Nebraska Famous Steaks sends frozen steaks out to customers who purchase meat from them. Most people are familiar with this concept by way of other companies like Omaha Steaks. I had not heard of Nebraska Famous Steaks until they reached out to me. Their ask was simple: Would I like for them to send me some meat to try out at home and post some pictures, write a review, etc? My answer was fast: Yup.
Here’s what they sent me:
I was blown away. I wasn’t expecting so much!
I have to say, their filet mignon destroys Omaha Steaks. The filets I recently cooked up from Omaha were thin, while these were nice and thick. Quality was similar, however, at good choice.
The Nebraska Famous Steaks rib eyes had some really nice marbling throughout the muscle tissue, and a nice sized spinalis cap. I was impressed! And also excited to eat them.
I did my usual quick and easy cooking method for steaks at home: sous vide followed by blow torch. Here’s a video of the whole process, from unboxing through to plating.
And I took a shitload of photos, of course. I simply seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic, then seared, and then added some flake salt. We also ate this with some wasabi as well. Nice touch!
Pat LaFrieda. You’ve all probably seen the name before, and you’ll definitely see it again – especially because I’m about to publish a feature article on LaFrieda early next month for my “Meet Your Meat” series. But the man is a top notch, high quality beef purveyor with a rich family tradition of killing it in the meat biz. He provides the goods to the restaurants and chefs that make my favorite steaks.
He recently sent over two cuts of steak for me to enjoy at home; both dry-aged for 60 days, both prime, and both 2.5″ thick. One was a porterhouse, and the other a rib eye.
This stuff is not just set aside for restaurants and hotels! You can order it for home delivery right here.
So, what to do with all this beef? I mean, I would have loved to eat it all myself, but that’s just rude. Instead, I invited over a handful of foodie friends and cooked up a feast for them.
Here’s how it went down:
Appetizers
For starters, I sliced up some truffle salami and made a very basic wedge salad with iceberg, grape tomatoes, thick bacon and a crumbled blue cheese and black truffle oil dressing.
Main Courses
I decided to cook the porterhouse in the sous vide machine, and then finish it off with a hard Searzall blowtorch sear. I loaded the sous vide bag up with some truffle oil (I froze this ahead of time, that way the contents in the bag were dry when I sealed it), rosemary and thyme. I also seasoned the steak with salt and pepper before sealing it up.
After about four hours in a 128 degree bath, I pulled it out and dropped it into some ice water to stop the cooking process. After a few minutes, I removed it from the bag, dried it off and blasted it with the Searzall to get that nice outer crust.
Before serving, I sliced it up and plated it, then drizzled black truffle oil on top, and hit it with some finishing salt and fresh cracked black pepper.
I picked up an extra filet from the grocery store as well, which I cooked the same way. This was mainly as extra meat, in case we didn’t have enough, and also as a control group to compare the meat quality from a nice grocery store cut against Pat LaFrieda. The cut I picked from Morton Williams looked nicely marbled and it was reasonably thick for just under $12.
When comparing the filet side of the LaFrieda porterhouse to the grocery store filet, the LaFrieda steak was hands down WAY better. There is no question about it. That 60-day dry-aging process really infuses an incredible amount of flavor into the meat.
If you are a beef lover, then Pat LaFrieda cuts are the way to go. In fact, one of my friends cooks up Pat LaFrieda steaks every Friday, and he calls it “LaFrieda Fridays.” HA!
For the rib eye, I went with a traditional cast iron skillet sear with maple bacon fat and herbs, and then I finished it in the oven. I let it rest, and then sliced that up and served it on a salt block, also with a drizzle of truffle oil.
Unfortunately for me, the temperature jumped from 120 to 145 WAY faster than it was climbing while going from 68 to 120. I turned around to snap pics of the porterhouse and BOOM. The steak went beyond medium rare. Lesson learned. In any event, it was still incredibly delicious at medium. The fat cap was heavenly!
To go with these steaks, I roasted some bulbs of garlic for slathering onto the meat and grilled some lemons.
Sides
I put together a nice side of roasted mushrooms and onions, sauteed broccolini (got to have something green I guess), and made a big bowl of tater tots.
Dessert
But no meal at Johnny Prime’s Food Research Lab would be complete without a dessert by The Cake Dealer!
The inside of the cupcakes were marbled vanilla and red velvet, which was perfect to represent the marbling of good prime beef!
