17 herbs and spices? Inspired by 'Crocodile Dundee' ? Non-marinated
steaks? Keep watching to find out what you need to know before ordering steak at Outback again!
While chowing down that plate of rib-eye, it's most likely you noted how tender the meat was.
It turns out that the steak owes its tenderness to how it was aged.
According to the CEO of The Bruss Company, which manufactures and distributes meat products,
beef can be aged in two ways — wet or dry aging.
Dry aging, the more seemingly complicated method, requires the meat to be kept at a low temperature
of 34 to 36 degrees Fahrenheit and a specific humidity range, for about three to six weeks.
At the end of this period, the meat loses moisture and adopts a nutty taste.
Wet aging, the cheaper and more efficient method, just requires
the meat to be packed in an air-tight bag for a set time at a set temperature.
Outback gets most of its meat from The Bruss Company, which,
according to The Washington Post, wet ages its meat.
There are a lot of ways out there to make a steak, but according to Chew Boom,
Outback offers three different options to customers on how they want their steak to
be cooked: seasoned and seared, char-grilled, and slow-roasted.
It should be noted that until 2020 the chain's steak could
only be ordered either seared or grilled. According to Brand Eating,
they had previously given customers the option of having the sirloin slow-roasted,
but their revamped menu neatly divided the steaks based on the way they were cooked.
"They sent us a brand new menu with all new items that were just… everything I never knew I needed."
As explained on zmenu, if you want your steak seasoned and seared, you could choose between
a filet mignon, center-cut sirloin, or ribeye; slow-roasted steaks included prime ribs; and the
char-grilled has the bone-in ribeye, bone-in New York strip, and porterhouse as options.
As joint venture partner David Burns told Beef Magazine, 60%
of Outback's menu includes beef. That's a lot. To keep serving the promised menu,
the chain buys half a million dollars worth of beef per restaurant.
Tim Gannon, co-founder of Outback Steakhouse also confirmed that they use high-quality
beef. Recounting his early days in the restaurant business, he said that it was,
in fact, New Orleans "Great Chef" Warren Leruth [leh-RUTH] who told him to use
above par meat and even suggested The Bruss Company as a potential supplier.
Gannon spoke about the first time he sampled the Bruss Company's meat, telling Inc.,
"I thought that meat was meat, but there was a huge difference. So one of the
best decisions we made was going with Bruss, even though it was a little more expensive,"
The quality of meat might be great, but it is not the best. According to a former food
server and restaurant manager on Quora, all the beef at Outback is USDA Choice certified,
which is the grade given to the meat with the maximum marbling or fat content.
The chain has a range of surf and turf combinations — their sirloin and ribeye
steaks are available with a side of barbecued shrimp on the barbie or coconut shrimp,
and a plate of Victoria's filet mignon is decorated with a soft and tender lobster
tail on the side. Outback, which started in 1988,
has served seafood as part of the menu since its fledgling years. As mentioned on the website
of the foodservice distributor Performance Foodservice, the seafood and meat concept
might have originated at Seattle's Eye of the Needle restaurant during the 1962 World Fair.
While the story of its provenance is sketchy, what we know is Outback Steakhouse has embraced it like
its own. If you like your buttered shrimp sitting next to that beautifully cross-hatched steak,
you probably know that Outback also keeps introducing steak and unlimited
shrimp combo for precious little bursts of time.
Despite Outback's sirloin receiving mixed reviews, it is, in fact, the most asked for
steak at the chain. Sirloin steak alone brought in 35% of sales for the chain,
according to a 2007 Beef Magazine report.
The cut, which is taken from the hip of the cow, is also one of the most common
steak cuts. While a beef's sirloin can include top sirloin, bottom sirloin, and tenderloin,
the term sirloin specifically refers to the bottom sirloin, which is the cheapest of the three. And
if the top sirloin, the more expensive and tender portion, is served, it is usually referred to by
its full name. According to The Spruce Eats, the tenderloin, which is essentially a muscle along
the cow's spine, is extremely tender and included as part of a porterhouse, T-bone and filet mignon.
It was in 2016 that the chain introduced center cut sirloin to its menu, which,
according to Simply Beef & Lamb, are lean cuts and best cooked rare or medium-rare.
"Here at Outback we've got two new ways to steak heaven because now
every sirloin is a tender, juicy, center cut sirloin."
A quick scroll through Outback's online menu shows that there are six signature steak options:
a thick cut of Victoria's filet mignon, a tender center-cut sirloin, ribeye, bone-in ribeye,
Melbourne porterhouse, and bone-in New York strip. While the 18-ounce bone-in-ribeye,
though a tad pricey, has been touted as worth the cost; the filet mignon, reviewers noted,
is a pass. Beyond the steak section of Outback's menu, there is also steak camouflaged as fries,
known as the steak frites and steak as a topping on fettuccine noodles.
The founders of Outback, as reported in Funding Universe,
had no doubt that there would always be a demand for steak. One of the founders,
Bob Basham, recounted the days prior to the launch of the restaurant, saying,
"Our research had really showed us that beef and
prime rib were still the No. 1 thing people went out to eat."
The fact that a majority of Outback's menu continued to be steak,
even three decades since the launch, says enough about the trio's good decision.
"I love to create flavors that people find exciting and - and - and heartwarming."
