This Cheap Cut Tastes Like Filet Mignon

One cheap, tough cut of beef and one step that is already in your kitchen: coffee. The steaks go into a zip-top bag with strong coffee brewed at just under an ounce of grounds per five fluid ounces of water and cooled completely, grounds and all, for a night in the fridge — the acidity loosens the fibers, and you feel the change under a finger before the meat ever sees heat. While they marinate, the steakhouse trick: rosemary, thyme, parsley and garlic chopped fine and folded into soft butter with a splash of Worcestershire, rolled into a log and chilled. Next day the steaks are rinsed, dried hard, seasoned simply and reverse-seared — 110 °C on a rack to warm the middle, a hot pan and garlic-butter basting for the crust, a rest under foil — then a slice of the herb butter melts over the top. The first cut is pink edge to edge and soft under the fork.