This legendary Omaha steak is the dream meal of every whiskey lover

Omaha’s most famous steak has less than you might think. In fact, they probably have the secret ingredients at home.

Let me explain: the menu item of the marquee The droverHalf a century-old institution in Omaha is the “whiskey steak”. The grill professionals there will soak any Cut in one what they call “special marinade”, which is made from “a combination of secret ingredients, including whiskey”.

The drover’s whiskey steak is not the only one in the city, but it is recognized as the original. And during the drover may not be the most famous steakhouse In a city full of them– Although it feels like this when you wait two hours for two hours during the College World Series – no other steak in Omaha comes in so much tradition.

“The way it is set up on the menu and is talked about the city gives him a secret,” says Sarah Baker Hansen, the former food critics on Omaha World-HeraldWho is currently writing a one -year steakhouse series for the Flat water -free press called “Steak Town USA. “” I asked the owners half a dozen times about the recipe, and they won’t tell me. It is a secret and they protect it valuable. “Ask the people in Omaha about the marinade and you could tell you that you have recorded a puzzling sweet or a Umami note that you cannot completely place.

Ready for the punch line?

As early as 2024, I really made the mistake of appearing during the College World Series during the drover, and I really waited two hours at the bar. While I had there, I met a man who told me that he was regular and a friend of the owner. He said he was at the opening of the restaurant in the 1970s. We spoke for a while. When I carefully brought up the secret marinade, he laughed: “It’s just whiskey and soy sauce.”

He had hung around the bar for longer than I was that night, and at that time he didn’t feel shy. He told me that he used the marinade at home. At some point he called the bartender to support him and the bartender confirmed what he said –Everything. My new friend shook his head. “Well, what did you expect from a few children in the 70s?”

That is a resonance with me. One of my rules for the recipe development: “Secret” does not mean complicated. The people who come up with these recipes are usually busy restaurateurs, not from food scientists who titrate rare ingredients in reagent links. They use what you have at hand or can get easy and cheap – to be done with whiskey and soy sauce.

And as it turns out, this simplicity makes this marinade great. Throw garlic, Worcestershire -sauce, brown sugar and other ingredients from Omahan’s’ Payment theories and you throw off the balance. There is a reason why the drover only Dunks steaks in the marinade For 15 minutesso, its taste does not overwhelm the taste of Nebraska beef.

“From all the cuts I tried there, Bone-in Ribeye is the best whiskey steak,” says Hansen and I agree. A strong, well -started cut has a lot of butter -like taste. The soy sauce and the whiskey do not have to make a heavy lifting. Instead, the marinade looks like a discrete perfume spray, delicates the meat and improves what is already there. The Umami in the soy sauce increases the Umami in beef, while the whiskey pulls out its sweetness and complements it with subtle, banana -like esters.

After several test rounds it was not only clear That my friend did not play around with me in the drover, but also that the best ratio of soy sauce to whiskey is a clean 50:50. Use too much soy and the steak enters the Teriyaki territory. Too much whiskey, and the aftertaste is hard and solvent -like. (Anyone who doubts the effectiveness of a steak marinade should try to leave a Ribeye in the whiskey for 24 hours, as I did for an early test. Fully saturated and charred on the edges, it tasted like a delicate whiskey run.) For a Ribeye with an additional umami and enough cheap taste.

Before marinating, I presented the steak with a 24-hour time for success Dry brine (You can get away with 12) that organize the interior with salt. Then I expand the 15-minute marination period of the DROVER to 1 hour in the fridge, so that you enable enough taste and aroma penetration that you do not feel like you will waste your whiskey. As Tim Chin wrote in it Guide for marinatingMost of this penetration is limited to a narrow band below the surface, even in longer marinades, but that’s the point. You want a juicy Ribeye with a whiscan crust, no beef sponge full of soy and alcohol.

If you cannot find Ribeye, use a Ribeye without bones, or any other cut you like. As long as it is mainly covered when marinating, it works even though you want to adapt the cooking time for much thicker or thinner steaks. Use nothing special for the whiskey. The grill burns most delicate flavors and flavors that separate its old Weller antiquity from their old crow. For soy sauce I recommend a reduced version S (the soy sauce here is mainly for taste and not for salt) that you saw in Omaha in the 1970s, like Kikkoman. Don’t rethink it.

Is this recipe Exactly What do you serve in the drover? Who knows, but it’s close enough for me. “If it is really a two-ingredient matter, I have to laugh-and I have to pass it on to the owners,” says Hansen. “It would mean that you did a good job to keep your secret and a very good branding job. Sometimes the best things prove to be easy.”

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