Meat on the menu
By Mike Mitchelson

Not that it’s any surprise, but a look at restaurant menus of late shows that meat—no matter the economic or social trend—remains the fixture at the center of the American plate. The difference, perhaps, from the recent past is there is a greater attention to cost, and therefore more interest in proteins and cuts that were normally taken for granted. Example: Roast chicken, half or quarter birds, are becoming commonplace menu items in restaurants from brewpubs to upscale bistros, as are flank and hanger steaks.

The trend is moving along so much that the Minnesota Beef Council is promoting cuts from the less prestigious chuck roll of the cow, several that offer similar qualities to the in-demand middle meats, such as sirloin. The Denver steak from the chuck roll is the fourth-most tender muscle in a beef carcass, said Amy Halverson, director of nutrition and consumer information for the Beef Council, and the “sierra” cut resembles a flank steak in appearance, texture, taste and cooking method.

Exact cost savings aren’t in because the cuts aren’t yet getting much play in retail, Halverson said. “But, some of the pricing that has been done for the sierra cut, we’re talking two to three dollars less per pound than a flank steak, and it will act like a flank steak.” Restaurants are already using chuck roll cuts, including FireLake Grill House in Minneapolis.

Demand for ground beef is up, Halverson added, further showing that diners and restaurateurs are adapting to new cost structures by opting for burgers on the menu.

Ron Paul, founder and CEO of Technomic, a nationally-regarded restaurant research firm, agreed. “Burgers are hot right now,” he said. “(Celebrity chef) Bobby Flay, he’s now got four burger places (Bobby’s Burger Palace) on the east coast.”

Paul also mentioned the Five Guys Burger & Fries concept, which is expanding nationally. The burger phenomenon across the nation is reflected in Minnesota, with Five Guys locations in St. Cloud and Edina, an American Burger Emporium in downtown St. Paul and Burger Jones, Parasole Restaurant Holdings’ recent venture, in Minneapolis. Most of those restaurants opened within the last six months.

“It’s the upscaling of the burger,” Paul continued. “The fast food burger is still a very popular product, but people are realizing it’s another product that you can upscale and do a better job (with). Bobby Flay’s is a quick-casual concept—no full service. It’s three items: burgers, fries and shakes. That’s it. And it’s doing land-office business right now.”

It’s not just that restaurateurs are realizing there’s more to burgers than fast food, Paul added. “It’s also a good value item—if you can’t eat steak, eat burgers. Steak houses are hurting in general. Ruth’s Chris, Morton’s—even McCormick & Schmick’s is seeing very soft sales. The higher price-point restaurants are the ones where the most hurt is. Burgers represent a good margin item, and there’s a lot you can do with burgers in terms of toppings and fillings.”

The burger boom also represents a mental return to “comfort foods” for Americans across the country. “Comfort foods are in any time you have this kind of economy,” Paul said. “We’ve been through cycles before, and the ‘meatloaf and mashed potato’ products do well. People have so much stress in their life they’re just not into a lot of experimentation.”


Re-innovation

An appetite for familiar fare doesn’t mean there isn’t room for experimentation. Many local restaurants are using old methods to reinvent their menus. The craft of charcuterie has, in recent decades, been left largely to industrial producers. But a group of restaurateurs, including Lenny Russo at Heartland, Scott Pampuch at Corner Table, and Mike Phillips at Craftsman have for a number of years produced their own charcuterie items. Part of their common philosophy is using locally grown products to create seasonal menus, so charcuterie—along with preservation methods for fruits and vegetables—is a natural fit.

It also makes business sense—using as much of an animal as possible is (snout to tail, as the saying goes), while labor intensive, a lesson in old-fashioned thrift. Learning the craft often proves challenging, however, Phillips said. Many who create salami and other items—particularly the large producers—often aren’t willing to share secrets. So Phillips and his contemporaries are left to research techniques on their own. A book Phillips used was Paul Bertolli’s “Cooking By Hand,” which, in addition to many other cooking techniques, has specific lessons in charcuterie. Phillips also enrolled at Iowa State for a sausage making course. The university has a “meat lab” with full processing capability for red meats and poultry. The University of Minnesota is also working on developing a short course for charcuterie, Phillips said, showing interest and demand is growing.

Still, there are limits to what a restaurant and ambitious chef can prepare and what they can legally serve from the charcuterie tableau, Phillips said. Many of the old fermenting techniques—used for centuries—lack what a modern health department would call a “kill step,” in which potentially harmful bacteria is eliminated. Cooking is the most common kill step. “We can do all kinds of pates and galantines, mortadellas and sausages,” he said. “We make pancetta, guanciali, and for a while there we were making our own pepperoni. If it’s cooked, we’ll use it.”


Dry aged…pork?

Another old technique used to develop a unique product is Compart Family Farms Inc. dry aging their Duroc-breed pork. Dry-aged beef is well known, but usually only found at upscale steakhouses because of its high price tag. Compart specializes in pork products from the Duroc breed, which has a higher pH balance (low acidity) and more intramuscular marbling (two to four times) than standard, commodity pork, which has been bred for ultra-leanness, said Bill Norton, Compart’s vice president of sales and marketing.

The dry aging process for the pork is similar to beef, and Compart developed the process with J&B Group in St. Michael, Minn. and Chef Paul Lynch at the Radisson Hotel and FireLake Grill House in Minneapolis. “We had a partnership going to see if we could ever do it,” Norton said. “Because every time we talked to someone about dry aging pork, they’d say ‘You’ve gotta be goofy, it doesn’t dry age, it just spoils.’ But we said we’re going to try it, because with our high pH and marbling, it should react very similar to beef. And, lo and behold, it did.”

Developing the product was about upgrading “what pork is and can be on a menu, rather than saying, ‘Here’s another pork chop, good luck,’” Norton said. “Here’s something completely different, it tastes a lot different and it’s a lot more tender.”

Lynch was the first chef in Minnesota to use the product, serving a dry-aged porterhouse. “(With dry aging, the porterhouse) really did take on a much more meatier connotation,” Lynch said. “So, when I put this on the menu and introduced it to our servers, I was adamant: ‘Don’t cannibalize my honey-cured pork ribeyes, because we’re famous for that. Don’t sell this as another cut of pork. Sell it as another steak. A steak that happens to be pork.’

“That was how we approached the flavor development and the sides that went with it. We rub it with rosemary and garlic, just like you would a Tuscan porterhouse, grill it, and serve it with a porter onion marmalade, and there has not been a single diner, that when they bought it, that has not called either the chef or the server back and just raved about it.”

Further pushing it into the “steak” category is its ability to be cooked like one—as in recommending it not be cooked more than medium. “Now pork can be served as any other red protein meat, which is what it is,” Lynch said. “And that’s where (the diners) immediately know they’re in for a unique treat, is when the server asks, ‘How would you like that?’”

Attractive to both the restaurateur and the consumer is the cuts low cost compared. Per-pound cost for the dry-aged pork cuts—currently a ribeye and porterhouse—are in the $7 to $8 range, Norton said, “which is probably a couple dollars more for a similar product that’s not dry aged. We were surprised that it is what it is.”

Lynch said he charges $25 for a one-pound, dry aged porterhouse with grilled asparagus and a Porter-onion marmalade on the FireLake menu. “My double cut, honey cured, pecan smoked pork chop is $22, well (the dry-aged porterhouse) is only three bucks more. It’s truly a tremendous value. More importantly, it’s really good eating.”

Meat. It’s still on the menu, but increasingly in ways simultaneously innovative and traditional.