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Thedude cooks a steak

Thedude cooks a steak

Bumping this thread, and sharing my experiences cooking about ten steaks in the past month.

(1) Rib eye is my absolute favorite for this treatment. If you're lucky, you can find a good rib eye for $5.99 a pound in those obscure supermarkets that cater to poorer people. (You know which ones I'm talking about.)

(2) Red wine makes a wonderful deglaze, but I've also tried sake (too sweet) and mirin (which caramelizes into a thick toffee-like substance). Meat candy tastes okay, but it's not pleasant to chew on.

(3) During the butter-melting phase, you can throw a few sprigs of rosemary directly into the foaming butter. Tastes wonderful.

(4) A two-inch thick shell steak is also wonderful. You just have to cook it about two-minutes longer. You'll get a perfectly-seared, highly flavorful outside crust. And about an inch-thick of bloody rare/medium rare. Highly recommended, and I only paid $5.99 a pound for mine at the same supermarket.

(5) You *must* ensure that the steak is at room temperature before cooking. If you don't, it won't cook correctly.

Thanks, Veloce. [Image: smile.gif]
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (11-12-2012 09:08 PM)Tuthmosis Wrote:  

Quote: (11-12-2012 09:06 PM)Beyond Borders Wrote:  

This would be a solid website niche, by the way - quick and easy (yet tasty and classy) cooking for bachelors. Jusy sayin'....

http://cooktobang.com/

I just bought the Kindle version of the book this guy wrote, and it's one of the most hilarious thing I've ever read. Well worth the $9.93.

http://www.amazon.com/Cook-Bang-Cooks-Gu...1263404659

I would rate it among Roosh's books in terms of entertainment and practical advice to convince girls to get their panties off.

[Image: evcml0.jpg]
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Thedude cooks a steak

Cooked a couple NY strips tonite using this method....my god, the flavor! My daughter didn't care for it, she's used to the over-seasoning with the grill. I must say, this is the best way to bring out the meat's flavor.
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Thedude cooks a steak

I like this method and mine is similar but I learned mine as a line cook in a few decent restaurants.

Butter, rosemary, salt in a cast iron skillet. I salt the meat a little as well, covering the exterior with a layer of salt. I use a 2in. thick Ribeye.

I use the broiler setting on my stove, 500+ degrees. Setting the pan on the top of the stove will melt the seasonings in the pan.

Put the meat in the pan and the pan in the stove and in about 10-12 minutes the steak will be a medium rare. You can flip for aesthetics and seasoning, but dont leave it long unless you want a true medium or even juicy well done steak.

10-12 min and one quick flip for med/rare, 12-15 min and one flip for medium, etc.

Pull the pan, take the steak off quickly because the cast iron will stay hot and continue to cook it.

All told you should be done in 10-15 minutes. Turn on your exhaust/hood system, or open your windows, it will get smokey.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (11-11-2012 07:09 PM)BurnFirst Wrote:  

For oil I would use either bacon fat, ghee (clarified butter) or coconut oil. Those are the most stable at high temps and healthiest. Save your bacon fat in a jar when you make bacon and store it in the fridge. If you sautée your bacon with Serranos or Jalapanos you end up with something pretty awesome to cook with.

I personally use ghee...aka clarified butter....and be sure to finish the steak in a couple of tablespoons of pure butter to get a truly decadent flavor as specified by the OP. Of course, smearing a tasty flavored butter to melt on the steak as it is served is also an amazing way to finish a steak.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- Hunter S. Thompson

"Knowledge without mileage is bullshit" -- Henry Rollins

"Fine....you go ahead and run down the hill and fuck one of those cows. But me, I'm going to walk down and fuck 'em all" -- Wise Old Bull
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (11-24-2012 12:31 PM)slubu Wrote:  

So a few nights ago I got a private one one one lesson from thedude himself. Shows up with all items and equipment ready to roll. All I can say the dude knows what he is doing (yes cheezy pun intended).

