I was trimming fat wrong on ribeyes for years

I was watching a video from a butcher in Kansas City last month, and he left a quarter inch of fat cap on the ribeye. I always trimmed mine down to almost nothing, thinking it looked cleaner. Next day, I grilled two steaks side by side, one my way and one his way. The one with more fat stayed way juicier and had better flavor. Has anyone else changed a basic cut after seeing how someone else does it?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_lucas2mo ago

Yeah, that fat cap is there for a reason. I learned the same lesson with pork chops, trimming them too lean and they'd just dry out on the grill. That layer renders down and bastes the meat the whole time it cooks. Makes total sense once you see it in action. Now I just give it a quick score so it doesn't curl and leave it alone.

martin.jamie1mo ago

Learned that one the hard way too, tried to be all healthy with lean chops once and ended up chewing on a shoe for dinner. Now I just let the fat do its job and call it self-basting barbecue logic. Still haven't figured out how to keep my grill from turning into a smoke bomb though.

park.iris2mo ago

My old man used to boil brats before grilling them, said it kept them juicy. I did it for a decade until a guy at a tailgate just threw them raw on a low grill with some onions and beer in a pan underneath. Tried it, and the snap on the casing was so much better, way more flavor. Never went back to the boiled mush.