What a Dinner at Gallagher's Inspired

In mid-January, I had a celebratory dinner of sorts at Gallagher's Steakhouse, which was recommended to me as one of the last restaurants in the country that still serves dry aged beef. I'd been curious as to exactly what dry aged beef was for several months, ever since I was misinformed that the steaks at my favorite steakhouse, Mastro's, were dry-aged.

Dry-aged beef is a method by which top drawer steaks were prepared for consumption in the days prior to vacumn technology. Beef is kept in a meat locker just above freezing temperatures for anywhere up to 30 days, so its natural enzymes can break down connective tissues, tenderizing the steak. The steak loses moisture during this process, causing a concentration of flavors. Mold forms on the outside of the meat, so the outer layer has to be discarded, making dry aging wasteful and expensive. Because "wet aging" using vacumn bags can be completed in a few days and is said to produce a better result with less waste, dry aging is now rarely practiced.

I was unsurprised to learn that Gallagher's only serves one dry aged cut of steak, which was my choice; my girlfriend had the filet (not dry aged). See the full menu here. Anyway, to cut to the chase: Gallagher's pretty much sucks. The steaks weren't terrible, but they were prepared with a real lack of care. And, as you might expect for NYC, the meal, with tip, cost about $200. The best aspects of the meal were (a) enjoying it with someone I love, (b) the wine, a Penfolds Thomas Hylands 2004 Syrah ($43), which retails for $12, and (c) an idea.

A week later, after some reflection on this meal, I decided that instead of trying out other steakhouses in the city, I would learn how to prepare a mean steak dinner myself, and to boot, I would find a great wine store and get top shelf wines at retail prices. I figured that if I wasn't totally hopeless, I should be able to prepare a decent steak, and I couldn't go wrong buying wine at less than a 300% markup over retail.

I'm happy to report that the experiment has been an ongoing success, and my steak technique improves each week, as does my appreciation for great wines. So, if you're wondering why this blog posting has been light of late, it is basically a result of a lot of cooking, eating and drinking, all of which require preparation time (shopping and cooking) as well as relaxation time (eating and talking).

I've discovered some great resources for learning about wine, one of which was this great episode on decanting wine by Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library. I now decant every wine I drink for anywhere from 20 minutes to five hours using this decanter from Crate & Barrel:

Caption: Ed decants some red wine

So, if I'm not posting here on the weekends, well, don't worry about me. I look forward to the possible creation of some wine blog in the near future. In the meanwhile, back to business. - Ed