What's the logic behind this cut? The tenderloin side is overdone before the
striploin side is edible.

Who invented this?
--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

Opinicus wrote:

> What's the logic behind this cut? The tenderloin side is overdone before the
> striploin side is edible.
>
> Who invented this?

Sir Thomas Bones. It was 1678 in the Northern part of the southwest
midlands. He and his faithful retainer, Pispartout, were getting close
to the end of their provisions, not having seen another human in weeks.
They came upon a particularly stupid herd of the famous Midlands Dopey
cows and decided to eat. Luckily, Pispartout remembered to bring the
bandsaw, so they promptly
(continued on page 94)

Pastorio

"Bob (this one)" > wrote ...
> Opinicus wrote:
>
>> What's the logic behind this cut? The tenderloin side is overdone before
>> the striploin side is edible.
>>
>> Who invented this?
>
> Sir Thomas Bones. It was 1678 in the Northern part of the southwest
> midlands. He and his faithful retainer, Pispartout, were getting close to
> the end of their provisions, not having seen another human in weeks. They
> came upon a particularly stupid herd of the famous Midlands Dopey cows and
> decided to eat. Luckily, Pispartout remembered to bring the bandsaw, so
> they promptly
> (continued on page 94)
>
Not bad a'tall, Bob.....

The "bone-in" cuts of beefsteak seem to have been a largely "American"
thing, and I suspect that although the Porterhouse, the "best of the TBones"
could come closer to being equally cooked on both sides, the TBone emerged
to popularity as (a) cosmetic and visual appealing (It looked like a really
big steak!) and (b) only with the advent of power saws which made cutting
all the associated bone structure quick, easy and CHEAP, a great deal
cheaper than the labor required to hand bone loins of beef.

A couple of caveats.....Until the modern era, even as late as 1950 or so,
beefsteak (except for a few favored folk with access to prime beef) was cut
much thinner than is common today. As for TBones, they were popular as a
"family" steak among middle class Americans back in the 40s and 50s. In a
family with three children, 2 TBones provided dinner, Mom getting the
largest tender, dad, the biggest strip, the eldest daughter the other,
smaller tender, the favored son most of the second strip, and the mewling
infant a bone to gnaw (although sharp-edged TBones are not good infant
gnawing material).

In my family household, the men liked rare, the women medium, and women (and
female children) always were favored with the tenderest cuts. Those were
USAian shibboleths not to be ignored. Even chicken was subject to
hierarchic distribution.

TMO

"TOliver" > wrote in message
...

> In my family household, the men liked rare, the women medium, and women
> (and female children) always were favored with the tenderest cuts.

So that's the logic then? A way to get different degrees of doneness and
tenderness in a single cut so as to appeal to different tastes? That makes
sense--sort of.

--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

"Opinicus" > wrote ...
> "TOliver" > wrote ...
>
>> In my family household, the men liked rare, the women medium, and women
>> (and female children) always were favored with the tenderest cuts.
>
> So that's the logic then? A way to get different degrees of doneness and
> tenderness in a single cut so as to appeal to different tastes? That makes
> sense--sort of.
>

I'll opine that "sort of" was about as close to making sense around my
childhood home as it came...

In the South at least, young women until recently sort of culturally avoided
rare meat, the province of the males in the household, yet tradition
required that females receive the tenderst cuts. Add the matter of portion
size, and the Tbone became to sort of ideal choice. We still occasionally
dine in a rural steakhouse/saloon which continues to feature both a TBone
and Porterhouse "for 2" (along with a traditoinal accompaniment in season,
sliced tomatoes interleaved with paper thin slices of red onion).

I continue to place more credibility in the theory that only the power saw
really popularized the Tbone, quite an effort to cut with a handsaw....

TMO

"TOliver" > wrote

> In the South at least, young women until recently sort of culturally
> avoided rare meat, the province of the males in the household, yet
> tradition required that females receive the tenderst cuts. Add the matter
> of portion size, and the Tbone became to sort of ideal choice. We still
> occasionally dine in a rural steakhouse/saloon which continues to feature
> both a TBone and Porterhouse "for 2" (along with a traditoinal
> accompaniment in season, sliced tomatoes interleaved with paper thin
> slices of red onion).

For us here in Turkey, the problem is that the T-bones are small (somewhat
biger than a delmonico: bone-in, they weigh 500-600 grams) so that a T-bone
is "for 1". (At least in this household.)