Or it was just because Valentine’s Day is right around the corner…
Oh and by the way, here are the foodies that came by. Check out their profiles for pics of the feast, if you have a chance:
The head honcho over at Let’s Dutch reached out to me to introduce himself and his service. Essentially it’s a place where people can host and organize group activities, and one of the things they facilitate is large format dining. That’s right up my alley, given my creation of Carcass Club, in which I and some friends try to get together to take on the various whole beast feasts that are peppered throughout this fine city.
Naturally, I was interested. The service is great for both city newbies, who are looking to meet new people with similar interests, and old fogies like me and my wife, who are just looking for seats at the feast when it’s becoming increasingly difficult to peg down a date and time among all of our friends that might be interested.
I was especially pumped when Vincent (the aforementioned head honcho) informed me that they’d be doing the new brisket feast for 10 people at Momofuku Ssam Bar. Fuck yeah.
So the meal is pretty simple. You get a massive hunk of delicious, tender, slow cooked brisket, along with lettuce for making wraps, and various sauces and kimchi items for toppings.
I highly recommend this meal to anyone who loves brisket or BBQ, as it is quasi-BBQ in nature. They even created a secret seven-spice blend for this baby. I absolutely loved it.
You may already know that I’ve been to Momofuku for their large format feasts in the past: duck and rib eye. This brisket feast is the best of the three I’ve tried, and I think they’ve also added a fourth, pork shoulder (bo ssam). I’ll have to try that one soon.
Buffalo Bob’s makes a shitload of unique game meat and exotic meat jerky sticks. Some are long, round and dowel-shaped, like Slim Jim, while others are long, flat and rectangular strips.
Most of the exotic and game meats also have beef mixed in with the other proteins, so the variety isn’t really as diverse as it seems on first glance. I received this set as part of a Christmas gift, and it included two of each flavor (one flat and one round each): kangaroo, elk, wild boar, ostrich, gator, buffalo, venison and duck.
The texture and flavor is better than something like Slim Jim (less waxy and oily, and easier to bite and chew), but not quite on par with the more artisan jerky brands I’ve reviewed in the past. These are good for on-the-go, single serving bang-outs, whereas the bags are meant to last a few snack sessions. Also there is a vast price difference. Some of those jerky bags can run you about $8 a pop. These are more affordable.
The sriracha sauce market is completely dominated by the very popular and much-loved Huy Fong sauce. It’s a staple on the table at any stateside Vietnamese restaurant, and it is fast becoming as household-common as ketchup in the US.
Many companies have tried to jump on the sriracha bandwagon to produce this particular style of hot sauce, desperately trying to compete with the monopoly that Huy Fong enjoys. Most are a miserable failure, and many are blatantly bordering on trademark infringement with the use of roosters and other shit that’s really similar to Huy Fong’s logo, look and bottle style.
Fix is not one of those competitors. They have embraced their own bottle style and logo. But more importantly, they have created a taste that rivals Huy Fong, if not matches it completely.
This stuff is good. It has a pleasing taste, with a good, strong, lingering heat. It’s not too salty or garlicky, and the bottle style is great because the sauce doesn’t get gunked up in the nozzle the way it does with Huy Fong. Fix’s wider opening allows for easier, non-squirt bottle pouring. The wider dispenser is welcomed, too, because we all love to douse our food with this shit. But the cool thing is that it simultaneously solves the problem of getting rid of the sauce crud build up that is so common with Huy Fong.
One could even go so far as to say that it “FIXes” the problems that consumers have with Huy Fong. Get it? Wow. I’m good.
Finally, another benefit you get with Fix is the fact that their stuff is made with organic peppers, without artificial ingredients and without processed foods. You can count the ingredients on one hand! Not that it matters to me, because I don’t care about that stuff… but like I said, the flavor is on point, so if this stuff matters to you, then Fix is a product upon which you should keep your eyes.
In any case, I recommend this product if you’re looking to avoid the Huy Fong price surge that’s been happening, or if, like me, you aren’t a big fan of the Huy Fong bottle style and dispenser. You can get your fix with Fix. Hayooooo!
These unique treats by SweetStuffed are doughnut-shaped cookies that are stuffed with various flavors and then frosted on the top.
My first foray into these delicious things cam when my wife won a box in an Instagram giveaway contest.
