sauteing, frying, searing

[oraklet]

well, it's not that i don't know how to prepare my steak - it's more that i'm a bit confused about the different methods, as cook books seem to disagree about:

how much heat?

what shape and weight of pan?

how much oil/butter and what kind?

when to use which method, and why?

can general rules be given, or is it really a bit vague?

[Suzanne F]

Frying would just be wrong for a steak. Too much fat in the pan (unless you're talking about "chicken-fried steak," which I suspect you're not). I guess what you're doing when you "pan-fry" or "pan-broil" a steak is first searing it (browning the outside over high heat), and then "sauteeing" it to finish. But for me, sauté (from the French word meaning "jump") connotes too much movement. And this is going to be confusing: when you cook filet mignon or a similar cut, you just sauté them QUICKLY, usually in clarified butter. Never use whole butter; it will burn. (You can always add whole butter to the pan sauce afterward. In fact, you SHOULD. Yum)

I prefer a nice heavy-ish All-Clad or really heavy cast iron. Since it will get very hot, you want a pan that won't warp. And that has even heat dispersion throughout the cooking surface.

I can tell you what works for me: When I want a nice brown surface on the whole piece of meat, I use either a sauté pan (sloping sides) or a frying pan (straight sides) -- doesn't matter which. Obviously, the cooking surface of the pan has to be somewhat bigger than the meat to be cooked. I pour in a little oil (canola or olive) -- no more than 1 tablespoon in a 12-inch pan. You don't need much, because the fat in the meat will melt. Bring the oil up to barely smoking over medium-high to high heat (forgive me, oh gods of All-Clad!), gently lay the (seasoned) meat in the pan, make sure the exhaust fan is on, and wait a few minutes. Give the pan a shake to make sure the meat isn't sticking. Season the uncooked side, not done already. Turn the meat over with my fingers or with tongs (NEVER a fork). Let it sit again. When it's a little underdone, take it out and let it rest. If it were a particularly thick piece of meat, like a 3-inch porterhouse, I'd probably stick it in a very hot oven right after turning it. Otherwise it would be well-done too far in from the surface, but raw in the middle. But this worked perfectly the other night for a 1-inch thick london broil (about 4 minutes per side; we like it rare).

If I had a cast iron skillet, that would work fine, too -- and no oil needed to start. Although if I wanted to make a pan sauce after cooking the meat, I'd prefer the regular pan -- easier to hold when hot, easier for me to work with.

When I want nice grill marks, I use a Lodge cast-iron grill pan. No oil. High heat (again, forgive me!). The only difference would be rotating the meat halfway through cooking each side, to get nice marks ("quadrillage").

[=Mark]

No pan. Grill.

[Suzanne F]

Don't I wish I could!! But not all of us live where we can cook outside. I know, a grill pan is a poor substitute for the real thing, but it's all some of us have.

[oraklet]

suzanne f,

thanx - and

..."and then "sauteeing" it to finish. But for me, sauté (from the French word meaning "jump") connotes too much movement."...

does add to the confusion of vocabulary, right? so, what i really feel in need of, would be a "table" of sorts showing what is what etc. - but perhaps impossible?

[Fat Guy]

I'm persuaded by the Ducasse method of cooking steak, as we discussed on an earlier thread. The embedded link is still active, so definitely go read the article.

[Wilfrid]

It's doubtless too late to rescue the useful term "sautee". It's now used as cognate with any kind of shallow frying, whereas it originally referred specifically to tossing something briskly in a hot pan - making it jump, as Suzanne pointed out. An unfortunate loss.

[oraklet]

i always thought that a "sauteuse" would not do for the "jumping", and most cookbooks advice me to sautee in a frying pan...and then, fish should not jump, no?

so...no clear definitions?

[Fat Guy]

Wilfrid, it seems that the term as used in the US basically refers to the utensil more than the method. Also interesting is how we use skillet, frying pan, omelette/omelet pan, and a few other utensil terms interchangeably, not to mention how we call saucepans pans even though they seem to be pots.