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Las Vegas is full of great beef these days.
In fact, next to New York we probably have the greatest collection of steakhouses in the country.
Who else besides the Big Apple could challenge our plethora of prime primacy? Chicago? Perhaps. Dallas? Maybe.
None of this is mere beef braggadocio, only a statement of fact…or possible inquiry. For who else can line up a dozen purveyors of prime like we can? Or do the numbers our top meat emporiums do?
Or trot out a 50-day, dry aged beaut like chef Doug Bell did for us last week at Strip Steak? It might be the second greatest steak we’ve ever had in Vegas.
Bell tells us his on-site aging program is modest. That refrigerated whole loin above only yields eight steaks. But they’re experimenting with time and temperature (and space) to see if they can consistently put out porterhouses that compete with the aged wonders at Carnevino.
Overly ambitious? Maybe, but aging steaks seems like the perfect way to celebrate SS’s five year anniversary in Mandalay Bay, and we intend to swing by soon for some even older ones.
FYI: Waitrons all over Vegas are touting their “dry aged” beef these days — sometimes not even in steakhouses. Most dry-aging is done by the wholesalers, but no matter where it’s refrigerated (and allowed to condense into gamy, intense, meat-candy), the raised awareness of dry aged beef is slowly condemning the words “wet aged” to beef oblivion. For this we should be thankful, for even if only a small percentage of steaks get dry-aging, the public has been educated as to the benefits and legitimacy of the process (and thus, by comparison, the cryo-vac’d vacuity that is “wet-aging”).
Be forewarned though, like other words that have been co-opted by marketers into meaningless ubiquity (fresh, farm-raised, organic, et al), the discriminating consumer must be ever-vigilant when seeking out the real thing. The only place to get a great, dry-aged steak is in a great (and, let’s face it, expensive) steakhouse. Anyone who tells you their 29.99 steak is dry-aged is feeding you a load of bull.
ELV’s steak was unexpectedly comped, but the regular price (when they are available, is $50 – how appropriate!) He left a $25 tip.
STRIP STEAK
In the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Casino
3750 Las Vegas Blvd. South
Las Vegas, NV 89109
702.632.7414
www.mandalaybay.com/dining/signature-restaurants/stripsteak.aspx
great article. But what’s with the wet aging comment? I know plenty who sous vide, vacpac, and wet age. None are complaining that I know of…
ELV responds: Our regs and readers know we are not fans of sous vide either. Most newfangled cooking “techniques” are just industrialized methods writ small… and sold to credulous diners as au courant, when, in fact, they’re just ways of tinkering with nature that Stouffers and General Mills were doing fifty years ago.
“Wet-aging” does nothing to improve the flavor or mouth-feel of a good steak. (Carnevino Chef Zach Allen tells us it helps the texture of filets, and we’ll take his word for for it….but that’s about it.) The whole “wet-aged” concept was a marketing one conceived to make “sealed in plastic” sound like something appetizing, and therefore worth a few more bucks. It also keeps the meat big and plumped up, therefore creating more volume, and thus, more profit.
Dry-aging is expensive because the steaks lose weight (and moisture) as they condense and intensify in flavor. Super-dry aged steaks are not for everyone. “Wet-aged” steaks taste no better or worse than a decent piece of beef you buy at a supermarket and grill at home.
I’ll tag on to ELV’s response. (Which I often do but in less eloquent terms).
In the blunt language of steakaholics, wet-aging is “raw meat wrapped in plastic, stewing in an insipid pool of blood.” I sure wouldn’t want to pay $50 bucks for a “wet-aged” strip steak.
they must be losing their Bragard shirts on that steak.
(nearly) all beef is “wet aged”. it is necessary to get rid of the “green” flavor of un-aged beef. it all was dry aged back in the day but technology has blessed us with the ability to age this way. dry aging is a completely different flavor and at times not pleasant, even at Carnevino and Strip Steak. the flavor comes from the animal, the diet, the method it has been raised, and the terroir. and of course the skill of the cook to season.
JC- any blogs planned for “English’s Gastropub” at town square?