For Beef Lovers: Bryan's Fine Foods, Corte Madera, California (NO, YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO THERE!)

Bryan’s Fine Foods (http://www.bryansfinefoods.com/index.php) is a wonderful location to shop on line for products that are shipped overnight, to any location in the continental USA. For my Canadian readers, if you are fortunate to rent or own a residence in the United States for a time, and love to cook, Bryan’s is for you!!

Here, you will find, what I believe are among the "best of their kind" meat products available anywhere – as in anywhere. Bryan is extremely passionate and knowledgeable about every item offered. He is serious to the point of compulsion. I will try to describe some of the products that he offers, to show you what I mean. The products I have selected below to describe, are selected principally from the products I typically order.

In regards to shipping, at the end of each shipping day, they individually package and freeze their products because, as they say, when they ship, “they are at the peak of perfection and trying to keep them fresh for a day or two will add nothing to them. Freezing on the other hand will not hurt them but rather stop them in time when they are perfect. It allows us the ability to manage inventory and be able to ship multiple units on the spur of the moment.” From my perspective, I have not found the freezing of their product detrimental.

Mid-western prime and also California small producer’s prime beef ( "California Reserve"), all dry aged for a minimum of 30 and up to 50 days, depending on the cuts. Each California Reserve prime piece (but not the mid western prime) are eyeballed and hand selected to be the best of what it should be. The mid-western prime is not because Bryan is not at those plants to eyeball and hand select the items he buys. But, he does review everything that he receives and downgrades anything the he feels is not exactly prime grade.

Bryan supplies Northern California raised lamb. dry aged anywhere from 7 to 20 days, depending on the cut. Now, NOONE in Toronto or vicinity, to my knowledge, dry ages lamb, and trust me, this process separates good flavour to great, from extraordinary! I have discussed dry aging lamb with my 2 principal butchers, but neither one has done this, they had not considered it and it seems a good deal of pushing would be required to get them to do this except on a personal basis.

And, FOR YOU TRUE BEEF LOVERS,  Bryan supplies the “deckle” (my very favourite cut of beef and the one I personally request to present large on all of the rib steaks that I order from my Toronto butchers). Bryan butchers and ties it in the shape of a long roll (WOW.....a great big piece for deckle lovers!!), which he refers to as “mid-western rib cap” . This little known cut will amaze you for it’s wonderful strong beefy flavour, juicyness and tender texture and for me, must be cooked medium rare to rare (warm centre). This is a very unique piece of meat, and very difficult to obtain on it's own. It is not available in your butchers meat counter. Even a special request from your butcher might elicit a raised brow. This cut contains the absolute maximum amount of flavor that will physically fit into a piece of steak! The rib cap is not a very common cut, and sometimes difficult to explain. Think of prime rib steak and picture how a steak cut from the upper end of the rib will have two distinct sections, an inner one and an outer (crescent-shaped) one. The outer section many times will also be a slightly darker color than the inside as well as have a more intense flavor. This outer section on the rib eye is a slice of rib cap.

To produce this cut Bryan’s starts with their Midwest beef, dry ages it and then removes the entire cap by following the natural seams of the rib. Once removed, you have a piece that looks very much like a flank steak in width, length and thickness. Now while it would be perfectly fine to cook it in this form; to improve the presentation when plated, they roll the cap widthwise and tie it to create what resembles in form a center cut of filet mignon.  

I also love his California boneless, prime short ribs, which make for a very tasty, juicy, tender, steak!

NOW, this next section if for real burger lovers and in this, Bryan’s Fine Foods may be unique!! His web site features the “burger builder” (direct link: http://www.bryansfinefoods.com/burgerBuilder.php) making available 26 possible ingredients from which you can select and build your own custom burger. My personal selection is:  25% usda prime hanger steak; 25% usda prime skirt teak; 25% usda prime short ribs; 25% dry aged steak ends. But, look at the available ingredients from which you van build your burger (minimum order 4 pounds, each pound separately shrink wrapped):  choice chuck, prime chuck, wagyu chuck,  prime sirloin, prime top round, choice short ribs, choice tri-tip,, prime skirt steak, prime hanger steak, punta de anca ( an argentine cut, made from a piece sometimes referred to as the coulotte, part of the top sirloin near the area from which the chateaubriand is produced Bryan's marinates this cut in chimichurri sauce for 3 days); prime short ribs, wagyu short ribs; prime brisket; choice filet tail; prime filet tail; pork should; mild Italian sausage; applewood bacon; foie gras blend; beef suet blend; prime brisket fat blend; prime beef cap fat blend; hot Italian sausage blend; wagyu fat blend; dry aged steak ends. WHEEEEEWWW!! TOUGH CHOICE!!

Bryan's also offers very good pork and chicken, but for me, it is the beef and lamb that is truly worth shipping across the USA to my short term vacation residence in Florida. I rarely speak about producers but this one deserves accolades.

A Purveyors Steak Tasting Event, The Best of the Best, and THE WORLD'S BEST BURGER

Together with a group of experienced beef lovers, I helped to organize a tasting of the best beef supplied by what most consider the best beef purveyors in Toronto, Cumbrae's Meats and Olliffe's. I chose the best of what the 2 purveyors supplied. From Olliffe's, I chose pasture raised, dry aged about 8 weeks, Prince Edward Island, prime grade beef; pasture raised Ontario graded prime beef, dry aged about 8 weeks. Both of these 2 pasture raised cattle were finished on a mix of grains and corn. Olliffe's also supplied feedlot raised, dry aged U.S. prime and wet aged, feedlot raised Australian wagyu beef. Cumbrae's supplied their own pasture and feedlot raised ontario grade prime angus cross beef as well as their own dry aged pasture and feedlot raised wagyu beef. All Cumbrae's beef is raised hormone free and finished on their own proprietary mix of feed. Unfortunately, Cumbrae's owner mis-timed our event and his wagyu beef was only dry aged about 3 weeks, when normally it would have had at least 6 to 8 weeks of dry aging. 

