Harter House Steaks

Thursday, June 9, 2011

3 Men and a Little Tri-Tip

The only meat allowed to resemble Jabba the Hut, if he were cooked on a grill.
First and foremost, the Tri-Tip is the easiest slab of beef you can cook on a grill.  Throw it on, let it catch fire, wait five minutes, and then move to the side of your grill without any coal and let cook for about 40 more minutes.  The thing we want to discuss is how GOOD this cut of meat from Harter House Meats is!  Juicy and perfectly marbled with fat.  Harter House Meats also threw in the Pappy's Rub to take it over the top. 

Before it cooks, Tri-Tip resembles Jabba the Huts tongue.
We decided to change things up a little with straight Hickory Wood chunks instead of the Royal Oak charcoal which added an extra dimension to the flavor, but unfortunately did not burn as long as our natural wood chunk coal does.


 The Harter House Meat's Tri-Tip was flawless as ever.  It is truly one of their signature items.


Monday, June 6, 2011

The Hot Dog Days of Summer

Harter House Meats told us that their Hot Dogs were the best.  Better than Oscar Meyer.  Better than Nathan's.  Even better than the ones at Busch Stadium!  "Sacrilege!" I screamed, and then, once I caught my breath, I demanded that they give me some immediate so we could put them to the test.  I also requested that they include some of their Iowa Thick-Cut Pork Chops to calm me down.  When they arrived, the first thing we noticed was how ENORMOUS these Hot Dogs were.  The circumference was astounding.  They were JUMBO dogs, skinless, and made of nothing, but beef.  That's right, no fillers, no preservatives, their was nothing artificial about these dogs.
.
Jumbo
We prepped the grill with the usual, Royal Oak Lump, and then I rubbed the pork chops with the leftover Red Monkey Pomegranite Spice Rub.  Delicious.

Lined up and ready to go!
These Hot Dogs don't take long to cook.  I liked rotating them about 1/4 turn every 2-3 minutes.  The outside would char and get nice and bubbly.   The pork chops, because of their Thick cut, I like to grill for about 10 minutes per side, and then start slathering on the barbeque sauce on each side back and forth for about 4 minutes.
The Iowa Thick Cut Pork Chop
 This was an exercise in easy.  Just keep an eye on them so they don't burn.  Or if you like a burnt Hot Dog, don't.



These Hot Dogs were the definition of perfect.  We served them with Grey Poupon Mustard and Wickle's Relish, which you have to try.  This relish was out of this world!  Sweet and wonderful.
Loved the relish and I love the name.


Is there anything Harter House Meat's butchers don't do well?

Like they are smiling at you.

Friday, June 3, 2011

Silence of the Grilled Lamb

Friday!  It only means one thing:  we're grillin'.  But for Friday we have to do something special.  We debated.  Meatloaf?  Maybe.  Tri-tip?  Always.  Lamb?  Definitely!  So, we got on the phone and called Harter House Meats.  To our surprise, not only did they send us succulent lamb chops, but they also threw in a wonderful ground sirloin wrapped in bacon.  However, because there are four of us, we decided that we would need something else as well.  Unfortunately,  the something else we got was not purchased from Harter House, and, instead was purchased from a chain that begins with Price and ends in a verb for the action of slicing things in two.  Needless to say, the sirloins from this grocery chain were sub-par and wafer thin.
Gorgeous lamb and ground sirloin.  Sad, flimsy looking sirloin in the background.



We fired up the trusty Uniflame...
We're located in an alleyway downtown.  Anything more valuable and it's stolen.
 Loading it with our favorite charcoal....
Nothin better.

And waited for the coals to glow red. 

We decided to try a new seasoning we had never used before and was pleasantly surprised.  Red Monkey Pomegranate Spice Rub, and man, this stuff was good.  Located in Mt. Vernon, MO, it was nice to use a local company for our spice needs.  It accented the meat really well and really helped with the paper thin sirloins overall flavor.

Once the grill was properly heated, it was time to get to cooking.

