Alternately, if you dry your meat with a duck it will promote the Mallard Reaction.
this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
774 points (94.7% liked)
You Should Know
33190 readers
82 users here now
YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with YSK.
All posts must begin with YSK. If you're a Mastodon user, then include YSK after @youshouldknow. This is a community to share tips and tricks that will help you improve your life.
Rule 2- Your post body text must include the reason "Why" YSK:
**In your post's text body, you must include the reason "Why" YSK: It’s helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. **
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-YSK posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-YSK posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
If you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- The majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Partnered Communities:
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
Credits
Our icon(masterpiece) was made by @clen15!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
We call that the dryducken method
And if it's steak especially, leave it out for a half hour to get closer to room temp before cooking.
Ever since I learned this tip I've been cooking perfect steaks. Makes a huge difference.
And you can leave it uncovered in the fridge (use a rack and a drip pan) and the airflow will dry the outside. This gives a better sear overall.
If you don't have the time (or the foresight) to salt it hours ahead, the next best alternative is to salt RIGHT before cooking. If you salt 10-30 minutes before, osmosis will draw moisture out of the meat, which will then either be wiped away or evaporated. Salting hours ahead of time gives the moisture time to diffuse back into the meat with the salt it dissolved.
This is the right tip. If you can't dry brine with salt overnight, then salt right before you hit heat.
That being said, give me a 24 dry brine plus reverse sear any day.
Absolutely. Long dry brine is the preferred method, but if you just remember an hour before it's rime to cook, it's better to wait until just before it goes in the pan.
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(3 replies)
This has virtually no impact. Salt is more important.
Depends on how you're cooking. It's all about that heat gradient!
Out on an open grill on medium heat for 20 minutes? Yeah, literally zero difference.
Pan fried on a cast-iron skillet that you've cranked up to ludicrous mode? That shit better be room temp if you want the inside to reach a safe temperature!
... and to those of you who cook steak but have never panfried: what are you doing? Get yourself some peanut oil, crank the heat to 11, and get cooking ASAP. Look up a guide because nailing the doneness will be hard, but I guarantee you that you'll become a better cook after a few attempts. It's a rite of passage, my fellow meatheads.
In the case of your own fried/ludicrous mode example, leaving the steak out at room temperature for even a few hours has basically no effect. It takes a long time for the bulk of the steak to warm any appreciable amount.
“After the first 20 minutes—the time that many chefs and books will recommend you let a steak rest at room temperature—the center of the steak had risen…not even a full two degrees…After 1 hour and 50 minutes, the steak was up to 49.6°F in the center”
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
load more comments
(5 replies)
I'm not sure if it is covered in the article but you can achieve extra maillard reaction with a more deeply seasoned, juicer, tender steak with a dry brine.
It's super simple, it just takes time. Salt your steak all over and stick it in the fridge on a wire rack overnight.
If you check the steak within about 3 minutes you'll see the salt drawing out moisture into little beads on the surface. This would be a bad time to cook, you'd lose that moisture and waste energy boiling the surface liquid off your meat, resulting in a grey bland steak. Over the next hour the juices dissolve the salt, making the brine. Leave it for several hours and the salt will diffuse into the meat and... Do science to the protein (read the dry brine article on serious eats, it explains all!). This will make the interior of the steak extra juicy and the exterior extra dry for a great crust. If you put the steak on the rack the circulating air also dries out the surface.
If you're buying a decent steak it's well worth the near zero effort that this takes.
For the ultra lazy, typically me but I do love cooking some good steaks so it’s worth the effort, I’m assuming this is it: https://www.seriouseats.com/how-to-dry-brine
That's the one, thanks for linking. I typed that up on my phone and couldn't be bothered finding it, but Lemmy deserves better!
It's a good read, they have some great technique articles.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Understood: I will freeze dry all meat before cooking it to remove all moisture.
You only want the surface dry.
Gotcha. I’ll carve off the edges of my steak, freeze dry those, and use meat glue to reattach them to the main, non-dried steak after.
Why don't you just cover the steak in those silica gel desiccant beads like a normal person? Weirdo.
Well that just makes good sense.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Finally, an actual and legit YSK. Thank you very much my good sir.
There are people who cook wet meat? I mean there are people who do not know that baking soda is a wonderful tenderizer.
Hello, I am people
load more comments
(11 replies)
That is true. I like using a propane torch. The water will evaporate quickly and you get that extra crunch very easily without cooking the inside too much. Especially with with first slow cooked meat and then finish with the torch. Water will evaporate from surface quickly.
load more comments
(2 replies)
Does this apply to ground beef? Cuz I'm curious how I would effectively dry that without just making a mess. Is it just the same as a steak and patting it with a paper towel would be enough?
load more comments
(5 replies)
thats interesting, now im curious if it would help for mine, i usually put a lite coating of oil on my steaks then cook at 700 degrees, i found the oil helps with the charring but still gets good marks on the meat.
load more comments
(7 replies)
Adding some detail. Evaporating water takes way more energy than just heating it up.
When you put energy (heat) into water that's below 100c it gets hotter. When you add 4,184 to a liter of water the temperature goes up by 1c. If the water is already at 100c it takes 2,260,000 to turn that into 100c steam. The energy that goes into turning water into steam isn't going into the steak.
So if you put a wet steak on the grill it will create an insulating layer of steam that keeps the steak at around 100c (even if the pan is above 100c).
That's also why you only salt your steak right before or after heating it. If you let salt sit on the steak it will draw out moisture, reducing the Maillard reaction and drying out the steak.
For a great practical way to grill the steak perfectly, check out videos on "cold searing".
You can and should actually salt your steak several hours before cooking, leaving them uncovered in the fridge. Water will be drawn out, and then reabsorbed along with the salt. Dry the surface and salt again if desired right before cooking.
load more comments
(1 replies)
How do I know if the beef is dry?
How do I dry beef?
I tried googling, but I only get results about aged steak. Is that the same thing? I hope not
To dry the beef you just use a paper towel to pat dry the beef.
load more comments
(3 replies)
The glass of water should be saved for last, and poured over the steak just before devouring.
Mmmm... Sloppy steaks. The waiters hate em!
load more comments
(1 replies)
Leave your steak/chops in the fridge either uncovered or loosely with paper towel, and the meat surface should be dried enough to get a good browning.
Does this apply to hamburger too?
A good amount of liquid is going to come out of beef regardless. That's why it's good to have a smoking hot pan or grate to start with.
load more comments
(6 replies)
view more: next ›