Do you order a rib eye (ribeye) steak or porter house steak at a restaurant?  And do you order that cut of meat because you know which steak you like best?  Or because it’s what you always order?  I know this may be a simple answer to most people but believe it or not I could not answer that question until I did my own taste testing.

I was not somebody that enjoyed eating steak as a child, as a matter of fact my mom would make me hamburgers on “steak” night as I just didn’t enjoy eating steak.  As a grown woman, I ordered a “prime rib” cut of meat and usually asked for an end cut because that’s what I was introduced to by my former husband and I always enjoyed it.  I was not the girl who ventured out to try other cuts, outside of a filet mignon, because the prime rib worked for me and so I left it at that and I never cooked steak at home because we just did not do a great job at it.

I wanted to learn more about steak and I thought back to culinary school as the best part about going to culinary school was learning that I needed to try everything to understand what I liked and how to make it.

I was having company over and knew that they were a master at cooking steak so I decided to buy two cuts of steaks and do a home experiment with them, I purchased the rib eye (ribeye) and the porter house (also known as t-bone steak).  A few facts on both cuts:

Rib Eye (ribeye)

• Comes from the “rib”
• The rib eye, as the name implies, is the center best portion of the rib steak, without the bone
• It is both flavorful and tender, coming from the lightly worked upper rib cage area
• Its marbling of fat makes it very good for slow oven roasting and grilling
• Cost at Ruth’s Chris Steak House $49.00 a la carte
• I paid $9.99 per pound

Porter House (T-bone)

• Confused about the difference between a porter house and  the “t-bone”?  The porterhouse is basically a larger version of the t-bone because it is carved from the larger portion of the tenderloin
• On one side of the “T” is a tenderloin filet and the other side is a top loin which is better known as the New York Strip Steak
• T-bone steak usually has moderate marbling
• Cost at Ruth’s Chris Steak House $54.00 a la carte
• I paid $9.99 per pound (on sale) normally $13.00 per pound

We marinated the steaks in a bag, we used the same ingredients for both steaks, both steaks were in the same bag and I kept flipping the bag to make sure each steak was equally covered in seasonings.

We removed the steaks from the plastic bag and placed them on a broiler pan (here’s a link if you don’t have a broiler pan and need one)

My oven was on “broil – high” and so we kept the door lodged open just slightly while the steaks were cooking (I would have cooked them on a BBQ but I don’t own one and the oven did just fine).  If your door does not stay opened like mine did, just use a potholder or a wooden spoon to keep it opened.

After about 5 minutes, we took them out and flipped them

We cooked them for about 7 more minutes and removed them from the oven

As you can see both steaks cooked up lovely and both steaks were cook “medium rare”.

And now the taste test, I took a bite of the porter house and then the rib eyed steak…MmmmmMmmmm they both were amazing!!!  In one bite, I did not have my answer so, I took another bite of both steaks then another bite as I really wanted to understand the texture and flavor of both cuts.  While both steaks were cooked up perfectly and had an amazing flavor, for me, I found the porter house (t-bone) steak to have more flavor and it just melted in my mouth.

This was a perfect test for me to do at home as it really allowed me to see the difference in flavor and texture in both steaks.  For me, I would order the porter house (t-bone) steak over the rib eye or even the prime rib as I really did enjoy it more.  And for those of you who have leftovers, steak and eggs, it does not get any better then that…YUMMY!

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Thank you again ~ Patty Limatola-Tanenbaum