Steaks

As luck would have it I ran out of propane for my grill this past weekend - still had partially cooked food on it and everything I was in a little bit of a jam so I just went to the Broadlands Circle K. The price is 20 bucks for a tank exchange. The tanks are not Blue Rhino, but American Propane. The manager was really helpful to me and I didn't have any problems exchanging my empty one.

One thing cool about the American Propane tanks are they have an easy to read tank fullness meter on the side. I'm curious to see how well it works, but it seems lot easier to get a "how much propane is left?" reading than my last Blue Rhino tank which had a little sticker on the tank where you could pour hot water on it to see if the tank was low.

 

Congrats on your good Circle K experience, Wes. As mentioned before, I have not been so lucky. I guess Circle K would be OK in an absolute pinch, but as a matter of course I will stick with Home Depot and the $7 savings per tank.

As a side note, I noticed the $20 per tank cost while I was at Circle K yesterday. This cost is over 50% higher than what Home Depot charges. It made me wonder: if Mobil marks up the cost of propane by 50%, how much do you think they mark up the cost of their gas??? It was not a pleasant thought! [}]

 

Back to the subject of steaks:

I grilled a London Broil from Giant last night. It was awful: gristly (sp?), tough, fatty, and not that tasty.

Maybe that's what you should expect from a London Broil. Comments? Is it the cut of meat? Is is Giant? Combination of both?

All I can say is: no thanks! I'll stick with my tenderloins and ribeyes. IMO they are well worth the additional cost.

 

London Broil does not do well as a steak in the traditional sense. Its best served sliced very thin against the grain

 

And marinated... Don't forget the marinade. I use an italian dressing packet with a little vegetable oil and some vinegar or corked red wine. put it in a ziplock bag overnight (or two) then grill, slice thin across the grain, and enjoy.

The gristle is evidence of a bad cut, but london broil is</u> a tough piece of meat, that's why the prep.

 

We marinated it all day, and I cut it as thin as I could. Even left it very rare to try to get the best taste, to no avail. Maybe we just got unlucky with the cut...

 

Yeah, all that being said about marinades, I quit buying meat at giant before they opened safeway.

 

Back to Rhino tank exchange -
I did get a bad one at Home Depot last year. After I connected it, the valve would simply not open.

I went back to Home Depot to trade it in for a working one, and what a nightmare. The employees simply could not get the concept that I was "trading it in" but it was full, and I hadn't paid for a replacement. I literally talked to at least 6 different employees, with each one saying that they didn't have the authority to handle that, and sending me to someone else. I'm a mellow guy and hard to set off, but it was only after I lost my cool and got irate that another employee overheard the situation and swapped the tank for me.

 

If any of you are ever in the vicinity of Germantown, MD, there is an Amish market up there called Lancaster County Dutch Market that sells good cuts of meat for good prices. I got a cut of London Broil for $4.99/lb and delmonico steaks for $8.99/lb. They've got a great variety of meats, sausages, and bacon. I also bought large, very good slices of roast beef and corn beef for only $4.99/lb. That would be considered a sale price around here.