Editor’s Note: We order meat online, snack on artisanal jerky and braise briskets the size of torsos. But if we’re meat freaks, Tom Mylan, owner of The Meat Hook butcher shop in Brooklyn, NY, is a like a beef cardinal. This recipe for a multi-person steak was excerpted from his meat-based primer, The Meat Hook Meat Book
The Man Steak is The Meat Hook’s reification of the grand pinbone steak of times of yore. It was once a common cut among butchers who aged whole drop loins in their cold boxes and cut the massive multiperson steaks for men who truly appreciated their beef. But the age of cryovaced box beef has seen the whole sirloin fall out of favor in deference to the now ubiquitous top sirloin, which is the boneless heart of the Man Steak.
Comprised of the sirloin with all of its various muscles intact (including the tenderloin), the Man Steak is a thing to behold. With a typical specimen weighing in at more than five pounds, it is not for the faint of heart. It takes steady nerves and an iron constitution to see it through the lengthy grilling process. Take heart, intrepid grillmaster! Because of its mass and thickness, the Man Steak suffers neglect better than any normal steak, allowing margins of error to be measured in minutes rather than seconds. And its sheer size invokes a sense of theater that will bowl over even the most snobbish of steak connoisseurs no matter how overcooked it may be.
We hope we inspire a new generation of butchers and home cooks to dust off this lost page of American beef history and enjoy the last bit of the drop loin in the way it should truly be experienced.
To cook a Man Steak, you must first find a butcher who can cut you a pinbone or flat-bone sirloin steak. This is harder than you might think, so call around before you go. Have the butcher cut the steak at least two inches thick, but three inches is better.
The Man Steak
Serves 6 to 10