This Iconic Omaha Steak Is Each Whiskey Lover’s Dream Dinner

There’s much less to Omaha’s most well-known steak than you may suppose. Actually, you most likely have the key components at residence proper now.

Let me clarify: The marquee menu merchandise at The Drover, a half-century-old establishment in Omaha, is the “whiskey steak.” The grill execs there’ll soak any lower in what they describe as a “particular marinade” created from “a mixture of secret components, together with whiskey.”

The Drover’s whiskey steak is not the one one on the town, nevertheless it’s acknowledged as the unique. And whereas The Drover is probably not essentially the most well-known steakhouse in a metropolis filled with them—although it feels that means once you’re ready two hours for a desk through the School World Sequence—no different steak in Omaha comes marinated in as a lot lore.

“The best way it is arrange on the menu, and talked about round city, lends an charisma to it,” says Sarah Baker Hansen, the previous meals critic on the Omaha World-Herald, who’s at present writing a yearlong steakhouse sequence for the Flatwater Free Press referred to as “Steak City USA.” “I’ve requested the homeowners in regards to the recipe half a dozen instances, and so they will not inform me. It is a secret, and so they guard it preciously.” Ask individuals round Omaha in regards to the marinade, and so they may let you know they’ve picked up a puzzling sweetness, or an umami notice they cannot fairly place.

Prepared for the punchline?

Again in 2024, I actually did make the error of exhibiting up at The Drover through the School World Sequence, and I actually did find yourself ready for 2 hours on the bar. Whereas there, I met a person who advised me that he was an everyday and a pal of the homeowners. He mentioned he’d been on the restaurant’s grand opening again within the ’70s. We talked for some time. Once I cautiously introduced up the key marinade, he laughed: “It is simply whiskey and soy sauce.”

He’d been hanging across the bar longer than I had that evening, and at that time, he wasn’t feeling shy. He advised me he used the marinade at residence. At one level, he referred to as the bartender over to again him up, and the bartender confirmed what he was saying—all of it. My new pal shook his head. “Properly, what’d you anticipate from a bunch of children within the ’70s?”

That resonated with me. One in every of my guidelines of recipe growth: “Secret” doesn’t suggest sophisticated. The individuals who provide you with these recipes are often busy restaurateurs, not meals scientists titrating uncommon components into check tubes. They use what they’ve readily available or can procure simply and cheaply—components like whiskey and soy sauce.

And because it seems, that simplicity is what makes this marinade nice. Throw in garlic, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, and different components from Omahans’ pet theories, and also you throw off the steadiness. There is a cause The Drover solely dunks steaks within the marinade for 15 minutesso its taste does not overwhelm the flavour of Nebraska beef.

“Of all of the cuts I’ve tried there, the bone-in ribeye is the one which makes one of the best whiskey steak,” Hansen says, and I agree. A beefy, well-marbled lower, it has loads of buttery taste by itself. The soy sauce and whiskey do not should do any heavy lifting. As an alternative, the marinade acts like a discreet spritz of fragrance, tenderizing the meat and enhancing what’s already there. The umami within the soy sauce boosts the umami within the beef, whereas the whiskey attracts out its sweetness and enhances it with refined, banana-like esters.

After a number of rounds of testing, it turned clear not solely that my pal at The Drover wasn’t messing with me, but in addition that one of the best ratio of soy sauce to whiskey is a clear 50:50. Use an excessive amount of soy, and the steak enters teriyaki territory. An excessive amount of whiskey, and the aftertaste is harsh and solvent-like. (Anybody who doubts the efficacy of a steak marinade ought to attempt leaving a ribeye in whiskey for twenty-four hours, like I did for one early check. Absolutely saturated and charred on the edges, it tasted like a tenderized whiskey barrel.) For a ribeye with further umami and sufficient boozy taste to deserve the identify “whiskey steak,” simply use equal components.

Earlier than marinating, I set the steak up for fulfillment with a 24-hour dry brine (you may get away with 12) that seasons the inside with salt. Then, I prolong The Drover’s 15-minute marination interval to 1 hour within the fridge, permitting sufficient taste and aroma penetration that you simply don’t really feel such as you’re losing your whiskey. As Tim Chin wrote on this information to marinating, most of that penetration is proscribed to a slim band simply beneath the floor, even in longer marinades, however that is the purpose. You desire a juicy ribeye with a whiskey-perfumed crust, not a beef sponge filled with soy and booze.

If you cannot discover a bone-in ribeye, use a boneless ribeye, or, for that matter, another lower you want. So long as it is principally lined when marinating, it will work, although you could need to regulate cook dinner time for a lot thicker or thinner steaks. For the whiskey, do not use something fancy. The grill will burn off many of the delicate flavors and aromas that separate your Outdated Weller Vintage out of your Outdated Crow. For soy sauce, I like to recommend utilizing a reduced-sodium model s(the soy sauce right here is generally for taste, not salt) that you simply may’ve seen in Omaha within the ’70s, like Kikkoman. Do not overthink it.

Is that this recipe precisely what they serve at The Drover? Who is aware of, nevertheless it’s shut sufficient for me. “If it is actually a two-ingredient factor, I’ve to chuckle—and I’ve at hand it to the homeowners,” Hansen says. “It might imply they’ve achieved a great job of retaining their secret, and an excellent job of branding. Typically, one of the best issues do develop into easy.”

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