--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

"Opinicus" > wrote ...
> "TOliver" > wrote
>
>> In the South at least, young women until recently sort of culturally
>> avoided rare meat, the province of the males in the household, yet
>> tradition required that females receive the tenderst cuts. Add the
>> matter of portion size, and the Tbone became to sort of ideal choice. We
>> still occasionally dine in a rural steakhouse/saloon which continues to
>> feature both a TBone and Porterhouse "for 2" (along with a traditoinal
>> accompaniment in season, sliced tomatoes interleaved with paper thin
>> slices of red onion).
>
> For us here in Turkey, the problem is that the T-bones are small (somewhat
> biger than a delmonico: bone-in, they weigh 500-600 grams) so that a
> T-bone is "for 1". (At least in this household.)
>

History moment....

One of the great memories of my collitch years, the Hofbrau on Austin's
Lower Near Westside (a specific description for old Austinites, South of the
Capitol but North of the River and East of Lamar), which served a thin cut
TBone "griddled" quickly on extremely hot cast iron, then served with lemon
and butter. They were small, about 12-14 ouces, but worth the drive down
from the 40 acres. These days, a Porterhouse normally describes a large
thick cut, minimum of 24 ounces and up, 32-36 for two, while a TBone for 1
would be 18-24 ounces pre-cooked.

Coming from a family where some of the beef came from rural family (or from
Dad's patients), I can live without "Prime", actually favoring the appeal of
2" thick cut "Top sirloin" raised close to the Gulf Coast, where the salt
laden air flavors the grazing and the grazers. Of course, now that all US
beef seems to have spent a chunk of its days in a feed lot, we've become
accustomed to the sweet flavor lent by corn and supplements.

TMO

"TOliver" > wrote

> One of the great memories of my collitch years, the Hofbrau on Austin's
> Lower Near Westside (a specific description for old Austinites, South of
> the

Austin...

Barton Springs?

--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

"Opinicus" > wrote ...
> "TOliver" > wrote
>
>> One of the great memories of my collitch years, the Hofbrau on Austin's
>> Lower Near Westside (a specific description for old Austinites, South of
>> the
>
> Austin...
>
> Barton Springs?
>

After an afternoon in the cool/cold enough to cause your scrotum to attempt
to enfold itself waters of Barton Springs (where in the old days, regulars
actually took soap, moved to the downstream end and lathered up), the
Hofbrau wasa favorite stop, back across rhe River on Lamar then only a
couple of blocks to the Hofbrau (unless your would rather just drink beer
under the trees out back at Scholzgarden.

TMO

"TOliver" > wrote in message
...

>> Barton Springs?

> After an afternoon in the cool/cold enough to cause your scrotum to
> attempt to enfold itself waters of Barton Springs (where in the old days,
> regulars

I have very fond memories of Austin. I published "Outward bound" (see below)
on Nerdnosh many years ago when I had time for such things:


--
Bob
http://www.kanyak.com

"Outward bound"

Long, long ago in a galaxy far, far away I was one of a group of about a
hundred dewy-eyed young souls who were attending an intensive
language-training program at the University of Texas (Austin). (Summer of
1967. Deposition of evidence of my presence in the city: We were put up in
an air-conditioned box of a dormitory called the “Dexter House” and we went
swimming in a place called “Barton Springs”.)

There was the usual segmentation that occurs in such groups. I fell in with
one that did its serious self-inflicted liver damage in an establishment
that was by no means a “fern bar” (since the concept didn’t exist then) but
which I’m sure--if it survived--grew up to become a fern bar eventually. Its
principal attraction consisted of cans of chalk on the tables and a
table-high frieze of black slate around the walls on which the clientele
were encouraged to write. They did.

One evening our drinking squad took in a movie way downtown. One of the
(many) rules of the program that we were attending was that we were not
allowed to drive motor vehicles (a rule that I have assiduously adhered to
ever since) so we all had to use bikes to get around. Since Austin is
Flatland-awful horizontal, hills were not a problem; distance and heat,
however, were. Pedalling back to the Dexter House in that oppressively hot
Texas night, we were overcome with severe cases of beer deprivation. It was
late and the herd, knowing that it was a long way from its favorite watering
hole, was verging on panic. Just as I was thinking that I might sell my
otherwise unmarketable soul for a tall, frosty beer, I heard what can only
be described as a sharp, metallic “ping”. Suddenly a pink and green neon
“BAR”-”BAR”-”BAR” loomed in the distance, beckoning will-o’-the-wisp-like
from within the all-enveloping heat and dust-laden air.

