Text 23986, 108 rader
Skriven 2009-05-11 23:22:00 av JIM WELLER (1:123/140)
     Kommentar till en text av HAP NEWSOM
Ärende: Re: YEr NutZ!!
======================
-=> Quoting Hap Newsom to Jim Weller <=-

 ->  HN> Next you'll be telling us you
 ->  HN> crack your soft boiled eggs
 ->  HN> at the SMALL end!!

 -> I do indeed and eat little Irish children during times of famine.


 HN> Too much starch! (grin)

(snork)

MMMMM-----Meal-Master - formatted by MMCONV  2.10

     Title: The Butter Steak Part 1
Categories: beef, steak, info
  Servings: 1

      1    16-ounce Ribeye 
      2 TB butter 
      2    cloves garlic 
           salt and pepper 

I'm not interested in carbonizing the surface of the meat. To me
that ruins the flavor. - Alain Ducasse

It was a bachelor weekend so I bought a bottle of wine, a potato the
size of a shoe, and an enormous rib eye.

I began to wonder whether the stove-top method was the best way to
do it or should I dump a bunch of charcoal into my little hibachi
and try to get that sucker as hot as possible? Really, what is the
best way to cook a ribeye?

My initial thought was to mimic the technique nearly every serious
steak house in the Midwest does: broiling it under an inferno.  And
I mean that.  They regularly reach hellish temperatures of around 800
degrees.  The quick sear blackens the outside while leaving the
inside nice and rare.  Of course, much like the perfect New York
pizza oven, one cannot easily recreate this temperature at home.  I
could only try hard and hope to get close.  I was looking around on
eGullet to see if there was a better way of doing this when I came
across an article called The Best Way to Cook a Thick Steak.  I
figured it would be a good place to start. 

But I was a little taken aback by what I read.  Instead of hellish
temperatures, and visible flames, this article claimed that the best
way to cook a steak was over medium heat in a skillet bathed in
butter.  The reasoning is that while high temperatures do a good job
of searing the meat, they create burnt flavors.  This more  moderate
approach allows for even cooking and a great flavor because of the
Maillard Reaction.  And suddenly, and without warning, my simple
meal of meat and potatoes required a science lesson.   

And it's science that I don't quite understand.  I am a little out
of my league.  Maybe one day I'll indulge in a more serious scan of
Harold McGee to better grasp.  They even linked to an article by
Alain Ducasse, a very muddled essay in the New York Times about how
this is the way he likes to cook his steak.  He casually mentions
that those high heat methods burn the steak, and that he thinks
steak tastes better when cooked in a moderate pan with loads and
loads butter.  Even Tom Colicchio is also a fan of this method,
claiming he can "get a crust this way."

Though I am intrigued by the science, what honestly sold me was the
serious food porn on eGullet's site.  Even though I was a little
skeptical about the idea, I just couldn't get these images out of my
head.  

It would require skill and care.  The steak is first cooked on its
edge to render some of the beef fat and lubricate the pan, then
flipped onto its side and cooked in its own fat for a few minutes.
Then the fat is poured out and a lot of butter is added.  A LOT of
butter.

Still I had my doubts.  I worried that the relatively long cooking
times would mean my steak would cook past medium rare.  I worried
that all I was going to taste was butter.  And mostly I worried I
hadn't been gluttonous enough.  Ducasse recommended a steak that was
24 ounces and an inch and half thick.  The one I picked up was only
17 ounces and only an inch and a quarter, which was still more than
I'd ever need on a normal night.

I adjusted the cooking times, hoping that I could still get a nice a
rare steak, but I was just a little off.  Mine got just a tad too
close to medium, which makes me wonder whether this technique is
only good at cooking insanely big steaks that I'll only cook once a
year, if that often.  But I think the technique is right.  Next time
I might start with butter sooner in the process, flip more often,
and pay just a little more attention to it.  Because once you see
this crust, man...it's hard to look away. 


  From: Http://Thepauperedchef.Com      
 
MMMMM-------------------------------------------------

Cheers

YK Jim


... The truth would have caused panic and cost lives.

___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.20 [NR]
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v3.0pr5
 * Origin: Doc's Place BBS Fido Since 1991 docsplace.tzo.com (1:123/140)