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

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
>