Gorgeous dry aged porterhouse from Bryan Flannery, which is now branded as Flannery Beef. Not much else to say here—Beef from Bryan is always on the table around any holiday and it never disappoints.

Center-cut sirloin roast from Dickson’s. This cut makes for a simple, quick, and—if you cook it right, delicious steak dinner on the cheap.

Really nice ribeye from Dickson’s Farmstand Meats at the new All Good Things market in Tribeca. I’ve seen Dickson’s in the Chelsea Market but never given them a try. Now, with their new location, they have a chance to become my friendly neighborhood butcher. This was a nice first date. The staff is friendly and helpful, and the beef comes from upstate New York where the cows are slaughtered then driven down to the city, if you’re into the local thing. More importantly, the ribeye was really good.  I don’t know that these upstate cows can reach the levels of their California and midwestern counterparts, but it’s going to be easy to increase my sample size to find out.

The centerpiece of my birthday dinner this year, a 47-ounce porterhouse from Bryan Flannery. Not all for me—I’m not quite that gluttonous. The wine was Sine Qua Non’s 2009 Syrah “The Thrill of Stamp Collecting”, and it was considerably more thrilling than the name implies.

40oz prime dry-aged porterhouse from Lobel’s. My usual steak is the fine dry aged beef from Florence Meat Market. You can’t go wrong with that stuff and it’s very reasonably priced. They are a great all purpose butcher as well. But, when special occasions come around, or it’s convenient, or any number of other excuses crop up, I go for steaks from Lobel’s or Bryan’s Fine Foods. You can forget how big of a quality difference there is when you go a while eating steaks that are simply great. But then you have one of these and wonder what it is that you’ve been passing off as beef for the last two months. They really are that good. Also, the rack of lamb I picked up from Lobel’s this week was ridiculously good.

I wasn’t going to take a picture of yet another steak dinner… but then this NY Strip from Bryan Flannery turned out to be the best steak I’ve had in a long time. The truffled mashed potatoes weren’t so bad either. Not a bad way to kick off a period of intense holiday eating!

Filet mignon with black truffle butter. Filets are generally not as flavorful as other cuts, so I usually serve with a flavorful accompaniment such as a gorgonzola butter or green peppercorn sauce or wrap them in bacon. To really punch up the richness and flavor, you can cook the steaks sous vide with a tablespoon or two of truffle butter in the bag. Since the steaks cook at a low temperature, the truffle flavor doesn’t degrade nearly as much as it does if you cook it into a sauce. After the steaks have been cooked to your liking in the water bath, plunge them into ice water for 10-20 minutes to bring the core temperature down so that you don’t overcook them when browning. Then quickly sear them in a very hot pan. Serve with a disk of fresh, room temperature truffle butter on top.

Mishima Ranch Wagyu Ribeye. I very much enjoyed this ribeye from Mishima Ranch as I continued my quest to find all of the best steaks available to the home cook. On their website, Mishima boasts that their cattle are a much higher percentage of Wagyu, genetically, than most of their competitors. That’s great, but not entirely meaningful as so many other factors go into creating a great steak such as the treatment of the cattle, feed, and—since they brought up genetics—the quality of the lines within the breed and even the individual cow. At any rate, the steak was very, very good, although not any better marbled than those from Japan Premium Beef in NYC, and not as good as those from Bryan Flannery or Lobel’s despite carrying a similar price tag.

Brandt Beef “True Natural” prime, dry-aged bone-in ribeye with piles of blistered shishito peppers. I have been meaning to try Brandt Beef ever since Dean and Deluca started carrying it, but just haven’t gotten around to it until now. Brandt is a single-family producer of premium, completely natural beef out of California. A couple of years ago, Cooks Illustrated ran a taste test (here, if you subscribe) and pronounced Brandt as the best of the premium mail order steaks, even beating out Lobel’s.

I thought the ribeye was excellent—tender and flavorful, with particularly delicious fat. I wouldn’t put it on the same level as Bryan Flannery or Lobel’s, but it’s close. And that’s no small compliment.

The shishito come from Lani’s farm, and I usually eat them as an appetizer or snack. But, I recently discovered that the slight sweetness and touch of heat that they deliver make a great compliment to rich meat.

A beautiful porterhouse from Lobel’s. It’s been a couple of months since I’ve posted a steak pic, and I would hate for anyone to think I wasn’t eating my fair share of cow. That’s all.