Steak - Mark Schatzker [0]
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
CHAPTER ONE - TEXAS
CHAPTER TWO - FRANCE
CHAPTER THREE - SCOTLAND
CHAPTER FOUR - ITALY
CHAPTER FIVE - JAPAN
CHAPTER SIX - ARGENTINA
CHAPTER SEVEN - FLEURANCE
CHAPTER EIGHT - A RETURN TO THE HEARTLAND
AFTERWORD
Acknowledgements
BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX
VIKING
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First published in 2010 by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Copyright © Mark Schatzker, 2010
All rights reserved
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Schatzker, Mark.
Steak : one man’s search for the world’s tastiest piece of beef / Mark Schatzker.
p. cm.
Includes index.
eISBN : 978-1-101-19010-4
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For my mother and father
THE PROBLEM WITH STEAK
Of all the meats, only one merits its own class of structure. There is no such place as a lamb house or pork house, but even a small town may have a steak house. No one ever celebrated a big sale by saying, “How about chicken?” Bachelor parties do not feature two-inch slabs of haddock. Certain occasions call for steak—the bigger the better.
Steak is king. Steak is what other meat wishes it could be. When a person thinks of meat, the picture that forms in his mind is a steak. It can be cooked, crosshatched from the grill and lying in its own juice in a pose suggestive of unmatched succulence, or it can be raw, blood-colored and framed by white fat, the steak that sleeping bulldogs in vintage cartoons dream of.
Steak earns its esteem the old-fashioned way. People don’t eat it because it’s healthy, because it’s cheap, or because it’s exotic; it isn’t considered any of these things. People love steak because of the way it makes them feel when they put it in their mouths. When crushed between an upper and a lower molar, steak delivers flavor, tenderness, and juiciness in a combination equaled by no other meat. The note struck is deep and resonant. Steak is powerful. Steak is reassuring. Steak is satisfying in a way that only the pleasures of the flesh can be.
The best steak my father ever ate was one of his first. The year was 1952, and the steak was served at an establishment in Huntsville, Ontario, called MacDonald’s Restaurant. (Not to be confused with McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain.) At $3.95, it was a high-priced item, considering that my father would earn all of $35 that summer as assistant director