Videos like this are really fun (and also challenging) to think through at the fundamental level. Everytime I make one I have many breakthroughs myself...so what food should we do next? Also another thank you to Porter Road for supplying me with the outrageous number of steaks I cooked for this video: porterroad.com/steakaromas
@@juliencharbonneau2404 A deep dive on stock in general would be really great. Store bought versus home made, versus bouillon, but then also when making stock, optimal times/temperatures to cook to extract the most flavor, if/when to add vegetables and/or aromatics(is there any value to adding flavors to stock, versus adding after, during use), some sort of exploration around optimal salt levels(when to add salt?), effects of meat, fat and bone on flavor and body, does skimming actually do anything? Does clarification affect flavor? etc... There's so many levers there to explore.
Different oil types and qualities. Things like smoke point, heating cadence, flavor, infusion, etc. why is olive oil the default. Why is it virgin. Why is it EXTRA virgin.
This would be especially helpful for anyone who wants to cook the stake with a sous vide machine, since they''ll need to intentionally choose a browning method.
I'd like to see a deep dive on the common grocery store onions. Red, white, yellow, Vidalia. Taste differences and how interchangeable they are in recipes.
Yes! I wrote a similar comment on another video. I want to see a head to head of all them when they are raw, cooked translucent, then caramelized. And then throw in shallots and green onions as fun wild cards! The applications could be, using them raw in a salad or burger, then maybe a stir fry, and then if there's any difference if they're used in a French onion soup.
Ethan is this generations' Alton Brown, but the director's cut version. The way he explains food science is absolutely top notch! His blind taste tests are excellent ways to prove the science. Great work sir!!
I wouldn't say he's comparable to Alton Brown in term of knowledge, which what makes him a better as a youtuber, Alton had lots of knowledge from his past years of research and experimentation, he can use it well, in make a recipe, but Ethan's channel is about his journey learning one thing at a time making it a lot easier to follow along and learn instead of having loads of different thrown at you at once
Alton also often did instruct in ways that only catered to his specific tastes where as Ethan gives as options to choose from, don't get me wrong LOVE Alton, probably wouldn't be even watching this right now if not for him, but they have different approaches suited to their mediums
Last year I stopped basting for the reasons discussed in the video. Instead I started making compound butter and use a mini torch and melt it on at the end right before slicing, that way each piece gets a bit of it and it never disappoints. It's also way easier to clean up.
Absolutely love the long form food science videos. You're really good at explaining things in an easily understandable way. It's a huge benefit to a fledgling home cook like myself to get WHY to do something, so I can apply it to more freeform, off recipe cooking.
This guy’s tenacity, organization and communication are borderline unparalleled. When people ask me why I don’t do a TH-cam cooking show, guys like this are the main reason.
I feel like you at this point have a degree of knowledge of science and cooking that rivals professors, your style of video has improved so much, i wonder if they show your videos in college or school. As a graphic designer student, i really admire your graphic work. Good job! Keep it up!
@@theophilusthistler5885 I was just suggesting the same thing with Tallow, just based on a result I had when using tallow on a carb. The browning was super fast compared to using butter, oil, or butter with oil.
One thought: traditional basting allows the butter to pick up some of the aromas of the toasty rendering beef fat. Melting a bit of butter into the same pan works too. If you infuse aromatics in that butter while the steak rests then drizzle them on, it's really good.
You said the most important thing at the beginning: knowing "how does it work and why does it matter" is the most important part of learning how to cook. That's something that seems so obvious to me but I realize many people approach cooking techniques without knowing nothing about the chemical and physical processes that occours in our food and make it good or bad. Thank you for this video, good job!
Y'know what, I almost didnt watch this video because I dont cook beef. But I still learned something that will save me money: no more basting my meats with butter. Thank you for making your videos so educational beyond just how to make 1 dish. The things we learn from these videos have wide applications!
This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time, honestly. People way overcomplicate cooking steak, I think. The two basics that are more important than anything else, in my opinion, are also probably the easiest to do intuitively. Those being salting and getting a crust on the steak. As you noted, the real key for salting is just to add salt! The second part being crust is really quite easy to do whether you flip only one time or twenty times. Just keep an eye on it. In my experience, if you hit those parts right but your temperature is anywhere between about 125-145 degrees, you are going to have a delicious steak and juicy steak (I learned this as I got better and better at hitting a particular temp while cooking steak). Having additional aromatics is purely down to preference. A steak that's just salted is still absolutely delicious if you do everything else right.
