Sam's Cookalong Diary Sam focuses his man mind on steak

Date Published:

15/01/2008

Steak is a fantastic choice for this Friday's Cookalong. If we could work out the ratio between good flavour and ease of cooking, a decent sirloin would come out even. It's quick, low maintenance and, if you follow a few simple rules guaranteed to be delicious

When men get silly

But I must admit that like most things macho, steak's he-man associations quickly become ridiculous. In moderation the meat is very good for you, but you can have too much of a good thing. Recently I made a trip across the USA. In Texas, I stopped off at a roadside steak house. There the emphasis was on the Wild West, gritty rustic charm and shovelling down enormous portions of meat. As well as offering you the opportunity to swim around a pool the shape of the Lone Star state and eat a tasty sirloin for a reasonable price, they held the 72oz steak challenge. If you can eat this whopping steak, in an hour, with trimmings, you get your $72 back.

This idea that you can prove virility by eating like Homer Simpson struck me as unhinged. Especially when I learned that everyone who accepts the challenge has to sign a legal waiver that it's not the restaurant's responsibility if your insides clog up, you have a heart attack or your system generally breaks down as a result of eating the meal. You aren't much use as a strong man if you're too stuffed with food to move, after all.

I'm not sure where this is taking me. That men are silly? That steaks make men silly? That only some men are silly, but I'm not one of them yah-book-sucks and I like steak anyway? That actually I'm secretly jealous that some people can eat so much and so I try to disparage their achievement by portraying it as daft? That really I'm a bit of a wimp and not ashamed to admit it?

Food for all

I think I better wrap it up before I get too confused. But before I do I should point out in the interests of balance that even if steak is associated with machismo in popular culture, anyone and everyone who so desires can enjoy and cook a steak. Male or female, big or small, tough or delicate, it doesn't matter. Just so long as you follow the Ramsay rules.

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