What's the best way to prepare a steak?

Keith_W

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Mar 31, 2012
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Johnny, how long to sear depends on your heat source. I use a Kamado cooker, filled with hot burning Gidgee charcoal (Gidgee is a type of Australian hardwood). This heat is incredibly intense - the colour you see on the steak was developed by spending only a minute over the flames.

This steak was cut to 1.5cm thickness.
 

Johnny Vinyl

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Thanks Keith!
 

hvbias

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Jun 22, 2012
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I'll just leave this picture here.



Lately I have been asking my butcher to cut my steaks thinner. My theory is this - most of the flavour of the steak is on the surface. By cutting a thinner steak, you maximize the surface area to volume ratio.

The danger with a thin steak is that it is easy to overcook. The danger is particularly high if you use a single stage, high heat cooking method where you have to time removal perfectly to achieve medium rare. This is why I cook my steaks using a two stage method - the first is sous-vide to set the meat at the required level of done-ness, and the second stage is a high heat sear to develop flavour. All I need to do is make sure the surface is nicely browned and not burnt, something which is easy to do visually.

Sous-vide is how I prefer to cook them as well. Medium rare temp in the SV (vacuum sealed with just a touch of butter), then sear on a really hot cast iron.

Bed Bath and Beyond (USA) often mail out 20% off coupons, that's where I bought my Supreme. My favorite thing to SV has to be 48 hour ribs :b
 

zztop7

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Dec 12, 2012
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NO Cleanup & Extremely HOT

NO Cleanup & Extremely HOT

#1 Four DRY refractory bricks on a large aluminum sheet pan.
#2 SS [stainless steel] mesh grid on bricks.
#3 10" diameter X 14" tall heavy SS cylinder on mesh.
#4 Coat firebricks in cylinder with starter fluid.
#5 REMOVE cylinder & ignite fluid [leaving cylinder will create a small bomb if excess fluid is used / also safety reason for heavy cylinder].
#6 Put cylinder back in center of mesh/refractory bricks].
#7 Fill cylinder 1/4 with hardwood charcoal [break-up monster size pieces in advance.
$8 Carefully move firebricks a TINY to allow more air for complete combustion.
#9 Place a heavy SS mesh on top of cylinder for cooking.
#10 Allow hardwood to properly start before cooking [usually very quick].
#11 HOT HOT & NO Cleanup - just dump the soft white ashes the next day in the trash.

Obviously this is a small cooking surface for single item or small items.

An extremely efficient use of the hardwood.

zz.
 

Johnny Vinyl

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I'm no expert and I also don't have a SV unit just yet (something I really want to get though). Another limitation I have is living in an apartment with a city by-law that prevents the use of BBQ's. As such, I have had to get by with the stove-top method. I do not like finishing a steak in the oven....I've never had good luck with that method. So this is what I do.

I use a Canada Triple A cut of Tenderloin (mostly). I buy it from Costco and I've been happy with the quality, plus I can afford it. It is approx 1.5" thick. Sorry guys, I don't do the other organic choices......it's beyond my means. I believe Canada AAA is equivalent to USDA Prime(?).

I add some Montreal Steak Spice to both sides of the steak, rub it in and let it sit for about 15 minutes.
I then heat my frying-pan using peanut Oil on a #7 setting of an electric stove for about 2 minutes. This gives me the temperature I like.
I then introduce the steak and time it for 2 minutes per side. I am very careful about this.

I then let it rest for about 5 minutes and this is the result.

IMG_0210.JPG

While the result of this method is not "what's Best", it is a picture of what you can come close to, if you adapt yourself to the methods at your disposal.
 

mep

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Apr 20, 2010
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I'm no expert and I also don't have a SV unit just yet (something I really want to get though). Another limitation I have is living in an apartment with a city by-law that prevents the use of BBQ's. As such, I have had to get by with the stove-top method. I do not like finishing a steak in the oven....I've never had good luck with that method. So this is what I do.