After that, I was hooked, It’s like that first taste of crack. The first one is free, but then you can’t stop. You know, because you’re all familiar with how crack addiction works…
Anyway, I decided to order a box to share with my family for the dessert table on Thanksgiving. Here are the flavors I tried:
My favorite flavor from the Instagram giveaway box was smores, so I made sure to get one of those.
This baby is just firing on all cylinders. It’s even topped with an actual toasted marshmallow smore, too!
But I felt pretty special when I was told I’d be the first customer to taste the maple bacon donut cookie. I was a happy guinea pig.
Real candied bacon on top, with bacon dust worked into the maple frosting? Genius!
Both the white chocolate and dark chocolate oreo donut cookies are amazing as well. I’m a sucker for anything “cookies and cream” related, so this was a big win for me.
But one of the biggest new sensations in the food world is anything matcha (green tea powder). Cream puffs, ramen noodles, chocolate… you name it, people love it. The same goes for this stuff here. The green tea donut cookie is delicious, and beautiful.
It’s light, but robust at the same time.
And last but not least from my box of six was the dark chocolate with sprinkles. So simple, so pretty.
Everything that Allison Kim (owner/proprietor) makes is on point, so you really can’t go wrong.
OH – and one other standout to me (from my wife’s giveaway box) was the white chocolate rose, with part of your purchase price going to cancer charities (because of the pink):
Super aromatic and floral, but with a good hit of sweetness that you expect from a “pink donut.”
I highly recommend this stuff. Yo won’t be disappointed! And when you order, tell Allison that I sent you. Maybe she’ll make something special and unique for you.
I’m going to use this product review and press event post as a vehicle to deliver unto my readers a comprehensive guide to truffles. Let me begin with the education portion of this post.
What Are Truffles?
You’re probably all somewhat familiar with truffles. You occasionally see them on menus as expensive add-ons to your pasta dishes, and you may see “truffle fries” offered at a higher price than regular French fries at certain restaurants. Shavings per ounce can be quite pricey, especially for white truffles.
But what exactly is a truffle? It’s a fungus. It’s a tuber-like fungus that grows along the roots of certain trees, like oak, hazelnut and chestnut. They are incredibly aromatic, with an intensely concentrated earthy flavor profile that’s truly unlike anything you’ve ever tasted or smelled before.
Some people say they’re similar to mushrooms, but that’s like saying Kraft mac and cheese powder packets taste similar to piave vecchio. Not even the same ballpark. Similar to dry aged beef, fermented foods, or smoked and/or aged cheeses, truffles offer that same kind of “umami” sensation for your taste buds.
Size & Shape
They typically range in size from something like a walnut to about the size of a softball. They get to market size overnight, growing very fast, as do other members of the fungi kingdom. However it may take some time for the spore to first germinate properly.
But just like the saying goes for dicks, “size doesn’t matter.” The same flavors exist in small or large truffles. But preference does matter (just like dicks, I would imagine). The smaller truffles are just as good in terms of quality as the larger ones. They’ll still get you off. Yet, kind of like a director’s preference for big dicks in porn, some restaurants want larger, more uniform shaped truffles so that their shavings look prettier on the plate.
Speaking of which, their shape varies based on the soil in which they grow. Soft, loose soil allows the truffle to grow and expand mostly unhindered into a more spherical shape, while harder, rocky soil will result in more odd-shaped, lumpy truffles.
Kinds of Truffles
There are (generally) four varieties of truffle: white, black summer, black winter, and bianchetto.
As you can see from above, there are specific seasons for harvesting each type of truffle (in Italy, that is). The neat thing is that some black truffles are grown in Australia as well, so we have access to them in the reverse seasons as well.
Each style of truffle is suited for its own unique purposes. For example, white truffles are best for shaving directly onto freshly cooked food, like eggs and pasta. Black truffles are better suited for grating and incorporating into sauces. If you see black truffles being offered for sale, per ounce, shaved directly onto a food item, my advice is to skip it. That’s not the ideal way to enjoy a black truffle, and you may not even taste anything.
Ripeness & Storage
The best way to tell if a truffle is good is to feel it and smell it. They should be firm, but not rock solid, and definitely not mushy. The aroma should be very powerful and fill your nose with an abundance of robust earthiness. In fact it is said that some can detect up to 120 different flavors and aromas from a fresh truffle.
