Ruth’s v. Me
October 18th, 2008Griddle Beats the Broiler
Last night, I was spirited off to Ruth’s Chris for a free dinner. And I was scared. Why? Because I keep saying my steaks are better than theirs. What if my memory was wrong? Ack.
Today I am feeling smug, however, because I was right.
I had the cowboy ribeye (bone-in with the meat removed from the skinny end), a baked potato, a Caesar salad with anchovies, and a Chopin martini. I’ll give you my evaluation.
First off, the meat was more tender than my ribeyes. I think. It may have been that it was just juicier. I dry-age, and maybe Ruth’s doesn’t. Dry-aging reduces the water content somewhat. They may be wet-aging; women like it because you get a really wet steak. Regardless of what the deal was, the texture was a little bit like a big piece of Jell-O.
I wasn’t too excited by that. People who don’t know anything about beef think tenderness equals quality, but that’s wrong. A steak should be tender, but it shouldn’t be like eating tapioca. It shouldn’t jiggle. That’s a little off-putting. A steak should be juicy, too, but that doesn’t mean it should be so juicy that it tastes watery.
My rib eyes are very tender. They come apart with very little effort. And they’re juicy; a gorgeous red-brown fluid comes out of them, inviting you to dip bites of potato in it. But they still resemble meat. You can feel something in your mouth when you chew. In my opinion, that’s how steak is supposed to be.
The flavor of the Ruth’s steak was not what it should have been. They use some kind of strange seasoning; I can’t tell what it is. It’s all you can taste. The flavor of the beef doesn’t really come through. Furthermore, they serve the steak on a hot plate (very nice) surrounded by added butter (very nice) which burns (not nice at all) while they bring the steak to you. The flavor of burned butter is very strong, and it’s not pleasant. I’ve used tiny amounts of burned butter as a flavoring, but generally, you want to avoid letting butter brown too much.
The meat itself was low on flavor. I don’t know why. Maybe wet-aging is to blame. They failed to brown the beef properly; that would have helped. Steak should never be served grey. It should be dark brown, and it should not be brown here and there, but all over. Browning means flavor. Another thing: a cast-iron griddle or skillet used only for steak will develop a seasoning on it that flavors the meat in a way no gas broiler can imitate.
They also put way too much salt on the steak. I was dipping it in the burned butter, trying to rinse the salt off. And I salt my steaks very heavily at home.
I know I sound like I’m ripping their steak to shreds, but it was very good. Ruth’s is a wonderful restaurant. You have to understand, I’m comparing their steak to steaks that are so good I actually make moaning noises while I eat.
They served me a baked potato with butter, sour cream, and chives. I asked for butter, sour cream, and salt, but that’s not a big deal. I tried it. Guess what? Not nearly as good as my potatoes. Not even close.
For one thing, they soak the jackets with some kind of lube. Butter, I suppose. The jacket seemed very, very thin and delicate, and it was completely wet. On the inside, the potato itself seemed wet. I don’t know how they do that. Maybe they use a steamer. It wasn’t airy and light; it was heavy. My potatoes are sort of fluffy. Also, they chintzed on the toppings. If you’re not going to put at least six ounces of sour cream on a potato, don’t waste my time with it.
Another problem: they don’t burn the potato at all. My potatoes typically have a little bit of browning inside the jacket on one side. This is marvelous; it adds complexity, and it goes great with the sour cream and butter.
The butter Ruth’s uses doesn’t have garlic in it. Arggh. MISTAKE.
I didn’t finish the potato. It was very nice, but compared to my potatoes, it was sort of civilized and limp and bland. I admit, I was trying not to be a pig, and I didn’t want to finish it. But with one of my potatoes, I would have been helpless. Willpower would have wilted before it. It always has.
I like Ruth’s, and I would never turn down a Ruth’s meal. The food last night was great. But their dinners can’t compare to a home-aged steak cooked on a griddle, next to a baked potato cooked with no foil, with salt water applied to the jacket before baking. Ruth’s is not in the same class.
