Excellent paired with an iced Dunkie's

May 18, 2023 7:22 AM

The Mysterious Origins of New England Steak Tips

How to cook steak tips at home.
The best steak tips in Greater Boston.

posted by backseatpilot (37 comments total)

Count me in as someone who had no idea they were a New England thing. What do they do with flap meat in the rest of the world?

I cook them occasionally at home, grilled on skewers with veggies or sometimes in a cast iron pan. Sometimes marinaded with Italian dressing, sometimes with a rub, sometimes with just S&P. I don't think I've ever ordered them at a restaurant, aside from in a sub or a kabob. I've bought Dom's tips once or twice but I'm not crazy about them.

I'm sad that the Hilltop is gone. I only ate there once, as a little kid, and probably ordered a hamburger. I'd enjoy going there now and getting a steak that would tip over Fred Flinstone's car. I remember the cows, and remember when the heads were mysteriously cut off and stolen, and then WBCN brokered a deal to get them back. That could be the story of another FPP.

I expect people from outside New England will chime in that they, too, eat steak tips only they call it something different.

Ok now if I don't get some steak tips I will literally die. I guess I know what I'm doing for lunch.
posted by bondcliff at 7:43 AM on May 18, 2023 [12 favorites]

Hold up, hold up. Steak tips are only found in New England? No sirree bob. They are in fact on the bar menu at RingSide Steakhouse in PDX. It's been owned by the same people since the 1940s so who knows where they got it. Probably Fanny Farmer, one of the most popular cookbooks in America?

Are we honorary New Enlanders because of the city name?
posted by fiercekitten at 7:45 AM on May 18, 2023

Yeah, steak tips are normal diner-style food here in the Fargo ND area, I'm surprised it has a regional context, because usually stuff like that has the source in the name, "chicago style pizza", "philly cheesesteak", etc.
posted by AzraelBrown at 8:01 AM on May 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

The guy who mastered my album is married to the woman who wrote this article!

Steak tips were my grandma's favorite. I haven't had them in decades and have loooong since gone vegetarian, but reading this made me hungry.
posted by pxe2000 at 8:03 AM on May 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Yes, I was going to say, there's a perfectly nice steak tips dish in the rotation of specials at the Metro Diner in the UWS, a rare exception to my preference not to consume actual entrees at a diner.
posted by praemunire at 8:06 AM on May 18, 2023

Count me in as someone who had no idea they were a New England thing.

I'm from New England and I had no idea they were a New England thing. I never even heard of steak tips until I was fifty-one.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 8:11 AM on May 18, 2023 [6 favorites]

What do they do with flap meat in the rest of the world?

Sounds like carne asada to me.
posted by LionIndex at 8:17 AM on May 18, 2023 [7 favorites]

Restaurants are resourceful and steak tips are tasty, so I don't doubt that they're available on the menu in other parts of the country. But can you get the cuts in local grocery stores without asking? Because all you have to do in New England is walk into any Market Basket or Stop and Shop and you'll find clear plastic-wrapped packages of steak tips in the store's butcher shop. During grilling season they'll even be on sale and featured on the front page of the weekly circulars.

We had an office cookout a few years ago where everyone started swapping stories about how difficult it was to get steak tips for grilling outside of New England. Each story started with a detailed conversation with a butcher about cuts and ended with getting chunks of meat that were almost, but not quite, entirely unlike steak tips.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:27 AM on May 18, 2023 [11 favorites]

That was a great read. I love stories like this. Now I want steak tips (or at least tri-tips in gravy, which is more common around here).
posted by slogger at 8:28 AM on May 18, 2023

But can you get the cuts in local grocery stores without asking?

Yes, I can. In Cincinnati.
posted by cooker girl at 8:34 AM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

I'm sad that the Hilltop is gone. I only ate there once, as a little kid, and probably ordered a hamburger.

If it makes you feel any better, I only ate there once, as a little kid, and I ordered a cowpoke pizza.

At least the sign is still there on Route 1.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 8:42 AM on May 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Sounds like carne asada to me.

Weirdly, I have always vaguely remembered reading a (possibly apocryphal?) account of why skirt steak is so expensive. It's a very similar cut of beef to steak tips, which is to say "tough as hell unless marinated in something that breaks down collagen," and supposedly skirt and flank steak were both about the cheapest cuts you could buy until fairly recently. Then someone came up with the idea of selling fajitas in a sizzling skillet to American diners sometime in the mid-90's, and demand subsequently shot through the roof. Since, as the article mentions, you don't get very much of that cut of beef from each cow, it's now priced like tenderloin at the butcher.

