With beef prices soaring, club and resort chefs are finding resourceful and innovative ways to still offer premium steakhouse fare and experiences.
At most club and resort properties, taking beef tenderloin, New York strip and other premium cuts off the menu is not an option. But with significant price increases pushing those dishes to the limit of many diners’ affordability thresholds, some chefs are taking the initiative to introduce other flavorful, but not as familiar, cuts of beef and other meats to their menus.
Dotty Curry, Executive Chef at Fargo (N.D.) Country Club, now frequently features flank steak, hanger steak and teres major (the shoulder muscle that “looks like a tiny tenderloin,” she says).
She marinates the cuts for a couple of hours before she grills them, to keep them tender and juicy. To impart different flavors to the meats, she looks for inspiration in her on-premise herb garden.
SUMMING IT UP
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“Some of these meats are so lean they can be tricky to work with, because they dry out easily,” Curry says. “But the way we marinate and cook them, our members really like them.”
As an option to steaks, she is also running more top-sirloin roast beef. A little less than a year ago, Curry also went from using all beef for meatballs to a mix of beef and lower-priced pork. Everyone, including her, liked the mixture so much that even if the price of beef comes down again, she says she will continue to make meatballs this way.
For now, though, with even hamburger prices continuing to rise, Curry cautions chefs to keep a close check on deliveries, to make sure the meat they get meets their exact specifications.
“You have to be on the lookout for added fat and gristle that might be added to increase the weight,” she says.
Staying in the Game
Curry also views higher beef prices as an opportunity to introduce other types of meats, such as bison, elk and venison, to members. Before beef prices began to rise she was a little hesitant to feature more exotic meats, because they were so expensive. “I knew I would hear about sticker shock,” she says.
But with the cost of game meat staying fairly steady, she now thinks it can be positioned in a more competitive fashion. “As the gap closes and our members have started getting used to seeing higher prices, I can set the prices of the game meats just a little higher than the beef, and the diversity makes our menu so much more interesting,” she explains.
Curry’s menu at Fargo CC is divided into two distinctive sections: “The Classics” and “Of the Moment.” “The Classics” section features standard items, such as filet mignon and New York strip sirloin, that are favored by older members. “Of the Moment” features more cutting-edge selections, including the exotic meats, and is geared to the more adventurous, younger members.
Tenderloin and sirloin steaks still outsell anything else on the menu by two to one, Curry says, but it’s exciting when something from the “Of the Moment” menu gains a following. “I have to keep the more exotic selections on the menu for at least six weeks to get some momentum going,” she notes. “Sometimes it takes a while for even the younger members to decide to try something that’s totally unfamiliar to them.”
Learning Different ‘Tongues’
J.R. Thomas, Executive Chef at Valley Lo Club in Glenview, Ill., has found beef tongue to be a versatile sandwich meat. But on the menu it is described as shaved beef, six-hour braised beef or root beer braised beef, because “tongue just doesn’t sound very appetizing,” he explains.
Bulk Savings Instead of buying pre-trimmed tenderloin and big cuts of steaks, J.R. Thomas, Executive Chef at Valley Lo Club in Glenview, Ill., buys boxed beef and does the trimming in-house. Although it takes more time and requires more effort, Thomas says, the savings are worth it, in terms of the extra beef trimmings he gets to use on his menus and for staff meals. “No matter what the price, members still want their big steaks, and we also do a lot of tenderloin parties, especially for weddings, so there are always plenty of trimmings left to use for other recipes,” Thomas explains. “The margins are so small on the tenderloins that being able to use the trimmings really helps to offset that.” As the basis of daily specials on his dining room menus, Thomas features recipes using the skirts, flanks, flat iron and beef tips he gleans from the trimmings. One night he might offer meatballs, the next a chicken-fried tenderloin steak or Salisbury steak. For a staff meal, he might make a meat loaf. Thomas especially likes working with tenderloin tips. They make great sandwiches and one dish, which he calls Beef and Blue pasta and was featured as a special, has become an often-requested member favorite. The recipe includes blue cheese, crimini mushrooms, house-made pasta (he uses pappardelle), a wine-and-cheese cream sauce, and walnuts. “It’s a pretty simple dish, but the members love it,” Thomas says. |
When preparing flat iron steaks, Thomas prefers to sear them on his chrome flattop instead of grilling them, to give the meat a crispy crust while maintaining its moisture. “We’ve played around with sous vide steak, but our members want that crust you get from searing,” he notes.