Start off with the steaks seasoned with the salt and pepper. Not sure what kind of salt and pepper but it was the fancy shit he rolls with. Look at that marbling on the ribeye:

[Image: IMG_2050.jpg]


Supposedly slutty roommate comes in and not so subtly hints she wants some. Tell her there are only two steaks and she finally leaves. Anyway, after doing some flips he gets the butter in there to brown/foam and starts spooning it up on the steak. Had some garlic cloves in there with I believe thyme.

[Image: IMG_2051.jpg]

[Image: IMG_2052.jpg]


Taking the steaks off the heat, they sit there while we drink some bourbon and red wine and chat about the annoyances of gaming in LA.

[Image: IMG_2053.jpg]


The finished dish, perfect medium rare, some arugula, a mushroom assortment, fancy parmesan and that aged balsamic he talked about (pretty damn amazing really, never had that type of aged balsamic). Fucking delicious end result.

[Image: IMG_2054.jpg]


A great night "off" from gaming enjoying nice drinks and an awesome steak with a fellow RVFer. Nice to see a skill put in use in front of you and working out like you imagine. +1.

Well played sirs......well played indeed.

"When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro" -- Hunter S. Thompson

"Knowledge without mileage is bullshit" -- Henry Rollins

"Fine....you go ahead and run down the hill and fuck one of those cows. But me, I'm going to walk down and fuck 'em all" -- Wise Old Bull
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Thedude cooks a steak

I just bought a steak from Walmart, I must say not bad at all.

Anybody here tried their steaks?

Our New Blog:

http://www.repstylez.com
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Thedude cooks a steak

I noticed Target has REALLY good meat prices around here... weird. Two sirloins of good size for less than $9.

http://www.beefretail.org/wholesalepriceupdate.aspx

Team visible roots
"The Carousel Stops For No Man" - Tuthmosis
Quote: (02-11-2019 05:10 PM)Atlanta Man Wrote:  
I take pussy how it comes -but I do now prefer it shaved low at least-you cannot eat what you cannot see.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Someone posted a "How to Cook a Steak" article on RoK so I figure it's time to bump this thread. I want to dispel some myths, and offer my own insights as I've taken to dry aging whole cuts in my refrigerator.

Myth: Bones impart better flavor.

Bones don't add any flavor to the meat. Take two identical cuts, remove the bone from one, leave it in the other, cook them, remove the bone from the remaining steak and then serve it. I guarantee you won't know the difference.

What bones can do is conduct heat in strange ways and result in meat next to the bone being several degrees cooler than you may desire. I understand that on a t-bone, a bone is part of the deal, but on other cuts, you're just paying for shit you're going to throw away.

Buying beef.

Where you buy your beef isn't as important as the USDA grading it has. If you want to know what each grade means, google it. I'm only going to discuss the top 3 grades. in order from highest to lowest they are: Prime, Choice, and Select. Select is found at discount grocery stores and at lower priced restaurants. If you shop at larger chain grocers, you're not likely to see much of it. Choice is by far the most common beef on the market. Most mid level restaurants use it(i.e. Outback), and it's what is mostly available at the major grocery chains. 95% of the steaks most people eat will be USDA Choice. USDA Prime is the highest grade and the most expensive. High end restaurants buy the bulk of Prime graded beef. Most grocers won't carry it because it's too pricey compared to Choice.

As for where to buy it, there's nothing wrong with Walmart. If you buy large quantities that you want to break down yourself, Costco has first rate meat. In addition, it's not uncommon to find USDA Prime whole ribeyes at costco. The only issue I have with Costco is they don't give much in the way of a price break if you buy a whole cut. I've got a local guy who will sell whole cuts for slightly more than cost, and he'll even break it down for you. His sirloin is Prime, retail for one steak is $10/lb. Buy the whole thing he'll cut the price in half.

BTW, Sirloin is a fine cut of beef. A lot of people look down their noses at it, but there is nothing wrong with it. It has good flavor, not too much fat, and reasonable cost. It also has a high error threshold, so it's hard to fuck up.

