Day sixty eight

Tasting menu for the class

Secrets how to cook steak.

It would have been an easy day, if I were in St. Helena. I had to drive from San Francisco and back. It was still a good day.

We did portioning meat from the last three days for steaks, cubes (for stew), and grind for hamburger. Also we made a few roasts (tied meat evenly).

Portioning sirloin for steaks was quite easy. The meat is even, so the task is to weight the whole piece and then evenly divided it for required amount of portions (8, 10, 12 oz each).

When we have tenderloin, the task is not so easy, because the tenderloin has a conical form. So you have to use your imagination where to cut. A margin of error
will be greater in this case.

What I learned today is how to properly cook steak, and more important when to season it with salt. There are many theories about this, unfortunately not all of them have solid ground. For example I heard that you should not salt your steak before cooking, because salt take out moisture from meat and it will be dry. This is partially true. But, think about dry aged meat, which intentionally placed in controlled environment and lose moisture during the aging time. The result of aging is intensified flavor.

For me, there is no question salt or do not salt. Because, if you salt meat after you take it from grill, it will salted outside and blend inside. The main point is when to salt it and a good idea is to take into consideration the size of the piece and cooking method. If you are cooking thin slice of meat, the best way is to salt it just before it goes on fire. If you have rib eye let's say an inch thick, probably the best way is to salt it 30-60 minutes before cooking. Make sure, when it's going on fire the surface should be dry. But, if you have a big roast and you are going to roast it, the best way is to salt it well in advance and do not dry surface. There will be opportunity for salt to penetrate the meat and season it inside.

Now let's talk about surface and moisture. If you grill steak, you do not want any moisture on the surface. Why? Because grilling is a dry heat method of cooking, when you put steak on the grill you want meat to start cooking right away. In case moisture is present, it will first evaporate and only when moisture from the surface has evaporated meat starts cooking. During moisture evaporation, the outer layer will be boiling, which is not desired for steak. When you have big roast and you are going to roast  it we prefer to have some moisture on the surface (as a result of salting in advance, do not add additional:-) The reason we want it, because roast is a big piece of meat. Moisture on the surface will slow down cooking process on the outside and inside will have opportunity to cook. Otherwise, by the time inside layer will get some heat, outside layer is done.

Also an interesting point today was about cooking fillet mignon. This fillet is cut from the tenderloin, very lean muscle. The worst thing you can  do to this cut is to grill it. The reason is the absence of intramuscular fat (marbling). The meat is lean and grill will dry it out even more. You may wrap it in a piece of bacon (very traditional) and that will help a little bit. However the best way is to pan fry fillet with butter and baste with butter during cooking. Fillet will be really great - moist and full of flavor.

Ready for cooking