If your butter smells like feet there could be a lot at steak…

By Josh Steiner
Contributing Writer

When I choose to cook steak, like many of you dear readers, my steak may be a bit too well done or not quite done enough, but all things considered a pretty mean steak.  More consistent than 90 percent of the restaurants out there, therefore I rarely go out for steak unless I’m fairly sure that YOUR establishment is that rare and beloved 10 percent of the restaurant nation who can make a steak tastier and more consistent than I can without leaving my kitchen.

Which brings me to the meat of this post. Jessie’s outside Lebanon, NH; once upon a time served me one of the most memorable steaks I have ever had the pleasure of consuming.  Friday night’s dinner special: STEAK DELMONICO, perfectly blackened ribeye, topped with BLEU CHEESE BUTTER. You see, my reactionary readers, Jessie’s knows how to do it right! It’s easy to cook a steak. The secret to a great slab o’ meat is what is on the slab o’ meat.

I’m sure you agree that it is easy enough to get a good sear, with a hot grill or pan and you’re choice of blackening seasoning. It’s the finishing sauce that is cumbersome, takes awhile, and turns cooking a steak into a chore; screwing around with a roux. Forget about it!  Nobody wants to be stuck making a freakin’ pepper sauce while everybody else is taking in the game.

That is what intrigued me about Jessie’s bleu cheese butter. It was similar to a steak butter that the old school steakhouses and dinner clubs used to serve, only with a delightfully pungent bleu cheese that softened its delicious self on top of my slab of ribeye. All the components of a successful sauce were contained in that butter, without the added hassle of making and thickening a sauce. Most intriguing though was the fact that you could make this ahead of time. Ah Ha! A time saver! Here’s how:

I’ve made it several times and never found a combo I didn’t like so let me give you a basic outline that you can personalize to your tastes…

1-2 sticks o’ room temp unsalted butter (there will be enough salt in the cheese if not you can add a little more)
4-8 oz’s bleu cheese, if you don’t like bleu cheese try feta (it’s dry and crumbly but less pungent an excellent beginners crumbly cheese)

1-2 cloves of garlic finely minced

Whip together, with a few grinds of cracked pepper and freeze, then whenever you want you can whip this out slap it on your steaks and have yourself a well-prepared steak with a no hassle finishing sauce.  Now that’s a lot at steak!

[Editor’s Note: Joshua Steiner has worked in restaurants and kitchens for most of his life and held just about every conceivable job in the industry. Look for Josh’s upcoming food blog on ]http://www.thepeoplespressproject.org]

Questions and comments:steinerjoshppp@gmail