The food lab better home cooking through science ( PDFDrive ) 343

Aftertwohours,IdecidedI’dreachedthelimitofwhatis
practical, and had gone far beyond what any book or chef
recommends, so I cooked the two steaks side by side. For
the sake of this test, I cooked them directly over hot coals
untilseared,thenshiftedthemovertothecoolsidetofinish.
Not only did they come up to their final temperature at
nearlythesametime(Iwasaimingfor130°F)butalsothey
showed the same relative evenness of cooking, and they
bothsearedatthesamerate.
Longstoryshort:pullingyoursteaksoutearlyisawaste
oftime.
Q:What’sthebestfattouse?
Nowwe’rereadytostartcooking.Butbeforethesteakhits
the pan, we’ve got to add some fat. When searing, fat
accomplishes two goals. First, it prevents things from
stickingtothepanbyprovidingalubricatinglayerbetween
themeatandthehotmetal.Didyouknowthatmeatproteins
actually form a chemical bond at the molecular level with
metal when they are heated in contact with it? Proper
preheating and using fat will help prevent this from
happening. Second, fat conducts the heat evenly over the
entire bottom surface of the steak. It may not look so from
afar,butthesurfaceofapieceofmeatisverybumpy,and
thesebumpsonlygetexaggeratedasthemeatisheatedand
starts shrinking and buckling.Without oil, only tiny bits of
the steak will actually come in direct contact with the hot
pan,andyouwillendupwithaspottysear—almostburntin
some spots and gray in others. You need to use at least
enough oil to conduct heat to the portions of the steak that

arenotindirectcontactwiththemetal.
Butwhat’sthebestmediumtosearin?Butteroroil?And,
if I’m using oil, which one? Some claim that a mixture of
bothisbest,usingtherationalethatbutteralonehastoolow
a smoke point (see “The Smoke Points of Common Oils,”
here)—it begins to burn and turn black at temperatures too
lowtoproperlysearmeat.Somehowcuttingthebutterwith
a bit of oil is supposed to raise this smoke point.
Unfortunately, that’s not true.When we say that “butter is
burnt,” we’re not really talking about the butter as a whole
—we’re talking specifically about the milk proteins in
butter,thelittlewhitespecksyouseewhenyoumeltit.It’s
these milk proteins that burn when you get them too hot,
and believe me, they couldn’t care less whether they’re
beingburntinbutterfatorinoil.Eitherway,theyburn.