Researching an article on the rising price of steak last week gave me the opportunity to go on a strange, wonderful and queasy-making tour of area steakhouses.

I made many unexpected discoveries, not the least of which was that the experience of eating a $19.49 USDA choice steak at Longhorn Steakhouse in Jonesboro was in every way preferable to the USDA prime cut that cost nearly twice as much at Ruth's Chris Steak House near Centennial Olympic Park downtown.

Ben Gray/Staff (ENLARGE)

Heavily marbled beef means more fat — and more flavor. If the portion is large, you'll be exceeding your daily protein needs.

Fang Liang/Staff (ENLARGE)

Portion size at many restaurants exceeds what's recommended.

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The former was overseasoned to my taste, but a good piece of meat, crusty and tender, cooked to order and served by a waitress who made sure we got exactly what we wanted. The latter had none of the lingering flavor you want from prime meat, and when I showed the waitress the gray and springy slab that was a far cry from the medium rare ordered, her only response was, "Well, they keep cooking on those hot plates."

Yet the biggest discovery — or, perhaps, rediscovery — of all was how completely obscene portions are in these restaurants. I used to find these portions either enticing or comical, but now I see them as purely offensive.

Consider that the standard size of a New York strip in these places is 16 ounces, although some of the steakhouses offer a "petite" cut at 12 ounces.

Petite, my tante Fanny.

The same U.S. Department of Agriculture that grades the steaks offers guidelines to portion size in its beleaguered new food pyramid. It suggests that a proper serving of meat is 3 ounces, and that most people should limit themselves to two such servings per day. So even that petite steak is twice what a person should consume in a day.

We should be eating portions of meat that are "the size of a deck of cards," according to the USDA, but instead we get slabs the size of a Parcheesi set.

I know. A pack of cards. It sounds like a dry, unfriendly, penurious thing — the chicken breast in an airline meal or the leathery pork chop that no amount of applesauce can enliven. How would it be even possible to order or enjoy a steak this size?

Well, for starters, you share. I discovered that at every steakhouse, an Uno-deck-size half-steak was plenty enough to satisfy the physical and mental hunger of a middle-aged man with a large appetite. As well it should be, since it contains more than the total protein intake needs for the day. A half-steak still means you need to cut back the next day.

But I also think the pack of cards analogy misleads or at least conjures up an unappealing visual image. In cultures that don't consume as much meat as we do, it serves as a garnish or an ingredient in a more balanced meal.

At home my family eats very little beef, but when company comes over, I like to grill steaks. I'll buy the best prime meat I can find, but only count on half a steak per person. After cooking the steaks, I slice them and heap the meat on a platter, telling people to help themselves. I always serve a vinegary salad alongside, because we love the way the vinaigrette plays against the lingering flavor of the fat-bursting meat. Mashed potatoes and buttery vegetables, to my taste, obscure rather than offset great meat.

You know what's the best part of serving steak this way? People always stop after three or four slices of meat.

That means plenty of leftovers.