All that complex mix of spices that you taste on an Outback steak is senior vice president and
co-founder Tim Gannon's brainchild. He had spent years working in New Orleans' restaurants, when
his friends roped him into their plan of starting a steakhouse. As shared by Nation's Restaurant
News, Gannon, who was deeply assimilated to the New Orleans way of cooking by then, had replied,
"It doesn't sound very exciting. I'm used to complicated Cajun menus and food."
He finally agreed to become a part of the venture
after his friends told him he could design the menu the way he wanted.
Gannon developed a New Orleans- inspired seasoning for the Australian-themed steakhouse.
With 17 different herbs and spices in it, the seasoning was far from the minimal salt and pepper
one that chefs preached, with Gannon saying, "We were the first [casual-dining group] to
bring spices and seasonings to our steaks and all our menu items. That's a signature of Outback."
Though the chain has never revealed its secret recipe, some Redditors have racked
their brains to best recreate it. One of them posted a recipe that included salt, paprika,
ground black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, coriander, and turmeric,
which, a former Outback employee said, was, quote, "as best a guess as any."
For some of us, who have a high-level dependency on coffee to juice up dreary Mondays and lousy
conversations, Outback's coffee-flavored steak was welcome news. Chew Boom reported that in 2021,
the chain introduced an espresso butter topping for its porterhouse steak.
While the unique butter came complimentary with that particular order, customers could
always order a dollop for their filet mignons and rib-eyes by paying extra.
Though a coffee-steak combo might sound strange, it's one that works.
Outback even has its own coffee rub. Per the coffee roasting company, Koffee Kult,
rubbing coffee grounds on the surface of a steak has the effect of pairing it with a glass of red
wine. Coffee's acidity emulates the effect that the wine's tannin has — it basically cleanses
your mouth to help you appreciate the steak better. Plus, rubbing coffee grounds on steak
tenderizes it. Don't take our word: chefs like Ina Garten and Bobby Flay have vouched for it.
While we all went about our days never once bothering to think about how
and where the steak was grilled, a TikTok video of a rather grimy-looking grill at an
Outback location burst our Zen bubble. The video was only 14 seconds long,
but it was enough to bring some damage to Outback's reputation.
The video, which had a chef cooking 20 steaks simultaneously on a grill top coated with burnt
grease and dripping with oil, was viewed by over 50,000 people before it was temporarily
taken off the internet. Some viewers did cut some slack for the cook, with one viewer commenting,
"You know what they say, a dirty kitchen means good food. Not dirty as in roaches
but serving 200 plus people within hours, there's gonna be a mess."
"Our grill cooks, they cook thousands of steaks, they're trained, they're very good at this."
A Mashed 2022 poll found that Outback's steaks are more loved than those of Longhorn Steakhouse,
Morton's, Fleming's, or even The Capital Grille's. From the ratings provided by 600 odd steak lovers
across the U.S., Outback is the third-best steakhouse in the country, after Texas Roadhouse
and Ruth's Chris. While this is a good validation for the chain, it's not the only one. Previously,
the restaurant rating company Zagat voted it #1 Best Steak in the U.S. among full-service chains.
Zagat's survey had 6,000 diners rating 137 chains for their food, facilities, and service quality.
Outback Steakhouse was rated #1 not just once, but four times between 2009 and 2012. Accepting the
recognition, the senior vice president of Culinary Innovation at Outback Steakhouse, John Li, said,
"All of our beef is grain-fed, aged to perfection, hand-trimmed,
and then grilled to order in our restaurants. We've always sought out the best, freshest
ingredients to create great tasting, signature flavors. We start every day fresh by chopping,
dicing, and stirring fresh ingredients just the way our customers like it."
Those who learned to cook watching Alton Brown's videos wouldn't think of cooking
steaks without marinating them for at least an hour. But then you taste an Outback Steak,
which never was marinated but only seasoned, and realize there is more than one way to cook steak.
Per a cook on Quora, when you place your order of steak at Outback,
the chef simply takes the pre-portioned and vacuum-sealed meat out of the freezer, oils it,
seasons it, and then slaps it on the grill until it reaches a set temperature based on your order.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the marinades are not that effective anyway.
No matter how long you soak your meat in an oily marinade, it will only penetrate
one-eighth of an inch from the outer layer because the meat is essentially 75%
water, and oil and water do not mix. Also, marinating with highly acidic marinades,
like the ones with a lot of lemon juice and vinegar, can make the meat a little friable.
The co-founders of Outback, Chris Sullivan, Bob Basham, and Tim Gannon were all colleagues at
Florida's Steak & Ale restaurant, after which Gannon moved to New Orleans and ventured into
restaurant management. He and his mates hatched up a plan for a new restaurant that would serve
American food and Australian fun. According to Funding Universe, the movie "Crocodile Dundee" had
inspired them to do something that would celebrate the last of lands. Gannon stayed at Basham's house
for months, chalking up the recipes that would go into their steakhouse's menu in his kitchen.
The first Outback location opened in a small shopping center in Tampa
and featured the Bloomin' Onion and steaks for as little as $9.95. Customers also had
the choice of ordering Kookaburra Wings, Aussie Cheesefries, and Jackaroo chops.
Gannon's food experiments inside a small Tampa kitchen became a hit big enough to spread across
the country, defining the menu in about 700 odd Outback restaurants in three decades.
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