Cowboy Steak "I Wouldn't Have It Any Other Way"

From The Wild Bunch

From Cooks Magazine 2005

About the right temp

Throw the corn on first


Let the marinated whatever get to room temp


After corn grills for 40 minutes

Add whatever

A nice option to a tannin red is Chateau Musar Hochar from Lebanon

When I lived out west as a kid I remember flank steak was sometimes called 'cowboy steak.' I liked cowboy stuff a lot but I fell into that late '60s early '70s cowboy antihero movie phase of which Sam Peckinpah's Wild Bunch pretty much wrote the book.

My dad took me to see it when I was 12. It's probably my favorite movie and I'm not sure why. There's something about going down a road and you know it's wrong. In every way. But you go down it anyway. I guess it's about the only 'noir' western I've ever seen.

I was lucky enough to live in Texas, Colorado and Oklahoma. Places where you could find a cowboy steak. There's a place here in NYC that offers cowboy steak but I don't have the cojones to try it. Make my own instead. Pretty simple. Pretty cheap.

The cheaper the cut the better. Pick anything up there in that old Cook's Kitchen illustration and you can't go wrong. Why? Because your gonna marinade this for at least eight hours. I reckon you can get by with four but not any less. I use a half a cup of Tamari sauce, about 3 tablespoons of toasted sesame oil and a half tablespoon of wasabi power.

This is key. I used to chop up a clove or two of garlic and mix it with the liquid. I'd lose all the garlic when I turned the steak over on the grill. Instead, stick pieces of the garlic into the scored sections. The garlic usually burns and gives you that fantastic burnt taste. Throw some Summer corn on. Peel back the stalk and take the silk out. Fold the stalk back up and soak it in water for four hours.

The corn's gonna take most of the time on the grill. Especially with weak Webers. After the corn's been on for 40 minutes I toss the cowboy steak on. It's impossible to give a time since even my grill seems different each time I cook. Instead, I push down on the steak. Just about right reminds me of how my ass felt when I was 25.

Take the steak off and let it sit for four minutes. A cold beer or a Rose would be nice but I found this red from Lebanon that I've been in search of for a long time. The 2002 Chateau Musar Hochar is soft as Jello pudding. More Rhone than Cab and a big hit at $25.

Someone asked me who I would have dinner with - dead or alive. I'd love to sit down with Sam Peckinpah, William Holden, Warren Oates and Ben Johnson somewhere down in Mexico. Watch the sun set and talk about washers - women - what you do when you side with a man and what's it like to walk down that road.


"It ain't like it used to be - - but it'll do."