Levine and Daole were stationed in Hawaii during the war and served as cooks in the officers’ club, according to Alan Seigel, Levine’s nephew and vice president of Dale’s Seasoning. “Nothing in the family says Jake was a chef, but they kind of called themselves chefs,” Seigel said. “You were cooking at the Officers’ Club and found this lady who had a recipe. They started cooking with it and people started liking it. I don’t know how they came up with the recipe, to be honest.” I once ate a buttery roasted apple en croûte with fillet steak all luxuriating on a powerful brandy sauce, containing no cream. Mon Dieu it was delicious!

In 2006, Dale’s Seasoning introduced a healthier version of its marinade that contained 42 percent less sodium than the original. (Photo courtesy of Dale’s Seasoning; used with permission)

Make roll-ups using strips of thinly sliced Flank Steak and your favorite vegetables. Serve it with my feta sauce (Blend 4 ounces of feta with the juice of 1 lemon, 1/2 cup of plain yogurt and a few tablespoons of fresh herbs then season to taste.) This is one of the early bottles of Dale’s Seasoning. (Photo courtesy of Dale’s Seasoning; used with permission) Add ingredients for the sauce into a bowl of a food processor and pulse for 1-2 minutes until slightly smooth. Add the avocado if you prefer a creamier consistency. Serve with the steak and prepared vegetables.

Perhaps one of the most recognisable steaks, the fillet of beef sits inside the sirloin and is one of the least used muscles, hence its melt-in-the-mouth tenderness. In 2020, Dale’s Seasoning introduced Dale’s Steak Sauce, a table condiment that can be used not only on steaks, burgers and hot dogs, but also as a dipping sauce for fries. (Photo courtesy of Dale’s Seasoning; used with permission) Daole moved to Atlanta to open restaurants there, while Levine later opened eight more Dale’s locations throughout Alabama and the Southeast, including one in Panama City Beach, Florida. A second location in the Birmingham area called Dale’s Hideaway opened in Homewood in the late 1950s. The original Dale’s Cellar Restaurant moved to the old Essex House on Sixth Avenue North in 1966. It closed nine years later.

Ingredients

Place your Flank Steak on a clean, flat surface and drizzle with olive oil then rub with salt, pepper, paprika and garlic. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour to marinate, or up to overnight. Remove from the refrigerator right before cooking. Jessica Meuse, a contestant on the 2014 edition of American Idol, performs her version of “How Do You Do Your Dale’s?” Jingle in a new commercial for Dale’s Seasoning. (Photo courtesy of Dale’s Seasoning; used with permission) But unless you’re a big Dale history fan, here are 10 things you might not have known. (But now you will.)

Heat a large cast iron skillet to medium-high. Sear Flank Steak for 5-8 minutes per side until a meat thermometer reads 145°F. Tip: Turn steaks and roasts with tongs. Avoid using a fork, which will pierce the beef and result in the loss of flavorful juices. Turn off the heat and transfer flank steak to a cutting board to rest while preparing the sauce.Make a Steak salad for two: Combine ¼ cup olive oil with 2 tablespoons whole grain mustard and the juice of a small lemon. Season to taste and serve as a dressing over 6 ounces of sliced cooked steak with tomato, fresh leafy greens and steamed broccoli. Sometimes I use this same dressing over an easy brunch plate with green beans, a boiled egg and whichever kind of cheese I have in the refrigerator. Operating out of a small commercial kitchen in Homewood, the family bottled the Dale’s marinade using a hand pump that filled four bottles of sauce at a time. “It would take 20 to 30 minutes to fill 48 bottles,” Seigel said. On a good day, they could fill around 900 bottles of sauce – a job that now takes around six minutes on an assembly line. They began selling Dale’s Marinade in Birmingham grocery stores including Piggly Wiggly, Western Supermarkets and Bruno’s. “We started getting some distribution,” Seigel said, “and the good news is that people liked the product.” During the Summer months Flank Steak is delicious when grilled: Place Steak on grid over medium, ash-covered coals. Grill, covered, 11 to 16 minutes (over medium heat on a preheated gas grill, 16 to 21 minutes) for medium rare (145°F) to medium (160°F) doneness, turning occasionally. Carve across the grain into thin slices. As steak is one of the nations most favourite and versatile dishes, there are often arguments on how a steak should be cooked, whether that’s medium rare or well done. But one thing everyone can agree on is that using a top-quality beef steak is what matters most. However if you want to know how to cook the perfect steak for you, we have the perfect guide for you.

Inclined to head for steaks that have worked over their lifetime I do however occasionally enjoy a fillet steak, roasted to medium-rare and well-rested that it delivers its juicy suppleness.

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Dale’s Seasoning was the “house marinade” for the old Dale’s Cellar Restaurant, located in the basement of a multi-story apartment building in downtown Birmingham, Ala. (Photo courtesy of Dale’s Seasoning; used with permission)