My lifetime steak favorite was once prescribed by a doctor. The Salisbury steak. Not my doctor, but a 19th-century English physician, Dr. J. H. Salisbury. He once complained that all English beef lost something in transit when it was boiled and served in his private club. He instructed the kitchen to grind the beef parts, mix a patty with lots of minced onion, salt and pepper before being fried.  At least that sealed in some of the seasoning. The doctor started prescribing such a steak for various ailments. His patients without teeth found it palatable, understandingly so. Possibly because of the close kinship with mere hamburger, today's Salisbury steaks are not considered haute cuisine. For taste insurance, they should be covered with beef gravy made with pan-drippings, never flour gravy.

Salisbury steaks became popular in this country when New York's Coney Island food concessions learned to cook huge pans for quick service. Today trade writers refer to such places as QSR - Quick Service Restaurants. They became standard fare as Coney Island's major contribution to cheap eats, the Blue Plate Special. Carnival workers could get the Blue Plate for a quarter. The Salisbury supposedly lost favor in England when it was learned some cooks used mutton instead of beef.

This country became aware of eating a huge slice of beef when the beef side was butchered into named cuts, Porterhouse, T-bone, filet mignon, and for lasting memory, the New York strip. Study the dining habits of Diamond Jim Brady. Brady's 300-pound girth was a tribute to red meat. His nightly Porterhouse was a retail cut from the large end of the short lion. The bone-in contained meat from both the top loin muscle and the tenderloin. Diamond Jim could afford such excesses. No doubt about it, a beefsteak has flavor in overkill doses. The Diamond Jim story led me to campaign for beef, actually all meat, to be used as a flavoring or seasoning condiment. Chalk that up as another of my culinary defeats. My idea: A seasoning as in stews, soups, salads, as when bacon is fried and chopped into scrambled eggs. My favorite example of beef as a condiment: The Yankee pot roast of beef using an overcooked brisket that was first browned, then braised to go with the potatoes, carrots and onions. My ratio is one part brisket to five parts vegetables.

Steak as marketed in America today is wretched excess. But, who would want to give it up? My favorite remains the 16-ounce filet mignon served at Ruth's Chris Steak House, the thick round cut with a patty of killer butter on top. Only in America. A toast of burgundy here to the late and wonderful dining companion, Ruth Fertel. I repaired to her bar to puff a Churchill while she finished off parts of six cigarettes.

Americans increase their lust for beef: In 2001 when beef consumption numbers were last compiled by the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, I knew the jig was up. Steak sandwiches in casual restaurants and bars jumped 41.9 percent. Prime rib and roast beef orders jumped 40.2 percent. I credit the Clinton economy - but starting restaurant writers should never take such an opinionated liberty. Stick to the grease factor. The nation's most popular sandwich, the hamburger, already in beef command, upped the popularity by 13.7 percent. The burger still holds 71 percent of all beef servings. The beef tenderloin is America's favorite cut in restaurants. As the Clinton economy cools under the current administration, learn about alternative beef cuts: Hanger steak, skirt steak, and flank steak.