For those who are wondering about what I do with the meat when I buy a 15lb whole ribeye since I can't possibly eat it all in one shot? I'll get to that later.

Aging

15+ years ago most grocery stores had butchers. Then they switched to meat cutters. Now I'm seeing more and more steaks sold in little cryovac packages. It's to a point where the only thing the guys in the meat dept do is take it out of the box, weigh it, mark the price, and put it on the shelf. In the old days, the store would buy whole portions of the cattle, and process it on their own. It was never put in cryovac bags, so most meat you got usually had at least a week (usually more) to dry age as it moved from the abattoir to the grocery store. Nowadays, within an hour or two of the bolt gun firing, the cow is broken up into various cuts, and packed in cryovac bags. The use of cryovac bags is called wet aging. The bags are sent to the grocers who open the bags and package the meat individually. The stores do it this way because it's cheaper. Dry aging is now coveted because it's rarely done these days.

I've recently started dry aging beef. Since I don't have a refrigerator dedicated solely to dry aging, I use Umai dry aging bags. Again, google is your friend if you'd like to know more. What these bags do is allow moisture to leave, but don't allow it back in, and it also acts as a barrier so the meat doesn't pick up anything else like odors from the fridge. The problem with the wet aging process is that it keeps all of the moisture packed in with the meat. Bottom line moisture=water. Water adds weight, and to a lesser extent, it adds bulk. So the grocer can cut out a thinner steak with greater weight, for more money than if the steak had been dry aged. But it's not just water that comprises that red liquid in the cryovac and that oozes from the meat, it's other stuff (mostly myoglobin). The myoglobin tastes good, and that's why some of us like a little bread to clean out plate when we're eating our steak.

So what does dry aging accomplish? It allows a controlled decomposition process to occur. This causes the growth of enzymes that break down and tenderize the meat. It also removes the excess moisture from the meat, but it leaves the myoglobin behind. If you dry age for 28 days, you'll remove 2lbs or more of just water from the meat. Unfortunately dry aging also leaves the meat in a shell or crust that also has to be removed. So bottom line, that whole ribeye that started out weighing 15lbs, is reduced to 11lbs, maybe less. The reason dry aged beef commands a premium, is due to this loss, plus the time involved in aging it. And don't get me wrong, you remove the excess moisture, but the meat is by no means dried out. Due to the substantial volume loss, you only dry age whole cuts.

When I stop the aging, I take it out of the bag, cut it into steaks, and trim the shell from the edges. Some people trim the shell first, and then they cut it, by I find it easier my way. I'll save what I'm going to eat for dinner that night, and the rest go into vacuum food saver bags and go into the big freezer. Texture issues aren't a big issue as most of the water is removed during the aging process and prior to freezing.

IMO, the biggest problem with the excess water from wet aged meats is that it fucks up the cooking. Water consumes a tremendous amount of heat energy. And you wind up using a lot more heat just to offset the loss of heat due to the water.

Cooking

I got into the ceramic grills about 10 years ago. I've got two of them. I've got a large one, and now I've got a mini max for smaller meals and I can take it along if I go on the road. Yes, they're that good, that I bought a second one to take on vacation with me. Why are they so much better than a Webber Kettle? Design and materials. Kamado cookers are taller than they are wide. This allows incredible control over your airflow. The ceramic material is insulating. The surface of any grill is a heat exchanger. The thick ceramic walls of a kamado can hold a tremendous amount of heat. So even on a cold, windy day, the outside conditions have virtually no bearing on what happens inside. When we had that blizzard back in January, I smoked a pork shoulder for 12 hours at 225 degrees, with outside temps in the 20s, and 25mph winds.

I'm running out steam here, so ask any questions. This is a good thread that needs to be revisited periodically.

BTW, Omaha steaks are an overpriced joke.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (03-30-2016 01:14 AM)porscheguy Wrote:  

I'm running out steam here, so ask any questions. This is a good thread that needs to be revisited periodically.

BTW, Omaha steaks are an overpriced joke.

What are your preferences when it comes to different fed beef like grass, grain, wagyu, etc..?

