soaked in a solution to make it act like a expensive steak. Remember, when you are buying something that is claiming 20% solution added, you are paying a ‘Ribeye Price’ for salt water. A steak such as this should actually be much cheaper than it’s USDA Choice counterpart. It’s a lower grade steak and 1/5th of the weight is actually salt water. (our Choice Ribeye steaks usually sell for $70tt a pound).
Again, tenderized steaks are perfectly fine and just a matter of personal preference. However, it should not be treated as something that should command a higher price. The packaging may look nicer, but it doesn’t mean you are getting a nicer steak.
Happy Grilling!