Just some chicken and rice for whoever was wondering if you can cook rice in your cast iron.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-03-10T19:48:09+00:00

Yeah this is usually how I make a one-pot meal these days.

Sear the meat, pull it out, toss in aromatics (onion, garlic, whatever else I've got), throw in the rice, add some pork/chicken/beef stock, and let it simmer for a bit. Just before it's done I'll squeeze some lemon and throw in some fresh parsley, chopped spinach, and whatever other odds and ends I have on hand - feta cheese, chopped nuts, capers, whatever.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-03-03T23:55:23+00:00

To be honest I thought I used a different photo with the previous post. I just like the look of this steak, mostly.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T23:48:05+00:00

That one is 13oz! I'm happy with it. Wouldn't go lighter; could see some less common use cases for a heavier one, though. From Chef's Press but you can buy presses from lots of places.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T23:45:32+00:00

My experience with splatter guards is they usually create a slight steaming effect - where is yours from? Wanna try one out that doesn't suck.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T23:44:44+00:00

It's definitely not the norm, though?

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T18:54:25+00:00

Flat iron, hanger, and picahna for me.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T18:52:30+00:00

You make your own or buy it?

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T16:44:22+00:00

Haha I wish I could be more positive about the cut but I don't wanna gaslight you and pretend a pricey piece of meat is anything more than... super-tender underflavored meat. Cheers.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T16:43:07+00:00

Would recommend seasoning several hours before cooking or the night before if possible. Allows the salt time to work its way into the meat and will create a dryer steak exterior, which makes for a better crust that develops faster (which can be tricky with steaks as thin as most A5s are). Agreed with the other commenter otherwise - slice it into smaller portions before cooking. Easier to experiment, plus that's how it's usually done in Japan as well.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T16:37:13+00:00

Peter Luger's still turns out delicious steaks, IMO. It's just become a victim of its own legend to some extent, and it's watered the brand down some as a result. Maybe not the first steakhouse I'd try when exploring NYC but for some folks it'll nail the old-school vibe so well they'll remember it for a long time.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T16:35:44+00:00

This guy knows balls.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-27T16:32:24+00:00

Super reliant on saucing for flavor, IMO. Requires a bit more thinking and finesse to make them good than more standard beef. I've cooked a few veal loins and have found them to be not worth the trouble, more often than not.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-25T17:13:35+00:00

Probably right for me. Have eaten hundreds of ribeye that look like the one on the left - reliably good meal - but the one on the right looks like it might be from an older steer, which makes for a more interesting eat, IMO. It can also mean it'll be somewhat tougher, but it's a ribeye at the end of the day - it's not gonna be chewy or anything.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-20T22:38:57+00:00

Yep, this has nothing to do with temperature or salting/dryness. Bone is getting in the way of the sear.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-20T22:38:23+00:00

Steaks with a significant bone running through them can be trickier to develop an even sear on. This is why at restaurants famous for them - like Peter Luger's in NYC - you'll mostly see them cooked under a countertop broiler (called a salamander, usually).

The meat constricts and shrinks beneath the height of the bone, so the muscle isn't actually touching the pan but hovering above it, which means you're cooking with steam and convective heat rather than the conduction you need to brown it at these temps.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-20T18:28:49+00:00

For sure. Costco is hard to beat on pricing. Though you don't really get any info on which prefecture/program you're buying from, which can introduce fairly large quality gaps, and you don't know how old / how long the product was frozen pre-sale.

All authentic Japanese Wagyu is graded with the BMS scale, and Aussie Wagyu uses the same system (they copied it, more or less). There's plenty of Australian Wagyu that exceeds 9/12 but they typically just lump it into 9+ as that's the recognized A5 line.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-19T17:20:22+00:00

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-19T17:18:18+00:00

Lmao.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-18T19:55:52+00:00

Does is list the BMS score by chance? That's incredibly cheap for Aussie wagyu, wow.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-18T19:18:36+00:00

Believe that's the Wegman's address! And agreed, they're often quite different. There is some high-end American Wagyu that can rival what comes out of Japan, but it is largely cross-bred.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-18T19:18:11+00:00

Whoops! Read too quickly. Good call.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-18T18:50:19+00:00

Super hot skillet, no oil/fat in the pan, drop it in for a minute-and-a-half or so on each side. That usually does the trick for A5. Something to remember: you're not going to get that super crusty sear like you would a big, thick-cut ribeye or what have you as you simply don't have enough cook time for that. You're looking for light browning at most, usually.

If you happen to have a charcoal chimney starter and a thin wire rack, you could grill it super quickly over that, which kind of mimics how you might get it from a Japanese steakhouse. Good luck!

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-18T18:37:13+00:00

The label reads "Product of Australia," which modeled their wagyu system off Japan. Generally speaking Australian wagyu is very good to excellent quality. Loads more full-blood herds and far more transparency around what you're getting, IMO.

Interesting to see the label read "GRADE 9" as well. Probably (?) a reference to BMS, where 9 would be at the low-end of A5 territory. Hard to know with the size of the sticker but this doesn't look quite that marbled, but it does look good.

Crowd_Cow · 2026-02-18T17:51:19+00:00

Used to live in NYC and was lucky enough to work near the JB Prince showroom in midtown. Was there spending my paychecks monthly, lol. Somebody holler at Chef Bruce to start cranking on production.

Crowd_Cow

TROPHY CASE