On Tue, 30 Sep 2003 18:56:31 -0400, Bob Pastorio >
wrote:

>The one caution about them is the fat. If the steak is highly marbled
>and the center is cold, as it properly should be, the fat can have an
>unpleasant mouthfeel. Simple solution: don't eat the cold fat.

Having to dissect my steak to remove the cold fat takes away a great
deal of my dining pleasure.

>There's a new approach gaining some ground. It's to cook steaks over
>very low temperatures and forego the crust. That makes it a totally
>different meal. Cooking it low and slow with frequent turning (my
>culinary school teachers and every grill man I know would be
>screaming) means the meat gets warmed through gradually. If the
>cooking surface (skillet or griddle) is no more than 225 and you're
>cooking a steak that's about 3/4" thick, it'll take a good 20 minutes
>to get it to rare or mid-rare. The first time I had one it was a
>singular astonishment. The meat came out looking like no other steak
>I'd ever seen before. No crust. The barest appearance of being cooked:
>no shrinking or pulling at the edge . It was simply the best steak I'd
>ever had up to then. It was just slightly firmed up, all the juices
>still in there and when I cut it, it smelled wonderful. I still like
>blue steaks, but I also do the slow ones when I want that difference.
>
>Pastorio

What I've been doing at home is to season the steak, typically just
black pepper, a bit of salt, and some garlic powder, give it a light
coat of oil, then throw it on the grill with the gas turned very high.
Let it sizzle for twenty to thirty seconds then flip it over for more
of the same then turn the fire way down to let it warm through.

My objective is to give the outside it's good browning while leaving
the inside essentially raw, but at a temperature something higher than
that of congealed fat. Don't always hit it just right, but that's
more because I'm usually trying to do two or more things at once which
is generally a poor idea when cooking something fast on a grill - at
least for me anyway.

......Alan.


Post no bills