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Comment by columbo | Hacker News Reader

Same could be said about flank steak which used to be a cheap cut of steak. After Fajitas got popular the price tripled

[1989] http://www.nytimes.com/1989/04/26/garden/how-a-humble-cut-go...

Now about PBR... being from the Midwest and a bit of a beer snob PBR was largely the defacto-standard because it was the cheapest lawnmower beer that wasn't a BMC (Bud-Miller-Coors).

The same could be said about lobster - there's a story behind it.

Sure, 'they're all made up'... so is the value of gold, but they also have some interesting history behind them if you are willing to go beyond the surface.

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the gold being made up is actually not true: Gold was valuable because it had precisely the properties of good currency - it was useless, moderately rare, fungible, divisible, easily portable, and very easy to authenticate (a black stone is sufficient to distinguish between say 80% gold and 100% gold with proper standards).

relativistic contraction FTW.

> Same could be said about flank steak which used to be a cheap cut of steak.

That was skirt steak, though flank steak has also shot up in price due to its newfound popularity (presumably because it's fairly lean, fairly tender, and easy to prepare).

Skirt steak is still considered one of the poorest cuts; I have found that none of the butchers in my city will provide it unless you explicitly ask for it.

I can't often find skirt steak in stores, either, but I was under the impression that this was due to the high demand from restaurants.

I don't consider skirt steak a poor cut by any means. It has a great amount of flavor and is tender enough to be cooked with high heat (though certainly not as tender as the best steaks). I often see "eye of round" and similar cuts sold as "for grilling". Those are what I consider poor cuts (for grilling at least), and I would much rather have skirt steak.

I should have added that it's not very tender, so it's considered a poor cut to use as-is, in most cases, unlike other prime cuts. Fajitas is the only dish I know about that uses skirt steak without grinding it up first, and even then, it is (as far as I know) always marinated first. But I don't pretend to be an expert, just a foodie.

In my country, I believe skirt steak always ends up becoming ground beef for things like hamburgers. Which is a bit odd, when I think about it, since most stores do carry rump (aka round) steak cuts, which is also a not very good, not very tender cut. That's what I think you mean by "eye of round"?

There's no question that it's not the most tender, but like hanger steak, it's prized for flavor rather than tenderness. It's great grilled so long as it's cut properly.

Out of curiosity, what country are you from? I'm shocked to hear that they turn skirt steak into ground beef. That seems like a waste to me (and seems like a job for something like chuck roast).

I think "eye of round" is the center part of the round/rump, as opposed to top or bottom round, but I'm not certain. And yes, it's a poor cut for steak. Probably okay for roasting if done properly, but I've never tried.

This is in Norway. And I am absolutely sure that it's not sold in supermarkets. Same with flank steak. When I asked a local butcher for it, I was told that they could have it ready for me in 3 days, which implies that the slaughterhouse (or whatever is their upstream is) don't even deliver that part of the animal to the butcher.

Sorry for the late response, but wow. You can't even get flank steak? That's hugely popular here now (US, Seattle specifically). I can find flank steak everywhere (and the price is way up from where it used to be).

That really interesting that you have to pre-order this. It's also interesting because it highlights that you actually have butchers. :) We have butchers in Seattle, of course, but most people get their meet from the supermarket now (in some parts of the country there are no standalone butchers anymore).

Most people do get their meat from supermarkets in Norway, but a lot of butchers have cleverly turned their stores into high-end gourmet delis. Gourmet sausages, cured/smoked meats, marinades, pre-marinated meat etc. are all in vogue. I guess people got tired of obsessing about coffee and making beer. You still have quite a lot of old-style, no-frills butchers, but they are almost invariably halal butchers that serve the relevant part of the immigration population.

Sometime do an actual blind taste test with some beers at the PBR level. The differences are subtle to nonexistent.

Hrm? I have... there really is no difference. With PBR and other American Adjunct Beers ( http://beeradvocate.com/lists/style/38 ) It has little to to about taste and everything to do with not wanting to buy from the 3 industrial leaders that own 90% of the market.

If you're on the east coast, you guys should try Yuengling. It's easily one of the best cheap* beers out there.

* < $1/bottle

I'll second that. Also their "black and tan" is fantastic if you want to go slightly more expensive.

West-coast guy here, I'd never heard of Yuengling till I visited Virginia Beach. And I'll agree, for a "swill" beer, that's some pretty good stuff you've got going on there!

Those beers may all hover around the same quality, but I don't think a blind taste test could work at all with those beers (one way or the other.) They are all rather distinct in their refreshing mediocrity (Coors is significantly more mild than PBR (hard to say if that is in a good way, or a bad way), and Rolling Rock has a distinct "corn" flavour.) Anyone who drinks a lot of those beers is going to be able to pick out which is which, at which point the taste test would no longer be blind.

> lawnmower beer

I swear, the moment you think you have a handle on the jargon...

What, may I ask, is a lawnmower beer? One made out of grass?

I'm not sure how he means it, but it sounds like he means one that is optimal for drinking while mowing the grass (or which you might imagine someone drinking while mowing the grass.)

Mowing the grass is a hot activity, done in the sun (can't mow wet grass) so you want a light bodied beer that is best when frigid (Guinness is out). There is also probably some notion of mowing your own grass being something that you don't do if you can afford to pay a neighborhood kid or landscaping company to do it for you, so cheap beers are picked. You probably shouldn't get absolutely sloshed while mowing the lawn either so that excludes a lot of choices as well.

Basically a shitty, cheap, refreshing, and ubiquitous beer.

You'll hear a similar term from cigar smokers: "yard gar", a cigar that's cheap so if you drop it (or it suffers other insults) while working in the yard it's no big loss.

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