For me, it’s simply the degree of marbling. I see a lot of disparity with the grades in both directions. As an aside, prime grade beef is readily available here with strips being about half the price of ribeyes. There must be a lot of ribeye lovers.
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Consistent marbling while disregarding the sticker claiming a grade. Like you mentioned, many times the prime looks barely select and sometimes the select looks great. Mostly though, it’s through trusted online sources.
That’s a massive disparity in price between strips and ribeyes. Usually strips are priced higher due to less fat waste and the entire purchased piece being consumable.
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From Flannery
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- Snake River Farms and Morgan Ranch.
For the twice a month we have beef it’s worth paying the premium.
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It’s not a commodity, source matters as much or more to me than my ability to view the marbling. SRF, Morgan Ranch, Slagel, Creekstone Farms or Flannery when I was in the US. Here in the UK there are a couple of really great butchers I purchase from online- HG Walter and Turner and George (and if any UK folks have other recommendations I’m always happy to be educated).
When not ordering online it has to pass the eye test. Marbling is of the utmost importance to me.
Nah, it’s just that ribeyes are far superior.
I hadn’t had a ribeye for years until the last Flannery 40% off sale, and the first two of those I grilled I was like…still a strip fan, but I’m definitely getting this.
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We have a small local market with a bunch of butchers in the back. They had Strips labeled “Choice” for $10.99/lb during their 3-day sale. The marbeling looked really good. Looked mis-graded to me. Grilled up real nice.
The USDA quality grading is applied to the whole carcass, so some cuts may be more or less marbled than the carcass grade may indicate. I find the marbling on supermarket cuts to be quite variable so I only buy from supermarkets in person where I can see what I’m getting.
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I couldn’t imagine using InstaCart or similar service for meat or veggies of fruits…I pick out my brussel sprouts one at a time.
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100% this.
I don’t buy meat from supermarkets. I live in an area where there are many small, family-run farms, and I give them as much of my business as I can–it keeps the money in the local economy and helps to keep farmland farmland (I also support CT Farmland Trust). So it is easy for me to buy meat (beef, pork, poultry) and eggs directly from the farmers who raised the animal. Apart from a BD15 purchase from Morgan Ranch, all the beef I’ve purchased in the past 15+ years has been pasture-raised by four farmers within 20 miles (three within less than 10 miles) from where I live.
Having said all that, I don’t eat a lot of beef. I probably eat beef no more than once a month, if that. But I do like it to be good beef, including in how it was raised.