The Steak thread

[Skybird]

Kobe beef is extremely expensive (the most expensive there is), and I think the EU has a ban on it anyway. Never saw it in stores.

I also do not want to ruin my finances over just one dinner. I'm not a rich man - I just make myself sound like one.

[joegrundman]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Kobe beef is extremely expensive (the most expensive there is), and I think the EU has a ban on it anyway. Never saw it in stores.

I also do not want to ruin my finances over just one dinner. I'm not a rich man - I just make myself sound like one.

then south american is a good option. good value for money and easy to obtain in germany.

if not well marbled with fat, then it is a good idea to marinate the steaks in olive oil for a few hours before cooking.

also a useful tip for home aging.

take the meat out of the packing, and put it on a rack above a tray, as if for roasting. place it in the fridge for two days.

it may lose some of its beautiful redness, but this is a desirable thing in a steak!

you should take the steak out (and marinate it in olive oil for a couple of hours if necessary) and let it warm up to room temperature before cooking.

[krashkart]

I like plain ol' steak. Just grill it and eat it, sometimes slathered with A1 sauce. My stepdad though, he cooks up a steak from time to time with a dark beer gravy that is something to behold. Another proper use for Guinness in my estimation.

[Gargamel]

Steaks need to be grilled. Period.

Other ways of cooking dead cow is fine, but to disregard it out of hand? Sacrilege!

That said, a good meat rub of spices, or good marinate, then some light coating of a thick beer on the coals for vapor flavor. Cook it till just stops mooing, 30 seconds more...... Yum. Garnish with sautéed shrroms, onions and mixed peppers.

[Polak]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Kobe beef is extremely expensive (the most expensive there is), and I think the EU has a ban on it anyway. Never saw it in stores.

I also do not want to ruin my finances over just one dinner. I'm not a rich man - I just make myself sound like one.

No ban on Kobe beef in the EU, bought it in stores both in Poland and Sweden.

Lately I've started to give my stakes a quick soy sauce bath, I let the meat rest in soy sauce for about an hour, after that it goes straight down into a hot pan, thanks to this method you don't have to worry about the white death, salt.
I adjust the time spent on the pan to the thickness of meat piece I am cooking. When I judge that the meat is done I take it of the pan/bbq, apply freshly grounded black pepper, let it rest and after that I dig in.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Polak

No ban on Kobe beef in the EU, bought it in stores both in Poland and Sweden.

You can get beef from all over the world called Kobe beef, it's from Wagyu cattle the same family as Kobe but is interbred with Angus (not Young), and raised in the same way. Really it should be called Kobe style beef.

Japan has a ban on exporting the original Kobe beef.

[joegrundman]

in any case, i do not recommend wagyu or kobe beef for steaks. it is not really optimised for steak.

[Polak]

Originally Posted by Herr-Berbunch

You can get beef from all over the world called Kobe beef, it's from Wagyu cattle the same family as Kobe but is interbred with Angus (not Young), and raised in the same way. Really it should be called Kobe style beef.

Japan has a ban on exporting the original Kobe beef.

In that case I stand corrected.

[Skybird]

Wowh, I am just done with my steak today, and it was - wayyyy better than how I did it in the past. I used the method with baking it in the oven, which indeed worked wonders. I absolutely recommend to experiment with that.

It was a bit too bloody for my taste, which may be due to the piece of meat I had being bigger than the 200 gr the original recipe was scaled for. But by principle - hot, short roasting, then baking - that tip is worth pure gold.

I wonder if one can help the second stage by adding 1 minute of microwave treatement?

---

To use soy sauce for steak like Polak mentioned, never came to my mind. But why not. I use to do mixed vegetable-meat-pan s Asian style a lot, mainly sweet pepper, chicken, soy bean sprouts, and for that I use to marinade the meat in a bath of soy sauce, Sherry, soup stock, sugar, hot chilli. Use Chinese soy sauce if you want to give it a more salty taste, use the lekker-lekker Indonesian soy sauce if you want it more flourish and sweet (damn god stuff, this Indonesian Ketjap Manis or Ketjap Asin, I consume it by truckloads). Good Curry powder also is a good ingredient in that sauce. The marinade later can be used as the main sauce aqdded to the pan/Wok.
So, why not using soy sauce as marinade for steaks. However, I assume the taste is not the typical taste of what I imagine to be the typical taste of "steak".

---

Joe, thnaks for the explanation of "sous vide". Never heared of that, but it sounds interesting. I just doubt that I am willing to make that the method of choice, since it takes quite some time in advance preparation. But i will at least try it out.

But I wonder about the hygienic aspect. If the meat never gets warmed above 60°C in the inside, then this makes me think.

