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Super steak: Selecting, cooking

Prime beef is the highest-quality, tenderest, most richly marbled meat from a small percentage of cattle. Ultimately, about 2 percent of American beef makes the cut and is stamped USDA Prime.

Prime beef is the highest-quality, tenderest, most richly marbled meat from a small percentage of cattle. Ultimately, about 2 percent of American beef makes the cut and is stamped USDA Prime.

Most prime meat goes to high-end restaurants. Only a few retail sources, mostly in major cities - Philadelphia included - and online/mail-order sources sell prime beef to the public. Many butchers will custom-order it.

Prime beef and branded products of near-prime quality are available at Wegmans and Whole Foods markets. Branded beef is typically at the high end of its designated grade level. Unless labeled prime, that's Choice or, with some store brands, Select.

Aging - dry-aging - is the traditional way to make meat more tender and give it richer, concentrated flavor, usually for three weeks beyond the seven-day shipping and stocking period.

Wet aging - which some experts say isn't aging as much as storing - leaves Cryovac vacuum-sealed beef to "marinate" in its own juices for 14 days. The idea makes longtime butcher and meat purveyor Stephen McDonnell cringe. Flavor actually leaches out in the "juices," he says.

McDonnell, who as Swedesboro Prime Meats & Seafood handpicks and ages select prime cuts the traditional way for Rae, Le Bec-Fin, Bistro St. Tropez, and other area restaurants, is a "holdout" in a world of dying traditions.

Although more costly, dry-aging is the surest route to tender, flavorful beef, McDonnell says: Hang beef in a climate-controlled cooler where air circulates freely around the meat. Over time, natural enzymes break down and tenderize it. As moisture evaporates, the beef shrinks, giving the meat a firm, earthy texture and intense flavor as it becomes more tender.

It's not to everyone's taste, McDonnell says, but for beef connoisseurs, it's perfection. "You can start with a cut of about 21 pounds, and three weeks later, after aging and trimming it, you have maybe 12 pounds left."

That's one reason why, for many meat buyers, convenient and less costly "wet-aging" - precut, pre-packed, and easily shipped cross-country with no shrinkage - is now the standard.

Lately, organic beef from animals raised on strictly organic feed (without use of pesticides or herbicides) has become available, along with several branded beef products, some of long standing. Strict criteria generally put them at or near the top of their grade.

For grilling, choose tender cuts from the loin or rib. The filet, T-bone, porterhouse, rib eye, and top loin strip are best for grilling or broiling. Less expensive but somewhat less tender top boneless sirloin can be grilled or broiled if cooked rare to medium-rare or tenderized. Beyond medium, they can be tough. Chuck, top round, flank, skirt and hanger steaks are also flavorful but need tenderizing.

For stir-fries, roasts or braising, reconsider whether you want to use costly specialty meats, when choice cuts may do just as well.

The recommended cooking method for steaks is to grill or broil the meat to an internal temperature of 120 to 125 degrees. That's great for thick steaks (an inch or more), but for thinner cuts it's wise to master the "touchy-feeling" or finger-poke method of assessing meat doneness. (Thin cuts also may be pan-fried by searing quickly in a preheated, lightly oiled pan.)

Squishy meat is very rare, firm steaks are well-done (overcooked by most standards). Learning the stages of "give" in the meat in between those extremes - soft for medium-rare, slightly giving for medium - takes a little practice, but once you recognize the "feel" of the doneness you prefer, you can't go wrong. (Nicking the meat near the center with a sharp knife to check the color is another sure gauge.)

Of the beef brands, Certified Angus and Coleman Natural are among the most widely recognized and available.

Certified Angus Beef® Natural beef is raised on all-natural vegetarian feed with no antibiotics or hormones. Beyond USDA grade standards, it must pass 10 additional specifications met by only about 8 percent of all beef. It is available locally at ShopRite, Fresh Grocer and Giant Food markets. Less than 1 percent of beef qualifies for the Certified Angus Prime label.

Coleman Natural Meats come from animals fed a vegetarian diet without use of growth hormones or antibiotics. The first USDA-certified natural beef, it is widely available at supermarkets in both fresh and deli meat cases.

Some area butchers carry prime and specialty meats, while most others will custom-order it on request. Among local sources are:

Baederwood Prime Meats

, 1537 Fairway, Jenkintown (215-572-1959). Prime meats and Certified Angus Beef.

Main Line Prime

, 18 Greenfield Ave., Ardmore (610-645-9500). Aged prime beef, Japanese Kobe beef, and other meat specialties.

Though not a retail butcher,

Swedesboro Prime Meats

(856-467-8004) takes some small (15-pound minimum), noncommercial orders.

- Marilynn Marter