Fire it up
Gorgeous weather and long evenings mean grilling—but it’s nice to go beyond burgers and hot dogs. I asked Mike Carroll, meat manager at Corti Brothers, what cuts of meat are sometimes forgotten about when the grill is fired up:
1. “The butterball steak—another name is the ball tip—is kind of a forgotten cut. You grill it whole and slice it thin. A lot of people will marinate it, because it’s an inexpensive cut, to make it more tender. It’s the same idea as a tri-tip.”
2. “We’re carrying a full line of prime beef now, including prime T-bones and prime rib eyes that are unbelievably marbled. When you barbecue, where you’ll get the juicy steak is marbling, not lean cuts.”
3. “Let’s talk about pork for a second. Baby-back ribs and spare ribs are popular, but one that’s forgotten a little is pork tenderloin. It’s like a beef filet—any tenderloin is very, very tender, because it’s not a working muscle.”
4. “Lamb is also very good on the barbecue—people forget how good it can be, [and it’s] one of the easiest things you can grill. The cut I like best is the small loin lamb chops.”