FeChef

I am not understanding your issue with using water to extract the dried mushrooms flavor. If you want to use milk or what ever then do so. I am just suggesting using water and letting the water evaporate as much as possible to concentrate the flavor. If you want to use milk, to extract the flavor you risk burning it and altering the taste and in my opinion, milk will not do as good of a job at extracting compared to water. Anyway, im done. Good luck.

What does this have to do with my advice? It doesnt matter what your making. My point is valid. You need some form of liquid to extract as much flavor out of the mushrooms. Water is a good choice because it will not leave any taste behind when it evaporates.

Yes i have. And after you strain all the gritty powder, put the liquid back into the pot and simmer it to evaporate most of the water so you dont dilute your cream sauce.

I would grind the dried mushrooms into a powder and let it steep then strain it. You will get the mosr flavor out of them and faster aswell.

All that is, is activated charcoal and some salt,msg,and onion powder. If i was going to buy that crap, i might aswell grind up some hardwood lump charcoal and make my own.

Good point! I have a big tub of maltodextrin from my bacon powder experiment. I was thinking of "cutting" the charred ground beef powder with MSG and other spices depending on yeild and potency of flavor. You know this interests you! But i have this gut feeling you have some crazy contraption that can char a steak in 30 seconds. Am I wrong?

I kind of figured the company's that make the flavor are using some artificial method thats more cost effective. I am just trying to find the most cost effective "real" method. Ground beef seems to be the cheapest approach. I am thinking there needs to be some fat to get that charred effect, and 80/20 sounds like a good ratio, and happens to be the cheapest @ $2.59/lb. But i am totally open to trying other methods if anyone wants to chime in. Im sure there are a few egullet members that have taken a bite out of their perfect sous vide steak and thought this steak would be even better if it had some charred flavor.

I am starting to notice a lot of food products with "grilled steak" flavor is popular now. I have tried a few, and i gotta say, they really do taste like a juicy charred steak. Especially when the food product in question is a potato chip. This got me thinking how are they getting this flavor onto that potato chip, and how can I make this flavor so i can add it to my perfectly med rare sous vide steak that always seems to lack that flavor even after throwing it on the searing burner on my grill. My theory is to take ground beef and roll it out on a cookie sheet really thin and blast it under the broiler until it turns black. Then pop it into the oven @ 150F until its completely dehydrated. Then crumble and grind it into powder in the food processor. I am hoping that will come close the that charred/grilled steak flavor. What do you think? Will it create that flavor? Should i maybe mix some liquid smoke into the ground beef first?

Cast Iron pan preheated in oven @450-500F, then onto stove top on high will get you the best sear. I lightly rub the scallops with oil or melted butter and leave the pan dry. This prevents splattering and smoking up the house and also bad taste of burnt oil.

I dont think it has anything to do with cooks being newbies. Its the person posting the recipe thats to blame. Why should anyone assume the recipe there following is bad? Especially when theres a million reviews saying how good it was. And how they added this, and used less of this..ect..ect. But lets give the recipe a 4-5 star.

I use red food coloring (powder). It doesnt add any flavor, but in my mind, char siu does not look right without that nice deep dark red color. No amount of nitrate would give it that color. Also, dont use lean pork. I use boston butt. It has a perfect fat/meat ratio to give you that nice char when thrown on the fire/grill. I debone and filet the entire roast similar to how you filet short ribs to make Kalbi. You end up with something that looks like 2 full rack length ribs but boneless. After you marinate them for a few days (yes few days) you can hang them and slow cook in an oven and finish off on the grill. I like my Char Siu more savory then sweet. There is this chinese take-out not far from my house that makes "in my opinion" the best "boneless spare ribs" (Char Siu) i have ever tasted. But the funny thing is its the only item on there menu that my wife and I like. Everything else is bland. There sauces are watered down. We have mentioned this in a nice way, but there is a language barrier unfortunately. And its come to the point where i would like to figure out the marinade they use because i hate when i am craving there Char Siu. I make my wife pick it up...lol

I did not see that article. I found there videos through youtube. They did not mention the use of nitrates in the videos and people that asked, they never responded. Maybe they should rename there article/videos to "corned" or "cured" short ribs. nitrates produce a totally different flavor profile, to say "enhances" is a joke.

No a better test would be to buy a whole loin, cut and trim the ends and edges and seal them all.

Apparently some people that like to waste a good steak on a salad. Me, I was just too lazy to reheat it. To be honest, i did not realize the steak was rare when i put it in the fridge. The part i ate the night before was medium. As far as having the $hits all day, some people pay for that kinda cleansing therapy I suppose i payed for it aswell....all day.

Theres alot of worry worts on this forum. I have cooked steaks to rare, let them sit out for an hour or two and put in the fridge and eat cold the next day. I had the $hits all day but i survived. If your fridge is that cold it partially freezes food, then i wouldnt worry about 6 weeks, heck, if it was vacuum sealed i would still eat it 8 weeks later.

My grandma's husband pickled them. He would always dare me to eat one. He told me they were raw, but im thinking he was joking and they were probably boiled first. I eventually ate one. It was chewy and crunchy. Did not taste bad, but not good either.

Your definitely more ballsy then me. Braised tender i could handle, but crunchy would definitely get the gag reflex going. Thought reminds me of eating raw pickled chicken hearts when i was a kid.

All i see is the top of a short rib. The top looks good, but you really need to show the inside to impress pretty much everyone on this forum that has cooked the elusive perfect short rib.

You said you ate it. How did you prepare it? Did you just boil and eat. I would imagine it was chewy.

Kudos, I cant imagine being served that at a restaurant , let alone buying it raw at a grocery store without a label. You my friend, got a set on ya.

I never brine or salt beef if its going to be cooked longer then 2 hours. Other then salting and high temperatures, what else is going to cause extreme juice/blood loss? Because to me it sounds like your implying chefsteps dark red color is somehow related to minimal loss of juices/blood? Maybe i should have been more clear, even there 24 hour @ 185F short ribs were dark red. That just doesnt seem possible without some sort of curing.

I stumbled across chefsteps time/texture videos and I noticed, aswell as another person that no matter what temp their short ribs were cooked at, they were really dark pink. The person had asked if they were cured but had not got any responce. Now i have cooked short ribs about 6 times and everytime was hit or miss and i came to the conclusion it was most likely the grade/type of short rib. Some were great some terrible. I just picked up a vacuum packed bone in short ribs that are i nice thickness (roughly 2 inch thick with bone) I am hoping for a good turn out, but in the past 36 hours at 134-136F gave me great and terrible mealy/dry results. I hate waisting so much time and money on this inconsistent cut of beef.

I dont believe that. A good example is taking a frozen raw steak and a frozen pre cooked steak and putting them in the fridge to thaw out. I know for fact that pre cooked steak will thaw faster then the frozen raw steak.

It does NOT take the same time to reheat a cooked steak as it does to bring to 135F from raw. Its suggested 90 minutes for 1-1 1/2 inch steak to reach 131F-135F. That same steak precooked and in fridge at 40F would take less then 30 minutes. So whoever mentioned #2 and #3 as being the same or #3 having no benifit, clearly is mistaken.

Never tried hummus. Dont mess with the Zohan kinda ruined me ever wanting to try it. My favorite dip for rye and pumpernickle bread is dried beef dip.