Maillard reaction
seriouseats.com
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You sear both sides for 30-45 seconds and then let the steak rest for about 2 minutes, and then repeat until you reach the internal temp you want. Usually about 3 or 4 times for a reasonably thick steak.
I can highly recommend this method and it's also good for cooking large numbers of steaks because you can do 2 or even 3 batches at the same time with the same cast iron pan.
Just make sure to save those juices that drip down for your pan sauce if you are making one!
The run included mustard as a base with lots of the predictable spices.
Put a cast iron skillet (which holds lots of heat) in oven at 500F on the top rack. Once it's hot, add the steak and turn on the broiler.
Flip 1/2 way through. Takes 6-12 mins. You can get a well-seared exterior with lots of crispy, browned fat, and the inside is still pink.
Tastes great! (Very smoky.)
I preheat 250-300 and watch a remote meat thermometer until the steak is 95% to desired temp. Usually takes 30-45 minutes. Then I crank up a skillet with ghee until it just starts smoking (~500F) and sear the hell out of the steaks for only a minute on each side. Perfect crust every time. Let rest for about 10 minutes.
Personally, I like using butter or ghee. Aside from the taste, it increases and distributes the heat transfer more evenly across the surface which provides a more uniform sear. If you do use oil, I'd recommend using ghee or refined olive oil and make sure to "temper" it first (allow it to warm with the skillet).
I do it just because I don't have to worry about doneness later - the inside is already cooked, just sear it and it's done.
I know a lot of people use a torch, but personally I like the skillet. Seems less fiddly and generally faster for a steak.
Maybe I’m just paranoid and missing out on some flavor but I don’t cook anything other than fish below 135F to kill any bacteria. https://www.amazingfoodmadeeasy.com/info/sous-vide-safety/mo... (Update) I’ve seen other reliable sources suggest 130F for 2+ hours is safe.
That's funny; fish is the one thing I'm ultra paranoid about. Many parasites survive in fish up to 145 F, and parasites are much more common than you might think. The gross out factor convinced me to switch away from wild salmon to farmed. Sushi grade fish is a bit different since it's required to be flash frozen in the U.S., but you're still eating parasite corpses (which doesn't bother some people, but personally makes me a bit squeamish).
As a society we live bathed in feces. The fecal-oral route is the most common way in which we get food poisoning. Yet it's only when the feces is pathogen-laden that we actually get food poisoning.
Worrying about dead parasites seems a little pointless when most people don't even wash their hands correctly.
For me anyhow, beef at 135 is decent (pork and chicken at 145 is my goto FWIW), but lots of fish tastes rubbery and just bad when cooked above 125 or so. I don't eat a ton of fish so I gamble on that.
He has a fairly exhaustive explanation of the different food-born microorganisms and how to kill them.
Anyways, go get at least one!
To piggyback on this comment, one reason I love using a cast iron skillet for steaks is so I can get a nice fond and deglaze for a sauce to go over the steak/potatoes/whatever. It's like a freebie!
Ahh, that could make sense, yes.
> one reason I love using a cast iron skillet for steaks is so I can get a nice fond and deglaze for a sauce
Yup. Pan sauces are free flavor that you get with every pan meal :) Works well with stainless steel skillets too.
One solution to having to broil them for too long might be to finish your sous vide cook, then chill them in an ice bath, and only broil once cold. That way the lower meat temp protects against the broiler overcooking the inside.
https://www.cookingforgeeks.com/
(I am in no way associated with the book or author; just a fan.)
I do this (makes 3 medium pretzels, enough for my wife and I to share)
40g sourdough starter discard
85g any beer (or water)
1 tsp each salt, yeast, sugar
160gm white flour
2 tbsp butter
I warm up the beer and butter until the butter’s just melted (not too hot, don’t boil it). Add the yeast, starter, and sugar. Give it a good stir.
In a decent-sized bowl add the flour and salt, then add the liquids. Give it a good mix with a wooden spoon. The dough should be just wet enough that there are no dry bits in the bowl, and it should all glom together easily. This is not a wet dough; I find about 58% hydration to be good. If it’s sticking to your fingers it’s probably too wet.
Take the dough out of the bowl, give it a bit of a knead (a few minutes should be fine, it should be fairly stiff to start with and easy to knead).
Form it into a ball and chuck it in an oiled bowl, let it rise for at least an hour, then take it out and mercilessly squish the dough. You want the flavour of the fermentation, but not the airiness. Pretzels should be fairly dense. No prize for big air bubbles here.
