There is good reason why ribeye is regarded as the King of Steaks. The rich buttery beef taste it delivers is like no other.
That fabulous taste is the result of abundant marbling, the white flecks of intramuscular fat we see in red meat. Because it is inside the muscle, it makes the steak delicious and soft.
Ultra-flavourful ribeyes are essentially individually cut prime rib roasts, and they come from the cow's upper rib area, from muscles that don't get much exercise—which is why they're so tender.
But those cuts make up just eight per cent of the beef carcass—which makes them somewhat pricey.
We paid $75.00 per kg at Lakeside Dairy north of Edmonton in Alberta for a nicely marbled ribeye and it was worth every penny. At our campsite near Lake Louise, we gave the steak about six or seven minutes on a cast iron pan at medium-high heat, basted it generously with unsalted cultured butter from Lakeside Farmstead and then let it rest 10 minutes.
The result was medium-rare deliciousness, so juicy, so tender we almost didn’t need a knife to cut the meat. The 640 grams of ribeye we shared disappeared far too quickly. We each could have handled that amount!
With a fruit-forward California cab gifted to us by friends we toasted Jeff Nonay, the third-generation dairy farmer who owns the thriving dairy, beef and potato operation 30 minutes north of Edmonton and has made a name with Nonay beef. His beef cows are the result of a cross of Angus and Holstein breeds. We also toasted Ian Treuer, an old friend in cheese who is cheesemaker at Lakeside Farmstead and who gifted us the cultured butter to try on the steak. The result was outstanding!
Lakeside milks 160 cows and finishes more than 150 beef animals a year. We reported earlier on the Chaga Cheddar that Lakeside has pioneered. A retail store at the farm is open Wednesday through Saturday.
Before we left the Rockies, we tried another Alberta ribeye that we purchased at the IGA supermarket in Banff, this one half the cost of the one from Lakeside. You sure could taste the difference but basting with a copious amount of Lakeside cultured butter made for darn good eating.
When we first started planning our Rockies trip, we were hoping to overnight in Calgary so we could dine in style at Charcut Roast House, regarded by many as one of Western Canada’s best eateries. We met co-chefs and co-owners John Jackson and Connie DeSousa in 2010 at an artisan foods incubator in Toronto, when they had just opened Charcut and we were just launching The Great Canadian Cheese Festival.
Alas, our schedule for the homeward leg of our trip didn’t allow for an overnight in Calgary, so we opted for take-out from Charcut Curbside and Butcher Shop.
Which is how we came to enjoy Charcut tenderloin steaks at our campsite in Dinosaur Provincial Park near Drumheller, Alberta. We purchased them uncooked but pre-seasoned with salt and pepper, quite the bargain at $25.00 for two 807-gram steaks.
A finer meal of Alberta beef we could not have asked for, again basted with Lakeside cultured butter.
We love beef but, at home, we don’t have it that often. Nevertheless, we should note that within days of returning home we acquired 2.5 kilos of a prime rib roast and stored it in the freezer to await a special occasion that is upcoming.
We cannot wait to enjoy Alberta beef again.