Cooking For Engineers

[pbone]

I like steak charred on the outside and rare on the inside. It's always hit or miss when I char steaks in black iron skillet over a gas flame and then put into oven to cook it (barely) through. I would love to know the exact times and temps for a 1 1/2" thick strip or sirloin steak or porterhouse started in a very hot skillet on top of the gas stove. It has been suggested that as soon as I turn the steak over I should put the steak AND the same hot skillet into a preheated 350 degree oven and leave it for ??? minutes. Or should I have a pan preheated in the 350 oven and char both sides in the black skillet on top, before putting steak into oven in the other hot pan...or transfer the steak, charred both sides, to a cold pan for the finishing in the oven, or should the oven be hotter or cooler than 350? And, vastly important, for how long?? I wish there were a chart...usually the supermarket steaks one buys are more like 1" thick, and they nearly always come out overcooked. And one does hate to keep cutting into the steaks to see whether they are done))) Please advise. Should be SO grateful finally to have a clue! Then I'll start asking about how exactly to soft poach an egg in the microwave....

[Dilbert]

pittsburgh style, eh?

preheat oven 325'F
preheat pan, smoking hot +
sear steak - charred will take 3-5 minutes
flip
cut 1 minute off initial time for second side
pop into the preheated oven in the hot pan

for 1-1/2 inch thick cool rare at center I'd go no more than 6 minutes in the oven

some odd thoughts on your msg:

"flip & put directly into oven" - this will not give you the char on the second side. for a char you must use the smoking hot blast furnace pan - cast iron is excellent, do NOT use non-stick.

on a one inch thickness, you will really need a very hot pan to get the char out side and rare inside. could be difficult without a 17-20 k BTU burner.

you'll need a couple trials to perfect the technique - there's not a lot of wiggle room for the cool rate center - so be accurate in your sear time per side.

[Guest]

It's almost impossible to to advise you. All the steaks you buy will be different in some way. The type of cut, the 'exact' thickness, where you buy it & for how long it's been hung, all these issues need to be factored in on the day, so a guidance chart won't really help.

If you find your steaks are too overcooked for your taste then it seems the time they spend in the oven is too long.

The one single best peice of advice I received from a chef is that when the steak comes off the griddle it should be placed on a warm plate & covered, then left to rest for 5mins to allow the juices to seep back into the middle of the meat, the residual hot juices will continue the cooking process & give a moist mouth feel. It shouldn't need to go into the oven.

But it really is all about experience, it's always better to undercook as it can always go back in the griddle again for an extra minute or two.

[Michael Chu]

And that last post seems completely relevant to steaks...

[GaryProtein]

While that egg poacher design works, and the plastic wrap allows for an almost no-clean-up operation, making it a good solution for my own breakfast when I'm running against the clock, for company, I would prefer most of the traditional egg poachers found here:

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=egg+poacher&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

The traditional poacher gives a perfectly shaped egg, evenly cooked, with a simple clean-up.

Maybe this can be moved to an egg thread.

[alison - uk]

Michael Chu. The OP was planning to ask about poaching the perfect egg - I merely pre-empted her enquiry. No need for snippiness now!

[Howard]

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_99,00.html

[pbone]

Thank you all so much. I have eagerly read each and every opinion, and welcome any and all further thoughts on the subject of how to finish steaks in the oven. I tried the suggestion of Dilbert, I think it was, the first post, who referred to "Pittsburgh style" and it was right on. And the latest post, just above this one, from Howard, leads to a terrific site that anyone interested in the subject should relish. Thank you, Michael Chu, for such a fun and satisfying and responsive site! It beats any other cooking site I've encountered or even cleaved to))))))Thanks again.:-)

[Guest]

I used the link on egg poaching by B3TA and I looked at all his methods prior to the one using microwavable cling wrap. Now I am pretty old, but way back in the stone age, when I took home econmics (stop laughing) we were told you had to put vinegar in the water when you poached an egg. I think you would get a much better result with any of the "egg directly in the water" methods. I believe the vinegar helps the white stay together. But, I am not an engineer. I'm just married to one.