The Smoke From Cast Iron Pans

[Fat Guy]

Tommy, another tip: you can sear off the steaks before your guests arrive, get your kitchen all cleaned up, and rest the steaks on a rack over a sheet pan until it gets close to time to eat. At that point you can roast them in the oven, put a little pat of butter on each towards the end of cooking, rest them for a few minutes, and serve. Nobody will be able to figure out how you did it.

This works for other proteins as well. A couple of years ago I had to cook dinner for something like 16 people for a charity event. There were so many people who were pseudo-kosher and otherwise difficult to feed that I had to go with fish. I was freaking out trying to figure out how I was going to do fish for that many people without fucking it up. Tom Colicchio and Matt Seeber told me to do big pieces of cod, sear them off before the guests arrived, and then oven roast them for service. They were even like, dude, just sear them on one side -- they won't even see the side that faces the plate. I had my doubts but I just went for it, and it worked brilliantly. Roasting in the oven allowed me to get the fish to the exact right internal temperature, and the pre-searing in butter gave them a gorgeous brown crusty appearance on the top side.

(Mind you, I'm only talking about my occasional cooking successes here. I'll conveniently disregard my routine and frequent failures.)

[carp]

Tommy, another tip: you can sear off the steaks before your guests arrive, get your kitchen all cleaned up, and rest the steaks on a rack over a sheet pan until it gets close to time to eat. At that point you can roast them in the oven, put a little pat of butter on each towards the end of cooking, rest them for a few minutes, and serve. Nobody will be able to figure out how you did it...

Thank you! That is a great idea!

How long can you let the steaks rest before roasting?

[lorea]

The moderate heat, butter trick thing works absolutely wonderfully with duck breasts too....crispy skin, yet tender and juicy on the inside.

[Fat Guy]

How long can you let the steaks rest before roasting?

I've never tested the limits of the phenomenon, but I've had no trouble at all with 2 hours on fish -- and surely beef is more stable and less prone to drying out than fish. In some busy restaurants -- not top-tier places, but the next level down -- they sear a bunch of stuff before service in order to accommodate the peak dinner rush, which means they might be doing that at 4:30 in the afternoon for people ordering dinner as late as 9:00 at night. Of course it gets a little gnarly at that point, but most customers never notice or care.

[balex]

If you go into a top restaurant kitchen, such as Ducasse or Craft in New York, they sear their meats at relatively low temperatures -- like, omelette-making temperatures. They use lots of butter, keeping it just this side of brown. There is very little smoke or splatter. Once they have the crust, they throw the item in the oven to finish cooking.

Interesting. I know that butter helps anything to brown, but I hadn't given it a lot of thought. I bet it has something to do with the fact that the butter solids brown and undergo Maillard reactions. One interesting thing about Maillard reactions is that, if there are other already "Maillardized" molecules around, it makes the Maillardization of whatever you're cooking go that much faster. This is why, when you're browning off a bunch of steaks (etc.), the subsequent steaks take color much more quickly than the first steak.

Does this mean that clarified butter wouldn't work? I guess with clarified butter you can go a lot hotter and get a nice brown colour that way.

[sacre_bleu]

What a thread ... 9:30 in the morning and already have my mission for the day ...

[tommy]

What a thread ... 9:30 in the morning and already have my mission for the day ...

beautiful, ain't it? i totally rearranged my dinner plans from friday night to work in the immediate satisfaction of a hamburger at home, all in the name of science.

[LJC]

Another question?

does this same method apply to vegetables, ie poblano peppers a la plancha?

[Fat Guy]

A lot of vegetables lose their "snap" if you sear-hold-reheat, but for peppers I can't imagine that would be much of a problem since they tend to be cooked until somewhat soft anyway. It would be worth a try. After all, various forms of par-cooking and heating-for-service are ubiquitous in restaurant vegetable cookery. Any vegetable that takes more than a couple of minutes to cook really has to be par-cooked to be usable in anything less than a Michelin-starred type of environment. Take a look at your plate the next time you're in a restaurant. You think they made your mashed potatoes to order? You think they made an individual portion of ratatouille just for you? Other than greens, the entremetier station at a busy restaurant rarely cooks anything from raw. It's all about putting last-minute heat on what's already par-cooked.