Here, you can see how the degradation process occurs as a truffle goes from good, fresh and ripe to bad:
As a truffle begins to go bad, less of those invigorating aromas come through, the truffle gets spongier, and it emits a more ammonia-like scent. Eventually a white truffle will turn more brown, as well.
The shelf-life for a fresh truffle varies from 7-10 days for white truffles, to 15-20 days for black. A truffle is about 90% water, and it will lose 3-5% of its moisture per day, so that’s why it’s so important to use them while they’re fresh. The intense, characteristic flavors and aromas come from the moisture content within the truffle.
Lots of times you see truffles stored in a box filled with rice. This isn’t a good idea, unless your goal is to infuse the rice with the flavor of truffle. The dry rice will leech out all the moisture, and thus the flavor, from the truffle. My opinion: that’s a dumb move, even if your goal is to infuse the rice. Why? Because rice dishes will never sell for or be worth an amount that’s high enough to cover the cost of the truffle you just wasted by storing it that way.
The best way to store a truffle is to individually wrap each in a paper towel, somewhere cool. It should also be put into a wooden box or a glass mason jar; not plastic, as plastic doesn’t breathe the same way. Excess humidity can build up in plastic and ruin the truffle.
Where Do They Come From?
In Italy, truffles can be found in a variety of locations, as Italian geography is ideal for producing the right weather conditions that result in truffle growth.
The coveted white truffles are highly sought after when they come from the Alba, Piedmont area in the northwest, which is similar to our Napa Valley. However the demand for certain wines from that region (Barolo, Barbaresco) has created a situation where the land is being altered by vintners, with trees being removed to make way for grape vines, and chemicals being used in the soil to aid in the grape-growing process. Trees are necessary for the truffles to grow, so Alba truffles are very rare indeed. In fact, less than 3% of the truffles on the market hail from Alba, and most of the truffles from that region stay local. So be aware, if you happen to see a menu flaunting that the truffles are from Alba: it is likely a lie.
Black truffles can be “seeded” with spores and grown in other locations that have the right climate and trees, but white truffles can not. Therefore, white truffles tend to be a fuckload more expensive, as they are much more rare and localized. Think $1,000/lb.
In Italy, much of the land where truffles are hunted is public access, meaning anyone can come by (licensed truffle hunters, typically) and pick up a truffle. In other places, like Australia or the USA, the land can be owned outright so no one else can lawfully snatch up any truffles that might be growing on your tree roots.
Urbani Truffles
Now that you’ve gotten a good first lesson on truffles, I guess I can begin the product and press review portion of the post.
Urbani Truffles began in 1852 and now supplies 70% of the global market with their truffles.
Urbani Truffles are in the hands of NYC restaurateurs within 36 hours of being dug up by their network of truffle hunters in Italy. Amazing! Truffle hunters go out with their trained sniffing dogs at night, to minimize noise and distractions for the dogs. The next morning, any truffles that were gathered are cleaned and sent to the market or shipped out on airplanes all over the world. Cleaning just requires getting the dirt and blemishes off (like a potato). If needed, some light brushing is done, but cleaners are careful to avoid direct contact with water, as that can harm the truffle.
Take a look at this Urbani video below, which will help you visualize the entire process.
You probably noticed some truffle products in there, like oils and canned goods. Whatever Urbani doesn’t think is fit for the fresh market, they use to create various other products.
Like their fresh truffles, these products are all top notch quality. They never use chemicals in their products, so everything is all natural. Chemicals actually taint the flavor of truffle products, and deliver too much truffle flavor and aroma up front.
All of Urabni’s truffle products will deliver a delayed and longer lasting truffle flavor, due to their rejection of chemicals in the production process.
I had the pleasure of sampling both their fresh truffles and some of the products they sell when I was invited to their truffle lab on West End Avenue.
As a matter of fact, I was there while a presentation was being given to six Art Institute / International Culinary School students who were selected as the top of their classes to learn about truffles and to practice cooking with them. Talk about having a great lunch!
First, we experienced one of the most simple and satisfying ways to enjoy fresh white truffles: shaved directly onto a fried egg.
According to Vittorio, the VP of Urbani Truffles, salt should be sprinkled on after the truffles are shaved onto the egg. Pepper can take away from the truffle flavor and aroma, so skip that.
Truffle oil goes really nicely with flatbread and pizza. This one we tried really popped, making something as boring as zucchini really exciting for a change.
