In rec.food.cooking, wrote:

> My advice to the OP is buy a nice cut of beef from a real butcher shop.
> Season with S&P while you let the steak come up to room temp.

As long as we're dispelling myths, the "room temp" advice is generally
good, but not always. If you have a nice thick steak, and if you have a
nice hot fire, then it is a good strategy. But if you have a thin steak
or if you have nothing hotter than a gas grill, you might want to start
with a cooler center, so you can get the outside seared nicely before the
inside is overdone.

The real trick is to get the outside cooked as you like it, while keeping
the inside cooked as you like it. In order to accomplish this, a lot of
factors come into play. The initial internal temp is important, and
depending on other factors, should be varied.

Get your
> grill (or frying pan) as hot as you can get it.

Again, this is not universally good advice. In some situations, it would
result in a steak being charred on the outside and raw on the inside.
Using a thick bed of lump charcoal, with no ash on the outside and a good
airflow through it will result in a too-hot fire, unsuitable for a thick
steak, unless you like it Black and Blue.



Flip the steak only
> once during cooking.

Why? I do it for convenience, but see no real reason other than that.



Cook to the doneness you prefer (takes some
> practice and experimentation) and then let the steak rest 10 minutes
> under foil before serving.

No. Cook it to LESS than the doneness you prefer, and then let it rest.

--
In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

In rec.food.cooking, Peter Aitken > wrote:
> > wrote in message
> ...
> > In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
> >
> >> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
> >
> > Why do it about an hour before cooking?


> Lets the pepper flavor diffuse. I like to coat the steak with pepper or,
> sometimes mashed green peppercorns, and let it sit all day.

Interesting. Am I correct in assuming that the flavor in pepper is fat
soluble?

--
In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

In rec.food.cooking, Peter Aitken > wrote:
> > wrote in message
> ...
> > In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
> >
> >> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
> >
> > Why do it about an hour before cooking?


> Lets the pepper flavor diffuse. I like to coat the steak with pepper or,
> sometimes mashed green peppercorns, and let it sit all day.

Interesting. Am I correct in assuming that the flavor in pepper is fat
soluble?

--
In the councils of government, we must guard against the
acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought,
by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the
disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
-- Dwight David Eisenhower

> wrote in message
...
> In rec.food.cooking, Peter Aitken > wrote:
>> > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
>> >
>> >> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>> >
>> > Why do it about an hour before cooking?
>
>
>> Lets the pepper flavor diffuse. I like to coat the steak with pepper or,
>> sometimes mashed green peppercorns, and let it sit all day.
>
> Interesting. Am I correct in assuming that the flavor in pepper is fat
> soluble?
>

Beats me - but the long sit does seem to improve things. The salt can be put
on just before cooking.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

> wrote in message
...
> In rec.food.cooking, Peter Aitken > wrote:
>> > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
>> >
>> >> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>> >
>> > Why do it about an hour before cooking?
>
>
>> Lets the pepper flavor diffuse. I like to coat the steak with pepper or,
>> sometimes mashed green peppercorns, and let it sit all day.
>
> Interesting. Am I correct in assuming that the flavor in pepper is fat
> soluble?
>

Beats me - but the long sit does seem to improve things. The salt can be put
on just before cooking.


--
Peter Aitken

Remove the crap from my email address before using.

> wrote in message
...
> In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
>
>> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>
> Why do it about an hour before cooking?

Difused flavor.

>> If you have
>> one use an instant read thermometer about 135 to 140 for Rare.
>
> 140 for rare? Is your thermometer calibrated?

Yes I calibrate it often just boil some water.


>And with a thin piece of meat like a steak, how can you have confidence in
>a thermometer?

A good fillet is usually thicker the the norm and are good New Yorks. We
ain't talking Safeway here.

Dimitri

> wrote in message
...
> In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
>
>> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>
> Why do it about an hour before cooking?

Difused flavor.

>> If you have
>> one use an instant read thermometer about 135 to 140 for Rare.
>
> 140 for rare? Is your thermometer calibrated?

Yes I calibrate it often just boil some water.


>And with a thin piece of meat like a steak, how can you have confidence in
>a thermometer?

A good fillet is usually thicker the the norm and are good New Yorks. We
ain't talking Safeway here.