Personally, I'm also from New England, and am kind of meh about steak tips. But I'll eat as much carne asada as you put in front of me.
posted by Mayor West at 8:48 AM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

It's a very similar cut of beef to steak tips, which is to say "tough as hell unless marinated in something that breaks down collagen," and supposedly skirt and flank steak were both about the cheapest cuts you could buy until fairly recently.

See also: Pork shoulder.
posted by Thorzdad at 9:15 AM on May 18, 2023

Oh yeah, Silvertone -- that's my memory of quintessential steak tips, probably 20, 25 years ago!
posted by sriracha at 9:40 AM on May 18, 2023

As another New Englander, I am as surprised as you all (but glad I bought some at Market Basket this week) and that you aren't really missing anything with Hilltop being gone. The cactus was 99% of the appeal. Or was the cactus another crap Route One "landmark" restaurant?
posted by yerfatma at 9:53 AM on May 18, 2023

I also had no idea this was a New England thing even though I'm from New England (I live in Seattle now). The funny thing is that I have actually been craving steak tips recently and have been surprised I couldn't find them anywhere, either in a restaurant or in a supermarket. I thought maybe they were just out of style, I had no idea they were regional.

I never had them at a steakhouse - they were always a Greek restaurant/pizza place/diner thing in my mind. They truly are delicious with rice pilaf and a salad!
posted by lunasol at 10:28 AM on May 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

They eat beef called Tri-Tips in California... any relation?
posted by Rash at 10:49 AM on May 18, 2023

It's not that steak tips are a uniquely New England dish, but that they are a THING in New England. Growing up in the 70s, fourth of July wasn't a holiday without grilled marinated steak tips for the adults (hot dogs or hamburgers for the kids). Everyone had their secret marinade recipe and knew that their tips were the best. My buddies and I took monthly pilgrimages to Hilltop specifically for their steak tips. They are on every bar and grill menu, and everyone has an opinion on who has the best. For friggin sake, as noted in the article there is even an official steak tips of the New England Patriots!

I will say, in my experience, people most passionate about them seem to be from Rhode Island, Eastern Mass, Southern New Hampshire and Maine.

Personally I'm with lunasol - they are best with rice pilaf and a crunchy salad.
posted by dchase at 10:53 AM on May 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

Okay, I have a theory:

I will say, in my experience, people most passionate about them seem to be from Rhode Island, Eastern Mass, Southern New Hampshire and Maine.

So: there are New Englanders in here who have said "oh yeah, I remember that" and New Englanders in here who are all "huh?" I would fall into the latter category - and dchase, what you say about grilled steak at holiday cookouts is completely and utterly foreign to me, despite being present at several New England holiday cookouts in the 70s.

And that made me suspect something. Yeah, we had hot dogs and hamburgers for the kids at our cookouts, but for the adults, when they didn't also opt for a hamburger, what they went for was seafood. Largely because we were right on the water in Buzzards' Bay in the 70s most of the time, and most likely we had been out on Grandpa's boat the day before and had caught some kick-ass bluefish or had trapped a couple of lobster, and that was what the grownups had (and, honestly, often that's what us kids had too because holy crap fresh bluefish is so good, y'all).

So I'm wondering if the divide between "hell yeah, I remember steak tips" and "what the fuck are steak tips" might boil down to whether you were in coastal New England or if you were inland.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:36 AM on May 18, 2023 [5 favorites]

That tracks. We were on Aquidneck Island in the 70s & 80s, so those get-togethers were an excuse for my uncles to make lobster.
posted by yerfatma at 11:39 AM on May 18, 2023

My dad worked for Polaroid and a few years in a row they had some giant company picnic and I clearly remember they had big bags of marinated steak tips that they were grilling, along with burgers and dogs. That's the only time I've ever seen steak tips at a cookout though, other than my own.

This was slightly inland. Waltham area.
posted by bondcliff at 11:55 AM on May 18, 2023

But can you get the cuts in local grocery stores without asking?

I have never thought much about what cut of beef they come from, but it is common to see "beef tips" in the butcher section of grocery stores in the metro Birmingham, Alabama area. I tend to think of them as the primary ingredient in "beef tips and rice" at many cafeteria-style/meat & three restaurants simmered in a gravy and not in a grilled form like this piece.
posted by ndfine at 11:58 AM on May 18, 2023

They eat beef called Tri-Tips in California... any relation?

