OK, so today I bought a tray of Prime NY strips at Costco. No apparent needling.
Prime tenderloin was too rich for my blood.
I haven’t bought them in quite some time, but I don’t recall mine labeled blade tenderized either. It certainly wasn’t spongy.
Are you looking at the label? Some sources say the label will say, others say it varies by location.
I fished the wrapper from the trash. It indeed says “Blade tenderized”. However, I checked closely when I vacuum-sealed each individual steak (usually, bending the cut makes the needling marks obvious). Not this time.
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Unless they’ve changed their process, those are needled. Just look for the “BLADE TENDERIZED” on the label that says they are.
We’ll see if the cuts show as the meat dries and cooks. But this does not look like it’s been needled.
Beware being a guarantor of what’s on Costco labels.
Wonder if there’s a new, finer needle process?
But I missed your prior comment about bending usually revealing marks. I can’t speak to that because I never had a chance to handle them raw, with my FIL doing the grilling.
@shrinkrap - re my texture comments - I haven’t had a needled ribeye cap before. It’s quite possible that I wouldn’t be able to pick needled cap from not-needled in a blind test. Such a great, forgiving cut of meat. I’ve accidentally shot waaay past medium rare (grill fire while I was working on something else) and it was still great.
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If you sampled bites from each, you probably could. If you ate one of each two nights apart, probably not. I don’t understand why Costco would do this to cuts that are already tender. If this passes, why not a cube steak machine?
Thank you! I was referring to Costco’s prime New York striip. For years I bought a three pack almost every week! Now they carry prime NY Strip at Nugget Market, so I haven’t bought them at Costco in years.
This is a conclusion I’m coming to more and more. Like a lot of folks, I threw a SV on my holiday list a few years ago, got one, and have been awkwardly trying to find the killer dish that it makes possible over other bits of kit and… I’m failing.
SV’d steaks make a lot of sense if you’re a restaurant and need to be able to slap a perfect med rare steak down in 10 min. You hold it at 130 for as long as you like, sear and boom. And you can crank those out all night long. But I can get (I think) a better result in a similar amount of time using a probe thermometer and a low oven reverse sear method. I only need to do it once, not constantly. And the dry oven heat means fat actually renders in the oven, where it can be a little more blubbery with a SV.
For fish, I’ve found SV preparations seem mushy compared to their oven or pan cooked equivalents.
It’s currently being eyed for the sale board. I want to try one more recipe, an ATK prep of an inexpensive roast. SV’d for several HOURS apparently yields tender and flavorful roast beef slices suitable for wedding dinners and slicing for sandwiches. If that fails, out it goes.
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In case you haven’t already seen this discussion
Pork tenderloin tastes much better than out of the oven (better temperature control). Sous vide “braised” short ribs that have the texture of steak are great and can’t be done any other way. Chicken breast tends to be much juicier through SV compared to oven
Although it sounds sacriligeous, SV is in vogue right now for beef brisket. I’ve not tried it, but I have done 18-hour pork belly.
I agree with you about an oven (provided it’s even and close to precise) often being an easier way to go. I think that unless there’s something that benefits from water’s high conductivity, e.g., starting from frozen and/or doing multiple bags simultaneously, I’ll mostly stick to conventional methods.
And I can’t get excited about cooking in plastic…
I assume this is the 48 to 72h chuck roast that eats like prime rib.
As I’ve said before I think this is one of the more effective uses of SV. We liked 55-60h best, but 36-48h worked too.
I also like it for short ribs, other ribs, duck, pork chops, and bacon by the pack. And recently for consistent yogurt.
Here is the most recent SV thread with discussion of what people like it for:
And I forgot - the easiest way to make duck confit (and with minimal amount of duck fat and you can add different flavorings which you can’t do easily with the conventional methods)
I grilled the first of these NY strips last night, after a day drying out in the fridge. Still no needling marks apparent. And the chew was a little tough for Prime.
Maybe the department crew got busy…
I cook rehydrated salt cod with olive oil, bay leaf,preserved lemon that way.
Rib cap at Costco in SFBA today.
$19.99/pound, which is a tad more than the prime rib, and labeled “blade tenderized”.
Sigh. Why do they keep doing that? I don’t want to go back to Costco’s for beef at this point.
Well …the labeling never bothered me before someone here mentioned it. 
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