Coke Steak

When I was a kid, every few summers, my family would pack up the family truckster and drive to the gulf cost of Florida. Why we chose to go to the swamp that is the gulf coast of Florida in July, I can't answer. I can however tell you that one of the highlights of my trip was always the annual group dinner at the Brown Derby. Did I mention that my extended family would always go and so we invariably have a group of 25+ trying to sit together and one table. Rocket scientists = not my family...

Either way, I loved the Brown Derby because they had something called the "kiddie cocktail!" I'm guessing it was just Sprite and grenadine. That didn't matter to me, I wanted it because it came in a cool cup with a plastic sword. I'm the youngest, so maybe I thought I could stab my siblings and cousins with the sword? And maybe this "kiddie cocktail" was the inspiration for the cocktail obsession I've had since before I could legally drink?

Another bit of wisdom provided by the Brown Derby is the concept of tenderizing steak with Coca-Cola. When I was a kid I conducted a science experiment that involved placing a small stone is a glass of coke over night. You were supposed to scrape at the rock prior to placing it in the coke and then again after. Let's just say that the effect of the Coke on the rock made me re-think my soda consumption.

As you can surmise, if Coke can tenderize a rock, it can surely tenderize a steak. This isn't something I'd do to a dry-aged prime steak, but it's great for a new york strip, filet, or sirloin that's been in the freezer and might not be the most tender steak around. The most time I have soaked a steak for is about 3 hours. Again, seeing what the coke did to the rock, I'm guessing spending much more time than 3 hours in Coke would just turn a steak to mush.