I just tried OMAHA STEAKS for the first time...

[ERD50]

Only HaHa mentioned Rib-Eye? That has been my favorite for a long, long time.

Some don't care for the texture, a little 'mushy' I guess? I'm fine with it and love the flavor.

-ERD50

-ERD50

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

top sirloin, huh? i bought a center cut sirloin, which i assumed would be better than top sirloin, for a taste test vs omaha....side by side....and omaha won, although the center cut sirloin form the local grocer had a better texture

Thats the problem with frozen meat. Mushy.

I'm not sure what a center cut sirloin actually is. I've never seen it in a local market, but I see that sometimes it refers to a piece from the top sirloin area and sometimes from a smaller, less well formed area of the sirloin strip.

 

[KB]

Rib eye is my preferred steak too. The other steaks just don't have the same flavor. Or at least the ones I've tried.

 

[Goonie]

I normally have my butcher cut ribeyes 1.25" to 1.5" thick for me. I'll occasionally buy a different cut of steak, but I much prefer the ribeyes. Love 'em!!!

 

[Orchidflower]

I ordered about $170 worth in two orders of Omaha Steaks this week. They are half price now after Christmas, and I always wanted to try them to see if they were worth the hype.Well, I've only tested the burgers so far, but they aren't worth the hype: mushy! Yes, mushy burgers that break in two unless you are very, very, very careful. Taste was okay, but really not all that great. Not bad...just not worth the money.

But here's my biggest gripe: I had received an email from Omaha Steaks that I could get my second order of around $100 shipped FREE if it was over $69 and I ordered the last two days of the selling year, which I DID--plus, I could get FREE 6 Tartlets, which I think you put ice cream in and eat. Anyway, supposedly good.
This was an end-of-year offer, and I didn't think of it until I hung up being so concentrated on getting the order right. The Customer Service REP there surely DIDN'T mention it either. Why not if this was a last working day of the year special for everyone ordering that day?
I found the email and forwarded it to them asking for my FREE shipping and FREE Tartlets. Heard nothing--even tho every other time I wrote Customer Service they responded back within 3 hours.
The next day after ordering, I phoned them. The Customer Service Rep said she would do it, but "just a moment" and went away from the phone. I assume she was asking her superior. The response came back that, "No, the order has been shipped and you cannot get the Tartlets." Ok...but how about the FREE shipping being taken off my bill? And, again, the response was: "We make no changes after the order goes in."


I wrote Customer Service a note about this, but, (no surprise) have not--and suspect I never will--hear anything else from them on this.

And here's the clincher: Today, two days after ordering, I just NOW get an email saying they had been shipped out this morning. Huh? I thought they said the order had already been shipped out yesterday...hmmmmmm.

Pretty poor customer service, but that's okay because--besides their mushy meat--I'm going to Sam's Club and buy my meat from now on as per the recommendations of most on this board. Omaha Steaks really lost future orders from me now. And their burger patty really did taste mushy, so I'm hoping the steaks don't suck, too, or I bought a lemon thinking I got a deal. Sigh....


(This goes into the "Live and Learn" basket: Next time I'm checking this board to see if anyone had any comments about a known company. All the information was here, but I just didn't think to check our E-R forum. Dumb.)

 

[Goonie]

I was just getting ready to head out the door to hit the butcher shop down the street, and snag a couple of nice ribeyes ("Choice"...the USDA's highest grade for beef). And I read Orchidflowers's post above about Omaha Steaks....so I went to their website, and broke out my calculator (just for sh*ts 'n' giggles) and ciphered out Omaha vs. my neighborhood butcher.

Holy cr*p Batman!!! Omaha is $10 PER POUND, MORE than Bill the butcher!!! Omaha is $24.99/lb...ON SALE (regular price $38.50!)....Bill the butcher is $14.81/lb normal price!!!

