Why It Would Be Good To Be A Butcher

Last week Mr. Pointy Sticks and I went up to Wegman's and we both had the urge for some good red meat. This is unusual for me as I'm not all that wild about beef...I keep thinking about the prions. But for some reason I was craving meat...rare meat. As I was looking through the cold case full of pre-sealed packs of meat, I found some nice looking little steaks labeled "Porterhouse." Now, a little voice in the back of my head did quietly raise the following question: "Don't Porterhouse steaks have bones?"

But there they were and they were affordable. Okay, I don't know if $7.99 a pound is truly affordable. But we eat red meat so rarely (Ha! Rarely!) that I thought I'd spring for them. I just thought, "Well hey, it's Wegmans. Perhaps they trimmed all the bones out for us."

Well, they were wonderful. Meltingly tender...exceedingly tasty...outstanding steaks.

So Rachel comes home for the weekend and says, "I'd really like a steak!"

"Oooh," sez I, "we'll go get some more Porterhouses from Weggies!"

So we got there this evening and I couldn't find them anywhere. I wander over to the butcher's counter to ask about them. And as I am standing there, I see in the case before me Porterhouse steaks. And, oddly enough, they all have bones....hmmm. And they are next to the filet mignons...which most decidedly do not have bones and which look...well...almost exactly like what we had earlier in the week. I told the butcher what I had bought and what I had paid for them and he paused for a minute and then grinned and said, "Well, you got a deal!"

And if I had recognized what I had in my hands when I bought them, I would have bought every one in the case!

As for today....well, since it's Rachel and since it was Valentine's Day (and since they were so darn good the first time), I sprang for the filets and they were incredible. But considerably more than $7.99 a pound, alas.