You can also break down collagen (the tough protein) by braising, or a couple of other simple slow-cooking methods. The meat will have different taste and texture from grilled steak, but in no way inferior. Braising can easily turn a $5/pound cut into something that tastes better than 95% of the dry-aged porterhouse steaks out there.
Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
101–110 of 144 posts
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not the article writer in particular, the article is basically fine in other respects, it's people in general. I see far more people using "osmosis" more often than "diffusion", despite almost never using it correctly. For example, those "Learning through osmosis" signs in libraries, articles, shirts, etc. absolutely abound. It clearly isn't working if you think that's osmosis. Or there are tons of services with…
"Osmosis vs diffusion is not difficult to understand. It just seems people use it to sound smarter, and thus fail miserably 99% of the time." They fail 99% of the time with you , but if the vast majority of the people don't know the difference (as you said they don't), then the misusers aren't failing with the vast majority of listeners. :)
Incorrect statements are incorrect, whether or not anyone's around to hear the tree fall in the forest. I'll accept ramchip's explanation through simile, but quite literally that's the first time I've heard it (I may live under a rock in that, though).
Are you then implying that anything that the majority believes - heck, lets make it 99% - is true, and should be accepted?
Lets put it in geek-friendly terms, dating it back a number of years, so it strikes a chord with yc users: "Windows is the only operating system."
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, the flavor. Unrefined salts tend to carry loads of random minerals from the source, which lend their flavors to whatever you use it on. I'm not a big salt-flavor fan, so I effectively never have salt pieces on anything . The texture doesn't exist in any salt I use, as it's all dissolved. edit: finally found it. Redmond RealSalt, all the big grocery stores near me carry it. ~6.50 for 26 oz, so for my uses that's 6…
Unrefined salts carry a miniscule amount of trace minerals from the source and this small amount of contamination is almost imperceptible. If you do not actually salt after cooking (and all of the salt is therefore dissolved into the food) then you are not tasting the so-called "flavor" of the salt, it is all in your head. A specialty salt can be mildly effective as a finishing agent but if you are adding it to the d…
Try some unrefined salts before claiming it's identical to table salt. In the stuff I have, there are clods of red & grey minerals. Sticking your finger in & tasting a bit, you can extremely easily taste a difference. Dissolving it in water, you can see the precipitates, and easily taste a difference. Double-blind in all cases, compared against two other kinds of "regular" salt. I'm careful with what I eat. It's even easily detectable in clear soups.
It's the flavor. Really. There is a difference. There's a definite marketing spin to try to sell it, but that doesn't imply there's no difference.
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unrefined salts carry a miniscule amount of trace minerals from the source and this small amount of contamination is almost imperceptible. If you do not actually salt after cooking (and all of the salt is therefore dissolved into the food) then you are not tasting the so-called "flavor" of the salt, it is all in your head. A specialty salt can be mildly effective as a finishing agent but if you are adding it to the d…
Try some unrefined salts before claiming it's identical to table salt. In the stuff I have, there are clods of red & grey minerals. Sticking your finger in & tasting a bit, you can extremely easily taste a difference. Dissolving it in water, you can see the precipitates, and easily taste a difference. Double-blind in all cases, compared against two other kinds of "regular" salt. I'm careful with what I eat. It's even…
Mass-market sea salt and kosher salt are the same thing. Buy whichever is cheaper. You're right that it's better for cooking than table salt (except in baking, where you cannot use it). This is otherwise not worth arguing about.
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Totally not sold on the value of the circulator for a home rig (although, don't spent $1000 on an IC, since the price circulation is about to drop radically). Unless you want to make a poster of eggs cooked to every degree between 130 and 150, the ghetto PID controller setup is plenty precise enough.
I highly doubt that the price of the ic is going to drop as it still hasn't dropped a dollar. A oid controller is totally fine for a home cook, and if you can afford it the sous vide supreme is even better. A quality foodsaver would be just fine for home use as well. PS if any NYC HN'ers are interested in coming to an underground supper club for dinner, check our. Arazorashinyknife.com and shoot me an e-mail. Its a f…
Ping me in email, and I'll track down the $300 part I'm thinking of.