However, on another note....I'm seriously pondering ordering a couple fresh Maine lobsters in the next week or 2 from LobsterGram. Spike O'Dell used to talk about them all the time when he was 'on the air' at WGN Radio in Chicago. And Spike was always pretty much a straight shooter, so if Spike liked something, it was probably good! So I'm banking on his word that the folks at Lobster Gram will send me a couple nice, delicious, fresh 'sea crawdaddies'.

(Ain't nowhere in this neck o' the woods to get live lobsters.....only fresh water crawdads. They're close (and I love 'em!) but no cigar!!)

 

[Bimmerbill]

I work on the ME coast, so fresh lobsters are always available.
I just found a local small butcher shop, and they appear to have top quality meats. I've been impressed with the commissary meats too. They just started selling bison burgers, sausage, hot dogs and a few other cuts in the frozen food section. May give them a try (no additives and no hormones/antibiotics-says its against the law?).

 

[Orchidflower]

If I didn't get the majority of the stuff below half price (and a couple half price), I would never have purchased any of the Omaha brand. I think their regular prices are waaaaaaaay out of my league of what I'll pay, too. The deals change every day it seems, but I caught it the 26th of December when some of the things were really cheap...belonging in the 'ya snooze 'ya loose category.

 

[ziggy29]

If I didn't get the majority of the stuff below half price and a couple half price, I would never have purchased any of the Omaha brand. I think their regular prices are waaaaaaaay out of my league of what I'll pay, too.

I've ordered from them twice -- once when I had a really good deal available to me through a coupon code, and once when I was in some online "rewards" program that lost a lot of its best "rewards" and to burn my accumulated $50, I chose a $50 coupon for an order of $75 or more. So I filled the cart with about $80 of stuff, and got it for about $35 with shipping.

The regular prices are absurd, and even though they have a lot of "discounted specials" even those are fairly high per pound.

 

[mickeyd]

I recall getting a box of those steaks a few years ago as a gift at Christmastime (a bribe from a vendor?). I do not recall thinking that it was particularly good or bad tasting meat. It never prompted me to send off and buy a box or 2 on my own.

 

[davemartin88]

I ordered about $170 worth in two orders of Omaha Steaks this week. They are half price now after Christmas, and I always wanted to try them to see if they were worth the hype.Well, I've only tested the burgers so far, but they aren't worth the hype: mushy! Yes, mushy burgers that break in two unless you are very, very, very careful. Taste was okay, but really not all that great. Not bad...just not worth the money.

We used to buy (and like) Omaha Steaks and sometimes would get some free burgers thrown in- I never liked the burgers but really enjoyed the steaks. Now, we just buy a better cut at the local supermarket.

 

[wasgotfire]

All this talk about meat…
Top me there is a big difference in meat quality and it brakes down into 3 classes; grocery store, bulk store, and mail order. There is also the Angus, Hereford, grass feed thing but that should be a different thread.

Before we moved into the apartment we would go to Costco and we would ask someone at the counter for cryovac whole muscle packs of what we wanted. It would take some time and some skill at home to get everything trimmed, cut, and vacuumed packed.

Were now closer to Sam’s and they don’t want to sell us the cryovac packs unless we get a business account with them.

We finally found a place with good butcher last week. We got a standing rib roast for dinner last night and eat the leftovers for breakfast.

 

[harley]

For a few years my Mom was giving me Omaha meats for Christmas/Birthday gifts. I appreciated it, but am glad she stopped. I don't like to see anyone overpay for something, and I think their prices are unbelievably inflated. As has been posted by others, you can get equal or better quality meats at half of the sale prices in a good butcher shop, or even the prime meat section of the local grocery. And things like Orchidflower's customer service issues tend to put companies on my blacklist.

 

[Westernskies]

can't beat their meat...

 

[Orchidflower]

What customer service?

Never again, Omaha Steaks.

 

[NW-Bound]

We cheapskates have been buying steaks on sales from local grocery stores. It's like buying lottery tickets; I could never tell beforehand how tender it was going to be, or if it came from a great-grandma cow. Occasionally, I would get one on sales that was really good for the price. I view those unknown surprising results as adding spice to life. Well, at least while I still have my natural teeth (all but one anyway) to gnaw through the more disappointing ones...