We originally ordered pure pasture raised beef from 2 suppliers but one supplier cancelled at the last minute because we were advised by the owner that he did not consider the beef that we had preordered months prior, good enough for the comparison tasting. Farmer, Mathew Von Teichman was kind enough to supply us with his beef that was only pasture raised and in the last it's 60 days of it's life, also fed a diet of apples, starting with a few a day and working up to 60 apples a day at the end of term. This beef was dry aged about 6 weeks.

All steaks from from each purveyor were bone-in rib steaks cut to a weight of about 22 to 24 oz. Six steaks of each varietal were prepared for the tasting event, 3 for each tasting flight and 3 as a back up for the flight comparing the winners. All beef was tasted blind. the beef was delivered to the restaurant and the chef sorted the beef and was responsible for cooking the beef between medium rare and rare, slicing and assembling the beef on the plate in the kitchen in 2 1/2 oz pieces and the beef arrayed on the plate in positions, depending on the number of pieces, like a clock, ie, 4 pieces would be arranged at the 12, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock positions. All beef was assessed using the following standard criteria used by our different professional and serious beef amateurs at other tastings over the past 9 years. These criteria are taste, texture and juiciness. The ratings range from 1 to 10, 1 being the worst and 10 being the best.

Flight #1 consisted of tasting the Cumbrae's Ontario prime, the Ollliffe Ontario prime, the Prince Edward Island prime and the Von Teichman pasture raised beef. In this flight the steak voted #1, by a very small margin, was Olliffe's Ontario prime; close #2 was the Cumbrae's prime; the #3 and again fairly close was the PEI prime. We all agreed, if tasted on their own, all 4 varieties of steaks would be considered very good, but the best were truly an experience!

Flight #2 consisted of the Olliffe supplied U.S. prime, Australian wagyu and the Cumbae's wagyu. This comparison was extremely close all around with the differences in fractions! The #1 steak was the U.S. prime by a very small margin, the #2 steak, the Australian prime, again by a very small margin and the #3 steak the Cumbrae's wagyu, again, by a very small margin. It was my expressed opinion that, having tasted the Cumbrae's wagyu at it's best on several occasions, that this steak would certainly have either tied for first or second place if aged fully.

Flight #3 was the taste off of the best of the best: the Ontario prime and the U.S prime and we  were all very surprised by the result. The Olliffe prime beat out the U.S. prime by a significant margin. I attributed this difference primarily to the wonderful nutty complexity (layers of flavour) that proper and adequate dry aging lends to the taste of beef that is adequately marbled.

We had a lot of left over steaks that did not make the final taste off, so, I took them all back to one of the butchers who removed the bone, and here it is, my personal recipe for the best hamburger patty you will ever eat, as some butcher's know it, "Josh's prime burgers" (of course the best starts with the best, properly aged and absolutely prime beef). All beef is trimmed of every visible bit of cap fat or extramuscular fat of any kind. The only fat used is the beautiful intramuscular fat (the fine fat between the fibers of perfectly prime grade or "super" prime beef). No extra fat is added to the grind. All beef is coarsely ground and only put through the grinder once. The beef was cooked between medium rare to rare, on the rare side (this is my preference) and specially ordered brioche hamburger buns are requested from my face baker are requested slightly denser than usual brioche. Another "must": when the burgers are grilled, they are only salted and they are generously salted, but only on each silence formed. Do not muss around with the ground beef. Handle the beef as little as possible. Remove it from the package in clumps that will allow you to directly form a 6 oz burger patty. Ravida Sicilian sea salt is preferred for seasoning. We have tried the burgers with different condiments such as ketchup, mustard, onions, relish etc and we all preferred the burgers with NO condiments or extras.

Now you serious beef lovers can find the best beef, do your own tastings and remember, beef is not like sheet steel which can have perfect quality control of material. Beef can never be perfect and possess the same taste, texture and juiciness each and every time because of animal variability for the most part, but also seasonal feed variability as well as the feed mix itself. If you like to experiment try adding about 25% prime and well aged ground skirt or hanger steak (or both) to your mix, for even more flavour. And now, you have the makings for some fabulous tasting juicy burgers with great texture. Please do not use previously frozen beef.

THE BI-ANNUAL TORONTO PURVEYOR'S STEAK TASTING

Posted by Josh

Every two years, there is a get together of serious steak tasters to see which of the better beef suppliers provides the best rib and sirloin steaks. This year, the group consisted of chef Mark Macewan, Josh Josephson, chef David Lee, Jimmy Molloy, chef Joe Bersani, Clayton Ruby, Todd Halpern and David Minucci, co-owner of L'Unita restaurant. All steaks were cooked rare by one chef (David Lee). Another individual cut the pieces and a third person plated the pieces in a certain order so that essentially, this tasting was done "blind". All steaks were referred to by number when scored. None knew the results, or which steak connected with what number, or score, except a fourth individual who was responsible for scoring after all steaks were scored.

These were the results for the best rib steaks: #1 Cumbraes, #2Healthy Butcher wagyu, #3 Macewan, #4 Top Meadow Farm, #5 The Butcher Shop, #6 Olliffe.

These were the results for the best sirloin steaks: #1 Cumbraes, #2 Macewan, #3 Olliffe and The Butcher Shop tied, #4 Whole Foods