Dimitri

Chris De Young wrote:
> Doug Freyburger wrote:
>
> > Color is a biochemical process. Pink is meat without the proteins
> > denatured. Once there is no more pink, all of the protein are
> > denatured and the heat energy must find the chemical reaction
> > with the next highest activation energy.
>
> Ok... but a steak isn't a fluid; heat isn't evenly distributed. While
> you're still busy denaturing proteins in the middle, you must be also
> binding connective fibers and making the meat tough on the outside,
all at
> the same time

Correct. That's why thinly sliced beef like in a Philly Cheese Steak
is
easy to get tender and well done, why a steak the thickness of my
hand can only be pulled off by one cook in a hundred, and why a
roast is out of the question unless you're willing to cook that roast
past the point of tough until it falls off the bone.

> (at least with a steak of any reasonable thickness). (Not
> being a food chemist, I'll take you word for it that that's what
happens.)

The thicker the steak the harder to pull it off. Get a steak as
thick as a filet minion and forget it. Not enough time for the
heat to flow into the middle.

> > There is an amazing lack of overlap of the two reactions.
>
> Why is that? This is what I don't get. It's not like losing the last
of
> the local pink suddenly makes that meat a much more efficient
> conductor, passing the rest of the heat along to the middle where
> it's still needed. :-)

A steak while cooking will conduct enough that a perfectly tender
well done steak is possible so long as you use a steak no thicker
than my hand and you have a cook capable of knowing which
one second period it will start getting tough.

> Of course, this is only really of academic interest for me; I like
> a steak rare to medium-rare anyway (and not just because it
> gets tough when overcooked; it tastes better when more rare
> also, for me).

I like the flavor of a well done steak better when I think it is
possible. As a result I order my steaks medium in any
restaurant I've been to under a dozen times until I know who
the cook on duty is. I am well aware that it is impossible to
the vast majority of cooks including myself.

> > Chemistry. Heat of activation. Heat tends to flow to the reaction
> > that has the lowest heat of activation.
>
> Heat tends to flow (in a solid) according to how good a conductor
> of heat that solid is. It doesn't depend on whether a low-activation
> reation is waiting to the left rather than to the right. :-)

Heat tends to flow from the source of heat to the point of lowest
temperature. To the extent allowed by conductivity it does not
flow in every direction. Any cooking process that is exothermic
will consume heat and tend to draw heat to the point of reaction
to the extent allowed by conduction. This is why it is easy to
cook tender thinly sliced well done beef, very hard to cook a steak,
impossible to do it with a solid chunk.

> "Dimitri" writes:
>
><EskWIRED wrote:
>>Dimitri wrote:
>>
>>> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>>
>> Why do it about an hour before cooking?
>
>Difused flavor.
>
>>> If you have
>>> one use an instant read thermometer about 135 to 140 for Rare.
>>
>> 140 for rare? Is your thermometer calibrated?
>
>Yes I calibrate it often just boil some water.
>
>
>>And with a thin piece of meat like a steak, how can you have confidence in
>>a thermometer?
>
>A good fillet is usually thicker the the norm and are good New Yorks. We
>ain't talking Safeway here.


Just returned from grocery shopping... got a lovely chuck filet steak reserved
for dinner tonight... already seasoned with s n' p w/leaperrins... gonna pan
fry, with nuked spuds. Hey, I didn't eat all day and I'm starving... this will
be quick, and GOOD, trust me.... meanwhile I'm on my second Phillips
Screwdriver (phillips = +) (+ = extra vodka)... noshing on Cheez-ITs too.

Ok, time to (hic) cook.


---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

"PENMART01" > wrote in message
...

<snip>

> Just returned from grocery shopping... got a lovely chuck filet steak
> reserved
> for dinner tonight... already seasoned with s n' p w/leaperrins... gonna
> pan
> fry, with nuked spuds. Hey, I didn't eat all day and I'm starving... this
> will
> be quick, and GOOD, trust me.... meanwhile I'm on my second Phillips
> Screwdriver (phillips = +) (+ = extra vodka)... noshing on Cheez-ITs too.
>
> Ok, time to (hic) cook.
>
>
> ---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
> ---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
> *********
> "Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
> Sheldon
> ````````````

AKA PileDriver!

