Franklin Steak: Dry-Aged. Live-Fired. Pure Beef. [A Cookbook]

The pairing and all the primal cuts ar discussed here. I find that Aaron does it is due diligence in this book.

Despite practically being born and largely raised in Texas, cooking steaks was never something I took seriously. My technique was essentially getting whatever off the supermarket racks, coat in some olive oil, a little salt and grill for a few minutes. Sometimes it was ok, sometimes not. The depth this book goes into explaining the cuts, marbling, and certifications as well as the history is very interesting. Some of it I couldn't care for, such as the history of cattle. But I get why it was added and it was a decent TIL. As soon as I finished the book I decided to make this at least a biweekly focus, if not weekly. So far I've reverse seared New York Strips on two nights. The first night was okay; not great. Two areas I messed up: 1. In the book he suggests 1.5% of the weight to add salt. So a 1000 gram steak gets 15 grams of salt. My family and I thought this was quite salty. Now, mind you I salted 48 hours pre-cook. The book suggests anywhere between 4 and 48 hours. Perhaps this made a difference. The second cook I cut the salt in half and, while you could still taste the salt, it wasn't as bad. My next attempt will cut in half again and go from there. BTW, the salt is not for taste but to draw out moisture. So my aim is not to taste it at all. 2. More my fault, the first cook I did was in the oven at 250 for 1 1/4" thick cuts. This took maybe 30-45 minutes. I took them out around 128 and let sit for several hours. I seared to get the Maillard effect but probably too long so they came out medium-well. The second attempt was identical with the exception of taking out at 120 and let them rest for a couple of hours. I seared just enough to get the coloring and the finish was probably medium with a broad gradient. If you're going this route I would recommend for cuts 1 to 1 1/2" thick then remove from oven or grill at 120 or even 115 then sear. I would also note it is mentioned or suggested in the book that the longer you salt your steaks, the broader the gradient. So, I may have had a more medium-rare steak if instead of salting for 48 hours I just did 12 or so. All in all, there is a ton of information in this book and I'm super excited to perfect this. If, like me, you're experience with steaks is limited, start with using the oven to get better control over the parameters and knowing what to expect. When you get that down, then start experimenting with the grill and different types of charcoal or wood.

Great read! I trust & read & watch everything Mr. Franklin shares. Talented smart man! Knows what he's doing!

I love Mr. Franklin's BBQ restaurant and I got a few tips out of his BBQ book, but I have to say there really isn't any useful tips or recipes in this. Its not an uninteresting read, but its sort of a story of his intreats in steak than anything like a cook book

Way too precious. 216 pages of elitist ruminating. 216 pages too many. Glad I only bought on sale on Kindle.

I am from Spain, and although I lived in the USA for 15 years, I could not explain why beef I would by in the USA in after year 2000 tasted so different from most meat I bought in Spain the last 9 years. It turns out the it is due to the use of free range, grass feed and finished, older cows used in Spain. But that was before the pandemic, since them, a lot of that cattle was sacrificed and a I feel it is harder to find the same quality of beef in Spain now. In the USA, I now found sources for similar philosophy in beef thanks to the book. Bis recipes are also really good. I would also recommend the Smoke Manifesto hr wrote about smoking beef.

an important aspect was neglected, (neglected or avoided?) frozen meat! i tend to avoid it, specially when i am paying top dollar, but am i wrong? when compared to "other flaws" how bad is the frozen "flaw"? if i buy half a cow from the farmer.... all crayovaced frozen.... can i stil thaw and age? nevertheless, interesting reading ( however not a cookbook).