If you take advantage of those prices, your special-occasion dinners can feature the same grade of beef that is served in high-end steak houses and restaurants.
Those restaurants used to snap up a huge portion of the prime beef sold.
But the recession has hit special-occasion and expense-account restaurants particularly hard. Revenues for Morton's Restaurant Group, parent of Morton's The Steakhouse, are down 17 percent this year; Ruth's Chris steak houses have seen comparable-restaurant sales in its most recent quarter drop 23 percent. As steak houses buy less prime beef, more finds its way to retail shelves.
The more "marbling" - the amount of fat distributed evenly among the muscle - the higher the grade from the United States Department of Agriculture. According to USDA statistics, prime accounted for just 2.9 percent of the 21 billion pounds graded in 2008. By far the largest amount, 77.6 percent, fell into the next category down, choice; 12.9 percent received the select grade. The small remaining amount of beef was graded standard, commercial, utility, or cutter.
Two of the signature steaks at Annie Gunn's are a prime strip steak and a prime rib eye. Rook serves those steaks with a compound butter, but he makes them even more simply at home.
"Just salt and pepper and some whole butter - there's nothing better," Rook says. Before seasoning the steaks at home or at the restaurant, he brushes them with extra-virgin olive oil, although he says regular olive oil, clarified butter, or even canola oil will work for the home griller.
One thing that most people can't reproduce at home is the grilling temperature - 1,800 degrees - achieved in steak-house kitchens. But Rook grills at 700 to 800 degrees at Annie Gunn's and at about 600 degrees on his home gas grill.