[jumpy]

Rub it in salt and coarse ground black pepper, drop into a medium heat frying pan with olive oil.
Fry for about 10 minutes. (for me until it's no longer bloody throughout)

Consume with lots of salad, potato wedges and red wine.

Simples.


....I don't like complicated cooking.

[mookiemookie]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Wowh, I am just done with my steak today, and it was - wayyyy better than how I did it in the past. I used the method with baking it in the oven, which indeed worked wonders. I absolutely recommend to experiment with that.

It was a bit too bloody for my taste, which may be due to the piece of meat I had being bigger than the 200 gr the original recipe was scaled for. But by principle - hot, short roasting, then baking - that tip is worth pure gold.

I wonder if one can help the second stage by adding 1 minute of microwave treatement?

Bake it in the oven longer.

And the reason why I recommend doing it the other way around - bake, THEN sear - is that you end up with the same amount of "done-ness" from end to end in your steak. If you do pan then oven, I've found that you get a brown crust, a pink center, and a band of overcooked meat in between. By doing it in the oven first, you get your pink center, and then you develop your brown crust on the outside with a short amount of time in the pan. Too short to let that overcooked band develop.

Joe, thnaks for the explanation of "sous vide". Never heared of that, but it sounds interesting. I just doubt that I am willing to make that the method of choice, since it takes quite some time in advance preparation. But i will at least try it out.

But I wonder about the hygienic aspect. If the meat never gets warmed above 60°C in the inside, then this makes me think.

Sous vide is a great way of doing it. You don't need a real sous-vide machine to do it either. You can do it with just a plastic zip top baggie and an ice chest.

Fill up your beer cooler with water just a couple degrees higher than the temperature you'd like to cook your food at (to account for temperature loss when you add cold food to it), seal your food in a plastic Ziplock bag*, drop it in, and close your beer cooler until your food is cooked. It's as simple as that.

*FYI: The air in a plastic bag can be removed by slowly dipping the open bag with your food in it into the water, sealing it just before the water starts to pour inside. It's not as air-free an environment as a vacuum-sealed bag, but it's enough to keep the food submerged, and in contact with the water, which is all that's really important.

For a medium rare steak, you're looking at 140 degrees. Just get your water a couple degrees hotter than that, put it in your ice chest, throw your steak in a baggie in, weight it down with a plate or something, and close the lid. It only takes about 45 minutes to do. I finish it off with a quick sear on the stove. It's wonderful. The best part about sous vide cooking is that it's literally impossible to overcook something. It's only going to get as hot as your water is.

You don't have to worry about bacteria inside the middle of your steak. Steak just doesn't have the parasites like pork or chicken does - its too acidic of an environment for them. Bacteria can only live on the outside of a steak, and those are killed off when you cook it, no matter what level of done-ness it is on the inside.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3743657.stm

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mookiemookie

Bake it in the oven longer.

And the reason why I recommend doing it the other way around - bake, THEN sear - is that you end up with the same amount of "done-ness" from end to end in your steak. If you do pan then oven, I've found that you get a brown crust, a pink center, and a band of overcooked meat in between. By doing it in the oven first, you get your pink center, and then you develop your brown crust on the outside with a short amount of time in the pan. Too short to let that overcooked band develop.



Sous vide is a great way of doing it. You don't need a real sous-vide machine to do it either. You can do it with just a plastic zip top baggie and an ice chest.



For a medium rare steak, you're looking at 140 degrees. Just get your water a couple degrees hotter than that, put it in your ice chest, throw your steak in a baggie in, weight it down with a plate or something, and close the lid. It only takes about 45 minutes to do. I finish it off with a quick sear on the stove. It's wonderful. The best part about sous vide cooking is that it's literally impossible to overcook something. It's only going to get as hot as your water is.

You don't have to worry about bacteria inside the middle of your steak. Steak just doesn't have the parasites like pork or chicken does - its too acidic of an environment for them. Bacteria can only live on the outside of a steak, and those are killed off when you cook it, no matter what level of done-ness it is on the inside.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3743657.stm

From one of Joe'S links, I take this:

Safety: Any time you eat undercooked meat, you are running a risk of food-borne illness. Use your own judgment to weigh whether or not your pleasure is worth this risk. And if pleasure is not your priority, seriously consider becoming a vegan. At 130°F and above, bacteria will cease to multiply, but lower than this, and bacteria will multiply at an accelerated rate. If cooking your steak below 130°F, do not leave it in the water bath for any longer than four hours.

130°F is about 54°C.

Beyond that, I understand that your method of baking first, searing second, kind of copies the sous-vide method, with different timing and temperature though.

I wonder if there is a way to use a microwave oven for the baking/waterbathing, and then grilling it? Anyone having tried microwaves on raw meat? If that is possible, it would be the by far most comfortable solution.