One more thing: my steak arrived at the table sizzling from the heat of the plate. Looks like the unfortunate “resting” fad hasn’t spread to every cook on the planet.
Try my recipe with confidence. If you like the flavor of beef, not burned butter or herbs, and you like your potatoes fluffy and light with dry, salted jackets that cry out for garlic butter, sour cream, and beef juice, you will not be disappointed.
I feel tremendous satisfaction, having succeeded in beating the pros. I worked a long time on this, and I’m thrilled at how it paid off.
October 19th, 2008 at 12:09 AM
So how was the Caesar salad?
October 19th, 2008 at 12:37 AM
I’ve eaten at Ruth’s once. It was very good, but seemed really overpriced for what we got. Frankly, we can go to Texas Roadhouse and get a better meal for a third of the price.
I used to love rib eyes. The medication I now take has ruined that for me. I can’t tolerate the fat content of them any more. If I eat a rib eye, I get nauseous from the richness. So I’m now in the tenderloin demographic. Not exactly manly, I know, but somehow I think I’ll survive being called a sissy.
At least I can still have a baked potato with a crispy brown jacket. Best part of the potato.
October 19th, 2008 at 1:50 AM
I’ve never eaten at Ruth’s, even though for a couple of years one of the bus stops I used to take to and from work was right next to the Ruth’s Chris in Winter Park. But I doubt I will now. I rarely eat steak (my father kind of made it every other day when I was a kid, and I got a tad tired of it), but when I do, I like it to have meat flavor and some fiber to it. It shouldn’t be chewy, but it should have that meat texture.
Once I ate some veal — I think it was when I was in Germany, on the Rhine cruise (don’t start — I went with my mother) — and I’ve never eaten it again. It was like you described your steak — so tender it was like meat jello. Yech. It didn’t taste or feel like meat. Grant you, the Germans can’t cook a steak to save their lives (the opposite of the veal was the steak with mushroom gravy I had in Frankfurt or some place, which had the texture of the sole of a shoe), and they smother every piece of dead animal they eat with thick, lumpy sauces. I learned in Europe to basically stick with crepes and pasta and stuff like that. I also gained about twenty pounds and had to give all my going-to-Europe outfits away.
Anyway, I agree — baked potatoes should be fluffy, not wet.
October 19th, 2008 at 2:57 AM
Barb and I just had a ribeye…followed the recipe in EWYWADLAM. Fantastic! We had green-beans instead of a baked potato (I added bacon grease, butter and garlic though).
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I’ve been to Ruth’s Chris in Chicago, and I’d put it a little below what we had tonight (but maybe not as jiggly or butter-burned as you describe). They’re also building a Ruth’s Chris about 20-minutes from my house, so I may go to that one and try to compare (I live about 1-1/2 hours out of Chicago, so I don’t go to the downtown Ruth’s Chris very often).
October 19th, 2008 at 2:42 PM
1. Think some of the differences in taste and texture come from heat of cooking.
2. To the best of my knowledge, all Ruth’s restaurants use infra red ovens.
3. On a TEC grill, I get about 1700 degrees off the burner. Cooking times are different and taste and texture are different as well. Conventional grills and cookers put out about 800 degrees.
4. Hadn’t thought of your gelatinous description -but it’s probably on the mark.
5. Know my daughter prefers her rare steak cooked on a regular grill.
6. Have no dog in this particular fight; my taste buds abandoned ship long ago. Read your books strictly for humorous literary content.
V/R J West
October 19th, 2008 at 3:48 PM
I had read that Ruth’s used gas, but that could be old information or just wrong. Whatever they use, it’s inferior to cast iron, by a wide margin.
One web source says the seasoning on their steaks is made up of salt, pepper, and parsley. If so, no wonder I didn’t think much of it. Pepper is too strong for a really good piece of beef, and parsley is just a mistake. And nothing goes well with burned butter.
