Myth; Steaks

Mott the Hoople

Mott the Hoople

Sweet Jane
I think it’s safe to say pretty much every non- vegan likes a good steak.

I love a perfectly done steak and as I’m sure many have learned that it can be a bit tricky.

My preference is for searing a steak the Cote de Beouf method in either a cast iron or stainless steel skillet. I use my cast iron for well marbled steaks like Ribeye, Delmonico, Porterhouse or T-Bone,etc,.

For leaner cuts where I want to make a pan sauce I use the stainless steel pan.

No shades on grilling it’s just ti much hassle for most home cooking.

Whatever your preferred method of searing a steak I’ve come across a lot of steak cooking myths and i though it would be interesting to discuss some of those myths.
 
Myth number one. Tempering your steak. That is bringing your steak up to room temperature before searing it. That is so the center won’t be to cold after you cook it. Busted that my with a wireless thermometer. The temperature difference in the center of a steak, after identical cooking, between a room temp steak and a steak that was chilled was virtually the same.

Myth busted. Turns out chilling a steak as a safety precaution for bacteria and prior to cooking doesn’t really impact the quality of the cooked steak.

In fact, because the Maillard effect is the most important part of cooking a steak what’s most important is that the surface steak of the steak is dry.
 
Searing seals in the steaks juices. This one is busted too. Searing a steak doesn’t seal in juices. In fact it does the opposite. It releases juices by causing cells inside the steak to burst due to the heat.

What searing does is brown the exterior of the steak (The Maillard effect). This adds much of the flavor to a steak.

Searing does not seal in juices. Just weigh the difference between a souse verde steak and a seared steak. You lose significantly more fluids by searing.
 
Do not add salt on your steak until just before you sear it.

I’m calling this one partially busted.

In searing a steak you want to enhance the Maillard effect. You do that with heat and using salt to denature the proteins at the surface of the steak. There are two valid alternatives. If you add the salt and let it sit to long it will draw moisture out of the steak via osmosis. Which it will and moisture is bad for evenly browning your steak.

However if you let the steak sit long enough the osmotic pressure at the surface of the steak will reach an equilibrium and the moisture will be reabsorbed and you will get a good sear with deeper seasoning and more time to denature proteins at the surface and get a good browning of steak.

The other school of thought is that is over kill on the seasoning and that by adding the salt and giving it a minute or so to start denaturing the proteins at the surface of the steak works just as well.

My experience leans to the later.

So I’m splitting the difference here by saying you want to give the salt some time to start denaturing the proteins at the surface of steak and the heat from searing will do the rest.

Again it’s not about loosing moisture. It’s about the surface of you steak being dry and evenly seasoned with salt.
 
Only use fine ground pepper as course ground pepper will interfere with the browning of you steak by the size of the course pepper grind prevent contact of the steak with the hot surface.

I think this borders on nonsense. If the size of the pepper is preventing a good sear either your skillet or grill isn’t hot enough or you’re using way to much pepper. My experience has been the courser the pepper the more pronounced the pepper flavor. My preference is a medium grind. I’ve not observed ground pepper from preventing a steak getting a good sear or leaving a burnt pepper flavor. Just a stronger pepper flavor.
 
Resting your steak will preserve the steaks juices and further tenderize the steak.

Mostly busted. Here’s the moisture myth again. You know what loses moisture in your steak? Over cooking it. That’s where technique and a good meat thermometer comes in.

First you do not save “juices” by resting a steak. Weigh them before and after searing. Wrap one in aluminum foil and rest 10 minutes. Cut the other into three pieces and plate it. After 10 minutes resting weigh both steaks, sans lost juices, and the difference in moisture loss will not be significantly different.

Will it further tenderize a steak? Maybe a little. Right at the border of perception. So this mostly busted.

What resting a steak does is it allows the huge temperature gradient between the surface temperature of a steak and the center to reach a temperature equilibrium which means an evenly cooked steak. Most people find having an evenly cooked steak has a better and more consistent texture. This is also why you pull the steak off the heat 10 deg below serving temp. Carry over heat will complete the cooking to the desired doneness and you will have a more uniform texture. Not over done on the edges and raw in the middle.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Myth number one. Tempering your steak. That is bringing your steak up to room temperature before searing it. That is so the center won’t be to cold after you cook it. Busted that my with a wireless thermometer. The temperature difference in the center of a steak, after identical cooking, between a room temp steak and a steak that was chilled was virtually the same.

Myth busted. Turns out chilling a steak as a safety precaution for bacteria and prior to cooking doesn’t really impact the quality of the cooked steak.

In fact, because the Maillard effect is the most important part of cooking a steak what’s most important is that the surface steak of the steak is dry.
Click to expand...

