Who here has used a sous vide machine (1 Viewer)

[boutrous]

and just throwing this tuna chart in here too:

People cook tuna?

 

[Tapxe]

Corn on the cob. 165 - 170 for 30-45 mins with butter in the bag. Pour it out onto your plate and season as you like.

Some say to go to 180, but I like a little more pop in my kernels.

Enjoy

 

[B4YOU]

However long ago it was that I learned to let a salted steak come to room temp was about how long ago I stopped using the SV or any other method.

This is the biggest difference maker for a decent cut of steak. Also doing 8-24hrs salted dry age on a rack in the refrigerator can help make a great steak.

People often worry about all the ways they can cook a steak, but skip over maybe the most important step which is prep.

 

[Twyst]

This is the biggest difference maker for a decent cut of steak. Also doing 8-24hrs salted dry age on a rack in the refrigerator can help make a great steak.

People often worry about all the ways they can cook a steak, but skip over maybe the most important step which is prep.

Salting non seafood meats the day before you cook them makes a HUGE difference in taste and texture. It's a very often overlooked step. Im not as sold on the room temperature steak thing, Ive always heard it and do it most of thje time it as it doesnt hurt anything to do, but the science behind it shows it actually doesn't make a difference

7 Myths About Cooking Steak That Need to Go Away

I'm not generally a negative person, and my normal reaction to seeing misinformation spread through the internet is to simply try and dilute it by spreading some verity and beauty—I've produced more than my share of articles about how to grill steaks (baked up and backed up by real science and...

www.seriouseats.com

.

 

[dtc]

Salting non seafood meats the day before you cook them makes a HUGE difference in taste and texture. It's a very often overlooked step. Im not as sold on the room temperature steak thing, Ive always heard it and do it most of thje time it as it doesnt hurt anything to do, but the science behind it shows it actually doesn't make a difference

7 Myths About Cooking Steak That Need to Go Away

I'm not generally a negative person, and my normal reaction to seeing misinformation spread through the internet is to simply try and dilute it by spreading some verity and beauty—I've produced more than my share of articles about how to grill steaks (baked up and backed up by real science and...

www.seriouseats.com

.

That article in the first section concocts a scenario that seems doomed to fail and disprove the theory that I believe which is that salting a steak and letting it rest at room temperature yields a better steak.

He's offering the theory that room temp lets it cook more evenly. I've never heard anyone say this and it makes no sense. the outside cooks more quickly. You're not trying to cook a steak evenly at all unless you're trying to ruin it. The goal I try to achieve is a good steak which by my definition is charred on the outside and warm, pink in side that's juicy. I don't care if it's even. I want char and pink. the less brown I can get the better. His next odd thought was to char one side then move to medium heat to let it cook. I don't get it. Unless you want a brown, medium steak this makes no sense.

Anyway, I don't know the guy or what his intent was, but that first objection seems off. He does address in his summary the reason I think a rested steak that's salted turns out better and that's a dry surface.

So, without knowing the intent of his argument and finding the suppositions to be incongruent with my own theory, I'll say that a salted steak that's allowed to rest for 30 or 40 minutes on a cooling rack will come out better. The salt will cause the steak to sweat away excess moisture. The salt will also liquify and be drawn into the meat providing a better flavor. The kicker, of course, and where I wonder if he was strawman fishing is that OF COURSE you dry off the water from your steak before cooking.

Salt, rest. DRY, then grill on a hot fire long enough to get char on the outside and warm pink inside.

For a 1.5" NY strip, that's 30 to 40 minutes sweating and salting and 3 to 4 minutes per side on a hot fire.

Still, his point is sound and if you throw a wet steak on your pan or grill you will get a bad, gray steak that has no char and is a waste of time.

 

[Twyst]

He's offering the theory that room temp lets it cook more evenly. I've never heard anyone say this and it makes no sense.

That was always the reason I heard for the room temp steak. It was about using SUPER high heat to cook your steak without the outside burning before you could get the center past rare. The theory was that if the center was already warm it was easier to control the temp. I'm not surprised that's the hypothesis he was trying to disprove as it's definitely a widespread theory.

 

[dtc]

That was always the reason I heard for the room temp steak. It was about using SUPER high heat to cook your steak without the outside burning before you could get the center past rare. The theory was that if the center was already warm it was easier to control the temp. I'm not surprised that's the hypothesis he was trying to disprove as it's definitely a widespread theory.

I'm sure you would know better than I do what's common among real cooks so I'll just assume I interpreted something I saw or heard and made sense of it for myself.

To me, the only benefit of the rest is that the water is extracted and the salt drawn in. Once it's wiped down and dry, it's just a matter of a few minutes on a hot fire.

