Steak Taco’s

[Darryl - swazies]

Was out getting some food and found some triple A’s on for sale price. Grabbed a bunch, threw a few in the freezer and did 2 up tonight.
Steak with carne crosta rub.
Made some chimichurri.
Sweet peppers, onion, mushroom and jalapeño.
Some corn salsa, bit of sour creme.
Fried the taco shells, grilled the steak to about 120 and then seared and let rest for about 5 minutes.
Came out about medium....medium rare....more than if I was just having a steak, but perfect for taco’s.
I have been making a bunch of different tacos lately and after having this a few times I think it’s our favourite.
Something about that carne crosta, chimichurri and the veg fried hot and fast with some steak spice on them hits all the right buttons.

 

[Michael Richards]

Those are a thing of beauty! That is a top notch taco!

 

[Bruno]

Just about my favorite meal right there.

 

[JimK]

Killer tacos, Darryl! What's a Triple A?

 

[Colin]

Oh yeah!

 

[CaseT]

Great looking tacos!
But what’s a triple A???

 

[Michael Richards]

Darryl add to this if I get it wrong or just to add to it, but Canadian beef grading goes B, like our select here in the states, then A, AA, and AAA which are grades of our what would be our choice, and then prime... well like our prime. So triple AAA is a high level choice almost prime cut of beef.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Great looking tacos!
But what’s a triple A???

A couple people asking and Michael pretty much nailed it right on.
I had a choice between $7.99 AA and $9.99 AAA which is the higher grade.......price per pound. Yes this is the sale price lol. It is nothing to pay $20 for a nice quality 1 pound steak on a normal day. Even a poor quality will have the same price on it.
Both had a bit of that clear hard to cut fat on them which I trimmed before spicing.
Prime is next level.....I have had it before and let me just say it seems like the AAA is graded without much effort....
Basically the difference between AA and the AAA in the store was not too much difference but when I buy prime at a specialty shop the price is out of this world. I had a butcher tell me one time that prime is only about 3% of all the beef in Canada. I don't know if he had any alcohol before that but that is what he said. Basically what we can buy here in Ontario tends to be AAA for the best for the most part. The only 2 places I know that carry prime is 1 hour away and the other is over 3 hours away.....but I am sure there are others closer, I just don't know where to look. Either way the steak was tender enough I could bite the steak strips and the whole hunk didn't pull out of the taco.

 

[Chris S in YEG]

A couple people asking and Michael pretty much nailed it right on.
I had a choice between $7.99 AA and $9.99 AAA which is the higher grade.......price per pound. Yes this is the sale price lol. It is nothing to pay $20 for a nice quality 1 pound steak on a normal day. Even a poor quality will have the same price on it.
Both had a bit of that clear hard to cut fat on them which I trimmed before spicing.
Prime is next level.....I have had it before and let me just say it seems like the AAA is graded without much effort....
Basically the difference between AA and the AAA in the store was not too much difference but when I buy prime at a specialty shop the price is out of this world. I had a butcher tell me one time that prime is only about 3% of all the beef in Canada. I don't know if he had any alcohol before that but that is what he said. Basically what we can buy here in Ontario tends to be AAA for the best for the most part. The only 2 places I know that carry prime is 1 hour away and the other is over 3 hours away.....but I am sure there are others closer, I just don't know where to look. Either way the steak was tender enough I could bite the steak strips and the whole hunk didn't pull out of the taco.

Living in Alberta there is an abundance of Beef Ranches, specialty stores and ranch stores. I did a little research into the grades just out of curiosity and your butchers numbers are not off if anything a little high. I've seen numbers between 1.9 % and 3 % of graded carcasses are prime compared to around 50 % are AAA. I shop at a local butcher all the time and the price for a AAA rib or ribeye is north of $40 per kg. (same ballpark as you per pound). For steak taco my choice is usually a nice marinated flat iron steak. Its usually tender enough to chew through and no complaints from the family.

Your tacos look great got me craving some now.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Thanks Chris, make them, they are good.......I am new to chimichurri, only made it 2 times now but I love this stuff.
Your house hold residents will thank you for it. I was chatting with my " receiver " here at work and he used to run a meat department in a small grocery store. I was chatting just briefly about grades of meat and he seems to think that Prime grade meat comes from the U.S. Now he said he thinks that is how it used to be but not sure on how it plays out now. He has been out of the business for over 10 years. All I know is when I get the chance to again soon I am going to pick up a couple hundred worth of prime steaks this spring. Freeze a few of them and devour a few of them. The second steak I made yesterday.......I took about 3/4 of it for lunch with the veg and made a sandwich out of it about 4 inches tall. My receiver said it smelled like a restaurant in here lol........

 

[Tony R]

Let me get a few

 

[Richard in NS]

Here is a comparison chart for the USA/Canada beef grades.

 

[Darryl - swazies]

Great chart, thank you.