New York Strip
For years my favorite steak was a New York strip. Rib eye might have surpassed it over the last 2 years but it really is hard to beat a good New York strip. The tenderness and flavor of a New York strip make it one of the most popular steaks and with good reason. If a rib eye and a top sirloin had a baby it would be the New York strip.
Where does the New York strip come from?
The New York strip comes from the short loin of the steer. The short loin is between the rib and sirloin primals. If you leave the bone on and the meat opposite the bone you have a porterhouse or t-bone.
New York strips are primarily comprised of the longissimus muscle which is the same muscle that makes up the rib eye filet. As with the rib eye portion of this muscle a New York strip has a decent amount of marbling. This means great flavor and texture. If you think a filet mignon doesn’t have enough flavor but you still want a tender cut a New York strip could be a great option.
New York strips association with New York City gives them their name. Back in 1827 Delmonico’s Restaurant served a boneless strip loin steak and the association with New York City stuck and this cut became known as the New York strip. Other names for the New York strip are Ambassador steak, Boneless Club steak, hotel-style steak, Kansas City steak, New York steak, and oddly enough Veiny steak. I don’t think I would ever order anything labeled veiny steak.
A New York strip steak can range anywhere from about 12 ozs up to 2 pounds depending on how thick it is cut and where on the short loin it is cut from. I prefer my New York strips cut from closer to the front of the short loin. The steak is a bit bigger and I think it has a better texture. Most New York strips have the bone removed but you can also find bone in versions as well.
Snake River Farms sent me two bone in prime New York strips to review and feature on this post so I will refer to those often. If you happen to buy anything through my Snake River Farms links I will make a few bucks and be able to buy more steak so feel free to shop away. And if you use code FREEAFF you can get free shipping. This has no impact on my opinions though. I would praise their steaks for free. Here is what they look like:
These steaks were right about 20 ozs each and were wider than most New York strips I have seen. Great marbling on these steaks as well.
Let’s get sidetracked a bit on “bone in”. You will hear many people talk about how a bone in steak tastes better. I think that is false. The flavor in the bones comes from the marrow which never really touches the meat. The marrow can’t leach out through the bone so very little of that flavor makes its way to the meat. The bones do, however provide two great benefits:
- Thermal protection – The bones help shield some of the meat from the heat of cooking. This results in less grey around one side of the steak. The pink of your medium rare steak will pretty much go right up to the bone.
- Connective tissue – There is generally some connective tissue and fat right around the bone. On a long, slow cook like ribs or ox tail the connective tissue breaks down giving some great texture. With a steak like this that isn’t the case but the extra bit of fat around the bone adds a little extra deliciousness to the steak.
A couple of the best bites I had on these steaks were right up against the bone. They were extra tender, had a perfect doneness to them, and a nice little hit of fat that added to the juiciness.
How to cook a New York strip
Like most other high quality steaks you want to cook these hot at fast either in a pan on the stove or on a grill. I cooked these on a two zone grill and here is how I did it:
I started by heating about 3/4 of a chimney of charcoal briquettes and dumped them on one side of my Weber Kettle.
Meanwhile I left a few coals in the chimney and filled it up again.
I salted the steaks (use more salt than you think you need on thick steaks) and put them on the side of the grill opposite the coals. I closed the top and bottom dampers almost all the way to keep everything from getting too hot. This allows the steaks to cook through at a lower temperature before we sear them. All in all it took about 30 minutes for these steaks to hit ~105 degrees. Every steak will cook differently so use a thermometer. You can see below I have the probe in these steaks. Also, flip the steaks a couple times during this portion of the cooking process.
After the steaks hit 105 degrees I pulled them off the heat and covered them with foil. Remember that extra chimney of coals we set up earlier? Pull the grate off and dump them in. Open up all your dampers too. We want to get those coals as hot as we can for the next step. Once your coals are very, very hot (you should’t be able to hold your hand above them for more than half a second or so) put the steaks on to sear.
Don’t leave your grill now! You will only want to leave the steaks on for about a minute per side to get some nice color on them. Since you pulled them at 105 degrees earlier the searing should bring them up to right around 125 degrees. Assuming you did everything right you should see a nice sear like this:
Or this:
Give the steaks another rest for a couple minutes. Then you can cut into them and see the results:
If you don’t want to use your grill you can use a 250 degree oven for the lower temperature cooking portion and a hot cast iron pan for the searing and end up with a similar result.
Nothing fancy about cooking or seasoning these prime bone in New York strips. When you start out with a high quality piece of meat you really don’t need to do much. Just let the flavor of the meat shine through.
Where to buy New York strip
Most grocery stores will have New York strips and they will usually run you about $13 per pound. But the quality you get is pretty low. Next time you are in the grocery store take a picture of the New York strips you see and compare it to the ones above. The steaks you get at the grocery store will have very little marbling in them and will look a bit anemic.
Costco sells New York strips but I would avoid them as well since they blade tenderize most of the their steaks which opens a whole bacterial can of worms. You can, however, get a whole strip loin and cut your own steaks. This will run you about $8 per pound which is a pretty solid price. You will end up with about 12-15 steaks so either have some freezer space ready or ask some friends over. Costco has some prime strip loins as well which will be closer to $10 per pound.
If you really want a high quality prime New York strip check out Snake River Farms. I eat a lot of steaks and can testify to the quality of this beef. Many top steak houses across the country serve their steaks and you can buy them and cook them at home for a fraction of what you would pay at a steak restaurant. Here are the New York strips currently carried by Snake River Farms:
Like I mentioned before, if you buy from Snake River Farms using these links I make a few bucks, most of which goes into buying more meat.
Prime Bone In New York Strip – Approx. 1 1/4 pounds – $50 for one, $43 a piece when you order 8 or more – Awesome steaks with great flavor and texture
Choice New York Strip – Approx 14-16 ozs – $30 for one, $23 for 8 or more – The choice steaks from SRF are better than most other prime steaks I have eaten.
American Wagyu Bone In New York Strip – Approx 1 1/3 pounds – $80 for one, $73 for 8 or more. Yeah, it is expensive but you will be hard pressed to find a steak near this quality elsewhere. Their American Wagyu steaks would grade above prime.
American Wagyu New York Strip – Approx 14-16 ozs – $65 for one, $57 for 8 or more – Excellent steak with some insane marbling.
If you want to get crazy you can also get a whole American Wagyu Gold Grade strip loin for about $35 per pound.
Like what you read? Be sure to share it with your friends and come back tomorrow to learn about another cut of beef.
