Stone steaks

dennisg · Post by **dennisg** » Mon Dec 03, 2007 9:27 pm

I know it's been written about before, but I have never been a great fan of steaks in the UK. Sometimes they are very, very good but quite often they are tough and gristly. For the first time in CVO this year we watched a friend tuck in to a stone steak at Casa Algarvia, which looked delicious. They were - since then I have had 2 at Algarvia and 2 at Casa do Bife which were all delicious and nothing to choose between them. Where in UK would you get a lovely sirloin steak in excess of half a pound cooked (by yourself) to perfection, with chips and vegetables for seven quid, and a bottle of house wine for a fiver?

SJ & RE · Post by **SJ & RE** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 7:55 am

Come and get one of our steaks from the farm and see the difference from the usual supermarket crap that most succumb to.
Next trip out to CVO we are getting the cooking paraphanalia to cook our own Stone Steak at home.
We do do Bed/ Breakfast and Evening meal?

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 5:58 pm

Only slightly off topic SJ but we had our second pair of rib-eye steaks from Blue Rock over the weekend. Absolutely delicious - almost as tender as filet, but with TASTE. Only took 5 minutes to cook, so not much of a chore. If you miss your (no doubt) excellent beef when in CVO, I would recommend it.

Bruce Wallis · Post by **Bruce Wallis** » Tue Dec 04, 2007 8:26 pm

Rib eye is brilliant...we prefer it to any other cut.
Even in the UK, it's usually a good safe choice. They sell a specially prepared, aged version in ASDA. It's shrink wrapped, and doesnt look that good, but it's the nearest thing we have found to Carvoeiro beef in the UK. Certainly in the UK supermarkets.

Sandy · Post by **Sandy** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 10:15 am

Does a convential kitchen oven get the 'stone' hot enough to cook on or are they heated on the top of the stove?

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:37 pm

I've always been told you need something closer to a furnace, than a domestic oven. Seems a lot of trouble, and you don't have the ambience of a restaurant. Easier to use a heavy duty frying pan, or the griddle on the BBQ, and leave the stone steak as a treat when in CVO. We use the restaurant in the square at Monte CVO. They also have an excellent house red.

Lesley Jean · Post by **Lesley Jean** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 3:56 pm

I believe the stones have to be heated to 440C and for 2 hours much higher than an ordinary oven can achieve. We have looked into getting some 'stones' here in the UK but have not found anything that can be heated in a domestic oven.

This is the only thing we have found that would be suitable for home use.

http://www.blackrockhomegrill.com/

SAM SPARKLE · Post by **SAM SPARKLE** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 4:44 pm

Check out

http://www.steakstones.com/default.php? ... 9a5879a340

Barry · Post by **Barry** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:16 pm

A restaurant a few miles away from us in Burford now offer stonesteak, so maybe the idea will eventually take off in the UK.

logan · Post by **logan** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 6:26 pm

I just cant imagine sitting outside in the UK having a stone steak with a bib on in the rain... Not sure why!

tbbr · Post by **tbbr** » Wed Dec 05, 2007 7:24 pm

I have a " Stone " that came from holland, this is heated up by two small meth burners and beleive me that you can cook just about anything on it once it gets to temp.