Dimitri

"Michael" > wrote in message
ups.com...
>I went through this thread with interest and an increasing appetite
> yesterday evening. A trick I learned a long time ago is to slice
> through the fat on the edge of a steak every inch or two. The
> reasoning behind it was that the unsliced fat will shrink as it's
> cooked and squeeze the juices out of the steak. Anybody else
> heard this?
>
> Michael
>

Not so much squeezing the juice out as cupping the steak

Over-cooking is the most common fault, not only for steak, but for every
food product.

They all continue to cook as long as heat is still present. In some cases
you have to pull food before it is finished, allowing it to finish itself.

> wrote in message
...
> In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
>
>> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>
> Why do it about an hour before cooking?
>
>> If you have
>> one use an instant read thermometer about 135 to 140 for Rare.
>
> 140 for rare? Is your thermometer calibrated? And with a thin piece of
> meat like a steak, how can you have confidence in a thermometer?
>

140 for rare is a textbook temp.. it wil be well into what most people call
medium if you use only recommended instant-read temps. AND remember if it
was "perfect" just before pulling it, it will be overcooked after resting.

Some cooks use the feel of different regions of the palm to gauge the
firmness of rare, medium and well.

> wrote in message
...
> In rec.food.cooking, Dimitri > wrote:
>
>> Salt and pepper the steak about an hour before cooking.
>
> Why do it about an hour before cooking?
>
>> If you have
>> one use an instant read thermometer about 135 to 140 for Rare.
>
> 140 for rare? Is your thermometer calibrated? And with a thin piece of
> meat like a steak, how can you have confidence in a thermometer?
>

140 for rare is a textbook temp.. it wil be well into what most people call
medium if you use only recommended instant-read temps. AND remember if it
was "perfect" just before pulling it, it will be overcooked after resting.

Some cooks use the feel of different regions of the palm to gauge the
firmness of rare, medium and well.

Here's what I've learned about steak:

It must start at room temperature. Remove from
refrigerator two or preferably three hours ahead of time.

Cut away as much fat as possible from the steak before cooking.

It's a tossup whether a ribeye or a New York is the better
cut. A ribeye is more flavorful, but the New York steak will
cook more perfectly since it's an intact, solid piece of meat.

It's best to use a grill (a Weber, in my case) and give it
between 6 and 7 minutes total on the grill, and several minutes
resting afterwards, for a typical steak to cook just past rare.
According to Magee, the cooking time of a steak is not very
dependent upon temperature of the heat source, and this seems
to be true.

If you don't have a grill, frying the steak in a pan with some
olive oil also works well. For this method I like to pepper
the steak while cooking, otherwise no salt or pepper is needed
when cooking a steak. I have not yet tried the pan roasting
method preferred by James Beard but it is worth looking into.

If the steak ends up undercooked for someone's taste, do not
return it to the grill or stovetop; microwave it instead (for
less then a minute to make it a little more done).

Hope this helps. ;)

Steve

>(Steve Pope) pontificates:
>
>Here's what I've learned about steak:

What will fit in your pinhead.

>It must start at room temperature.

Only when cooked on a griddle/pan so as not to cool the cooking surface... for
grilling it doesn't really matter but steak is best when cooked ice cold.

>Remove from refrigerator two or preferably three hours ahead of time.

Way too long, fat will go limp and actually begin to render... beef should
always be kept cool enough that its fat remains snow white and *hard*.

>Cut away as much fat as possible from the steak before cooking.

What the **** for... the fat is all that protects the meat from drying during
cooking... can't you cut away the fat during eating, or does your mommy still
do that for you.

>It's a tossup whether a ribeye or a New York is the better cut.

Better how... "toss up" is two woids.

>A ribeye is more flavorful,

The ribeye is the least flavorful cut of all, it's for those who really don't
like the flavor of beef... ribeye is the tofu of beef., it's why steak sauce
was invented.

>but the New York steak will cook more perfectly since it's an intact, solid
piece of meat.

This is gobbledygook... only thing will cook anything more perfectly is the
*cook*. Duh!

>It's best to use a grill and give it
>between 6 and 7 minutes total on the grill, and several minutes
>resting afterwards, for a typical steak to cook just past rare.
>According to Magee, the cooking time of a steak is not very
>dependent upon temperature of the heat source, and this seems
>to be true.