Form the pretzels (youtube, it’s easy) and put them on parchment/baking paper that’s been oiled/buttered. Chuck em in the fridge or freezer, they’re easier to handle when cold.
If using lye, make a 3% mix (30gm lye per litre of water; 1 litre should be enough) and when the pretzels are cold and stiff dunk them in the lye water for a minute each. Drain them and move them back to the parchment paper (might be good to oil it again) and give them a good dabbing with a paper towel to dry off the surface a bit. If you don’t the salt flakes you’re about to sprinkle will soak into the dough. Sprinkle salt flakes (you do want flakes not normal table salt). Chuck into a 200C oven on fan bake (or just bottom element) for 6-8 minutes until just past golden brown. Be sure to check on them, all ovens are different.
But be careful; I've noticed that if you use too much baking soda, you can get odd flavors — like squash tasting like pretzels.
I've tried recipes that advocated some baking soda, but even though I followed the instructions to the letter, the end result just had the terrible flavor.
There's also https://modernistcuisine.com/mc/the-maillard-reaction/, via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7562312
Well, the Maillard reaction is actually well understood. There is also early and late Maillard reaction products and not all products are necessary good for you.
"The Maillard reaction is many small, simultaneous chemical reactions that occur when proteins and sugars in and on your food are transformed by heat, producing new flavors, aromas, and colors."
...when proteins and REDUCING sugars... Fixed that for you.
Maillard reaction also occurs in your eye, what is a bad thing in the long run...
"Instead, these proteins require "reducing sugars," which are essentially simple sugars that attract amino acids at certain moisture and temperature levels."
And not just in the malting/kilning process, but during decoction mashes and boiling too.
https://www.brewersjournal.ca/2017/05/18/science-malliard-re... is interesting regarding this.
It doesn't work for thick, American diner-style omelettes. The technique is useful because it lets you cook French-style (creamy, wet-in-the-center, made with about 100 ml of omelette batter for a 10-inch skillet) omelettes really quickly. Whereas the cooking time for a French-style omelette is typically five minutes, with this technique it is perhaps seven seconds.
My guess about why this happens is that, given that the omelette is a significantly large fluid droplet, the pan doesn’t actually have to be above the Leidenfrost point for the entire cooking process because it takes time for the residual steam to flow out from underneath the droplet.
If Leidenfrost is what makes the omelette slide, why do you need oil at all?
It's pretty common knowledge for professional cooks[1], they just don't realize what it's called.
I don't understand the claim that cooks wouldn't know what this would be called.
> Your omelettes will float on a bed of steam.
Due to the effect. Not that the effect can be used to judge hotness of the pan.
I have some cast iron pans that I took the care to clean an polish smooth, and season well, and they are seasoned better than most other cast iron or steel skillets I've seen in other people's kitchens. It's smooth enough to cook eggs on, _if_ I use sufficient cooking fat. And even then, even my cheap teflon-coated pans are smoother, and can get away with using less cooking fat.
Yes, a steel or iron pan, well-seasoned, can be used for several tasks that someone might think would require a teflon pan. But even then, there are some things that are just plain easier on a teflon pan than they are on well-seasoned iron or steel.
My carbon steel will stick certain things if I throw them in when the pan’s not fully heated and completely dry, so I concede that point to you. I don’t cook like this though and It’s not really a recommended cooking style in general to start with a cold pan and no fat.
Woks are carbon steel and have eggs cooked on them all the time commercially for fried rice and such.
It's not.
I started trusting in my pans, lifting them off the burner as necessary for heat management, and properly distributing the egg curds with a fork as they form. It's a whole new game.
https://www.cooksillustrated.com/how_tos/5454-preheat-your-o...
It's not magic; I use this technique when making omelettes and scrambling, but not when I'm frying eggs.
I googled this and this thread comes up on the first page, and the results do not show this effect being used for cooking, only for verifying temperature.
Why would you even want to do this even if it worked the way you claim? If this worked the way you did, you would be steaming the eggs. If you wanted to control temperature, you could just...lower the temperature to the proper level.
No mention of Acrylamide
It's a great reaction and all, but I come here for news.
HN is for anything that gratifies intellectual curiosity. Sometimes that's news in the common sense, but often it's more obscure things, and those are also welcome.
Wow, inCREDibly vague. I thought this was a news site, thank you for clarifying.