A local Oriental store has entire tenderloin at even lower prices than Costco, but of course tenderloins do not have the flavor of other fattier cuts.

 

[audreyh1]

I thought beef tenderloin was one of the highest fat cuts? Like 40% fat. It's not very visible, but I think it's loaded.

Audrey

 

[NW-Bound]

Yes, tenderloin is significantly leaner than other cuts. Often, too lean in fact.

From a Web site, Leaner meats come from the loin and the leanest and most tender section is the tenderloin..

It is tender because it has no muscles that are exercised by the animal. Why its fat content is low, I do not know.

 

[Gumby]

For the relatively small amount of meat we consume, the local Stop & Shop supermarket is just fine. If we really want to splurge, we can go to the Whole Foods. It would never occur to me to order meat by mail.

 

[Goonie]

Here's all you [-]never[/-] ever wanted to know about meat grades and inspections from the Food Safety & Inspection division of the USDA.

 

[audreyh1]

Yes, tenderloin is significantly leaner than other cuts. Often, too lean in fact.

From a Web site, Leaner meats come from the loin and the leanest and most tender section is the tenderloin..

It is tender because it has no muscles that are exercised by the animal. Why its fat content is low, I do not know.

Interesting, because one of my grilling cookbooks lists for Beef cuts:

Tenderloin - 43% fat
Sirloin (includes New York Strip) - 35%
Top Loin - 35%
Skirt and Flank Steak - 46%
Porterhouse, T-bone - 48%
Rib Steak - 45%
Rib Eye - 48%

So - the beef loin cuts (sirloin, top loin) are very lean compared to the others, but the tenderloin - not much leaner than the fattier cuts.

Now the Pork tenderloin is by far the leanest pork cut - 28% fat.

Audrey

 

[NW-Bound]

When I grill or pan-fry the tenderloin compared to other cuts, the lower fat content is apparent to the eye. There is little or no dripping. The meat is also not marbled at all. So, I trust that Harley's explanation of the discrepancy is correct. However, I have not seen a cut of untrimmed tenderloin to see for myself what it is really about.

 

[harley]

When I grill or pan-fry the tenderloin compared to other cuts, the lower fat content is apparent to the eye. There is little or no dripping. The meat is also not marbled at all. So, I trust that Harley's explanation of the discrepancy is correct. However, I have not seen a cut of untrimmed tenderloin to see for myself what it is really about.

I deleted my post because I think I was wrong. When I checked beef fat percentages based in grams of fat compared to total calories most of the cuts were coming out a lot higher than I thought. Probably why the low-fatters think eating beef is a bad idea. Still, yum!

 

[Orchidflower]

I looked up the leanest beef available as I want to cut so much fat out as I can. I found Eye of Round was it. Unfortunately, I made one of these years ago and ended up throwing it away as it was so tough.
There are a few recipes on the net on how to cook Eye of Round--both with and without liquid. Liquid is said to make this cut tougher, but some recipes use liquid, so it must work. Going on that theory, I cooked it for 8 hrs. in a crockpot with 1/3rd water and the rest some old rum we had hanging around and nobody drinking. Spiced it up with Mrs. Dash and some Worcestershire sauce...it turned out fantastically tasty and tender for that cut of meat, so that works well! Just thought I'd mention it if someone else wants to cut down on the fat in their beef.
And I got the 2-1/2 lb. Eye of Round from WalMart this time.

 

[audreyh1]

I don't even like to grill sirloin! IMO - too tough. I stick with rib-eyes and tenderloin for fast grilling.

The leaner cuts of beef have to be cooked slowly to make them tender, and a crock-pot or, slow stewing, chili, smoker, slow barbeque method are good ways to do it. That's why beef brisket is treated to the slow smoke/barbeque method here in TX.

My only problem with beef in the crockpot is, it's difficult to get to that tender stage without overcooking the beef and losing the flavor. I'm still working on it. It may also be that I simply don't care for the flavor of lean beef.

Audrey