Sunday, October 23, 2022

spinalis dorsi—a new obsession

I'm not sure how this ended up as an algorithmic suggestion (maybe because I watched a certain YouTube Short), but I now have a new obsession: what is supposedly the tastiest cut of the cow—the spinalis dorsi, also called the ribeye cap which, as you have probably already surmised, comes right off the top of the ribeye cut. Below are two videos that talk about this beautiful-looking cut, about which I knew nothing until a few days ago:




This reminds me: I saw an intriguing new cut of beef in my building's grocery store this past Wednesday. Here's a pic:

This arong-satae cut (center-heel of shank, apparently; see here; it comes from the base of the cow's leg) doesn't exactly look marbled, per se, but it looks as though it might work for boeuf bourguignon or some sort of stew. It's got a lot of connective tissue that needs to be broken down or rendered into collagen. I'm also going to try frying it up (probably unwise), and I might also look into grinding it into burger form (probably also not the best use for the meat). I bought two packs of arong-satae, so I can experiment at will once I'm back from my Andong Dam hike tomorrow. The above-linked page recommends making jang-jorim. Good idea.

I also need to learn how to say terms like "rib eye" and "rib-eye cap" in Korean so I can hunt the spinalis cut down at the Majang Meat Market.



3 comments:

The Maximum Leader said...

Did my previous comment get through? I don't know...

Kevin Kim said...

This is the first recent comment of yours that I've seen.

The Maximum Leader said...

Well... I think I will try again. This is probably not what I wrote originally, but close enough. The rib-eye steak is the best cut of beef. Period. End. Of. Story. This is a hill I will die on frankly. You will not get the taste, or the combination of fat and meat, or the texture from any other cut of the whole cow. I would likely give up all the other cuts if I could be guaranteed rib-eye for the rest of my natural life.

I didn't realize that you could get the "rib-eye cap" as a separate cut of meat. And frankly, I don't know that I would. It seems like a lot of work (and probably expense) to take a smaller cut of meat off a larger one that doesn't need to be taken off in my opinion. I have seen some restaurants that do trim this peice off to do something else with it. But that seems to be as much a factor of wanting more uniformity in the remaining cut that is served.

Anyway. Let me know if you find some and how you choose to cook it up. I don't know that I've seen the "cap" only for sale here at any of the stores I frequent. I'll keep and eye out and check though.