You can dine on the nation’s best steak even if you don’t live near an elite restaurant or butcher shop. Several excellent butchers, meat distributors and steak houses now will deliver top-quality steak right to your door. Prices are steep — certainly more than what you would pay per pound for steak at your local supermarket, plus $10 to $50 for overnight shipping. But for those who love great steak, it can be worth the price.
What you need to know…
Steaks graded “prime” by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) have much more “marbling” than other steaks. These thin streaks of fat throughout the meat (as opposed to the thick chunks of fat found in lower-quality meat) is what gives good steak much of its flavor and juiciness.
Top-quality steaks also tend to be aged much longer than other steaks, often four to six weeks. The process intensifies the meat’s flavor and makes it more tender. Most high-end steaks are “dry aged,” which removes much of the water from the steak.
Helpful: Many of the mail-order steak providers listed here offer preparation instructions on their Web sites.
Five contenders for best home-delivered steak in order of price…
Gepperth’s Market, a small, century-old Chicago butcher, offers extremely high-quality meat at relatively affordable prices. Gepperth’s prime strip steak is rich in flavor and buttery in texture, and Gepperth’s less expensive option, also excellent, is the “choice” Black Angus strip — choice is the grade of meat just below prime. Cost: USDA prime strip steak is $29 per pound… choice Black Angus strip, $20 per pound. 773-549-3883, GepperthsMarket.webs.com/.
Peter Luger, perhaps New York City’s most celebrated steak house, is famous for its rich, juicy, tender and enormous dry-aged porterhouse, a cut featuring portions of the short loin and tenderloin. Steak orders are shipped with two bottles of Peter Luger Steak House Sauce, a reusable cooler and chocolate Luger coins. Cost: Two 36- to 38-ounce USDA prime dry-aged porterhouse steaks are $166.25 ($36 per pound). 718-387-0500, www.PeterLuger.com.
Allen Brothers, a Chicago-based, family-run business, has supplied steak to some of the country’s best steak houses for more than a century. Cost: Four 14-ounce USDA prime boneless strip steaks are $179.95 ($51 per pound). 800-957-0111, www.AllenBrothers.com.
Lobel’s is a famed New York City butcher shop. Its most popular steaks include the lean, tender filet mignon… flavorful and buttery-textured boneless strip steaks… and hearty boneless rib steaks. Cost: A 12-ounce USDA prime filet mignon is $54.98 ($73 per pound). 877-783-4512, www.Lobels.com.
DeBragga and Spitler has supplied steaks to top New York restaurants for nearly 90 years. Its client list includes famed chefs such as Daniel Boulud of the restaurant Daniel… and Eric Ripert of Le Bernardin. DeBragga excels at Wagyu beef, often referred to as Kobe beef, whose very high degree of marbling makes it extremely tender and a favorite of connoisseurs. Cost: Two 12-ounce American Wagyu steaks are $126.95 ($85 per pound). www.DeBragga.com.