Also do the differences between australian, N.Z., and U.S. raised cattle matter all that much?

In SEA it's overwhelmingly imported aussie grass fed beef if you want quality beef.

Local raised beef in SEA is almost always garbage and i've always wanted to understand how the differences in cattle farming or environment impacts this.
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Thedude cooks a steak

I'm a fan of American beef. I think it tastes better than English "grass fed" nonsense. The corn used as feed has a better taste to it.

However, the English have perfected steak sauce. HP is so amazingly good.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (03-30-2016 02:13 AM)El Chinito loco Wrote:  

Quote: (03-30-2016 01:14 AM)porscheguy Wrote:  

I'm running out steam here, so ask any questions. This is a good thread that needs to be revisited periodically.

BTW, Omaha steaks are an overpriced joke.

What are your preferences when it comes to different fed beef like grass, grain, wagyu, etc..?

Also do the differences between australian, N.Z., and U.S. raised cattle matter all that much?

In SEA it's overwhelmingly imported aussie grass fed beef if you want quality beef.

Local raised beef in SEA is almost always garbage and i've always wanted to understand how the differences in cattle farming or environment impacts this.
In the US, 98% of the beef available is US and grain fed. I've never tried Wagyu. The price is insane. I've had grass fed beef and it's a little bit better, but once you make the jump to dry aging like I have, grass fed is just more cost.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Porscheguy's post is a fantastic one. Gonna bump this up to continue this worthy discussion of beef. He is spot on in his discussion of ceramic grills. I have a Kamodo myself and the convective airflow he mentions is one of the major selling points of these grills. You will never have a crisper chicken skin than with a ceramic grill. They are fantastic at rendering fat.

Also that Umai dry aging bag is pretty wild. I've never seen that before. Anyone lurking this thread should take this shit seriously and give it a shot. Dry age meat commands a premium and there's nothing more satisfying than doing it yourself.

Choosing between wagyu and grassfed beef is like choosing between red wine and champagne. Completely different product suited to different tastes.

Myself, I prefer grassfed beef these days. I know that it's contributing more toward my health and I just prefer the flavor of the meat.

To revisit the discussion on flavor:

Fat is NOT flavor. Fat is fat. Fat gives the sensation of succulence, of richness. But fat does not offer nearly the same complexity or depth of flavor as meat.

The most complex flavors you'll find in meat are in lean, grassfed meat.

The richest meat you'll find is from Japanese beef, graded A5 from specific prefectures like Kobe or Miyazaki. I just had some Miyazaki A5 grilled over Japanese charcoal 2 weeks ago and it was absolutely top shelf. But this is something I like to eat in very small quantities. It calls for salt and acid to cut through the richness; premium soy sauce and freshly grated wasabi do a fine job.

Sirloin is a solid cut, it's basically the last portion of the loin on the cow before it turns into round (leg meat, which is lean and tougher). On the opposite end of the cow you have the chuck roll, which typically gets turned into ground beef. But there are chuck steaks you can buy and for my taste, this is probably the best secondary (affordable) cut due to the pockets of fat and tenderness.

I recommend everyone try heavily marbled Japanese beef at least once. It's an explosion of fat and richness, and a little goes a long way. It's not something I crave often though and honestly the only reason I ate it recently is because I got hooked up for free [Image: biggrin.gif]

"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."

TEAM NO APPS

TEAM PINK
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Thedude cooks a steak

For visual reference:

A5 Miyazaki Beef:

[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.mckendricks.com%2Fw...F4.jpg&f=1]

Sirloin:
[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wickfarmmeats.co.uk%...00.jpg&f=1]

Chuck Steak:
[Image: ?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmeat.tamu.edu%2Ffiles%2F...e.jpeg&f=1]

"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."

TEAM NO APPS

TEAM PINK
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (08-27-2016 12:38 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

Myself, I prefer grassfed beef these days. I know that it's contributing more toward my health and I just prefer the flavor of the meat.

