Good Eats Flashback – Steak Your Claim
10 6 2009I enjoy Alton Brown – So, in anticipation for Good Eats: The First Ten Years coming up this weekend, I thought I’d dig through my extensive Good Eats collection. And where better to start then at the beginning? (This is a random sidenote – but in this episode – there’s a portion that’s titled “Raising the steaks”, which is actually the name of another Good Eats episode.) голова болит секс
Tonight, I broke out Season 1, Episode 1 – Steak Your Claim. If you can’t guess by title alone, it’s all about Red Meat. Alton Brown has this amazing talent for packing obscene amounts of information in a very short amount of time. I’m about 3/4 of the way through the episode, and there a plethora of things that anyone would pick up about cooking by just this one episode – here’s an incomplete list in no particular order:
- The difference in the cuts of meat – Fat in the front half of a steer is fattier than the back half, and therefore generally considered more tender.
- Alton makes a mean Artist – his square chalkboard cow rocks
- Chuck is up front (the fattiest) – the best steaks are from the middle of the animal or the back – Other steaks include the ribs, short loin and sirloin
- The closer you get to the head or feet, the tougher the meat is, generally. The tougher the meat, the more flavor it has.
- There are 300 cuts of beef, and only 14 of those are steaks
- When buying steak, look for bright color, moisture is an indication of freshness, uniform color, even cut and odorless meat.
- Primal cuts are commercial cuts which smaller cuts are produced
- Porterhouse steak is a strip steak and a filet before being cut in half – they all come from the short loin
- Rib primals produce ribeye steaks
- USDA inspections for beef is mandatory, but grading is voluntary
- Your refrigerator should never be more than 40 degrees Fahrenheit for food safety – that’s 4.4 degrees Celcius
- Pans have one straight handle, pots have two looped handles.
- You need to be able to get the pan really hot, and be able to be stuck in the oven. A cast iron skillet is the best pan to handle a steak.
- Cast iron skillets need to be cured or seasoned – do this by washing it with light soapy water. Then coating with oil or lard, throwing it in a 350 degree oven for about an hour.
- When ready to cook, throw your skillet into a 500 degree oven to pre-heat it.
- A bunch of information about salt – Alton explains sea salt, rock salt, iodized salt and Kosher salt. Kosher salt is a pantry essential.
- ever after the pre-heat, put the pan under high heat on the stove for at least 5 minutes.
- Use a little (canola) oil along with salt and pepper.
- The smoke point of oil is when an oil starts smoking. As hot as the skillet is, you need to use a higher quality oil to stay under the smoke point.
- Random Smoke Points, in degrees Fahrenheit: butter: 350, olive oil: 375, corn oil: 410, canola: 435 peanut: 450, safflower: 450 – the higher end oils are perfect for searing and sauteing.
- when searing in a skillet, don’t tough the meat for at least 30 seconds – this is essential to producing a crust on the steak. And yes, you want a crust. Flip after 30 seconds, and leave for another 30 seconds. After that, throw it in the oven that’s still at 500 degrees, but don’t turn the broiler on! Leave in the oven for 2 minutes per side. This way, you should end up with a medium rare steak.
- How to measure the temperature of meat, along with the types of thermometers are best to use for measuring said temps
- Rare is between 120-130 degrees
- Medium Rare is between 130-145 degrees
- Medium is 145-155 degrees
- Toast is 155 and up
- Rest the meat after pulling it out of the oven. This way, the meat’s juices are redistributed. Lightly cover, leave it alone for three minutes!
- “Steak” comes from “Steik”, saxon for meat on a stick. that sounds manly.
Alton ends the episode saying that you may not get your steak right the first time – (I know I didn’t,) but just pay attention to what you’re doing and you start learning about the food. And I agree with him. When I started getting into food – and I really mean caring about eating and cooking delicious food – this was probably the one piece of advice that helped me more than anything else. I always try to figure out how I can make my meal better next time, even if this one was seriously… Good Eats. 
