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Help on making steak


caunyd

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Hi guys. I'm a rookie aspiring steak chef. I plan on cooking steak by pan roasting and then completing the cooking in an oven. First I want to season the steak with salt, pepper, and butter, and then sear for 2-3 minutes on each side in a cast iron pan. After that, I will transfer the pan to a 375 degree F oven for 10-14 minutes. This way the meat gets a good brown crust on the stovetop, and cooks evenly through in the oven. From my research, this is how Laurent Tourondel of BLT Steak (my favorite steak restaurant) does it. What do you guys think?

What is the amount/ratio of butter, salt, and pepper I should use to season the steak? I'm concerned about making the steak too salty or "peppery." Do I only put the steak, butter, salt, and pepper together when I'm searing on the cast iron pan? Or should I let the meat marinate in the butter, salt, and pepper for some amount of time before I pan roast it? I'm a rookie so any detailed advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

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Well, there is a big difference, 2" is a 100% thicker than 1".

You will get a 1,000 different ways to make perfect steaks. You can't trust many of the "perfect" ways that will work for you, including my "perfect" way. Not only that, don't trust your oven can give you accurate 370 F either, it can be off by 40F or more.

One thing you can trust is to get a high quality instant-read digital probe thermometer, and measure steak internal temperature. You should also look up the meaning of "resting" and "carry over heat". Forget about what you see on youtube famous chefs' testing steak done-ness by touching.

Salt and pepper is all you need for a good steak. Don't get fancy with rubs or seasonings.

dcarch

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I've had uniformly good results with the method discussed in this thread.

This is my skillet. There are many like it, but this one is mine. My skillet is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it, as I must master my life. Without me my skillet is useless. Without my skillet, I am useless. I must season my skillet well. I will. Before God I swear this creed. My skillet and myself are the makers of my meal. We are the masters of our kitchen. So be it, until there are no ingredients, but dinner. Amen.

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Hi guys. I'm a rookie aspiring steak chef. I plan on cooking steak by pan roasting and then completing the cooking in an oven. First I want to season the steak with salt, pepper, and butter, and then sear for 2-3 minutes on each side in a cast iron pan. After that, I will transfer the pan to a 375 degree F oven for 10-14 minutes. This way the meat gets a good brown crust on the stovetop, and cooks evenly through in the oven. From my research, this is how Laurent Tourondel of BLT Steak (my favorite steak restaurant) does it. What do you guys think?

What is the amount/ratio of butter, salt, and pepper I should use to season the steak? I'm concerned about making the steak too salty or "peppery." Do I only put the steak, butter, salt, and pepper together when I'm searing on the cast iron pan? Or should I let the meat marinate in the butter, salt, and pepper for some amount of time before I pan roast it? I'm a rookie so any detailed advice would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance!

I do pretty much as you plan, except I sear <2min per side and for a really thin steak, less....... being careful to remove the steak from the oven at about 115-120 midsteak temp. The resting period mentioned by dcarch is key...the cooking finishes and juices are reabsorbed by the meat so that your steak isn't sitting in a pool of blood (actually myoglobin) when you cut it.

A little salt before cooking, then salt, pepper and perhaps a dab of butter at the end.

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Thanks for the feedback guys. I guess I want concrete guidelines because this is the first time I'll be trying to prepare steak properly and I don't want to have to mess up 10 times before doing it right. I know it's a learning process, and everyone is different, every steak is different, and every salt is different, but if you all gave me your preferences as to salting and seasoning (and I realize, everyone would have a different opinion), I think I would do better than just winging it on my own, especially during my first time.

Dakki, thanks for the thread suggestion. I'll have to read that and see if that helps.

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One thing you can trust is to get a high quality instant-read digital probe thermometer, and measure steak internal temperature. You should also look up the meaning of "resting" and "carry over heat". Forget about what you see on youtube famous chefs' testing steak done-ness by touching.

Dcarch gave you the right advice - cook steaks to temperature and not by any other guide. Temperature is really the only reliable tool. This is what I use:

50C = rare

55C = medium rare

60C = medium

65C = well done

Lately I have been experimenting with thinner cuts of steak. Going by the theory that most of the flavour is on the surface, a thinner steak gives you greater surface area to volume. The downside with thin steaks is that they are easy to overcook. I therefore cook my steaks in two stages - they are sous-vided to 55C, then rested and dried, then brushed with oil and finished over charcoal. My kamado, when loaded with charcoal, gets so hot that the steaks are perfectly seared within a minute on each side.