I recently picked up a grassfed skirt steak from Erewhon and it was like biting shoe leather. What's your routine for tenderizing grassfed steaks?
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Thedude cooks a steak

Veloce, how do you cook a chuck steak?

As a cut with a lot of connective tissue, I would think it needs to be slow-cooked.

If only you knew how bad things really are.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (08-28-2016 07:11 PM)BallsDeep Wrote:  

Quote: (08-27-2016 12:38 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

Myself, I prefer grassfed beef these days. I know that it's contributing more toward my health and I just prefer the flavor of the meat.

I recently picked up a grassfed skirt steak from Erewhon and it was like biting shoe leather. What's your routine for tenderizing grassfed steaks?

Well first off I've only had bad experiences from Erewhon so I wouldn't shop there.

Grassfed steak will be chewier no matter what, so there's that. If you want to tenderize it, you've got a few options:

Salt it ahead of time (at least an hour)

Marinate it in acid (not for too long, no longer than a couple hours) Balsamic, rosemary, thyme, garlic, etc.

How you slice it is very important. Must be against the grain. With skirt steak, you've got a long piece with the grain typically going Width-wise. When I grill skirt, I grill the whole pieces, then I cut them into 3-4 inch sections WITH the grain. Then I take those sections, turn them 90 degrees so now my knife is going AGAINST the grain and I slice very thinly. Make sense?

Cook it no more than medium rare. Some steaks are chewy rare, like NY strip or ribeye. I think skirt cooks up nicely rare too unlike loin-based steaks, and preserves the iron-y flavor which I like.

"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."

TEAM NO APPS

TEAM PINK
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (08-28-2016 07:14 PM)RexImperator Wrote:  

Veloce, how do you cook a chuck steak?

As a cut with a lot of connective tissue, I would think it needs to be slow-cooked.

Nope it grills and pan roasts beautifully. If it was cut into 1 inch steaks then that's how I'd handle it. If I had larger pieces then I would either grind them into hamburger or cut into large cubes for a braise, like beef bourgignon.

"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."

TEAM NO APPS

TEAM PINK
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Thedude cooks a steak

So this is a dumb question, but what temperature should the burner be for this? I left it on the highest setting and I think I may have overcooked the thing.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (11-11-2012 01:03 AM)Veloce Wrote:  

Alright, I was considering posting this in the "Culinary Game" thread but I figured, fuckit, this is something you make for yourself, not some ho. I know Gmanifesto threw down a data sheet on cooking a steak, but here's a professional's method. (Disclaimer: given a choice, I would cook a steak over hardwood in a weber. Not charcoal, but actual untreated firewood from a lumber yard. Given that I don't have one at home or at work, I pan roast)

Step 1: Preheat your pan. It should be heavy as shit. I recommend a Lodge cast-iron. Generously season your steak with salt and freshly cracked pepper. If you're a fancy fuck like me, use gray salt from Geurande and Tellicherry peppercorns in your pepper mill.

[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo1_250.jpg]

Step 2: Add your cooking fat, and don't be stingy. You want a solid layer of oil on the bottom of the pan. I use rice bran oil, but coconut and peanut oil work well with high temperature cooking as well. Olive oil does not. Once the oil start to smoke lightly, get the bitch in.

[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo3_250.jpg]

Step 3: Start flipping. Ignore that bullshit about "only flip once". Think about a rotisserie. You have a heat source and you want to expose all the surfaces of the meat as many times as possible to ensure even cooking. Moving the meat around will not "lose more juices" as conventional wives tales will tell you. I flip about once per minute. If your heat is high enough and you've got enough fat, you'll start to get good browning (also known as Maillard reactions)

[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo4_250.jpg]

Step 4:
[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo2_250.jpg]
That's right, butter. Rather than get in some limp-wristed argument about adding excess saturated fat to an already fatty cut of meat, I'm just going to state that basting with butter produces incomparable results and flavor due to the browning milk solids that cling to the meat. It's a rich, nutty flavor that I wouldn't want to go without. Cut saturated fat out of your diet elsewhere, but not here. Get a couple tablespoons of butter in the pan, a smashed clove of garlic, and a sprig of thyme (I didn't have any tonight but normally I would) Baste the steak with the browning butter. You'll notice it foaming up; this is normal and what you want. Total cooking time at this point is between 6-8 minutes.