I use a Canada Triple A cut of Tenderloin (mostly). I buy it from Costco and I've been happy with the quality, plus I can afford it. It is approx 1.5" thick. Sorry guys, I don't do the other organic choices......it's beyond my means. I believe Canada AAA is equivalent to USDA Prime(?).

I add some Montreal Steak Spice to both sides of the steak, rub it in and let it sit for about 15 minutes.
I then heat my frying-pan using peanut Oil on a #7 setting of an electric stove for about 2 minutes. This gives me the temperature I like.
I then introduce the steak and time it for 2 minutes per side. I am very careful about this.

I then let it rest for about 5 minutes and this is the result.

View attachment 11543

While the result of this method is not "what's Best", it is a picture of what you can come close to, if you adapt yourself to the methods at your disposal.

John-I think your steak looks great. To me, it looks much more appetizing than the steak pictured in post #83.
 

Johnny Vinyl

Member Sponsor & WBF Founding Member
May 16, 2010
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Thanks Mark! It tastes even better than it looks. Notice there are no juices leaching from the steak. It's not always this way and I can't figure out quite why, but usually I get pretty darned close.
 

JackD201

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Apr 20, 2010
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Darn it. I shouldn't have logged on. It's 2am here and your pic made me hungry!
 

marty

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Apr 20, 2010
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What an interesting thread. Who knew? What’s next, best ice-cream?

A few random comments:

First, I’m sure everyone knows that the term Wagyu is such a misused term that it has become at best confusing and at worst, essentially meaningless. The only genuine Wagyu cattle is a Japanese breed designed genetically to produce intense marbling and unsaturated fats. Kobe is the best known example. However, in the US, Japanese Wagyu are typically crossbred with Angus to yield a product called “American Style Kobe beef”. Genuine Wagyu cattle in the US is available in miniscule quantities from very few ranches in Colorado or Wyoming but that’s it as far as I know. It is certainly not widely distributed. I would be very suspicious of buying anything called Wagyu unless you knew exactly what ranch it was sourced from and you confirmed that the ranch does indeed produce genuine Wagyu beef. And to be honest, I’ve had what I believe was the real deal Kobe beef (in Japan) and Wagyu style (in the US). Maybe its me, but a good USDA Prime aged beef sourced from somebody such as Allen Bros (see below) is IMHO, every bit its equal at a much lower price. (Is this the equivalent of saying one likes 18-2 Radio Shack lamp chord speaker cable as much as Transparent Opus? Do I have to wonder if the Beef Police will come to my house and arrest me?)

Second, for me, it’s simple garlic salt and nothing else when grilling, although Lawyr’s is pretty good as well.

Third, I agree that Kosher meat can be nothing special, but if you speak to a lot of restaurant owners that get their local game from hunters, the thing they will tell you that is their number one priority is a “kosher kill”. This implies a swift, one shot or bow kill with rapid butchering for all the reasons previously mentioned. Don’t confuse Kosher meat with a Kosher kill.

Finally, Lobels is indeed a good source (although I think they are better for veal, which I believe is sourced from Provimi) , But if you want to get your beef from the same place the best steak restaurants in the US get theirs, there is only one choice- Allen Brothers in Chicago. Whether its Del Frisco (for me, it’s their filet that’s out of sight), Peter Lugar’s (porterhouse is what they are famous for). Bern’s (more famous for their wines than their steak which is still outstanding) or any of the other 20-30 great steak houses in the US- they all get their beef from Allen Brothers.

Lastly, I confess I have no idea what an “SV” stands for. Sound interesting but I don’t know what it is actually.

Just reading this thread has made me take an extra Lipitor.
 

treitz3

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Dec 25, 2011
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Lastly, I confess I have no idea what an “SV” stands for. Sound interesting but I don’t know what it is actually.

Hello and good morning to you, Marty. "SV" stands for Sous-Vide which is basically a cooking technique to where food is placed into a plastic bag that is vacuumed and sealed, then slow cooked in a warm bath water that circulates and is held to strict temperature control. To finish a steak using this method, one would remove the steak out of the bath and bag and sear it in a preheated hot pan for 4-7 seconds to sear.

Tom
 

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