There’s a lot more to cooking a phenomenal steak than initially meets the eye. At first glance it seems very simple. Find a slab of raw cow meat, salt it and throw it on some heat. But when you get down to the heart of the matter, there are myriad factors that determine whether you will be in bovine bliss or seriously disappointed with the way you spent your time and money.
Even before you arrive at the cut you prefer and its manner of preparation, there are a number of very important considerations that must be made, and most of them centre on the cow itself: what breed is it? Is it male or female (most cattle used for meat are steers castrated males)? What kind of environment was it raised in? What was its diet? How old was it when it was sent to the abattoir? And, most importantly, was it a happy cow? These all prefigure your experience of eating beef in a major way. Whilst cooking a steak incorrectly can be sacrilege, that’s only the case when the beef is a prime specimen, so the most important step in enjoying an amazing steak is arguably selecting the right one.
M has cherry-picked the best cuts from the best cattle in the world, drawing from all continents (with the exception of Antarctica, for obvious reasons). Here’s what makes for a truly excellent steak.
Rearing
Happy cows = tasty cows. If an animal is feeling stress, particularly on its way to be butchered, it will release adrenaline and cortisol into its system, which can tarnish the flavour of the animal and compromise its tenderness. The most-prized beef in the world comes from cattle farmers who ensure that cows lead the best lives possible, giving them plenty of time to graze, feeding them well and making their journey from pasture to plate as stress-free as possible.
Grain v. Grass
The rivalry of grain-fed versus grass-fed beef is one of the most divisive in the industry, splitting the opinions of chefs, butchers and consumers in equal measure, which is why M GRILL offers both. It all comes down to personal taste really, although there are convincing arguments that grass-fed beef has lower amounts of saturated fat than corn-fed beef, as well as more stearic acid, making it the healthier choice.
The period in the latter stage of a cow’s life when it is fattened to completion is called ‘finishing’. It’s much easier to finish a cow with grain in a feedlot than it is in a field, because grass might have not received enough rainfall and could be lacking in nutritious plants for the cows to eat.
Ruminants are creatures like cows that have stomachs with four compartments to digest forage. Grass is a ruminant’s natural diet, so many believe that a cow finished in the field lives a healthier, happier life and, therefore, tastes better. On the other hand, grass-fed beef tends to be tougher than its feedlot counterpart, with stronger, gamier flavours. Some people prefer their steak tender and don’t much care for deep and grassy beef, whilst others would rather sacrifice the softness for a more characterful cut. Some of the best steaks come from cattle that are fed on grass for the duration of their lives before being finished on grain, just like finishing a single malt whisky in a sherry cask.
And there are exceptions, of course. Excellent steak is available from both camps. As in wine, much of it comes down to the producer.
Marbling
When a cut of beef is marbled, it means that the red muscle of the animal is finely interspersed with white or yellow fat. It serves as a vehicle to carry the flavour that comes off of the leaner muscle. Fat can be a healthy protein to consume if you don’t overindulge and there’s a theoretical consensus that we evolved to our current state as a species due in part to the higher levels of fat in our diet, which helped to increase brain function.
Whilst travelling to the Galapagos, Charles Darwin hypothesised that the gauchos in Argentina were able to cope with meat-only diets because of the large deposits of fat in the cattle. These fats can assist in reducing cholesterol levels in the body and when it comes to the flavour and tenderness of steak, the necessity for fat is immeasurable. Fat gives the impression of juiciness. When cooked it is absorbed into the muscles of the beef, lubricating the fibres. It also lubricates the mouth and triggers salivation. Hence, that rivulet of drool that occasionally courses down the chin when eating a really beautiful mouthful of steak.
Ageing
Ageing is another process where people tend to cleave to one camp or another. The Argentines are known for enjoying their beef fresh. The majority of USDA-approved beef isn’t aged. Other pockets of the world, particularly in Europe, however, regard a dry-aged steak as one of the most exceptional cuts on the market.