I've seen (IRL) the sous vide supreme appliance, and have a peer who got to use one for a couple weeks, and if you've got the ghetto rig, the SVS doesn't add anything. Hacker News types are better off with the PID controller.
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#106Liberally salting your steak is a fine idea, but where is this person finding choice ribeye for $5? Choice isn't "cheap". The $15/lb ribeye at Whole Foods is choice, as is pretty much every other steak you buy outside a specialty store. There's nothing at all wrong with it. This article never gets specific, but I get the impression the author doesn't really know what "prime" means: how well marbled the cut is with fa…
USDA beef grading is assigned to the whole carcass, so you can get any part of the cow in prime. Only cuts where USDA rating correlates with quality are typically marketed as prime/choice, typically just loin and rib-eye. You do see things like "prime skirt steak" but it's uncommon, because there won't be any difference in marbling or tenderness on that cut. For other cuts like chuck, prime is actually too fatty for…
When the steak in front of me is labelled "USDA Choice", it's choice. I would be surprised to find out that any of the steaks at Whole Foods are "select". I think you're just wrong about this.
Yep, you can probably get "prime skirt" at Schaub's. Someone fedex me a Fred Steak, please. I'll send italian beef back in reply.
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#107Finally a Hacker News article I can share with my Mom!!
Just don't share it with your wife .. she may take offense.
Hah! My wife was the one who told me about March" rel="nofollow">http://www.google.com/search?q=March+14th>March 14th. This will make it even better.
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I cook steak in a vacuum-sealed bag submerged in a water bath held with a PID controller at precisely 131f, then sear them in a cast iron pan with just-barely-smoking peanut oil for about 30 seconds a side. Nobody has flown cross-country for my cooking, but the Chicago HN'ers should do a dinner sometime.
I've heard of this technique before, but never tried the product of it yet. How do you control for food-borne diseases like Clostridium botulinum? (honest question). I'd be concerned that level of heat wouldn't kill it off. It sounds to me like this technique would really help with a complete and consistent cooking of the entire steak -- something I strongly favor. It's why I start with a low heat grill then ramp up…
Sous vide cooking (what I just described) is effectively pasteurization. At 131f, by the time a steak is cooked through, you'll have a better than 10D reduction in botulism --- in the fantastically unlikely event that your meat is infected with it (botulism is extremely rare).
The sous vide guide (Google for it) will give you the math for this, but their numbers are keyed on salmonella, which is what you really need to look out for; botulism appears to be easier to kill.
As far as aromatics go, cooking sous vide works on the same principal as cooking in a pouch. It amplifies most flavors, which is a good thing with few exceptions (garlic, notably, doesn't work SV).
Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#109Liberally salting your steak is a fine idea, but where is this person finding choice ribeye for $5? Choice isn't "cheap". The $15/lb ribeye at Whole Foods is choice, as is pretty much every other steak you buy outside a specialty store. There's nothing at all wrong with it. This article never gets specific, but I get the impression the author doesn't really know what "prime" means: how well marbled the cut is with fa…
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Re: Turn $5 steak to $50 steak with salt
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
i make a mean peppersteak using a similar technique that I picked up from a local restaurant. The diff: 1. crack peppercorns spread across a baking sheet. Lay steak upon them. Compress. I use a heavy (cold) skillet. Flip steak. Repeat. 2. Heat oil just beneath the smoke point in pan, otherwise cook steak as described. 3. Serve with any citrus-based steaksauce. (A1 if you have to, but I prefer to make my own OJ based…
Take the steak out, drain most of the fat out, toss in a minced shallot, turn the heat off, cook the shallot for about a minute, take the pan off heat and throw in any liquor (brandy, cognac, and cheap bourbon all work great), heat to boil, scrape the bottom of the pan, clean, add mustard, mix, add cream to fill the bottom of the pan, mix, reduce. Steak au poivre! Beautiful with the peppered crust.
For anyone trying this at home, please note the "take the pan off heat" part of the instructions...
Being able to make a good pan-sauce is a skill that provides one of the best returns on the time investment for a home cook (second only to making your own stocks and glaces.)