 

[buzd]

I'm sure you would know better than I do what's common among real cooks so I'll just assume I interpreted something I saw or heard and made sense of it for myself.

To me, the only benefit of the rest is that the water is extracted and the salt drawn in. Once it's wiped down and dry, it's just a matter of a few minutes on a hot fire.

I'm not sure about the salt being drawn in. You can bury a steak in salt, and ultimately it's not going to be that salty. I think it does modify the proteins, making them more conducive to a juicy steak.

The rest I agree with - extracting the water and a dry exterior. If the outside isn't dry, you are wasting a lot of heat steaming off the water before the malliard reaction (browning) starts happening.

 

[seagull]

According to Alton Brown, the post cooking 5 min. rest is an important step to a great steak.

 

[Dago]

I'm not sure about the salt being drawn in. You can bury a steak in salt, and ultimately it's not going to be that salty. I think it does modify the proteins, making them more conducive to a juicy steak.

The rest I agree with - extracting the water and a dry exterior. If the outside isn't dry, you are wasting a lot of heat steaming off the water before the malliard reaction (browning) starts happening.

The salt does penetrate. At first fluid is drawn to the surface and then reabsorbed and the salt enters with it during reabsorption
Takes a day. Some people let it sit for as much 3 days

 

[Twyst]

Anyway, I don't know the guy or what his intent was, but that first objection seems off. He does address in his summary the reason I think a rested steak that's salted turns out better and that's a dry surface.

So, without knowing the intent of his argument and finding the suppositions to be incongruent with my own theory, I'll say that a salted steak that's allowed to rest for 30 or 40 minutes on a cooling rack will come out better. The salt will cause the steak to sweat away excess moisture. The salt will also liquify and be drawn into the meat providing a better flavor. The kicker, of course, and where I wonder if he was strawman fishing is that OF COURSE you dry off the water from your steak before cooking.

If you are really looking to have a dry surface, on a cooling rack in a fridge will be a lot better than on a rack at room temp. Leaving things uncovered in the fridge dries them out and is one of the secrets to really great chicken/duck skin. Leave things skin side up uncovered in the fridge for the best searing surface

I'm not sure about the salt being drawn in. You can bury a steak in salt, and ultimately it's not going to be that salty. I think it does modify the proteins, making them more conducive to a juicy steak.

It does modify the proteins but it is also definitely drawn in. If you salt steaks within an hour or so of cooking them its impossible to oversalt them as its not drawn in that much and you lose a lot of the salt that stays near the surface to the cooking process. If you salt the night before the salt gets drawn all the way through the steak. It's essentially dry brining.

You can actually watch the process happen on a steak. Salt it really well and watch the steak start to "sweat" on top as the salt pulls a little moisture out, then osmosis/equilibrium take over and that "sweat" and all that salt begins to be distributed back into the steak. The longer you give the process to work the more even the seasoning will become.

 

[buzd]

The salt does penetrate. At first fluid is drawn to the surface and then reabsorbed and the salt enters with it during reabsorption
Takes a day. Some people let it sit for as much 3 days

Ok, some quick google searches confirmed this. They also noted that the majority of the salt absorption is in the first 12 hours.

 

[Dago]

Ok, some quick google searches confirmed this. They also noted that the majority of the salt absorption is in the first 12 hours.

Ahhh ok. Good that means I don't need to do it for 24 hours. Gracias

 

[dtc]

I'm not sure about the salt being drawn in. You can bury a steak in salt, and ultimately it's not going to be that salty. I think it does modify the proteins, making them more conducive to a juicy steak.

The rest I agree with - extracting the water and a dry exterior. If the outside isn't dry, you are wasting a lot of heat steaming off the water before the malliard reaction (browning) starts happening.

I'm not a doctor, but I did take enough biology to understand the process by which the salt will be drawn into the steak, but I can't explain it.

It's a real easy thing to prove to yourself too. Rub the hell out of one in coarse kosher salt and leave the other unsalted. Cook and enjoy the salted one more!

 

[buzd]

I'm not a doctor, but I did take enough biology to understand the process by which the salt will be drawn into the steak, but I can't explain it.

It's a real easy thing to prove to yourself too. Rub the hell out of one in coarse kosher salt and leave the other unsalted. Cook and enjoy the salted one more!

Yeah, I understand the process. And it's more of an equilization with the brine to some degree, rather than straight absorption (that's a technicality, I know). I think what I was remembering that most seasonings (garlic, etc) don't have much of an effect in a brine because the size of the compounds that have flavor are too big to penetrate the cell membranes of the meat. Of course, I could be wrong about that too.

Sodium ions are certain small enough to do so. And I fully acknowledge that salting a steak beforehand is beneficial to the end result, but I also salt afterwards, so I'm not sure the extra salt flavor is my first priority.