[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo5_250.jpg]

Step 5: Rest. I don't tent with foil or any of that other fanciness. If you're serving other side dishes and worried about timing, I'd simply leave the steak in a super low oven, just make sure it's around 100 degrees and no more. Usually when I make a steak I eat it by itself though. I feel the steak regularly and when I know it's the right temperature, that is, warm but not too hot, I know it's ready to eat or slice for presentation. Notice the deep color and crust. This is not to "seal in the juices" which is another antiquated notion, it's all for flavor baby, there's nothing better tasting than a dark, deep sear or grill on a steak.

[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo6_250.jpg]

Step 6: eat, or slice and present. Here I've added a swirl of 25 year old balsamic. Shit ain't cheap, about $150 for a 100ml bottle, but I got the hookups yo. Don't bother with anything cheaper, don't bother with "balsamic reduction" whatever the fuck that is. If you don't have this stuff, just eat your steak plain or with some bearnaise or a good red wine sauce. If you can't make a 5-star sauce though, don't bother. If it's a good cut of meat you don't need sauce. I'm a fan of the aged balsamic with a few shavings of parmigiano reggiano and a few arugula leaves, but again not everyone has that kind of access. Everyone has different ideas of what medium rare is: in these photos I'm slightly on the rare side of medium-rare; a true medium rare shouldn't have quite so much red in the middle but for a well marbled steak this is exactly how i like it. I just got done eating it and let me tell you I barely had to chew the goddamn meat and the flavor was top-notch. This meat is from Creekstone Farms (not prime, but this stuff has great flavor). Oh yeah make sure to slice it with a badass old Sabatier like the one in the pic, shit makes you look like a kitchen pirate.

[Image: tumblr_mdb67ah54h1rkla7mo7_250.jpg]

Enjoy. Cooking and eating a steak, by itself, is one of a guy's greatest pleasures. Drink with the most expensive Bordeaux or Barolo you can afford. Skip the california reds, shit is way too fruity to pair with red meat.



A lot of good points here Veloce, let me just add a few more, with a different approach, which workss well for those who have a stainless steel pan:

The fat:

-Bacon alters the beef taste. I love my pork fat in the morning or for brunch, it's great to fry eggs in after you fry your bacon, but it's not ideal for steak.

-vegetable fats like coconut or olive also have their own taste and will affect the meat taste, avoid. Extra virgin olive oil is not meant to be used at high temperatures, it will decompose into an artery-clogging compound, you'd be better off with butter or even bacon fat.
The only acceptable vegetable fat might be grapeseed oil, neutral taste and high smoke point.

-But butter is the best for flavor. If you use clarified butter (just microwave till liquid, then remove the solid stuff at the top), your butter won't burn in the pan.

The frying process:

I used the French method, with stainless steel. Start with temperature on high and a hot pan to get a good sear (not too hot though), throw the clarified butter in (about 1-2 tblspns), then the steak (seasoned with just salt and coarse pepper) right after the butter is melted and hot.

After the meat is seared about 1-2 minutes into the process, reduce the heat to med-high without moving the steak. Then about 3-4 minutes later (depending on the thickness and desired doneness) raise the heat a bit for a minute, flip steak over, to the other part of the pan, which will be hotter than the part where your steak was (don't put the steak in the middle of the pan to start with), then lower again to med-high.

Add diced french shallots to the pan next to your steak. Remove steak once it's done (i use the finger test, poking the meat to find out about its doneness) and "reserve", or set aside (leaving the shallots in the pan) and let cool 5-10min in order for the fibers to reabsorb the meat juices. If you cut the meat right away, it will bleed itself dry.