As a southern brazilian. We grow learning about all of this, but i still ejoyed every minute of this video and made plenty details much more clear for me. Awesome work man, lets keep on eating steak
When it comes to the cooking oil, I think a lot of the issue is that a lot of the aromatics in the oil has also mostly broken down at searing temperatures. Most oils in and of themselves have very little flavor or odor. Even things like tallow and lard become tasteless when fully rendered. As a side note, I found out about the actual smell of tallow from experimenting with tallow candles. One candle, which I’ve never been able to reproduce, smelled like perfectly cooked steak when it burned, all the others smelled like nothing.
Absolutely amazing! Congratulations on the content you have been recently providing us with. I instantly clicked on this video when I saw it and didn't even notice it had just been uploaded, I thought this was an older one from this series that I hadn't watched yet. Thanks again, you are delivering pure gold to us.
Just wanted to say, your wraps videos changed my work lunches forever. So easy, nutritional, and filling. Really digging shredded chicken/turkey with greens/tomatoes/misc. sauce combo. A lot of good low carb/keto/etc wrap options widely available too.
Traditional basting is better cause the butter rosemary topping or thrashing is too much rosemary flavour - it subdues the beefy flavours. My guess is Ethan really likes the rosemary flavour, but I would recommend traditional basting to have a nice compliment, but the focus is on the quality beef.
A 45 minute presentation on steak. I love it! Well done! (Pun intended lol) seriously though the effort is insane and I'm sure I speak for a lot of us when I say that we appreciate it!
I just found a way I really like. Marinate in Worcestershire sauce, before cooking set out on a paper towel to dry out the outside, then sear, remove to plate, reduction with rum barrel aged red wine(3 finger jack), standard herbs, butter, and im gonna guess a little honey on the next batch, then glaze steak in the pan to rare/medium rare and then plate with a side of the reduction.
Thomas Keller has a Masterclass episode on prime rib which correlates to your teachings here, though with huge emphasis on texture (you touch on it at 15:45). He prepped the meat by browning with a blow torch, then used sous vide to cook, thus the internal color was consistent edge to edge. He pointed out that most people would see the internal color and presume it was too rare for their preference. Blindfolded, they would deduce otherwise as the meat had a texture of a more "done" piece of meat. Certainly texture informs greatly and often our eyes aren't always the best judge of ideal doneness.
I LOVE these scientific videos you do; i feel like it makes me better at cooking because it teaches us WHY certain techniques and things have an effect on food, rather than just teaching us a new trick in the kitchen
Only recently discovered your channel. But it has quickly become my favorite food-science foodie channel. Loved the video. Couple of questions that remain for me: 1) Regular sear vs reverse sear. 2) Clad vs Carbon steel vs cast iron. Thanks so much for your videos!
Awesome video. I am sure most of us can not even come close to guessing how many hours it took you to make this video. Expert explanations and I love your content. Viewer for life...
Love these deep dives dude 👍 I learned a lot on this one, and I've been cooking steaks commercially and at home for 25 years 😄 super cool comparisons and data. Thanks for all the effort you put into these videos Ethan ✌️
This type of content is what I want to watch. I can recipes anywhere. I want to know when, why and how to make the little changes in my technique that bring out the flavors I'm looking for. The garlic and onion videos were awesome also. I used to dump all my ingredients in a pot at the start, no more. Now I create layers of flavor. Some ingredients only get mixed in at serving, some at resting.
Bro this is such a great video. I feel like I kinda knew a lot of it from watching other videos, but this explains the WHY so well and condenses it all together in one nice package. It also confirmed a lot of theories i had while making/trying steaks at restaurants.
I watch your channel and like it. Normally I wouldn't say I like cooking channels because they never talk about normal peoples kitchens. people that don't have the money for a well-stocked kitchen. So in that spirit here's how I cook steak for my family. i dont know if the way I cook steak is "culinary" or not, but my family loves it to the point that if were having steak - I'm cooking it. no one orders it in a restaurant any more. well to start - ribeye, but you cant always find that so you get the best you can. I start by taking the meat out and letting it get to room temp, I use only two spices, garlic salt and lemon pepper - NOTHING ELSE. I usually cook for a group of 4. to start bring the grill up to 450, sear the steak 1 to 4 min per side, sometimes more if the beer is flowing - rofl (depending on how thick it is), lower the temp to 250, stack the steaks on top of each other, so the juice drips across the others - off the heat - circulate them (bottom to top of the stack, flip so on and so forth) every 15min for one hour - done. My son in law is crazy and likes his well done so I sear his a bit longer. My wife likes the hour cook time so she can make the rest of the meal, potatoes, lemon brussel sprouts. shes the best, I love to share the cooking with my wife. Just my way, I've been doing it for 30 years.