The lamb would not take very long at all, and the top sirloin would take even less time given the 1/4 inch thick cut, but the ground sirloin wrapped in bacon would definitely need just a little extra time on the grill.  We were looking about 5 minute on each side for both the lamb and see-through sirloin, and about 8 minutes per side for the bacon-wrapped ground sirloin.
Already looks good enough to eat.
Notice the difference in thickness between the two brands?  There is only one reason for this:  Quantity versus Quality.  Harter House Meats cares about the meat it sells you.  The other guys would rather get as many steaks from the animal as it can, with no regard to what they are selling you.

It takes two of there steaks to equal a Harter House steak.
The meal was delicious, and the lamb was out of this world especially paired with the Tabasco Brand Jalepeno Jelly.  Harter House had actually given me another jelly to use, but I accidently dropped it and it shattered over the concrete floor of our office.  I'm sure it was delicious and look forward to giving it another try soon.
A good replacement
The team working on our next masterpiece:


And discussing the greatness of Red Monkey Rub.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

New York Strip in a Back Alley



When Harter House offered us some New York Strips for our grilling pleasure, we couldn't in good conscience say 'no'.  In fact, we couldn't say anything given the amount of drool coming from our gaping maws from just the thought of these delicious, thick-cut heavenly delights reaching our mouths.  They arrived a few days later, perfectly sealed in Harter House's special coolers, packed in dry ice and ready for us to start the grilling process.
Have you seen a more beautiful steak?

The first thing you notice about these amazing steaks is how fresh they are.  No browning.  Just a wonderful color and terrific marbling throughout.
We had to immediately decide how we were going to season these bad boys.  We decided to go with Pappy's, which is not a hard choice given the seasonings ability to accentuate the meat, versus overwhelm it.  With a light dusting, we were ready to heat up the grill.  As always, we pulled out the Royal Oak Lump Charcoal.  Because Royal Oak burns clean and produces very little ash (good for a bunch of guys who grill in an alleyway), and the natural wood charcoal burns hotter, searing the meat perfectly.
There is no better charcoal.
It was a beautiful day in the old alleyway today, even if one of the tenants had recently moved out and had obviously thrown away every belonging they owned.
They also left a wonderful green plastic chair I pulled out
of the garbage.

From a rug covered in dog hair to a broken floor lamp left over from the '80's, they had decided to seperate themselves from the clutter.  I would like to think they were a hoarder that had gotten help and this was one step closer to recovery.

Perhaps if I do any night grilling I can make use of the lamp.  Hopefully, it still works.

After rummaging through the garbage for what seemed like an eternity, I got back to the task at hand:  The lighting of the grill.

The fire was awesome.  It's a guy thing.  If you, dear reader, are a man, take my word for it.  Awesome fire.

Awesome fire.

Now, the waiting began.  Since we used Royal Oak it didn't take to long for our grill to get up to cooking temperature, but we still wanted to wait until we had those glowing red coals.  While we waited, we let the steaks get up to room temperature.  About 30 minutes later, the grill was ready to go.
Harter House New York Strips-seasoned to perfection.

Once the cooking begins, it doesn't take to much time at all.  Seeing as everyone in the office likes their steaks medium rare, we're looking at roughly 3 1/2 minutes per side.
Let the searing begin.

As the Harter House steaks cooked, we spent a little time evaluating the alleyway.
The rug which might have been used in a murder of some kind.
We decided then to use the stairs to scope out the aerial view.
Sky-chopper view.

Notice the beauty of the meat as it cooks amongst the squalor.
Oh yeah.
After 3 1/2 minutes the flipping began.  However, we did not realize we had no spatula.  We improvised.
It was either this, or a crowbar.
Notice the wonderful sear on the Harter House New York Strip and how the fat carmelizes.  Perfection.
Who doesn't love grill marks?
3 1/2 more minutes and they were ready.  And what does an office with no kitchen serve with a perfectly grilled Harter House New York Strip?  Easy.  Reser's Deviled Egg Potato Salad, Chobani Greek yogurt and Pepsi Max.


A meal fit for a king who enjoys the finer things in life.
One final pic:  
We're ready for your close-up.