Yes, that is 100% accurate information you saw in my previous post about Umai bags-  I got a striploin for $3.88 a pound. I got it at Market in the Square (link to store website here)  over there in the Southgate Plaza in West Seneca. (link to Southgate Plaza Webstie here)  Market in the Square is notorious for meat deals, specifically on bulk loins of meat, and meat packages. I had been meaning to get over there for a while to investigate and possibly make a purchase, but I was waiting for the right time. Well, the right time came when I saw that they had strip loins for $3.88 a pound. Sure enough: Meat Sale !!!

I did not waste any time looking at the other stuff in the store – I immediately went to the meat section, where the cooler was stocked full of loins – ready to go.

Looking at the picture, it looks like someone left a hat in there, but it was actually a package of chicken – upside down… as if someone had chicken ready to go, and was like ‘whoa wait a minute – strip loins for $3.88/lb? screw this chicken. – yeet!’

So how do you select a strip loin?

Picking out a good one is a task that takes about 50% knowledge, and 50% luck. The benefit of seeing pre-cut steaks is that you can get a good look at the marbling and other fat content of the individual steaks. With a strip loin, it’s kind of a guessing game as to what you’re going to get, but with a few simple tricks – you can give yourself an advantage over just picking at random or based on size/price. The benefit of getting a strip loin is that you can cut them thick as you want, so the overall girth isn’t as important as when you’re selecting pre-cut steaks.

My First move – is a quick visual inspection of the vacuum seals of the cryovac bags, any broken seal bags are immediately rejected. I don’t know when I’m going to process the meat, so I want as much time as I can after my purchase – a broken vacuum seal is problematic.

My Second move – is to observe the depth of redness of each loin in the case, again – just a quick visual inspection without rummaging through the case. I am not looking for a vibrant red/pinkish color. I want a darker red color and I want to visually separate out the darkest 3rd of the loins in the counter. You can tell by the image above, the loin on top is much more red than the loins around it. The coloration is a direct result of the cow’s diet, demeanor, and age at the time of slaughter, or so I’ve been told, and the darker red indicates a better ‘meat’ flavor.

The Third move – is to narrow down the darker red loins further by looking at their fat-caps. At this step, I’m starting to close in on the case, and I’m starting the rummage process, but this shouldn’t be a complicated process either. The fat caps will have a hue to them – ranging from bright white to maybe a yellowish white – kind of like teeth in a way. Only in this case, the yellower the fat cap, the better. The yellow color is (as I’ve been told) a result of the diet as well. Specifically – the cow that gave up that loin ate more grass than other cows featured in that case. So you narrow the darker loins to 3 loins.

The Fourth move – is to get the 3 selections on top of the pile, give them the ‘Bend Test’ and inspect each side of the loin for marbling. The ‘Bend Test’ is done by gently trying to fold the loin in half – if you can get that loin to almost fold up like a taco – chances are that’s a tender viddle. If it’s kind of stiff, it may indicate some toughness, or that it may have been frozen at one point in it travels, and not quite thawed yet. While it’s in my hands after the ‘Bend Test’, I’ll pull the cryovac down around the edge of the loin and see if I can make out any marbling:

It’s hard to see, but if white speckles can be seen all throughout the loin on both sides, chances are that marbling is consistent throughout the entire loin, and that thing is going to cook up quite nice. This was my final selection:

I am confident that I walked out of there with at least one of the top strip loins in the place – and I didn’t flip through the case for a half hour like your grandmother – I did a quick visual inspection found my top 3 quickly – then reduced those 3 to 1 within 60 seconds of walking up to the case. – like Nick Cage stealing cars baby.

And as I said: $40!

That’s the loin that is currently dry aging in my fridge downstairs!

I cannot wait! (but I will)