The FOOD LAB’s
Complete Guide
TO BEEF STEAKSI’ve cooked a lot of beef in my life, from steak for two to
entire 25-pound Prime-grade, grass-fed, dry-aged, grain-
finished, well-marbled 7-rib racks. Beautiful hunks of meat
that have left my apartment permanently perfumed with the
sweet, musky scent of crisp beef fat and my mind
permanently stained with the insatiable desire to taste that
beef again. This is not an altogether unpleasant state of
affairs to be in in my line of work.
But wait—Prime-grade, grain-finished, marbled? What
do all these terms mean? you cry. And, more important,
Why should I care?
Here are the answers to every question you’ve ever had
or might ever have about beef roasts and steaks.
Q: What exactly are the differences between a roast and
steak? Do they come from different parts of the cow?
Put most simply, a roast is a large piece of meat—generally
at least 2 inches thick—that is cooked in the oven and sliced
before serving. A steak is a thinner piece of meat—2 inches
thick or under—intended to be cooked and served as is.
Practically speaking, there’s not much difference between
the two other than size. Both roasts and steaks are cooked
via fast-cooking methods. That is, when cooking them, the