Thanks much to both of you for the steak education … that’s one area I’m always confused about, especially with a limited budget.

While I have not purchased steak from G&A, we have splurged in the past on chagim and purchased lamb roasts. This is typically expensive anyway, and almost impossible to find locally, fresh (not much demand). Anyway, the first time we had it, which was two years ago, the roasts were not trimmed well (i.e., we paid a lot more than expected because there wasn’t much meat). Last year, we bought everything (roast plus the excess meat), which brought the effective price down, and requested that the roast be well trimmed. G&A did a fine job with the meat … our guests savored every bite of the roast. We ended up freezing the excess meat and bones, using them for R”H this year. There was enough meat of various proportions to grill (after marinating overnight in a mango-based concoction I came up with on the fly), and the bones we used to create a lamb stock. The grilled lamb was a hit.

Anyone know how the effective G&A prices and quality compare with those of the online butcher that had been talked about on this blog?

OK Ari, let me explain. The hanger (hangar) steak is part of the diaphragm, basically a 1.5 lb to 2 lb flat piece of meat. It is salted just like that, on both of the flat sides as well as the edges around it. Other pieces of meat are off the forequarter, and they’re salted as bulk pieces of meat, several inches thick, at least, and oftern salted with bones intact, even though they may be served without the bones. Either the whole forequarter is salted, or else the large primals are salted. But let’s just assume that the rib steaks are salted as intact rib roast. What gets salted is the outside of the rib roast before it gets cut into steaks. Therefore, the flat sides of the steak do not get salted, except for the end steaks, where 1 side of each is salted. Bottom line is that the hanger steak is exposed to a lot more salt per pound of meat. So yes, it’s true that the muscle is coarse, and the salt can intrude somewhat more, but it’s also true that it’s hit with an awful lot more salt per amount of meat than a lot of cuts of meat. And like it, the skirt steak also is quite salty, and should be soaked prior to use. Although I haven’t done the research, it seems to me that the cheeks might also be somewhat saltier, and maybe even the tongue, but since they’re primarily braised in liquid, and since the tongue is usually blanched and skinned, the potential saltiness in those meats may be somewhat mitigated.

Craig — You raise a good point about the grading. I want to try cheaper CCR. I have a friend from whom I can buy whole Argentinian (or is it Uruguayan? I forget) ribeyes for a lot less (something like $10/lb if I recall correctly), but it would require cutting and trimming myself, which I admit might be a fun exercise (although I don’t know if I have the proper knives to do it well)…
And about salting, you are probably right that the thinness of the cut matters to some extent, but Hangar is not extremely thin… I still think the grainy texture plays a role, although I’m pretty sure soaking would help as you suggested.

Man, there’s no possible way I would pay those prices for meat. Sure, it’s USDA Prime, and that’s worth a premium. Most kosher meat is ungraded, but if one purchases bulk meat, one should be able to identify the better marbled pieces to purchase, so that the picky consumer can end up selecting something close to USDA Choice, which is good enough for me, certainly.

As to hangar steak, skirt steak and the like, they are thin cuts of meat. Remember that the entire surface must be sprinkled with lots of salt- much more than would just be used to season it. In a thick piece of meat, it’s only alittle thicker than the outer surface which gets salted and therefore salty, but because of the thinness of the hangar steak, the outer surface and a bit more of both sides constitutes the entire thickness of the piece of steak, and thus it becomes extremely salty. My wife soaks the meat in water for 1/2 hour or so (remember that in koshering meat it is soaked, then salted and rinsed-consequently, on a thin piece of meat like that there is not adequate water contact during rinsing for salt removal except for that found immediately on the surface) and even then, it’s still plenty salty.