Here is a thin cut steak cooked the way I described:

original.jpg

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There is no love more sincere than the love of food - George Bernard Shaw
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How should I check for internal temperature? Do I put the steak in the oven and cook for a few minutes at a certain oven temperature, and then pull the steaks out and then stick the digitial thermometer into the steaks? And then adjust oven temperature depending on what the digital thermometer says?

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How should I check for internal temperature? Do I put the steak in the oven and cook for a few minutes at a certain oven temperature, and then pull the steaks out and then stick the digitial thermometer into the steaks? And then adjust oven temperature depending on what the digital thermometer says?

1. Get a good probe digital thermometer. Put it in boiling water and time how long it takes to get to 212 degrees F. then put it in ice water and time how long it takes to get to 32 degrees F. Don't worry too much if it is off by one or two degrees. This test will give you an idea how long it takes for your thermometer to read the correct temperature. The faster the time the better it is.

2. You can take the steak out to measure, but not necessary.

3. Insert the probe into the center of the thickest part of the steak (the coldest spot), and the reading is the temperature you are looking for.

4. You may want to check temperature in a few areas just to be sure if you have gotten the coldest spot.

Your oven temperature setting should be based on what the recipe calls for, not what the thermometer tells you. If the temperature is still low, let the steak stay there longer.

----------------------------

A little science here: not required for making good tasting steaks:

Once the oven temperature setting is above 212F, The steak interior does not get hotter faster even you set the temperature hotter. The boiling point of water in the steak will keep the temperature at 212F, and it cannot get any hotter. The timing of how fast the inside gets hotter is mostly determined by the thermal conductivity of the meat, that is a constant which you cannot change.

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out.

dcarch

dcarch

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You can do a one flip..and watch the blood push through...

One inch..penetration..blood bleed s about medium rare

With the rest..

Here is the deal..cooking pushes moister..as things heat up..it pushes out..

About a next few minutes..that's how I'd roll

Its good to have Morels

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I happen to prefer the sous vide method, followed by a short cooling period, and then grilling on a backyard propane barbecue to add cross-hatched grill marks. Before cooking in the water bath, an overnight brining in two cups cold water, a tablespoon of salt, a tablespoon of sugar, with some chopped kombu and dried shitaki mushrooms, and half a teaspoon of Marmite. In the cooking bag, season only with pepper. 130F for 4 to 12 hours.

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A little science here: not required for making good tasting steaks:

Once the oven temperature setting is above 212F, The steak interior does not get hotter faster even you set the temperature hotter. The boiling point of water in the steak will keep the temperature at 212F, and it cannot get any hotter. The timing of how fast the inside gets hotter is mostly determined by the thermal conductivity of the meat, that is a constant which you cannot change.

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out.

dcarch

dcarch

That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable.

Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking.

Edited by sigma (log)
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A little science here: not required for making good tasting steaks:

Once the oven temperature setting is above 212F, The steak interior does not get hotter faster even you set the temperature hotter. The boiling point of water in the steak will keep the temperature at 212F, and it cannot get any hotter. The timing of how fast the inside gets hotter is mostly determined by the thermal conductivity of the meat, that is a constant which you cannot change.

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out.

dcarch

dcarch

That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable.

Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking.

The outside layer may get dried out, then there is the next layer, the next layer, the next layer ------- each layer has water, meat is about 75% water. Until all the water is boiled away, no temperature can get higher than 212F (normal atmospheric pressure).

You may be able to find on Youtube many videos showing you can boil water on fire, using pots make of paper. The water will not allow the paper to get hotter than 212F.

"The heat of the oven changes that variable."

Conductivity is a constant, not a variable. Nothing can change thermal conductivity of a sustance.

dcarch

Edited by dcarch (log)
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P

A little science here: not required for making good tasting steaks:

Once the oven temperature setting is above 212F, The steak interior does not get hotter faster even you set the temperature hotter. The boiling point of water in the steak will keep the temperature at 212F, and it cannot get any hotter. The timing of how fast the inside gets hotter is mostly determined by the thermal conductivity of the meat, that is a constant which you cannot change.

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out.

dcarch

dcarch

That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable.

Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking.

The outside layer may get dried out, then there is the next layer, the next layer, the next layer ------- each layer has water, meat is about 75% water. Until all the water is boiled away, no temperature can get higher than 212F (normal atmospheric pressure).

You may be able to find on Youtube many videos showing you can boil water on fire, using pots make of paper. The water will not allow the paper to get hotter than 212F.

"The heat of the oven changes that variable."

