When looking for the perfect drink pairing for a steak, whiskey is never the first thing to spring to mind. Red wine, for starters, is easily the most popular pairing for a steak. You see it all the time in the media we consume. It’s a cliched pairing at this point. 

Whiskey, at the same time, is also a natural partner for anything with a bit of smoke and char. The second most important thing for pairing whiskey with a good piece of meat is the fat content because honestly speaking, that’s where all the flavour is. Fat-pocketed steaks tend to be more flavorful and fatty so they deserve a whiskey with intensity. 

Leaner cuts don’t make the best pairing for whiskey, at least when you’re having it neat or on the rocks. If you want to go down the whiskey route for a lean cut, you’re much better off with a highball. For instance, when Chef Stone made a salad with a very lean fillet, Berg paired that with a simple Highball with sparkling apple juice. 

I also experienced this first hand myself with the T-bone steak. The T-Bone is a distinctive cut of meat that is made of two types of meat separated by a T shaped bone after which it is named. The smaller side of the TBone is the tenderloin, while the longer side is the New York Strip. The New York Strip-side is insulated by fat, and I enjoyed it a lot more than the leaner tenderloin strip. 

We also got a chance to do a pairing with a wagyu which was the highlight of the day. What’s so special about wagyu? Wagyu is prized for its extensive marbling (fat) which causes the meat to be so flavourful and tender. Chef Stone did us a solid and cooked this in brown butter infused with garlic and rosemary. With a fatty steak like a Wagyu, you certainly don’t want your sparkling fizzy cocktail overpowering the delicious flavours, your whiskey should be neat and if you’re not about that life (like me), a classic Old Fashioned will do. 

Our final meat was the burger which I’ve unofficially named the Steam & Smoke Burger. The burger was really something. First, Chef Stone made a custom mince blend with 70/30 lean beef to fat ratio by combining an Australian fillet with wagyu.

Although this burger was cooked on the stovetop, the burger was still superbly smokey as though it was made on an outdoor grill. Finally, I’m partial to caramelized onions over crispy onions in burgers, and so I loved what he did by reducing the onions in a Johnnie Walker sauce. The Highball was a great pair for Chef Stone burger which I’ve named Steam & Smoke. As this burger already had a lot going on with it, if you aren’t having your whiskey neat, a simple cocktail will do as you really don’t want anything to overpower those flavours. 

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