Here’s the scientific bit: the tenderising agent involved in ageing is a family of complex proteins called calpains, which break down enzymes in the muscle. When proteins are broken down into amino acids, levels of umami rise. They also create more sugars, which are released in the Maillard reaction (see below), forming that beautiful golden crust celebrated by steak connoisseurs. Dry ageing typically lasts from fifteen to twenty-eight days. M dry ages their southern African beef for a week and their USDA beef for a month. Dry-aged beef tends to be more expensive because the beef will lose up to a third or more of its weight whilst hanging. The flavour of dry-aged beef tends to be nuttier with hints of blue cheese.
Wet ageing takes place when the side of beef is taken down after hanging for two days, which allows the blood to drain from the muscle, before being cut into different sections and sealed in bags. The meat will carry on ageing in its own juices, which contain the same calpain proteins that break down and tenderise the meat. The juices also keep the meat from drying out, with the process often taking slightly longer than dry ageing: up to six weeks.
Parrilla v. Josper Grill
There is no one correct way to cook a cow. Different methods have their different merits, which is why M employs multiple types of grill to best cook the cuts they have on offer from a multitude of breeds from various corners of the world. Both M restaurants use a Josper grill, as well as a traditional Argentine parrilla.
The Josper grill is an elegant hybrid of grill and oven that can reach temperatures north of 500°C, and can cook 400g steaks in a matter of minutes, quickly sealing the beef and locking in the juices. The Josper offers more control of the temperature than cooking over an open grill, which makes it ideal for preparing big, thick chops and other cuts.
In Argentina, nearly every household will have a parrilla installed so they can prepare beef a la plancha in their own homes. The parrilla used at M utilises a combination of wood and charcoal. Usually the M chefs will kick things off with the wood to imbue the meat with a subtle smokiness and bringing it up to temperature, before transferring it over to the charcoal to finish it off above the smouldering coals.
Bear with us while we cover a bit more science: many of the world’s pre-eminent food scientists concur that fat alone does not equate to flavour. Flavour compounds come from fat, but also from sugars, amino acids, peptides, proteins and ammonia. The cooking of beef, when the cut meets intense heat, creates a powerful flavour. Browning, or the Maillard reaction, involves complex chemical processes between amino acids and sugars that are being reduced, giving rise to the creation of a huge number of chemical compounds, some of which are only found in beef. These compounds are called ‘volatile’ because they do not last for a long time, which is why it’s so important that steak is eaten while it’s still warm, otherwise it will have a completely different and much less fascinating flavour.
Preparing Beef
At M there are a few simple rules for preparation to ensure the best from the beef. Firstly, ensure all large cuts are at room temperature before cooking. Secondly, season beef with rock salt rather than sea salt as in other recipes in the book.
Resting
Steak needs to rest for five minutes after it leaves the heat. There’s a universal consensus on this amongst chefs. The reason for letting it rest is disputed, however. Some say that it is to retain the juices in the beef, while others claim that the heat from the external crust of the cut needs to penetrate into its centre. M ascribes to the latter theory.
USA
In many ways, American tastes have set the benchmark for how steak is enjoyed in contemporary times, and a lot of this comes down to the United States Department of Agriculture, commonly known as USDA. The USDA Prime grading system was first set up in 1927, when beef production in the States began to resemble the factory line. In fact, the factory line was arguably borrowed from Gustavus Swift, who created different stations and a trolley system within a warehouse, to butcher the cow and disassemble it. Experts would then come in to appraise the yield grades (amount of usable meat) and quality, which could then be communicated to the retailer.
USDA graders prioritise marbling over all other facets of the cow. Marbling is the white or yellow specks and whorls of fat visible amongst the red flesh of the lean meat. Graders will look at the cow to decide which category it belongs to: Prime being a steak that is heartily, generously marbled; Choice being the second grade; Select being the third grade, and Standard being the last, which is barely marbled at all. They do this by making an incision between the twelfth and thirteenth rib and closely examining virgin rib-eye.