Conductivity is a constant, not a variable. Nothing can change thermal conductivity of a sustance.

dcarch

Uh, I never said that conductivity is a variable, I said that the temperature and thickness of the outer crust is dependent on oven temperature, a fact which none of your water boiling paper refutes, or even contemplates. The Point is that meat cooks as a result of conductivity, and the time to temperature of the center of the meat depends on the conductivity, the thickness and the exterior temperature, the last of which is determined, in large part, by the heat of the cooking medium. The fact that water cannot get hotter than 100 C is a limiting factor to how fast the center will cook, but it does not follow that the heat of the air inside an oven has no effect on cooking time once it is above 100 C.

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I often use this method: season steak with only salt, heat cast iron pan to very very hot, sear steak on one side, flip and move into the oven which is set at the lowest temp it can have, somewhere around 200F

I insert a bbq thermometer (wired) and close the door, then I make salad or what ever else is supposed to go along, potatoes in the pressure cooker (10 min) etc. Once the meat gets to the internal temp I want (about 130 degree usually) I take it out and let it rest, also that's when I add the pepper which would have burned to ashes in the hot pan at the beginning. Same reason I'd NOT add butter before searing, you'll just burn the butter. Add it while the meat is resting, maybe even a nice compound butter with some herbs, garlic?

I used this method many years ago for the first high quality steak I ever bought and made, was for valentine's day and from the newspaper. Worked great then, works great now. Steak slowly comes up to temp and is perfect every time, the high heat sear does not penetrate much into the cold meat and since it's off the heat after the flip, it gets evenly heated through.

I love steak sous vide as well, but that takes more planning, with this method you can have a wonderful steak dinner in 30 min :-)

"And don't forget music - music in the kitchen is an essential ingredient!"

- Thomas Keller

Diablo Kitchen, my food blog

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P

A little science here: not required for making good tasting steaks:

Once the oven temperature setting is above 212F, The steak interior does not get hotter faster even you set the temperature hotter. The boiling point of water in the steak will keep the temperature at 212F, and it cannot get any hotter. The timing of how fast the inside gets hotter is mostly determined by the thermal conductivity of the meat, that is a constant which you cannot change.

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out.

dcarch

dcarch

That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable.

Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking.

The outside layer may get dried out, then there is the next layer, the next layer, the next layer ------- each layer has water, meat is about 75% water. Until all the water is boiled away, no temperature can get higher than 212F (normal atmospheric pressure).

You may be able to find on Youtube many videos showing you can boil water on fire, using pots make of paper. The water will not allow the paper to get hotter than 212F.

"The heat of the oven changes that variable."

Conductivity is a constant, not a variable. Nothing can change thermal conductivity of a sustance.

dcarch

Uh, I never said that conductivity is a variable, I said that the temperature and thickness of the outer crust is dependent on oven temperature, a fact which none of your water boiling paper refutes, or even contemplates. The Point is that meat cooks as a result of conductivity, and the time to temperature of the center of the meat depends on the conductivity, the thickness and the exterior temperature, the last of which is determined, in large part, by the heat of the cooking medium. The fact that water cannot get hotter than 100 C is a limiting factor to how fast the center will cook, but it does not follow that the heat of the air inside an oven has no effect on cooking time once it is above 100 C.

I am absolutely not sure why you need to get to that degree of details in the thermodynamics for the purpose of general understanding of major factors effecting cooking.

I said "A little science", water boiling point, and conductivity are all you need to be aware of when you cook to control quality of the end result.

Otherwise you will need to know the boiling point of fat, conductivity of bones, relative humidity of air, velocity of convection in the appliance, surface infrared radiation conditions, insulating quality of the crust, capillary action of the meat's grain structure ----------------------------------------------!!!!

Of course the heat in an oven effect cooking, it burns the outside quicker, but water's boiling point and conductivity constant prevents the heat from getting to the center quicker. However, a 2,000 F furnace will turn your steak to vapor in a very short time.

dcarch

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P

A little science here: not required for making good tasting steaks:

Once the oven temperature setting is above 212F, The steak interior does not get hotter faster even you set the temperature hotter. The boiling point of water in the steak will keep the temperature at 212F, and it cannot get any hotter. The timing of how fast the inside gets hotter is mostly determined by the thermal conductivity of the meat, that is a constant which you cannot change.

Have fun, and let us know how it turns out.

dcarch

dcarch

That's not really true, is it? Won't hotter air dry the outside layers faster allowing them to heat to a higher temperature which will increase the speed at which the heat penetrates the center? In other words, the boiling point of water is only limiting when the exterior surface is comprised mainly of water. The heat of the oven changes that variable.