Blah, blah, blah... the cooking time is dependent on steak thickness and
eater's doness preference[period]

>If the steak ends up undercooked for someone's taste, do not return it to the
grill or stovetop; microwave it instead (for less then a minute to make it a
little more done).

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. . . .



---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

>(Steve Pope) pontificates:
>
>Here's what I've learned about steak:

What will fit in your pinhead.

>It must start at room temperature.

Only when cooked on a griddle/pan so as not to cool the cooking surface... for
grilling it doesn't really matter but steak is best when cooked ice cold.

>Remove from refrigerator two or preferably three hours ahead of time.

Way too long, fat will go limp and actually begin to render... beef should
always be kept cool enough that its fat remains snow white and *hard*.

>Cut away as much fat as possible from the steak before cooking.

What the **** for... the fat is all that protects the meat from drying during
cooking... can't you cut away the fat during eating, or does your mommy still
do that for you.

>It's a tossup whether a ribeye or a New York is the better cut.

Better how... "toss up" is two woids.

>A ribeye is more flavorful,

The ribeye is the least flavorful cut of all, it's for those who really don't
like the flavor of beef... ribeye is the tofu of beef., it's why steak sauce
was invented.

>but the New York steak will cook more perfectly since it's an intact, solid
piece of meat.

This is gobbledygook... only thing will cook anything more perfectly is the
*cook*. Duh!

>It's best to use a grill and give it
>between 6 and 7 minutes total on the grill, and several minutes
>resting afterwards, for a typical steak to cook just past rare.
>According to Magee, the cooking time of a steak is not very
>dependent upon temperature of the heat source, and this seems
>to be true.

Blah, blah, blah... the cooking time is dependent on steak thickness and
eater's doness preference[period]

>If the steak ends up undercooked for someone's taste, do not return it to the
grill or stovetop; microwave it instead (for less then a minute to make it a
little more done).

Ahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. . . .



---= BOYCOTT FRANCE (belgium) GERMANY--SPAIN =---
---= Move UNITED NATIONS To Paris =---
*********
"Life would be devoid of all meaning were it without tribulation."
Sheldon
````````````

PENMART01 > wrote:

> (Steve Pope) pontificates:

>>It must start at room temperature.

> Only when cooked on a griddle/pan so as not to cool the
> cooking surface... for grilling it doesn't really matter but
> steak is best when cooked ice cold.

>> Cut away as much fat as possible from the steak before cooking.

> What the **** for... the fat is all that protects the meat
> from drying during cooking...

Not overcooking a steak is what prevents it from drying
during cooking.

My guess is you do not like your steaks rare, otherwise
you'd be in agreement with both the above pieces of advice.

Or maybe, you're just guessing and haven't actually tried
the methods I suggest.

Cheers,

Steve

PENMART01 > wrote:

> (Steve Pope) pontificates:

>>It must start at room temperature.

> Only when cooked on a griddle/pan so as not to cool the
> cooking surface... for grilling it doesn't really matter but
> steak is best when cooked ice cold.

>> Cut away as much fat as possible from the steak before cooking.

> What the **** for... the fat is all that protects the meat
> from drying during cooking...

Not overcooking a steak is what prevents it from drying
during cooking.

My guess is you do not like your steaks rare, otherwise
you'd be in agreement with both the above pieces of advice.

Or maybe, you're just guessing and haven't actually tried
the methods I suggest.

Cheers,

Steve

Steve Pope wrote:

> PENMART01 > wrote:
>
> > (Steve Pope) pontificates:
>
> >>It must start at room temperature.
>
> > Only when cooked on a griddle/pan so as not to cool the
> > cooking surface... for grilling it doesn't really matter but
> > steak is best when cooked ice cold.
>
> >> Cut away as much fat as possible from the steak before cooking.
>
> > What the **** for... the fat is all that protects the meat
> > from drying during cooking...
>
> Not overcooking a steak is what prevents it from drying
> during cooking.
>
> My guess is you do not like your steaks rare, otherwise
> you'd be in agreement with both the above pieces of advice.
>
> Or maybe, you're just guessing and haven't actually tried
> the methods I suggest.


Time to surrender, Stevie boy...unless you want Sheldon to hant you not only
in this life but your next...*lol*...

--
Best
Greg