My History With Steak🔗

I've never been a big fan of thick cut red meat, aka steak, of any kind. In fact, "not a fan" is an understatement. Stake-antagonist might be a more accurate description. I'd avoid steak on any occasion over anything. Why? I just don't like the chewy tough tissues and/or fatty bloody meat. You may say it depends on the cut and whether it's properly cooked etc. I know. But according to my memory of steak on various occasions, I've gathered enough statistics to say that it's just not my thing. Almost always unpleasant to chew and unenjoyable to taste.

Some stories to speak about the tangled history.

1. Prior to covid, cafes at work would once a while have the so-called prime rib day. People got all psyched about it. Out of curiosity, I tagged along the hype once and found out it's fatty slices of beef served with designated sides. The sides are decent but I don't enjoy the main event. So at later prime rib day, I'd walk up to the window and say "I'd like everything except the rib". Usually it got a confused look from the staff and multiple confirmations. Looking at my full platter of sides, potato, green beans etc, I felt I got the best part from the meal, all the flavors, none of the meat. I'm pretty sure most of the people standing in the line would secretly laugh at me missing out on the best part. Well, we like what we like.

2. My 30th birthday was in covid lockdown. To have the experience of a fine dining celebration, A cooked a steak dinner. To get pro level, he took out the big gun, sous vide machine, from high above the shelf. Juggled with steaming veggies, final searing steak and sautéing mushrooms. The final plate won me "Aww, sweet heart, Mua". It's romantic and all. That we have each other regardless of what's happening outside is the best gift at any time. It's also what left me the most memory from that night. However, if I think hard about what I thought of steak, well, it feels stringy and slippery. I probably swallowed a couple big bites down to end the struggle of chewing. Beans are overcooked and cold. Mushrooms are always nice. Not too encouraging? That's just how hard it is to impress me with steak.

My avoidance of red meat over the years eventually got me in terms of nutritional debt. Rich in iron, fat, protein, cholesterol, what my body constantly lacks. To keep a healthy diet, I gotta keep up the red meat game. That's why despite all the history, I decided to give steak another go myself. The goal is to find a way to cook steak that's not too fuzzy and I'd enjoy. I'm very glad to report the experiment is very encouraging and I'm actually looking forward to the next steak dinner already.

Reverse Searing🔗

Steak heads can talk about their favorite cuts, why they are superior, what's great, etc. As you can tell, I have none of the knowledge or opinions. When it comes to shopping, I searched for "beef steak" and picked one that's one sale. Here is what I got. Just over 1lb of Top Sirloin Filet. Not that I know what it means. But not bad for a bargain cut to try out some new method.

Switching to steak jargon, temperature is everything. 125F for the most beloved medium rare. 135F for the conservative medium. Anything higher for a despised look. The exact number may shift depending on the cut, or more specifically the amount of fat. That's for advanced level. For now, let's say the goal is to get somewhere between medium rare and medium with precision and finesse.

Sous vide is to give you that precision. It ensures even cooking on a thick cut. Following a lookup table of water bath temperature and bathing time, you'd find the resulting internal temperature. For certain doneness, you just need to pick a combination that gets you there. All is left to do after sous vide is to high heat sear the surface for myriad reactions, aka delicious browning. It's a pretty theoretically sounding and elegant solution. Then why aren't we using it all the time? The main drawbacks are:

1. It uses thick hard plastic bags that are not recyclable or reusable
2. It takes quite some time, from water heating up to actual bathing, at least two hours.
3. It uses quite some equipment, from a big pasta pot to the machine itself. Though no dirty dishes, it still takes counter space and overhead.

The alternative method after some research is called reverse searing¹. Same idea as sous vide, simpler implementation. Instead of water bathing to bring up internal temperature, it uses an oven. The rest is the same, finish searing in the pan just to develop crust. It addresses all three drawbacks mentioned above.

The only catch is you need to tune the oven temperature and time to get desired internal temperature. The recommendation I followed to hit 110F is to bake at 275F for 45min. However, it was already 120F when I checked. Definitely an overshoot. So my advice is to start with lower oven temperature and start checking steak after 30min if it's the first time trying this method. Nonetheless, I proceeded the rest. It may be a medium but still gonna be delicious if using the pro finish move.

after oven	textbook medium rare, unfortunately after searing it's gonna be towards medium

Since the inside is already at target, searing needs to happen as fast as possible. The goal is to get a nice color on the crust without letting too much heat travel to the center. Crank heat high. Keep very good contact of the steak surface with the pan. After flipping, drop a big knob of butter and start braising. Let butter flavor infuse into meat. Everything happens very fast. Pull steak out as soon as you are happy with the crust. Rest on a wire rack.

sear	braise	cool

To make good use of the delicious fond and brown butter in the pan, I first pan fried acorn squash slices (prebaked to fork tender) and deglaze with vinegar soaked onion slices (preboiled to translucent soft). As remaining liquid in the pan cooks away, starch from onion and oil from steak and butter emulsify into pan sauce, catching all the flavors from meat and veggies.

Plate by first onions, then steak, top with pan sauce. Acorn squash on the side.

I like the side and sauce. They complement steak so well. The sweetness from squash and savoriness from onion.

You ask how good it actually tastes? From an extremely picky meat eater like me, I'm so impressed by how flavorful and tender it is. None of the stringy tough chew. Every bite is so delightful. That's the highest regard for steak in my recent memory. The fact that I finish my plate cleanly without shoveling any to A is the best verdict.

This is very inspiring. Consider the process is fairly quick and easy for a fancy looking dinner, I'd definitely be down to making more. What an organic way to get good nutrients. Learn the pareto way to cook.

Couple of days later, there is another video posted on methods of cooking steak. I find it's a great literature review. For those interested in learning the pareto way, please check out. I'd be trying out the cold pan method proposed in the video next time.

¹ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pO8TUuSv7HA&t=144s&ab_channel=J.KenjiL%C3%B3pez-Alt