Châteaubriand—this is a tenderloin from which the skinny
and fat ends have been trimmed off. You can then cut it into
perfectly even steaks yourself when you take it home. This
is enough meat to feed four Americans or a half dozen
Europeans. For more on this, check out “How to Trim a
Whole Beef Tenderloin,” here.
Reasonably Sized Pan-Seared Steaks
You’ll understand the title of this section when you get to
“Unreasonably Large Pan-Seared Steaks,” here.
Chicken might be more popular than beef at the
supermarket these days (we’ll get to quick-cooking chicken
recipes here too), but we’re still a nation of beef eaters. Is
there anything that strikes us on a more basic, carnal, primal
level than a perfectly marbled hunk of medium-rare beef
with a juicy rosy-pink center and a deep, dark, crisply
browned crust? Bacon and sex, perhaps (in that order), but
that’s it. It’s why we fork over top dollar at steak houses on
a nightly basis. But as I mentioned at the beginning of the
chapter, they’re not doing anything in those kitchens that
you can’t do yourself at home. You just need to know two
things: how to buy a good steak and how to cook it.