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faux grilled steak
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Watt
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PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Dilbert wrote:
...don't brown the pasta sauce meat...

ah,,, deep into preferences and taste on this one.
even pasta bolonese - the "most classical" red sauce with meat that jumps to mind - calls for "cook until browned" for the meat.
personally I prefer my meat sauce to have recognizable bits of meat - altho burnt to a cinder aka hard bits in the sauce isn't my goal.

....Your observations may be sound, but I think your inference is not, same mass of protein, maybe, but much smaller mass of water.

it's simply an observation - same as searing off the meat - there's a whole bunch of "stuff" going on.

you do realize, the last paragraph supports the "sear the meat and seal in the juice" line . . . .


not my preferences but from the leading Italian chef in UK. The meat is still recognisable, its just softer than the bullets usually produced. Maybe get a real cookbook by a real Italian living in Italy and not the silly offerings by American Italians?

Searing does not seal the meat, it pyrolyses it, heating the meat shrinks it which squeezes out the water, making it tougher. This applies to all common meat regardless of cut, but not fish, which has different muscle proteins.
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Dilbert



Joined: 19 Oct 2007
Posts: 1304
Location: central PA

PostPosted: Wed May 14, 2008 6:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

....not my preferences but from the leading Italian chef in UK.

send the chef back to Italy for a refresher course.

I have spend weeks at a time on business travel in Italy - from Torino to Napoli, Bari to Venice/Mestre and points in between, north south east and west of the afore mentioned. Roma I did "on vacation" - oops.

I don't need any flavor of cookbook to know what comes out of a real Italian kitchen.

I also disagree completely with your conclusion that "browning" meat - in this case ground beef - can produce nothing but bullets.
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Watt
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PostPosted: Thu May 15, 2008 1:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

then next time in Italy, ask them how they make a sauce with ground/minced beef in it. And I didn't say

"browning" meat - in this case ground beef - can produce nothing but bullets.

I said

its just softer than the bullets usually produced.

If you do it properly, you don't get bullets, not even for less tender cuts of beef, which will be the ones most likely to be turned into bullets if fried.

Fry non-tender meat and you will likely get bullets, period.
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district2k5



Joined: 10 Dec 2008
Posts: 11
Location: Washington, DC

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 7:52 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Not sure about that pasta sauce tangent, but here's what I've been doing to "grill" steak indoors. I buy sirloin from Whole Foods (the cuts are thicker and they seem to be more careful about not selling older, discolored meat), let it sit in some red wine vinegar for 30 mins or so, maybe poking the meat a little with a fork. Then I remove the meat from the liquid and let it drain in a large strainer. I then rub some kosher salt on both sides of the meat while I'm warming a cast iron skillet. I cook it to medium rare per my Thermapen or whatever it's called thingy, tent with foil when it comes off the heat, and serve in thin slices. I like sprinkling some shallots or flat leaf parsley on top, too.

I really think the salt is key. I've heard you're never supposed to salt meat before cooking, but I've never had a problem. My sirloin turns out brown on the outside and tender and pink on the inside with a pretty nice grill-like flavor.
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Dilbert



Joined: 19 Oct 2007
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Location: central PA

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:13 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

>>>I've heard you're never supposed to salt meat before cooking,

just ignore that kind of stuff. salt brings moisture and proteins to the surface - that makes for better crusting/crisping.

>pasta sauce tangent: it's a question of whether you prefer browned beef bits or strained pureed meat gel in your bolognese....
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district2k5



Joined: 10 Dec 2008
Posts: 11
Location: Washington, DC

PostPosted: Wed Dec 10, 2008 8:47 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I prefer tartar control meat paste to boring old meat gel.

As for the salt thing, I'd been making steak-frites with bearnaise very successfully for over a year when an out-of-town* friend was in my kitchen and told me not to salt it pre-cooking. The main problem? She never should have been in my kitchen while I was cooking in the first place. I tried the post-cooking salting thing on a whim-- probably my worst steak ever resulted.

What about a sugar rub on steak? Would that help the browning process for a lean cut of beef? My approach has been most definitely un-scientific. The steak comes out brown and the kosher salt definitely improves the flavor, but I wouldn't complain if my steak got a little more charred. I wonder if my vinegar soak has been increasing the sugar level already...?


*She's French, but clearly didn't know what she was talking about in this area. I suppose I let her boss me around because it was a French meal and her nationality made me second-guess myself, even in an area where my method had a proven record of success. Never again.
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DrBiggles



Joined: 12 May 2005
Posts: 356
Location: Richmond, CA

PostPosted: Sun Dec 21, 2008 8:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

district2k5 wrote:
I prefer tartar control meat paste to boring old meat gel.

As for the salt thing, I'd been making steak-frites with bearnaise very successfully for over a year when an out-of-town* friend was in my kitchen and told me not to salt it pre-cooking. The main problem? She never should have been in my kitchen while I was cooking in the first place. I tried the post-cooking salting thing on a whim-- probably my worst steak ever resulted.

What about a sugar rub on steak? Would that help the browning process for a lean cut of beef? My approach has been most definitely un-scientific. The steak comes out brown and the kosher salt definitely improves the flavor, but I wouldn't complain if my steak got a little more charred. I wonder if my vinegar soak has been increasing the sugar level already...?


*She's French, but clearly didn't know what she was talking about in this area. I suppose I let her boss me around because it was a French meal and her nationality made me second-guess myself, even in an area where my method had a proven record of success. Never again.


Sugar on steak sounds awful and burns at low temperatures, just ask anyone who smokes food. Sugar is for cakes & cookies.



Here's a pork steak I browned using an exceptionally hot cast iron skillet with a 10" camp dutch oven lid to secure it firmly to the 12" fry pan.

The pork was kosher salted an hour or so before the sear.

Biggles
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Queenie



Joined: 26 Dec 2008
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Location: England

PostPosted: Fri Dec 26, 2008 6:05 pm    Post subject: Crying out for a spot of imaginative design. Reply with quote

This problem is a prime contender for some blue-sky thinking. It's like using a blowtorch for creme brulee.

There are some things which really do need a much higher temperature than we can normally get from our ovens, stoves, and grills. Real pizza is one, and a seriously well seared steak is another, and a third is those seriously sizzling chinese recipes that you stir fry, then tip onto a very very hot surface.
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PostPosted: Fri Feb 26, 2010 7:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

sauteed beef has been around for a long time. Nothing new.
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