Steak cook off

Sooo, Sainsbury's has a special on rump steak, but rather than spending hard earned cash on inferior steak, we thought we'd put it to the test against some of the best that Oxford has to offer.



Off we rush to M Feller, Son and Daughter, the premium butcher in the local covered market, which serves up organic meats of the highest quality.



M Feller's is the butchery that usually has whole beasts hanging outside its window.

The second butcher (photo soon) that we visited was our usual, and the friendly folk there purvey Old Spot pork, goat and fun foods besides. We'd recently had a delicious pork belly from them, and wanted to try their rump steak as well.



The three pundits: Sainsbury's standard on the left weighs in at £9.69 per kilo, our local butcher at not much more: £11.99 per kilo, and the organic beef on the right at a whopping £18.99 a kilo.



The steak on the left is obviously wetter, exuding some fluid. The middle steak was hung for 21 days, I was told, but was cut from a whole rump straight out of a wet-seal bag. The smallest piece was also 21 days old, but as the organic butcher is frequently seen breaking down half carcasses, this is more believable; it is also the driest steak of the three.



Get close to your meat.



The Sainsbury's steak, in all its glory.



The local butcher's: slightly less wet and a darker colour.



The organic steak almost looks purple here.



My (fairly) new buy: a super-sized cast iron griddle that sits on two hobs on our stove. The reverse side is a flat griddle perfect for bacon and eggs. Tonight, it's all about the grill marks.



The pieces are salted, and put on in order of size.



Flipped.



Flipped again.



The taste test: In a blindfold test, I managed to pick all three steaks on texture and taste.

The Sainsbury's (bottom right) was a distinctively wetter steak, with a juicier bite. Tender enough, but slightly less beefy - although not to the point where this becomes a problem.

The local butcher's (bottom left) was unfortunately very chewy for some reason. Perhaps it's the wet-ageing or the fact that it was cut from the outside of the rump, but it had a distinctively chewier and harder texture.

The organic steak was the best, with a dry grilled surface but juicy thanks to it being served rare.

The damage: The three steaks came to approximately £6 each, but with obvious variance in size. The Sainsbury's was the best value/taste ratio, coming in cheapest but with a perfectly acceptable texture and taste. The local butcher's fared poorly, but this may be an isolated event. The organic steak was tasty, but at twice the cost of the Sainsbury's, one would need to demonstrate that being organic is significantly superior to warrant the price tag. I never thought that I'd say this, but the Sainsbury's standard rump steak comes off incredibly well in a blind cook off.