Now for the fun part: the deglazing. You basically want all that caramelized meat goodness from the pan into your plate, so you add about 1/3-1/2 a cup of red wine into the pan and reduce at med heat till it thickens a bit. You can use cognac too, or brandy, but a good red wine works well too.

Deglazing captures all the tasty goodness in the pan into a great sauce.

If you want a full-on steak au poivre sauce, you can add more coarsely crushed peppercorns, and towards the end, once the wine has reduced enough, some creme fraiche or heavy cream and whip it in into the wine reduction, stirring ta bit for just a minute over the fire, set on low. You don't want the cream sauce to cook too long or on high fire, it will fall apart.

If you want a restaurant-grade steak au poivre sauce, add some veal stock along with the red wine. If you don't have heavy cream or don't want to for health reasons, the wine reduction works well without the cream.

You can also make a mushroom sauce, instead of shallots, add sliced mushrooms to the pan after you take out your steak, then once they're nearly done, add the red wine to deglaze. The mushroom version works better if you add the cream.


-The wine:

I agree with Veloce about most CA red wines being too fruity, but you can get some decent Napa Cabernets or Zins as well as Bordeaux, which are all great but also a bit on the pricy side.

If you want a great budget red that's still top flight and pairs really well with steaks, go for a Cahors, from the southwest of France. It's mostly made with Malbec varietal, has a deep dark purple color.

Some argentinian malbecs will also work, though many of those can be in the new world red style (too fruity and soft, they're wines for people who don't drink wine) and won't stand up to grilled beef.

You can find a really good Cahors for about $10-$15, vs 2 to 4 times as much for a prime Oakville/Rutherford area Napa Cabernet.

-The sides:

For a quick no-fuss side, I microwave potatoes, let them sit for a while (cook them first before you start on the steak) so that the residual heat has the time to thoroughly cook them, then cut them in big chunks and give them a toss into the pan used to fry the steak. Same with a side of steamed green beans and carrots.

I also like steamed broccoli, but don't give them a run in the steak pan, it turns a bit bitter if fried, unlike string beans.

Alternatively you can make french fries (peanut oil is best there). The best way is to double-fry them, it's also very practical because you will have done most of the cooking beforehand. The first frying run on med high cooks the inside, you take them out before they brown, and the potatoes will continue to cook with the residual heat. The second run is mostly for crisping the outside, done quickly at higher heat.

“Nothing is more useful than to look upon the world as it really is.”
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Thedude cooks a steak

Bumping this thread for two reasons. 1. Great advice. 2. Asking for info on Wagyu A5. I have had it in a couple restaurants. But now want to order it myself. Anyone tried any online places with success. Also, any advice on preparations?

It looks like the best way is to order an entire eye or loin, and cut it yourself. Still pricey, but you can knock the price down a good $30 per steak that way.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Great bump. I vaguely remember reading it 7 years ago but just went and bought a choice bone-in rib eye and top sirloin. Giving it a try tonight.
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Thedude cooks a steak

Reading this makes me want to go to my local butcher and pick up a t bone and cook it and eat it.
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Thedude cooks a steak

I'll add some Intel here on steak cuts. New new favorite cut is the Chuck Eye. I discovered this last year after a welder I work with told me about it. It's basically the poor man's ribeye. Here in TX, the local grocery carries them but they are usually hidden on the top shelf of the pre-packaged steak section. They are around ~$6/lb and for my money are pretty damned close to as good as a ribeye. Give it a shot if you can find them. Medium rare these are really fantastic.

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Thedude cooks a steak

Quote: (05-12-2019 04:50 PM)wi30 Wrote:  

Great bump. I vaguely remember reading it 7 years ago but just went and bought a choice bone-in rib eye and top sirloin. Giving it a try tonight.

I cooked the ribeye tonight, it turned out pretty well. I didn't get the pan hot enough beforehand so it didn't have the char I prefer. Adding the butter halfway through was a game changer though. I had it with roasted red potatoes. I also put a couple dashes of balsamic vinegar on while it was cooling.

I'm going to try salting earlier for the top sirloin. Leave it in the fridge in the morning or the night before.
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