The USDA Prime breed that is used at M is Black Angus. If the beef doesn’t come from proven, verified genetics it can often be of a lower quality than you might otherwise receive, with a mishmash of different breeds (Charolais is often introduced, creating taller, heavier cows). M tends to favour the USDA Prime rib-eye, which comes from the upper ribcage area and is worked very little during the cow’s life, allowing for tenderness and an intense marbling.
France
The French have been obsessing over beef for quite a long time. Take the Chauvet Cave, in the south-eastern department of Ardèche. Here you’ll find the oldest cave paintings known to man, dating back to the Aurignacian Era – a modest 30,000 years ago. The drawings depict a variety of animals from the Ice Age: woolly rhinoceros, woolly mammoth, bison, cave lions and hyenas. But the animal most abundantly drawn was the aurochs. Way before the Anthropocene, cattle was king.
Over the years, aggressive character traits were bred out of the aurochs, which were hunted out of existence by aristocrats who valued them over any other quarry. After a few thousand years, the Normande breed arrived in France, brought over by Viking conquerors in the ninth and tenth centuries. They evolved over millennia to become dual-purpose cattle, suitable for both meat and milk, with a high muscle mass to bone ratio engendering a high percentage yield when they’re slaughtered.
Having been raised on grass, foraging about for centuries, through muddy winters and hot, dry summers, Normande is a remarkably robust breed. M has chosen to use the onglet cut, or what the Americans and English call a ‘hanger’ steak. Taken from the diaphragm near the kidneys, it is one of the most flavourful cuts, with a whisper of offal in the flesh. Like many foods prized in France, it won’t be to everybody’s taste, but tends to be praised by connoisseurs.
Japan
The Japanese, being a highly specialised sort, share a lot in common with the French. Both believe in the concept of terroir, which in layman’s terms (and to avoid eliciting any bad memories of pretentious conversations at wine bars) means experiencing wine or produce that reflects the true, unique nature of the land – through soil, topography and climate. In France there might be an AOC that is particularly good at making cheese or raising chickens, and the same extends to Japan. Kobe is arguably the most famous of these, for its beef of course. In order for a cut of meat to be Kobe beef, it must originate from the Tajima strand of black Wagyu, and must be raised in the southern Japanese Hyōgo Prefecture, the capital of which is Kobe.
“Any of us would kill a cow, rather than not have beef.”
– Samuel Johnson
Black Wagyu were originally brought to Japan from mainland China approximately 2,000 years ago and used as beasts of burden. The Japanese weren’t allowed to eat four-legged animals until Emperor Meiji lifted the ban in 1868. By the 1950s they had mastered the technique of producing beef with marbling that had no equal internationally. In 1968 Kobe opened its doors for business as an international trading centre, and Kobe beef began to earn its reputation as some of the finest in the world. As with many things in Japan, foreigners tend to embellish and misrepresent the facts. Perhaps the most glaring misrepresentation is that Kobe beef are fed beer and massaged with sake. Whilst this is technically true, the cows are only, and very occasionally, fed beer during the hot summer months to stimulate their appetite. In the past, sake was sometimes used to give the cow’s coat a lustrous sheen, but these days shampoo is favoured, as sake is known to discolour the hide.
Above all, the cows are kept calm and content through their lives. Calves are given fresh, clean water to drink and only the very best rice and corn feed, raised in a stress-free, relaxing environment where they can grow at their leisure to maturity. They’re finished for at least thirty months, which is quite a juxtaposition with the five-month turnaround of some American feedlots.
The steak must be between six and twelve on the marbling scale. At M it is 10+, the highest grade currently found in the UK. M uses the fillet steak, which is arguably the most coveted cut in the world, to do justice to the most coveted cow in the world. Known for its delicate texture and subtle flavours, this fillet will most likely be marbled more than anything you’ve ever seen, and packed with a high proportion of oleic acids, which convert into monounsaturated fat and can even melt in your hand.
