Kosher Food and Drink

Let us talk about cooking meat.

The exact cut makes trivial difference. What is important is the tenderness of the meat. We are talking about a cut of meat that can be eaten at rare to medium rare, which, as far as I am concerned, covers 90% of the cuts of both the front and back half of the steer.

We will be discussing the “reverse sear cooking method,” the most versatile cooking method, easily managing both thick and thin pieces of meat. A quick overview of the method has the meat going directly into a 225 to 250-degree oven, then resting once our desired temp has been reached. In my opinion, this is 125 degrees Fahrenheit, followed by resting the meat, then searing and serving.

For demonstration purposes, I am using a Marble & Grain Sierra steak, weighing just under a lb., lightly salted with coarse sea salt.

As we are covering theory and process, this method can be equally applied to roasts, steaks, or chops. Cuts including brisket, short ribs, shank, shin, etc. are not included here as these are cuts that require long cook times to break down connective tissue and collagen.

First, I would like to debunk a myth and correct an unsafe food handling method of “letting meat come to room temperature.” The reason for the use of quotes is that the time it would take for even a small steak to hit room temperature is outside of the accepted time the U.S.D.A. allows for meat to be sitting out. And not by just a few minutes — but by hours. The following graph shows a 30-minute window for the aforementioned 1 lb. Sierra steak straight out of the fridge onto the counter. Channel 2 is the inside of the steak and Channel 3 is ambient temperature. As you can see in just 30 minutes this tiny steak only changed 8 degrees, and with a larger piece of meat, this change will be significantly lower, and as the steak nears room temperature its rate of temperature change decreases. 

After entering the oven at 250 degrees, the ambient temperature probe rose to temp within 6 seconds and the meat showed a higher absorption of heat, passing the fridge value in a matter of seconds, which further reinforces debunking the myth that steaks should come to room temp before being cooked.

Here is the graph of the entire cooking session. You can clearly see where the steak and probes are placed into the oven and how quickly the meat heated up after that.

The points of note are:

• 8:46: The steak hit 125 degrees and was removed from the oven.
• 8:49: Carry-over cooking took the steak to its maximum temperature of 128 degrees.
• 9:17: The meat hit 103 degrees as I waited for my deep fryer to heat up so I could sear.

Normally I only rest for 15 minutes, but I forgot how long it takes for the fryer to come to temp for the sear. Yes, this is where I rest the meat – not before slicing – and this rest has quite a different purpose. Resting the meat here is to give it a chance to finish carry-over cooking and come to equilibrium on internal temperature, but also to cool the outside layer of the meat. This way when we introduce a large number of thermal units, that energy will be used to raise the outside back up to temperature, but not to overcook the meat.

This brings us to our last topic — the sear itself. I always hear people saying they will sear the meat up to temperature or, “I will just make it more well done in the sear.” If you do this, you are not searing, you are just cooking over high flames. The point of the sear is to give an umami roasted flavor and a crust to the outside of the meat through the Maillard reaction, the reaction that gives browned foods its distinct taste. Maillard is a reaction between amino acids and sugars present in the item being heated. I like using a deep fryer for searing as hot oil is a very efficient method for transferring heat between objects. Since the meat is being totally submerged in the hot oil, not only do you quickly get a gorgeous crust and color, but you also get a very consistent one too as the oil surrounds the food and goes into any little crevices. If you do not have a deep fryer, a cast iron skillet with hot oil, and continuous oil basting works nicely as well. You will see many chefs using this technique and taking advantage of it to add aromatics to the steak. 

Finally, it is time to eat. Since we have reduced our thermal shock by starting the meat in a low oven, then going from the oven into the fryer, we do not have to rest the meat before slicing it because the outside muscle fibers do not need to relax and reabsorb the juices that were pushed inside the meat. We also do not need to let the meat come to equilibrium because it has already has.

All that remains is to grab a nice bourbon and enjoy your steak.

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