Nope, completely different, and tri-tip is singular, just one large cut.
posted by hydra77 at 12:04 PM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

RIP the Hilltop! My mom used to take me there for the lobster pie when we were celebrating something special.

I was born and raised in Massachusetts and I think my dad's body was roughly 70% composed of beef tips at any given time in the 80s and 90s.
posted by cakelite at 12:15 PM on May 18, 2023 [3 favorites]

As a former New Englander now in Southern California, damn do I miss steak tips! Can't find them in restaurants or supermarkets so we've started making out own by cutting up and marinating a tri-tip. Not exactly the same but at least scratches that itch!
posted by platinum at 12:17 PM on May 18, 2023

I don't think this was a Western Mass thing at all, or did I miss it?
posted by away for regrooving at 12:45 PM on May 18, 2023

They eat beef called Tri-Tips in California... any relation?

An accompanying piece in the magazine goes into the differences
posted by General Malaise at 12:49 PM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

Coastal v. Inland does track a bit. My uncle's place was on a lake in Coventry, RI. But, I also have friends in Narragansett, the Cape, and Midcoast Maine that grew up on them too. They still seem to be on the menus in most bar & grills, KofC and VFWs halls, etc. from Narragansett to Bar Harbor. But it is a very specific type of restaurant. It could be a working class thing? If you and your friends grew up with an accent or you're family's idea of a big night out was dinner at your Dad's childhood friend's tavern (or the 99, Chelo's, Hilltop, etc.), you grew up with steak tips. But, if your parents were Brown professors, or had a nice fishing boat to spend a day catching stripers on, you had other stuff at your cookouts.

Note - it's not grilling a whole steak - it's specifically steak tips, which can come in roughly 1"x 4" strips that can be cooked straight on the grill and then cut into cubes if desired, or pre-cubed that you skewer and grill.
posted by dchase at 1:58 PM on May 18, 2023 [1 favorite]

I think seafood vs. non-seafood is a much bigger indicator than coastal vs. inland.

It's not like being on the coast means you automatically eat seafood all the time, and it's not like people inland don't also enjoy fresh seafood, which is available away from the coast (New England isn't that big). Personal preference probably had way more to do with what was on the menu at cookouts than anything else
posted by RonButNotStupid at 2:17 PM on May 18, 2023 [2 favorites]

Question: Are cuts of meat packaged as for beef stew different from steak tips?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 2:32 PM on May 18, 2023

Yeah, steak tips are normal diner-style food here in the Fargo ND area

OK, I'm going to need to know where in Fargo that is because next time I'm racing through on I-94 we'll be stopping there instead of Taco Shop.
posted by Ber at 3:18 PM on May 18, 2023

Wow, this took me back to a memory I haven’t thought of in years - maybe decades. When I was a kid, we once went to a fancy restaurant that had an entree on the menu called Tenderloin Tips on Toast. We thought that was the funniest thing we every heard of so of course I had to order it. We didn’t know what to expect, and I can’t say we were shocked given the name, but I was definitely surprised that I got a piece of toast with a bunch of little bites of meat on it. They were really good, but not so good that we could justify it having been the same price as a steak.

But for years after that, whenever we went to or talked about a fancy restaurant, either my dad or I would find some reason to joke, “but do they have Tenderloin Tips on Toast?”
posted by Mchelly at 3:38 PM on May 18, 2023

I had never heard of steak tips until I started watching/reading America's Test Kitchen, and they seemed to assume that everyone knew what they were. It's sold in the Southwest as just "flap meat," and I suspect that around here it ends up in the same dishes as skirt or flank steak.
posted by bgrebs at 4:30 PM on May 18, 2023

Brandon, yes, I think grocery store pre-cut stew beef is usually chuck, whereas I am learning that steak tips are sirloin (flap), or flank steak, or skirt steak, or round, or…
posted by Songdog at 5:03 PM on May 18, 2023

Any relation to Serengeti/Kenny Dennis rapping about Rib Tips?
posted by jonp72 at 7:36 PM on May 18, 2023

I made the mistake of ordering beef rib tips once at a BBQ restaurant expecting them to be like steak tips. They were okay.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:03 AM on May 19, 2023

I only ate there once, as a little kid

I also only ate at Hilltop once as a kid and the only thing I remember about it was standing in the long wrap-around line waiting to get in.
posted by bendy at 5:33 PM on May 19, 2023 [1 favorite]