Another source says Ruth’s uses wet-aged meat. If so, that explains the lack of flavor.
October 19th, 2008 at 4:38 PM
1. TEC ovens are gas powered infra red. Have models that use natural gas and ones that use propane.
2. Sold ’em until the patent on the horizontal application of their system expired. Now other, less expensive brands, like Charbroil, are offering gas grills with infra red burners.
3. Doesn’t sound like it’s anything that would tempt you anyway.
4. Most of the guys who bought those were willing to sink a couple grand into producing steaks as good as Ruth’s.
5. Be better off buying your book.
V/R J West
October 19th, 2008 at 4:44 PM
I have been very disappointed at both Ruths Chris and at Mortons. Like Steve I will humbly say that I am able to grill a steak at home that is better than what I have gotten at these places. Ditto on sides. Biggest challenge for me is finding good beef to grill. Prime is all but unavailable over the counter. Costco, Safeway occasionally have unbelievably good choice cuts, but it is a roll of the dice every time. Omaha steaks are awful. I have tried a few Internet mail order sources of prime but results have been uneven. It kills me to pay $25 or $35 a pound for prime when one time in three the choice at Costco for $10 a pound is more tender and flavorful. Mind you the other two times it is still dam good! I tried dry-aging a Costco bone-in prime rib once .. wrapped it in dishtowels and let it sit in the fridge for about a week. A little funky on the outside but cooked up really tasty.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:02 PM
Second the Texas Roadhouse comment. The ribeye is the best I have ever had. Actually gave up grilling my own at home due to the meat selection being poor quality around here.
October 19th, 2008 at 5:08 PM
We don’t go out for steaks, simply because The Mrs. makes them better. (The only exception to this is the Chop House in Chicago, which is THE steakhouse by which all others should be judged. No chain — even Ruth — need apply.)
However, the baked potato: she slathers hers with butter (real English butter, not the tasteless white American kind — try it), and sprinkles a little kosher salt on the outside. Then she cooks until the skins are crisp.
Until my lap band surgery, I had NEVER left one of her BPs unfinished.
October 19th, 2008 at 9:33 PM
Kim, I have never been able to find really good butter in a store. I tried Plugra and the Irish stuff. It wasn’t particularly good.
When I was a kid, I had some decent butter. Someone my grandparents knew back in Kentucky churned some butter and brought them a big wad in a sheet of aluminum foil. It had lots of flavor. Now I simulate it by mixing a tiny bit of browned butter into fresh butter. It’s good, but not the same as the real thing.
October 22nd, 2008 at 10:26 PM
Here’s a great tip, courtesy of Cooks Illustrated:
Before grilling a steak at high heat, slowly heat the steak in the oven until it’s about 90 to 92 degrees for rare and 94 to 96 for medium.
What you really want is for the oven to be at about 120 degrees, but most ovens won’t go that low these days, so set it as low as you can, and turn it off before it heats up all the way. It should take 20 minutes or so to get the steaks to the right temperature if you’re not heating them too quickly. Let rest a few minutes.
Then throw on the grill, at least 500 F, more heat is better, for a minute or perhaps two on each side, no more. Then let rest again for several minutes.
You end up with a steak that is the correct and even doneness nearly edge to edge, and very tender.
The secret is that up until about 123 degrees, cooking beef tenderizes it. As soon as you pass that mark, heat makes the meat tougher. So you want to minimize the amount of time that the steak spends exposed to high heat.
October 26th, 2008 at 9:42 PM
Steve, you say you use a lot of salt. So do I. However, I use nothing but Celtic Sea Salt which is the best salt I have ever found. If you use it on one of those steaks or a baked potato, you will probably agree with me. I carry the salt with me wherever I go. I have also found that since I starting using this salt, I cannot stand the sodium offered up at any restaurant or private residence anymore. If I should happen to have to use it, I tend to use much more than normal just to be able to taste it. Try it. There is only one brand sold under that name.