I'm not terribly experienced with clarified butter, but the couple of times I've used it I've gotten very nice crusty color and "roasty" flavor. Not sure about the Maillard implications -- may not Maillardize as much on the butter side but may cause more reactions on the meat side?

[blueapron]

In my last rest I worked under a chef who was a chef de partie a DB and also at the French Laundry. He was also a fish instructor at the CIA,anyway he cooked all protiens this way.

We started with standard all clad stainless pans and heated up to a medium.Then added clairified butter and placed the seasoned meat in let it cook for 1 minute flipped it and then added some good whole butter and a clove of garlic.Allowed it to cook for 30 sec flipped back agian onto the first side. We then tilted the pan back alittle and spooned and spooned and spooned the hot butter over the meat until cooked to temp.We never put them in the oven. The butter speeds up the maillard reaction and browns both sides perfectly.

This was new for me and against everything I was taughht before, but that is the beauty of cooking under several different chefs - there is a million different ways to do the same thing.

[johnnycab]

FatGuy - You mentioned bringing the steaks to room temperature. Does this make a big difference? Thanks.

[mudbug]

Great thread! Wonderful input...

[LJC]

So I had a chance (wife out of town) to try out the medium heat butter method suggested and it was fantastic. I added some goose fat with the butter, which was also nice. No to very little smoke, a pretty thick crust and a perfect mid-rare inside.

Thank you very much for the advice!

[bleachboy]

I got some nice two-inch-thick strip steaks from my butcher recently, and decided to try out this new-fangled "medium heat and a ton of butter" cooking method.

Holy crap!! I am a true believer.

Seriously, if you are smoking up your house with the cast iron pan (my old technique) you will LOVE the results you'll get from the Fat Guy technique. Probably the best steak I've ever prepared at home. Okay, definitely the best.

[Marlene]

I'll be doing this tonight as I have three beautiful rib eyes to cook, it's pouring rain here and I can't get to my BBQ anyway as my deck is all torn up at the moment.

Question then:

The butter method will be tried. Is the cast iron frying pan the best pan to do this in? and then would I just stick the cast iron pan in the oven?

[Marlene]

I did this tonight, although I neglected to take pictures. I had two hungry pre-teen boys breathing down my neck as I was taking them out of the oven.

My son was quite dubious about this method of cooking steak. His only steak experiences have been grilled. However, since it was this way or Kraft dinner, we proceeded.

I had two cast iron frying pans going because the three steaks wouldn't fit in one pan. The steaks were Rib Eyes, a pound and half each and 2 inches thick. My son picked them out yesterday at the butchers.

I did the butter thing, and by the time I got the crust Iwanted, the steaks were almost cooked. I did not throw the cast iron pan into the oven, but instead placed the three steaks on a sheet pan and put them in a 350 convection roast oven. I only needed to leave them in there for 5 minutes or so and they were done. Rested, drizzled the juice that had collected in the pan over them and served. My son and his friend thought they were excellent.

I'm not as convinced. It was good, but I like my higher heat method better I guess. Then again, I may not have done this the right way.

I had a boyfriend once many many years ago, who made me one of the best steaks I've ever had, using a cast iron frying pan and coating the steaks with a thin layer of mustard paste before frying. I've never been able to duplicate that taste.

But man, was it good.

[Lactic Solar Dust]

I worked at a French restaurant in Chicago that cooked almost everything in cast iron pans. And like blueapron, steaks were browned on both sides, and then butter added to baste. However, you can do the same thing with bonless skinless chicken breasts, with a little variation. Brown your breast on what would be skin side down first, turn it, add your whole butter, star anise, rosemary or thyme sprig, crushed garlic close, and baste. You can even add a cinamon stick or whatever else you like..

Now, it seems like that the more trendier kitchens I have been in brown their meat and then seal it in a vacuum bag with aromatics and the cook it sous vide. It cooks everything to the perfect temperature all the way around; it is almost fool proof.