OT: Do You Eat the Gristle?

[Ash]

I fired up the grill yesterday to cook up a steak.  
I fired up the oven also and dumped a load of Ore-Ida "Texas Crispers"  (http://www.oreida.com/varieties/) onto a flat baking sheet to go along with my steak.
Both the steak & crispers go good together especially if they're dipped in A-1 steak sauce.
"Yeah, it's that important."
 (http://www.a1sauce.com)

MMM..MMM...Good!

My buddy watched me grill the steak  
He just stood there smoking a cigarette and watching me.
He'd already eaten and wasn't hungry so I didn't feel guilty about cooking and then eating such a manly man's meal in front of him.

When it was done cooking, (I like my steak rare to medium rare...a little blood doesn't hurt) he noticed me eating the gristle that ran alongside the steak and he thought it was the most disgusting thing he'd seen in quite awhile.

I said to him, "You're crazy!  The gristle mixed with portions of meat and sauce is one of the best parts of the steak!...especially if you throw some crispers in with it!"

He just cringed.

Do any of you also love to eat the gristle?
Do you find it as delicious as I do?



Post Edited (06-24-04 03:10)

[George]

A coupel of points.

1.  The "gristle" is where the flavor comes from so you are right, to a point.  It is also the source of the most dangerous part of the steak.  Consider that this particular part is pure fat and conective tissue.......yum.

2.  If your steak needs sauce, you are eating meat that is too cheap.  Buy a better cut of meat and don't use the sauce, just salt.

[daveblackeye15]

p**s no! I hate gristle! I'm just chewing my sausage or hamburger ,minding my own business, when my teeth clamp down on something weird and chewy. I quickly have to sacrivivce a whole mouthful of food to get rid of this gristle. Plus as George said it's pure fat. So NO I do not eat that evil thing!

[Fearless Freep]

He just stood there smoking a cigarette and watching me.

he noticed me eating...he thought it was the most disgusting thing he'd seen in quite awhile.

No comment

[raj]

Nope.
It doesn't taste good to me.

[Acidburn]

A good steak is measured my a means called marbleing, which measures the amount of fat that is found throught the meat.  So, if you EVER eat meat you are eating gristle it is just not as thick as the outside part.  The fat that is throught out meat is what holds the juices untill the cooking process.   And you are correct George, if you have a high grade cut of meat and it is cooked correctly, there is no need for sauce.

[JohnL]

I'm confused; I always thought of "fat" as that chewy, squishy white stuff that gets crispy when cooked through, and "gristle" as those bits that have the consistency of a piece of hard rubber, like the knuckle on the end of a chicken leg.

For myself, I don't eat either. *IF* the fat is cooked through so that it's crispy and not chewy, then I'll sometimes eat a small amount of it, but not when it's rubbery. The other, hard stuff, like the knuckle, I have never even attempted to eat.

One memory that always makes me gag is of when my mother would make "cube" steak, which basically is like a piece of hamburger, only not as tender. I'd put a piece of it in my mouth and in the process of chewing it for the next 15 minutes or so (minimum amount of time required to get it to a state where you can actually attempt to swallow it), I'd be moving it around my mouth and EVERY SINGLE TIME, I'd end up with a piece of fat stretched over my tongue from side to side. BLECH!!!

[Mofo Rising]

It depends on how well I've cooked the steak.  If the fat running along the outside, which I assume is what you mean by "gristle", is nice and tender, than I will eat it along with the rest of the steak.  But if I've screwed it up and the fat is all tough and chewy I don't usually eat it.  I never eat the connective tissue, tendons and the like.

Fat is delicious.

Of course, I also eat salmon skin and have been known to enjoy the skin of ham hocks when cut up in a pot of beans, so take that how you will.

I also agree that a good steak needs no sauce.  However a good sauce does often require a steak.

[George]

JohnL is right on about the cubed steak.  I had alot of it as a child because, of course, it was inexpensive.  I still enjoy it once in a while but I prepare it by flouring, pan browning and then baking for a long time.  This really tenderizes it and makes it quite paletable.

[Ellie]

MMMmm..Gristle.

[BoyScoutKevin]

Yes, once upon a time, when I was younger. I liked the way the gristle gave my teeth and gums a workout, until it was soft enough, so I could swallow it. Now . . . that I am older, and my teeth are not what they use to be, and i can't chew gristle anymore, so I have to cut it off my meat and throw it away.

[dean]

Gristle is sometimes good, but most times bad.  Nothing else I can really say about it...


I guess we can all 'chew the fat' with ash any day...


Sorry everyone who read that really bad joke, but that's my mood today: really bad jokes.

Ever here the one about the chicken that crossed the road?

[Susan]

gristley adams!

[TadpoleBuckshot]

Gristle is nasty.. feels like chewing on a malignant tumor or something. ugh

[Flangepart]

Does eating the cruckhy part of a chicken leg bone count?
You know, where the knee joint bends?
Yummmmmm.....