Heston's steak

[khiemtran]

On the flight back from Bulgaria, I happened to watch a few episodes of Heston Blumenthal's How to Cook Like Heston, which included this revelatory technique for cooking steak. You probably know the standard advice for cooking steak, right? Take the meat out of the packet, put it in a medium pan, turn it only once if possible, salt it only at the end... At least I knew to use a hot pan instead, but it turns out that all the other "rules" can also be broken.





According to Heston, the first step after opening the packet is ... leave it sitting in the fridge for two days. This is how it looks after two days of air drying.



Once a prime piece of Riverina porterhouse, now it looks distinctly dark and dry. The next step after taking it out of the fridge? Leave it for an hour or so to warm to room temperature.



When that's all done, prepare a smoking hot pan with a little oil. Then you salt the meat. Yes, I know it's supposed to dry out the meat if you do this, but maybe that isn't such a bad thing at this point.



Next you flip the steak every fifteen seconds until it's cooked. Here it is after the first flipping. You can see how dark it is one side already.



The idea here is to keep both sides as hot as possible to ensure the Maillard reaction kicks in and turns the surface into a nice brown crust. Here's the "light" side, which was underneath when it was drying in the fridge, and hence not as dry (I think a wire rack might work better than the ridged plate I used).



Another flip, and it's already getting a nice dark brown colour too...



A few more flips and both sides are dark and crispy. Best of all, the texture is still springy, indicating there's still lots of moisture inside. Apparently "sealing in the juices" is a myth. The only way to keep the moisture inside is to cook it quickly and then let it rest.



Here it is resting for five minutes before serving. And, no, it doesn't get cold. It does however, trap all the juices inside, so they don't pour out as soon as you cut it.



The end result: crispy brown on the outside and medium rare inside. Wonderful! Now, about that exploding chocolate ganache recipe...

Comments

[lethargic-man.livejournal.com]

Does Heston Blumenthal talk about the Maillard reaction or have you been reading too much Cooking for Geeks?

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Absolutely. He talks about it quite a lot. In fact the last section of his Big Fat Duck Cookbook is full of scientific papers (I haven't read the whole thing, but Hsiu Lin borrowed it from one of her friends).

[julesjones]

Omnomnom. I do like a nice bit of food porn. :-)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

:) That was easily one of the best steaks I've ever made...