Where to get nice steaks from?

Soldato
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I want steak like you get in a pub. So 12oz to 16oz pieces. Pub steaks always tend to be decent quality, fairly lean and thick. And considering the added items and profit margin in a pub, £15 for a steak meal is pretty good value.

Compare that to what you get from a supermarket. Thin, small pieces with too much fat on, and at a high price for the raw product compared to my perceived value from a pub for a cooked product with trimmings.

I have tried the butcher with little success. It still seems to be thin fatty pieces and although the price is better than the supermarket I'm not overly impressed.

I just want a nice thick 16oz rump piece for a reasonable price. Where?
 

Sui

Sui

Soldato
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Have any local farm shops? Round here they do some beautiful steaks.

Online there is the likes of Donald Russell, but I've not used them.
 
Associate
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Find a better butcher?

I wouldn't say £15-20 that you pay in restaurants for a steak meal is particularly good value. I buy big, thick aged sirloins from my butcher for around £4 each. Chips, mushroom, fried tomato and onion rings probably adds 50p to that per portion. That's some mark up.
 
Soldato
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I always get my meat form butchers keep looking around, you can as most butchers to cut you fat piece and what section of meat you want.
 
Soldato
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Tesco, actually. I buy all of my steak from there.

There's the really thin horrible ones in the white packaging, avoid them. Go for the ones in the black packaging which are vacuum sealed, they're like £6 for a decent sized (thick) steak.
 
Caporegime
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You do realise all the flavour is in the fatty bits and that a steak without any fat would be pretty much tasteless?

But to answer your question find a proper local butcher. They will cut you any size piece of steak you want. Clearly your local butcher isnt very good. Even my local supermarket which has a butchers counter will cut your a steak to your liking.
 
Caporegime
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I've tried a number of local ones (high street). The rump is always hip bone steak which I have tried and not too impressed with.

You do realise that all rump steak comes from that rough area round its hip bone? Hence why its called "Rump"

Are you sure you arent after a different cut from elsewhere?
 
Soldato
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You do realise that all rump steak comes from that rough area round its hip bone? Hence why its called "Rump"

Are you sure you arent after a different cut from elsewhere?

Yes but why it's called rump steak in supermarkets and in pubs, and labelled as hip bone steak in the butchers, makes me think I'm not getting the right thing. The butcher does hip bone steak or sirloin basically. This is a major high street butcher.
 
Caporegime
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Decent rump steak isnt cheap though. We get a local farmers 28 day old matured rump steak and a 16oz one is £11.

This then equates to £28 in the local pub.

Perhaps if you love your local pubs steaks, why not ask them where they get their meat from?
 
Caporegime
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Donald Russell are decent. We have a butcher local to us who has won many awards and although he's not cheap, his meat is always spot on (phwooaar!). Macca mentioned him once, he's on the pavement in Clapham.

http://moen.co.uk/


I have no idea where you live though.
 
Caporegime
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Yes but why it's called rump steak in supermarkets and in pubs, and labelled as hip bone steak in the butchers, makes me think I'm not getting the right thing. The butcher does hip bone steak or sirloin basically. This is a major high street butcher.

Poor butchers. There are 5 basic steaks - Fillet, Sirloin, Rib-eye, rump, T-bone plus frying steak but I dont count that.

The only thing that varies is where in the animal it comes from.
 
Soldato
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Poor butchers. There are 5 basic steaks - Fillet, Sirloin, Rib-eye, rump, T-bone plus frying steak but I dont count that.

The only thing that varies is where in the animal it comes from.

It varies in tenderness. Rump takes an age to chew, where as rib-eye, sirloin and fillet melt in the mouth when properly cooked. Also marbled steaks like rib-eye taste better than fillet to me and the rump steak definitely has a stronger flavour than fillet.
 
Soldato
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I like sirloin but it loathes me paying for that big streak of rind on the edge that I don't eat. I do really like rump but only if it's tender and that is perhaps 80% of the problems I have with it. Pub steaks always seem to be tender enough for me except on the rarest of occasions. The reason I like a big steak is that if a bit of it is tough, there is still usually enough left that is tender.

On fat, I don't mind marbling if it's still soft and chewable. It's when you get a hard bit of fat I don't like.

What's the best way of cooking a thick 16oz rump steak in a standard kitchen?
 
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Find a decent farmshop/butcher nearby.
I have two main places I go to for steak - one about 20 miles away and the other about 45 miles. Usually call with whichever I am passing when out and about with work. First place is salt aged and the second dry aged. Well worth the extra money.
 
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