There was a brief, undignified stampede as the twelve of us hauled ass up to
the door and dismounted to discover, first of all, that there was no
“door”--just a pair of swinging wooden shutters designed to impede the
movement only of creatures standing taller than a dog or incapable of
flight. This was an ominous sign. One of the first lessons we northern boys
had learned concerning the southern architectural discourse was that in a
Texas summer, unsealed windows and doors mean *no AC*. A few of us peered
inside. The interior was dimly lit by a couple of bare light bulbs suspended
from the ceiling and seemed to be empty save for a rather swarthy-looking
bartender standing behind a bar which, from where we stood, looked as if it
had been knocked together from orange-crate slats. There was nothing around
it on which to sit. At this point a few of our weaker members chickened out
and decided that the risks of dying from dehydration and heat prostration
before reaching safe haven were preferable to whatever horrors that might
lie inside. The rest of us, lulled by the Siren-like serenity of the
pink-and-green “BAR”-“BAR”-“BAR”, went into a huddle, screwed our courage to
the sticking-place, and advanced, boldly, inward.

I recall the bartender smiling and making a broad welcoming gesture. I
recall eyes watching us warily from tables set in shadowy corners. Some of
us croaked “Beer”; others, more linguistically endowed, croaked
“Cervesa”--just to be on the safe side. I however was studying the “bar”.
It *had* been knocked together from orange-crate slats and was really little
more than a counter. Worse, there were no taps. My god, what have we gotten
ourselves into?

And then a wondrous thing occurred.

The room was bathed suddenly in a brilliance as pure and refreshing as a
sunrise over the Cascades. The bartender had swung open a meatlocker-size
refrigerator door set into the wall. Menacing fingers of mist slithered out
and recoiled off the floor in eddies. From one section of this vault he
removed the requisite number of bottles and from the hidden cryogenic
recesses of another he extracted tall beer glasses so cold that the white
vapor spilled off them as off the LOX tanks of a Saturn missile and your
fingers adhered to the surface when you touched them. Bottles and glasses
were handed quickly around. Caps were somehow opened. The near-freezing
barley-water of the bottles hit the sub-zero silicon dioxide of the glasses
and was magically transformed into a gelid state of matter midway between
solid and liquid. Glasses were inverted and their contents were inhaled.
Such was the evening and morning of the first round.

The second round was essentially a repetition of the first: more bottles
were produced and glasses were extracted from the freezer, passed around,
etc. Repeat. Somewhere around the middle of the third round the temperature
of the room finally dropped to “endurable”. A few of us dropped out during
the fifth and sixth rounds and on the seventh, the survivors settled up the
tab and left.

The bartender waved us off. As we were leaving, his eyes and mine met
fleetingly and in that instant I could have sworn I detected an evil,
satanic gleam that shouted triumphantly “You are MINE!”

Our drinking-group split up after that. The four of us who made it to the
end never returned to the proto-fern bar and its blackboard walls but
instead began exploring the local options. Try as we might, we never found
“BAR”-“BAR”-“BAR” again; but we did turn up some pretty good alternatives:
not only there in Austin but also, later, in Houston, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico
City...

Many years later chance brought the four of us together again here in
Istanbul and gave us an opportunity to compare notes: only one was still in
teaching; two had been in Saudi Arabia; three had married; two had fathered
kids; one was divorced. The only common thread in our lives was that all
four of us had chosen to settle down permanently abroad: Robert in Istanbul,
John in Paris, Arlo in Barcelona, and Ian in Singapore. What was even
stranger was that, so far as we could tell, no other participants in the
Austin project that summer had chosen to do so.

"Opinicus" > wrote ...

Snippagio, bountiful discourse upon very cold beer....

Austin in those days wasa place not yet invaded by the alien hordes of
super-achievers, and only just beginning to rollick in a self-induced haze
of marijuana smoke. I had recently returned to visiting after leaving in
Jan., 62 with a new degree, bound for most of three years in the Med on
smallish ships of several navies, then a brief but not brief enough visit to
a war, an unavoidable period of insulting self and others.

I visited regularly and still do, as late as last evening, when coming
through from San Antonio, heading up the prairie, I stopped for a beer of
the sort you describe, painfully cold, in this case a Shiner Bock from the
little Spoetzle Brewery in Shiner, no longer a craft beer, now a cult beer,
but still better'n a poke in the eye with a sharp stick.

Flat? Given Austin's sprawl out into the Hill Country and even old Austin
compared to where I line (on a hillside overlooking a lake), Austin's
considered to be plumb mountainous....

TMO

Someone who knew how to dry-age the meat and then either cut the steak on a
bias to thicken the tenderloin or use an uneven fire.

Somewhat more historical answer: someone with a really good saw, probably in
the early twentieth century.

Somewhat less precise historical answer: a butcher's apprentice who kept
going after cutting all the good porterhouse steaks.


--
-Mark H. Zanger
author, The American History Cookbook, The American Ethnic Cookbook for
Students
www.ethnicook.com
www.historycook.com


"Opinicus" > wrote in message
...
> What's the logic behind this cut? The tenderloin side is overdone before
> the striploin side is edible.
>
> Who invented this?
> --
> Bob
> http://www.kanyak.com
>