16.063 Strippish Chuck Steak in Cognac-Cream Sauce

Cycle 16 – Item 63

9 (Sun) March 2025

Post 5,542

Strippish Chuck Steak in Cognac-Cream Sauce

3.5

by me

at home

-Changgok, Sujeong, Seongnam, Gyeonggi, Republic of Korea-

with IZ

In prior experiences with parting out slabs of chuck eye roll, the main part consisted of a large evenly-shaped, well-marbled, ribeye-like cylinder running down the middle, which I would make into roasts (see for example 15.152 Roast Chuck Eye Roll Au Jus) or steaks (see for example 16.027 Pan-Seared Chuck Steak with Mushrooms & Abalone).  The other parts would be chopped up for miscellaneous applications, such as burgers, curries, or stews.

Long, lean strips at bottom.

This time, however – another USDA Prime chuck eye roll, purchased at Costco yesterday (see generally 15.062 Pork Bake) – I was surprised to find so many parts of different shapes, sizes, and compositions.  It contained a smaller ribeye-like portion, but barely enough to make a couple kiddie steaks.  The biggest contingent comprised several long, lean strips with distinct muscle grains and connective tissues, like brisket – not sure what to do with these.  Intriguingly, I discovered what appeared to be a little more than a kilo’s worth of short loin strip, enough for 2 decent steaks, even though my limited knowledge of bovine anatomy suggests that the chuck eye roll is an entirely different part of the cow – one portion was immediately set aside for dinner tonight.  Lots of work for random output.

Probably not an actual strip, as indicated by the lack of surrounding fat and and tapered end points.

I tried to improvise Steak au Poivre, including a Cognac sauce.

For starters, the peppercorns had merely been ground through the pepper mill on coarse setting.

The au Poivre part was an instant fail.  I placed the steak into a sufficiently hot and oiled skillet, but the pepper stuck to the skillet and quickly began to scorch, so I wiped out all the pepper and proceeded as a standard steak.

The sauce turned out okay, though a bit too thick, and not much Cognac flavor – an additional tablespoon next time.

Camus VSOP Cognac: purchased for this purpose several months ago, but drank most of it in the interim.

But the meat was excellent.  Super tender, super juicy, super beefy – as good as or even better than any premium strip that I’ve made at home (see 11.189 1++ Hanwoo Sirloin Strip Steak).  Certainly the best steak that I’ve made at the absurdly affordable cost of only about 14,000 won (1,990 won x 700 grams).

A nice medium, which I prefer for larger cuts.

(See all GLOBAL FOOD GLOSSARY)

Leave a Reply