We also sampled one of the canned truffle products: white truffle with porcini mushrooms. This was added to a pan of sauteed shallots and butter to make a sauce, which went on top of some polenta.
This was delicious, and I can totally see this being used to spike something like gravy or even to make a sauce for the top of a filet mignon. Really flavorful – best thing I ever ate from a can.
Another item I tried was their truffle mnustard. I plan to feature this in some recipes in the future, as I think it would be an excellent addition on a cold cut sandwich or a burger.
Finally, we tried some truffle cream cheese spread as well. This, too, was plopped onto some sauteed polenta. I can’t imagine how amazing this would be on lox.
If you’ve got room in your budget for a fresh truffle, I say go for it. Urbani delivers the freshest product I have ever experienced, and they supply big dog restaurants like French Laundry and Del Posto. Whipe up some homemade pasta, cook it, throw the pasta in a pan with some butter, fry a sunny side up egg for the top of the pasta, and shave that delicious truffle right onto it. Perfection.
But even if a fresh truffle isn’t on your to-do list, then I highly recommend picking up some of Urbani’s other products and experimenting with truffle in your own recipes that way. You can’t go wrong. Every product is amazing.
At $5 a chub this is probably one of the best deals you can find for any sort of truffle salami on the market.
While this isn’t a dry or hard type of product (typically aged and very robust in flavor), it still delivers a huge wallop of intensity.
Again, I reiterate… FIVE FUCKING DOLLARS. These things fly off the shelves at Trader Joe’s. Last October (2015) they were already sold out for the year. Since then I have been constantly checking back and calling to see when they’d be back on the shelf. I’m glad I capitalized on the opportunity when I saw them and picked up four chubs. That should last a few weeks.
I recommend you try these. I’ll be using one for a nice homemade pizza in the near future, but these babies are great just sliced thin and on their own.
Once again Trader Joe’s comes through with a big bargain win.
Amazon recently launched a restaurant delivery service called Amazon Restaurants to compete with services like Seamless and GrubHub. They offered a few Instagram influencer friends and I some credit to try it out and post pics, give our thoughts, etc.
To make a whole night of it, we decided to order a whole bunch of Chinese food (and a little Thai) and make it game night as well with a Mahjong table and a deck of cards for Big Two.
Here’s a list of what we ordered, from three different restaurants.
Kung Fu Little Steamed Buns & Ramen: Pan Fried Pork Dumplings, Sticky Rice Shao Mai, Sliced Beef with Tripe in Chili Oil, House Special Ramen, and Sticky Rice Balls in Chinese Sweet Liqueur.
Spice: Maekong Aged Pork Chops and Emerald Vegetable Dumplings.
Hot Kitchen: Slow Grilled Lamb Ribs, Ma Po Tofu, Sliced Fish & Sour Cabbage Soup.
Since I’ve reviewed Kung Fu before, I will focus on the other items here. The big standout for me was the slow grilled spicy lamb from Hot Kitchen. The cumin and red pepper dry spice is just fantastic. I highly recommend it, especially because lamb ribs are a rarity on menus.
While the pork chops from Spice were pricey and a bit dry, they were super tender and had a nice aged flavor to them. Perhaps get these in the restaurant, rather than for delivery, to ensure they are cooked properly.
As for the delivery service, Amazon Restaurants was great. They have a good selection of restaurants stretching across the city, and the food arrived in a timely manner, still hot and fresh. A welcome addition to the food delivery service market.
I recently got to sample a bunch of different jerky flavors from Chef’s Cut at The Great Big Bacon Picnic in Brooklyn. While the samples they were serving were mainly uncured bacon (in the spirit of the festival), I did try three flavors of said protein, so I figured that was enough for a full product review.
Sriracha is by far the best of the three bacon flavors.
It was spicy but mellowed out by the natural sweetness of bacon. Really the perfect savory snack if you ask me. Get a bag ASAP, or a gross of boxes stacked high on a warehouse skid of bags. Hope you can drive a forklift…
We also tried maple and applewood. I preferred the maple, but the crew I was with liked the applewood. Either way you win, though, because it’s all fucking bacon.
As you might expect, this company also makes regular beef jerky, chicken jerky and turkey jerky in various other unique flavors. One that looked nice to me was the buffalo chicken jerky. I’ll have to try that fucker next.
