The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 349

minimal. Cut-and-peek too many times, though, and you
run the risk of shredding your steak. In reality, one or two
peekswon’tbedetectableintheendproduct.
But there’s a bigger problem with the cut-and-peek
method:it’snotaccurate.Becauseofthefactthatjuicesget
squeezedoutquicklyfromhotmeat,whenyoucutintothe
center of a still-hot steak (like one that’s still sitting in the
pan), it’ll appear to be much rarer than it really is. If you
continuetocookyoursteakuntilitappearsrightbythecutand-peek method, it’ll be overcooked by the time you
actuallyeatit.Rememberthatthicksteakscontinuetorisein
temperatureevenafterbeingremovedfromthepan.
What does that mean? It means that if you haven’t yet,
you should go out and get yourself a good digital
thermometer,duh!
UnreasonablyLargePan-SearedSteaks
With really big steaks, say 1½ inches thick or greater, you
run into another problem: it’s nearly impossible to cook
them through to the center in a skillet without burning the
outside. Conventional restaurant kitchen technique is that
thebestthingtodointhissituationistosearthesteaksfirst
in a hot skillet, then pop them into a hot oven to finish
cookingthroughtothecenter.Andthismethodworks.But
there are better ways to do it. See, that method is designed
for use in a kitchen where order and expediency are the
immediategoalsofthelinecook.Assoonasanorderfora
steakcomesin,theeasiestcourseofactionistosearit,then
throw it in the oven and forget about it until it’s done, so
you can focus on other things, say, plating the half dozen


ordersforchickenthattabletwelveiswaitingfor.Athome,

we don’t have the same urgency—we have more time to
planandmoretimetoexecute.
As it turns out, a better way to cook a thick steak is to
startitinahotpanandthenturndowntheheat.You want
to time it so that the optimal level of browning is achieved
just as the center of the meat reaches the desired final
temperature.Howdoyoubrownusingmoderateheat?First
of all, use some butter. The milk proteins in butter brown
naturally, giving the steak a jump start. Second, baste the
steak.Byspooningthehotfatoverthemeatasitcooks,you
allow both sides to get the browning effects of the butter
whilesimultaneouslyshorteningitscookingtime.Formore
onbutter-bastedsteaks,seetherecipehere.
Alternatively, you can go radical and use my technique
for cooking your steak in a beer cooler (wait, what?—skip
aheadtohere,andyou’llsee).