A coating of house-made steak seasoning ups the flavor-and-crust ante. Thomas makes it by combining kosher salt, Lawry’s Seasoned Salt, black pepper, ground fennel seed, ground celery seed, ginger powder, mustard powder and garlic powder.
A popular and dramatic appetizer at Valley Lo is plate-seared beef carpaccio made with tenderloin tail and pounded to paper thinness (see photo and recipe at right). The dish is flavored with fresh truffle oil, fresh rosemary and garlic, garnished with heirloom tomatoes and capers, and served with an attention-getting tableside presentation.
“The meat is brought out sizzling on one side in a hot pan,” Thomas says. “At the table, the server flips it to the other side with tongs, squeezes fresh lemon on it, and the wonderful aroma of the cooking meat fills the dining room.”
Filling the Gaps
At Rocky Gap Casino Resort in Flintstone, Md., Executive Chef Bradley Reynolds negotiates with his suppliers to get the biggest bang for his beef buck.
“We’re very focused on how we purchase our meat and try to leverage every deal,” he says. “I’ll say, ‘If I buy some of the more expensive cuts from you, what kind of deal will you give me on the secondary and tertiary cuts?’ ”
To keep up with rising costs, Reynolds sometimes reduces beef portion sizes from 16 ounces to 14 or 12 ounces. In place of the extra meat, he will include an upscale side, such as mushrooms. He may also include a salad and/or appetizer or dessert with the meal.
“It’s all about giving our guests value for their money,” he explains. “That’s what makes for a great dining experience and brings them back.”
Reynolds says he likes to work with various cuts of beef as much for their fuller flavor as for their lower prices. For example, he smokes his own briskets, after applying a dry rub, for 12 hours.
For a flat iron or top sirloin steak (“the second-most tender cut of beef, only second to filet mignon,” he notes), Reynolds will use his house-made, six-pepper rub, comprised of red, white, Tellicherry and green peppercorns; dehydrated bell pepper; crushed red chilis and garlic. The rub, he says, gives the steak “a spicy, earthy flavor that enhances the natural umami flavor of the beef.”
Other herbs that go well with steaks are coriander and cumin. Spice rubs help to caramelize the crust on the meat and bring out the flavor, without using a lot of salt and pepper, Reynolds notes.
To elevate the dish even more, he will often top it with a wine sauce. A preparation that guests particularly enjoy is porcini-rubbed Angus beef flat iron steak with raspberry-zinfandel sauce.
“The sauce has a flavor that is strong and rich, without overpowering the natural flavor of the meat,” Reynolds says. “The sweet and savory flavors play well against each other.”
Reynolds also serves the cuts with an Argentinian green chimichurri sauce made with finely chopped parsley, minced garlic, olive oil, oregano and white or red wine vinegar. He also sometimes makes chimichurri’s lighter-colored and -flavored Southern Italian counterpart, salmariglio, which substitutes fresh lemon juice for the vinegar.
“Both sauces go beautifully with grilled meat,” he says.
A compound butter, such as the maitre d’hotel butter with lemon and herbs he makes at Rocky Gap, can also make these cuts special, Reynolds notes. For extra lushness, he will sometimes use a foie gras butter sauce for the steaks.
As long as these more economical cuts of meat are treated with the same respect as their more expensive counterparts, guests will try them, Reynolds feels. “Sometimes it takes a while to get them to try something new, but once they do, they really enjoy them,” he says.
Recipe for Plate-Seared Carpaccio
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