The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 349

minimal Cut-and-peek too many times, though, and you run the risk of shredding your steak In reality, one or two peeks won’t be detectable in the end product But there’s a bigger problem with the cut-and-peek method: it’s not accurate Because of the fact that juices get squeezed out quickly from hot meat, when you cut into the center of a still-hot steak (like one that’s still sitting in the pan), it’ll appear to be much rarer than it really is If you continue to cook your steak until it appears right by the cutand-peek method, it’ll be overcooked by the time you actually eat it Remember that thick steaks continue to rise in temperature even after being removed from the pan What does that mean? It means that if you haven’t yet, you should go out and get yourself a good digital thermometer, duh! Unreasonably Large Pan-Seared Steaks With really big steaks, say 1½ inches thick or greater, you run into another problem: it’s nearly impossible to cook them through to the center in a skillet without burning the outside Conventional restaurant kitchen technique is that the best thing to do in this situation is to sear the steaks first in a hot skillet, then pop them into a hot oven to finish cooking through to the center And this method works But there are better ways to it See, that method is designed for use in a kitchen where order and expediency are the immediate goals of the line cook As soon as an order for a steak comes in, the easiest course of action is to sear it, then throw it in the oven and forget about it until it’s done, so you can focus on other things, say, plating the half dozen orders for chicken that table twelve is waiting for At home, we don’t have the same urgency—we have more time to plan and more time to execute As it turns out, a better way to cook a thick steak is to start it in a hot pan and then turn down the heat You want to time it so that the optimal level of browning is achieved just as the center of the meat reaches the desired final temperature How do you brown using moderate heat? First of all, use some butter The milk proteins in butter brown naturally, giving the steak a jump start Second, baste the steak By spooning the hot fat over the meat as it cooks, you allow both sides to get the browning effects of the butter while simultaneously shortening its cooking time For more on butter-basted steaks, see the recipe here Alternatively, you can go radical and use my technique for cooking your steak in a beer cooler (wait, what?—skip ahead to here, and you’ll see)  ... brown naturally, giving the steak a jump start Second, baste the steak By spooning the hot fat over the meat as it cooks, you allow both sides to get the browning effects of the butter while simultaneously shortening its cooking time... so that the optimal level of browning is achieved just as the center of the meat reaches the desired final temperature How do you brown using moderate heat? First of all, use some butter The milk... At home, we don’t have the same urgency—we have more time to plan and more time to execute As it turns out, a better way to cook a thick steak is to start it in a hot pan and then turn down the heat