But that's not the reason you bring a steak out to room temp before cooking. It's so the meat fibers relax and allows for better seasoning. Also helps bring out a bit the surface moisture as you mentioned.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Resting your steak will preserve the steaks juices and further tenderize the steak.

Mostly busted. Here’s the moisture myth again. You know what loses moisture in your steak? Over cooking it. That’s where technique and a good meat thermometer comes in.

First you do not save “juices” by resting a steak. Weigh them before and after searing. Wrap one in aluminum foil and rest 10 minutes. Cut the other into three pieces and plate it. After 10 minutes resting weigh both steaks, sans lost juices, and the difference in moisture loss will not be significantly different.

Will it further tenderize a steak? Maybe a little. Right at the border of perception. So this mostly busted.

What resting a steak does is it allows the huge temperature gradient between the surface temperature of a steak and the center to reach a temperature equilibrium which means an evenly cooked steak. Most people find having an evenly cooked steak has a better and more consistent texture. This is also why you pull the steak off the heat 10 deg below serving temp. Carry over heat will complete the cooking to the desired doneness and you will have a more uniform texture. Not over done on the edges and raw in the middle.
Click to expand...
I've lost too many steaks to cutting into them early. The proof is on the plate.
 
Mott the Hoople said:
Do not add salt on your steak until just before you sear it.

I’m calling this one partially busted.

In searing a steak you want to enhance the Maillard effect. You do that with heat and using salt to denature the proteins at the surface of the steak. There are two valid alternatives. If you add the salt and let it sit to long it will draw moisture out of the steak via osmosis. Which it will and moisture is bad for evenly browning your steak.

However if you let the steak sit long enough the osmotic pressure at the surface of the steak will reach an equilibrium and the moisture will be reabsorbed and you will get a good sear with deeper seasoning and more time to denature proteins at the surface and get a good browning of steak.

The other school of thought is that is over kill on the seasoning and that by adding the salt and giving it a minute or so to start denaturing the proteins at the surface of the steak works just as well.

My experience leans to the later.

So I’m splitting the difference here by saying you want to give the salt some time to start denaturing the proteins at the surface of steak and the heat from searing will do the rest.

Again it’s not about loosing moisture. It’s about the surface of you steak being dry and evenly seasoned with salt.
Click to expand...

I thought you were a garbage disposal expert?
 
/MSG/ said:
But that's not the reason you bring a steak out to room temp before cooking. It's so the meat fibers relax and allows for better seasoning. Also helps bring out a bit the surface moisture as you mentioned.
Click to expand...

The so-called relaxing the meat is why you’re supposed to rest it after cooking. As I’ve stated if there is any difference it is virtually imperceptible when chewing and as long as the surface of the steak is dry chilling the steak or not makes no significant difference between the internal temperature of the steak or the Maillard effect. Buy a wireless meat thermometer and try the experiment yourself. You don’t have to take my word for it.
 
I gotta tell you something.....some of the best steaks I ever had were some very old beef that had been injected with 30% salt water as they were frozen, which Slut bought from door to door scam artists.

That was an education.
 
Jade Dragon said:
I've lost too many steaks to cutting into them early. The proof is on the plate.
Click to expand...

The proof was also in the aluminum foil of the rested steak and I measured both. The scale doesn’t lie.

Again, you do not have to take my word for it. Try the experiment yourself. My results were that the amount of moisture lost, either way, was within the experimental margin of error. You’d be surprised at how much fluid accumulated in the aluminum foil when rested. I have performed this experiment multiple times of measuring the actual moisture loss with the same results. No significant difference.

Now don’t get me wrong, you do want to rest your steak. It’s just that it doesn’t prevent moisture loss. What it does is it eliminates the temperature gradient. That is easily observable. Cook two identical steaks for the same length of time. Cut one in half immediately after cooking and let the other rest properly then cut it in half. You will easily see the temperature gradient on the unrested steak and a uniform cooking profile on the rested one.
 
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Mott the Hoople said:
Again, you do not have to take my word for it. Try the experiment yourself. My results were that the amount of moisture lost, either way, was within the experimental margin of error. You’d be surprised at how much fluid accumulated in the aluminum foil when rested.

Now don’t get me wrong, you do want to rest your steak. It’s just that it doesn’t prevent moisture loss. What it does is it eliminates the temperature gradient. That is easily observable. Cook two identical steaks for the same length of time. Cut one in half immediately after cooking and let the other rest properly then cut it in half. You will easily see the temperature gradient on the unrested steak and a uniform cooking profile on the rested one.
Click to expand...

Why do I feel like you are a very boring fuck?
 
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