Also, the differential between surface and interior temp determines the rise in core temperature after cooking, so the different temperatures in an oven do have a significant impact on the calculus of cooking.

The outside layer may get dried out, then there is the next layer, the next layer, the next layer ------- each layer has water, meat is about 75% water. Until all the water is boiled away, no temperature can get higher than 212F (normal atmospheric pressure).

You may be able to find on Youtube many videos showing you can boil water on fire, using pots make of paper. The water will not allow the paper to get hotter than 212F.

"The heat of the oven changes that variable."

Conductivity is a constant, not a variable. Nothing can change thermal conductivity of a sustance.

dcarch

Uh, I never said that conductivity is a variable, I said that the temperature and thickness of the outer crust is dependent on oven temperature, a fact which none of your water boiling paper refutes, or even contemplates. The Point is that meat cooks as a result of conductivity, and the time to temperature of the center of the meat depends on the conductivity, the thickness and the exterior temperature, the last of which is determined, in large part, by the heat of the cooking medium. The fact that water cannot get hotter than 100 C is a limiting factor to how fast the center will cook, but it does not follow that the heat of the air inside an oven has no effect on cooking time once it is above 100 C.

I am absolutely not sure why you need to get to that degree of details in the thermodynamics for the purpose of general understanding of major factors effecting cooking.

I said "A little science", water boiling point, and conductivity are all you need to be aware of when you cook to control quality of the end result.

Otherwise you will need to know the boiling point of fat, conductivity of bones, relative humidity of air, velocity of convection in the appliance, surface infrared radiation conditions, insulating quality of the crust, capillary action of the meat's grain structure ----------------------------------------------!!!!

Of course the heat in an oven effect cooking, it burns the outside quicker, but water's boiling point and conductivity constant prevents the heat from getting to the center quicker. However, a 2,000 F furnace will turn your steak to vapor in a very short time.

dcarch

I don't know if you are babbling to hide that you don't know what you are talking about, or whether you still believe that the time it takes a steak to get to temperature is not affected by the temperature of the oven so long as you are above 100 C.

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I often use this method: season steak with only salt, heat cast iron pan to very very hot, sear steak on one side, flip and move into the oven which is set at the lowest temp it can have, somewhere around 200F

I insert a bbq thermometer (wired) and close the door, then I make salad or what ever else is supposed to go along, potatoes in the pressure cooker (10 min) etc. Once the meat gets to the internal temp I want (about 130 degree usually) I take it out and let it rest, also that's when I add the pepper which would have burned to ashes in the hot pan at the beginning. Same reason I'd NOT add butter before searing, you'll just burn the butter. Add it while the meat is resting, maybe even a nice compound butter with some herbs, garlic?

I used this method many years ago for the first high quality steak I ever bought and made, was for valentine's day and from the newspaper. Worked great then, works great now. Steak slowly comes up to temp and is perfect every time, the high heat sear does not penetrate much into the cold meat and since it's off the heat after the flip, it gets evenly heated through.

I love steak sous vide as well, but that takes more planning, with this method you can have a wonderful steak dinner in 30 min :-)

That is a perfectly scientific way to make great steak.

Just one small thing to be aware of, for thin steaks, the placing of the thermometer probe full time in the meat can effect the reading due to the higher conductivity of the metal shaft of the probe.

Try this quick experiment:

Wrap some paper towel around the probe's shaft just above the tip, and pour some hot water over the paper. You will see the tip will be reading a temperature rise from the paper towel even the measuring tip sensor is not in the hot paper towel.

Also, butter has a very low smoking point. You may want to try clarified butter instead.

dcarch

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Sigma, "I don't know if you are babbling to hide that you don't know what you are talking about, or whether you still believe that the time it takes a steak to get to temperature is not affected by the temperature of the oven so long as you are above 100 C. "

​I admire your great knowledge in scientific matters, as well as your sophisticated sense of humor.

dcarch

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Sigma, "I don't know if you are babbling to hide that you don't know what you are talking about, or whether you still believe that the time it takes a steak to get to temperature is not affected by the temperature of the oven so long as you are above 100 C. "

​I admire your great knowledge in scientific matters, as well as your sophisticated sense of humor.

dcarch

Snark all you like, but are you still holding to your "scientific" suggestion that oven temperature, as long as it is above 100 C, has no effect on the time it takes for the core temperature of a steak to rise to the desired level? I mean, this is a thread asking about how to cook a steak, so I am just trying to pin down your advice here.

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