Argentina
Argentina is famous for its grass. The Pampas, for instance, is a veritable ocean of grasslands that cover 750,000 square kilometres of South America, extending from southern Argentina all the way north through Uruguay and Paraguay, well into Brazil, where they fall just short of São Paulo. It covers nearly a fifth of Argentina. Cortaderia selloana even takes its common name from the region – Pampas grass. It makes sense, then, that Argentina would be world renowned for the giant herds of cattle that have fed on the plains since Europeans arrived from one sea to another.
The Argentines like their steak. There are fifty-five million cattle in the country, but only forty million people, which is perhaps why Argentina consumes more steak per capita than any other nation. Aberdeen Angus cattle first arrived in South America in the earlier part of the nineteenth century, and began to evolve from the black, polled (hornless) ruminants that grazed in north-east Scotland’s glens and shielings.
The grass-fed rump steak used at M is healthier than many similar cuts. The grass on the pampa has notably rich soil, with a mild temperature and very fine grass, which makes it easier for the animals to eat, allowing them to gain weight quickly. Because of this, there’s no need for growth hormones. The animals are reared as organically as possible and contain 10 per cent less cholesterol and 25 per cent more intramuscular fat than American or British cattle, albeit at 10 per cent less yield. The rump is a famously flavourful steak. As one might expect, it’s a bit chewier than a fillet, but really packs in a beefy punch. It’s also a very reasonably priced cut, for those who want to watch their wallet as well as their waist.
Southern Africa
Southern Africa is not a region of the world that you would immediately relate to beef, but South Africa and northern Botswana, in particular, have a rich cattle-raising history and economy. Botswana really came into its own in the late 1960s, when they began to export beef globally. In fact, until only recently, it was the largest earner on the foreign exchange, and helps in a major way to support the country’s rural population, who rely on farming as their primary means of subsistence.
In total, Botswana boasts a population of cattle of approximately 2.8 million head, whereas there are only approximately 2 million people living within the country. The people of Botswana have always lived hand in hand with the cows, and have been breeding them for meat and milk for many hundreds of years. The landscapes of Botswana vary wildly. It’s perhaps most famous for the Kalahari Desert, which covers about 84 per cent of the country, but it also boasts fertile floodplain deltas and high veld which are ideal for grazing cattle.
The cattle breeds in Botswana tend to be Tuli, Brahman, Africander and Bonsmara with various crosses between them. The beef chosen by M tends to subsist on natural grass and feed for three years, and is finished on feedlot grain for ninety days before being taken to the abattoir, to give them a little extra oomph and marbling. At M, they use the rib-eye, which is packed full of flavour and fat, whilst remaining tender.
Australia
The Australian steak at M is one of the chefs’ favourite cuts and winner of the M World Cup of Steak, which was judged by food critics Joe Warwick and Charles Campion. It’s a very special piece of cow, and it took many years for it to become as delicious as it is. Perhaps one of the most sought-after breeds in Australia was brought down from the Japanese. Wagyu cattle (Japanese black) can only be categorised Kobe if they are raised in the Hyōgo Prefecture, however there are some ranches in Australia, such as the Blackmore Ranch in Alexandra, Victoria, that have managed to rear the breed with pristine 100 per cent full-blood genetics. They are then raised with the same attention to detail that cattle on Japanese farms receive. They’re raised for six months on their mother’s milk and in the pasture, then put out to the irrigation pasture and fed with a non-grain feed.
From Australia Michael’s opted to choose from the sirloin and the skirt cuts. Whilst sirloin was once the most popular cut of beef in Britain, it has recently been a tad less fashionable than fillet or rib-eye. This is not your average sirloin, however. The marbling is a thing of beauty. The sirloin is thickly seamed and spiderwebbed with ribbons of fat, so that, when uncooked, it doesn’t resemble steak as we know it, but a cut of beef that can only be described as blonde. When cooked properly, it’s like tasting bovine divinity.
