Beef! It's what's for dinner.

So I've read the thread by this same name over at Changstar (http://www.changstar.com/index.php?topic=1352.0) all the way through several times over the past couple months. And this week I was out on a work trip my co worker and I while driving to work were talking about steak for about an hour and how to cook it and such, so when I got back I felt super inspired to give this whole steak cooking thing a shot.

This turned out to be quite the learning experience for me haha

My original plan to to cook it in the oven at around 150 for 40 minutes or so and then sear it on the stove top in my cast iron. Well I didn't wait to even see if that would work before buying my steak, so when I got home I realized my oven only went down to 160C....so I had to move on to plan B

Anyways, I had picked out the most marbled tenderloin they had at the Commissary( I wanted to make it the least likely to f**k it up, aka not be worth eating, figured this was the way to go)

I let it sit for 2 hours on the counter to warm up, and then decided it was time to cook, and since the oven wasn't an option now I had to cook the whole thing on the stove top in the cast iron. Well I wanted to make sure the cast iron was as hot as possible but I was afraid of hurting it, so I was putting some olive oil in the there, and kept thinking it was cooking off so I was adding more( turned out this was false, and I filled my apartment with olive oil smoke). But since it wasn't burning off basically by the time I threw the steak on it was in a shallow bath of olive oil, maybe my first mistake.

So from my reading I decided maybe 45 seconds per side and then to let it sit for a few minutes, well after 45 seconds my eyeballs told me it wasn't done yet. So I went to 1:10 per side, and took it off since I was afraid of over cooking it. I let it sit for about 5 minutes after it finished cooking and cut it open.

Long story short the dang thing was basically still mooing. It tasted pretty good, but after getting about half way through it I decided to try throwing it back on the stove, this time with much less olive oil in the pan haha

Gave it another 1:30 per side and let it sit for 3 minutes, was much better that way. I feel like I have several things to learn from this, but I'm still happy I did it, can't learn to make steak without trying it! The tenderloin was about 1.25 to 1.5 inches thick, maybe it needed more time from the start. Also, less olive oil, it isn't cooking off. The last is probably just that my stove top isn't getting hot enough to cook it that fast, I really wish my oven would go lower...

Anyways, pics over at imgur( can't upload directly here from the iPad unfortunately) for all of you too laugh at me. Would love more constructive criticism.

http://imgur.com/a/CcEld

Next time I'll try a ribeye, maybe it'll be a bit thinner. Also, the the cuts at the commissary here in Korea ain't the best from what I could tell.

 

Nice! Should try making a really good burger next. I've thought about making food my next hobby too. I'm basically totally inept at it so it would be fun to learn

 

That looks super rare, almost raw.

 

Steak cubes? No way.

 

Depends on the type of olive oil, virgin olive oil is no good for high heat cooking, but light olive oil should be fine.

 

That was 160 Celsius, which is like 320 Fahrenheit. I dunno what kind of oven only goes down to 320 degrees, but that's what the dial on my shitty Korean oven says.

that'll still work you think?

I don't really want to cube my steak, though. But thanks for all the ideas guys.

 

Use grapeseed oil instead. Olive oil is useless for any type of frying.

I use a lazy way which doesn't require the oven. You basically flip the steak every 15 secs or so after the initial sear. It will reduce gray matter and get the internal temp so it gets cooked.

 

The perfection that is ribcap!


Been using avocado oil since it has a very high smoke point and no flavor. Cooked all the way through on the pan, no oven needed (flip the f**k out of it method).

 

where dat A1 DOE

 

In my experience, what most people forgot is to let the meat rest for like 5 minutes before they cut it into pieces. It really helps.

 

Mmmm, pan steak. Done right, it's good stuff. You have a cast-iron pan. Sear it real nice and then stick it in the oven! One of the best ways to do steak in the kitchen imo.

Also, yes to brown sugar. That shit is magic.

Sometimes I just don't feel like dealing with the oven or cast-iron. I just wanna drop it in a pan with a little bit of light oil and be done with it. I would never do this to a prime cut of meat, but it can be done with the supermarket shit.

I sear it over med-high heat. Simple rub of brown sugar, salt, pepper, and occasionally veeeery conservative amounts of lemon pepper. Also whatever other bullshit I have that I want to try. Brown sugar is always the main ingredient there. I like to add a little garlic into the oil, too. If I have the goo in a jar, I'll spread it over the steak itself. I try to keep it simple and use just enough for coverage. You should still be able to see the meat pretty well. A good steak doesn't need a whole lot of seasoning - the beef is the main event. It's all in the selection and preparation.

I start with the "flip once" mentality. I sear it for a couple of minutes and flip. At that point, I take some thin-sliced butter (1/2-1 tbsp) I have ready at room temp and melt it in the pan. I tilt the pan a little bit, mix around the buttery, rubby goodness, and add some rosemary/thyme for zest. Again, fresh is best. A little goes a long way - those are strong herbs. With that, the basting mix is complete. I try to have it all ready before I flip because you have to work fast. I start basting the steak immediately after mixing. Just a couple of good swoops will do it. Too much makes it greasy.

Once the other side sears, I flip like a madman, basting here and there. My experience is that pan steak cooks faster and more evenly when you flip it religiously. If you leave it on one side for too long, the side facing up cools. It makes the meat paradoxically tough and rare. The basting just goes that last extra mile to bring the heat to the middle and carry some of that flavor with it. The hard part is actually not overcooking the center. It really cuts down on the cook time.

That's just me, though. I've been cooking steaks all sortsa ways for years. I probably have a lot of habits I don't even notice. Everyone has their process. The behavior of steak is more complicated than it seems. Cooking steak is kinda like raising a child.

It's true. I wrap mine in foil and let em get cozy for a few minutes. A good way to know when they're ready is to take a peek at how much juice there is in the bottom. When it's ready, it will have sucked up most of the juice. If it doesn't suck it up, then you used too much oil.

 

Went to Cut in Beverly Hills a couple weeks back. Ordered 8oz of japanese wagyu ribeye medium because I wanted to render down that delicious fat.




They say that grill this on charcoal then broil in 1200 degree oven and the result...quite disappointing. It came out overly bitter and salty. They salted it as if it were a 2" cut. My friend ordered the American wagyu ribeye medium rare which had a terrible temperature gradient (center was raw).

Anyway, I was buying some prime ribcap from Costco and ran into this wonder cut!



AMAZING quality! It came out fan-fuckin-tastic and was almost as rich as the japanese wagyu I got from Cut, but I did a way better job!

 

I'm glad you didn't get sick from that. Bacteria doubles every 20 minutes at room temperature, so please don't fall for the old (bad) advice of bringing meat up to room temperature.

You might have fun learning how to sous vide a steak to exactly the internal doneness you like, followed by a reverse sear. Safe, predictable, and delicious.

 

Well that might be a bad advice safety-wise, and 2 hours is a bit extreme but the meat does cook better if you let it fir 30 min or so.

 

Apparently, a food science researcher at the University of Nevada, Reno has discovered a new (delicious) cut of beef. Fittingly, it's been dubbed the "Bonanza Cut." I expect that's a reference to Reno's history as a mining town, in addition to the more obvious definitional association.

What say you gourmands? I know basically f**k-all about the art/science of cooking and food prep.