As someone who learned to cook through Alton Brown's Good Eats, I love your more abstract investigation of cooking. It's great to see a more scientific investigation of why we tend to think the correct way is the correct way.
These videos are just right for me. They don't explain to me what I should do, but why. That's why I can easily remember things I saw in one of your videos after years, whereas I quickly forget "normal" recipe videos. Thank you Ethan! Keep up the good work.
One thing with butter that's important to remember is that it tastes better when it hasn't split. You still get that creamy taste before then, so basting with fully split butter of course will taste less intensely of butter.
First time I heard this term, so looked it up and butter splits @160F. So aeromatic butter sauce will have to be made separately from cooking the steak.
38:30 with regards to charcoal vaporizing dripping fats and juices to envelop food in the aroma, this is a big focus in yakitori. yakitori chefs get the most expensive binchotan charcoal that flare up the least while producing that perfect smoke. you may also try getting a small electric yakitori grill that has exposed heating elements and see if you reproduce the same flavor
Seeing all those steaks made me so hungry 🤤 But what an informative video! I love that you explain the reason behind why and how food and cooking works. It's easy to just follow what someone else says, but by being informed like this, we can decide for ourselves what works best for us.
I cook my steaks on a grill with direct and indirect method. 1. Light charcoal, set grillgrates on (type grillgrate on TH-cam) and get hot. I get my grates to 550-600 ideally Salt, pepper, garlic. Use a finer grind pepper, hit grillgrates with avocado oil spray. Sear for 80-120 seconds per side, flip once. Set to indirect heat and close lid. Cook to 125 and remove, set in warm spot (I use my microwave) and rest 8-10 minutes. Slice and serve.
Although it took me several trials to get it right, i found the best steak in your home (without a grill) is to broil it in your oven. Put aluminum foil on a baking pan that is at least 2 inches tall, turning up all sides of the foil along the edges to create a trap. Put a generous amount of salt on the foil. Like, several tablespoons. Get a metal wire rack, and place that on baking pan, so it creates a drip space to the salt underneath. Put your steak on top of the rack above the salt, and sprinkle both side with salt and pepper. The salted pan is hugely important, because it prevents greases from popping all over your oven, and getting messy, or even getting smokey. Preheat oven with the broiler set to High. Wait 5 minutes or so. Put the steak on the top rack in the oven, so that steak is about 2 inches from flames. Flip halfway through, and cook until done. Make sure to watch, as it cooks pretty quickly. Cooking time varies based on your steak, your broiler, and the desired doneness, so you will have to figure out that part on your own. Like me, it will require some experimentation. But it's the best way to get char on your steak, and still be able to cook the inside rare, medium-rare or medium.
I’ve never cared for the butter baste thing. Melting seasoned butter over it after cooking has always been better to me. Now I understand why. Great video!
One important consideration with aromatics is that there are easily overlooked best practices when eating steak. Slice it very thin across the grain to expose as much of the surface area as possible. You need a thin knife with a sharp point to do this well. Then, drag your slice of steak through the drippings on the plate in order to flavor that interior meat that may not be as well seasoned. Only then do you bring the bite to your mouth. I prefer four seasonings on my steak: salt, black pepper, sugar, and Mrs. Dash. Everyone knows the first two. Sugar caramelizes when the flame hits it and adds body to the crust. Mrs. Dash is a great mix of garlic, rosemary, thyme, onion, and a dozen other things that suffuse a complexity to the aroma. Since I drag my meat (and my potato!) through the plate drippings, I don't worry so much about when I season and let the fire have its way with my meat rub. Pat your meat dry, sprinkle all seasonings liberally and rub them in, grill as you like, then save those juices. If it's not a particularly juicy steer, you can take the hot gristle you cut off, put it in a sandwich bag, and squeeze it to get more of that flavored fat to improve your meal.
Why does no one ever consider Medium Well as a "doneness" for steak? It's still super juicy but just so not pink , so it actually has good texture and flavor.
@@Ash_Wen-li I usually ask for medium well because restaurants will er on the side of overdone rather than undercooking in most cases. Some will also be spiteful if you ask for well-done and I dislike char much more than if they make it a bit underdone. And it's not that I "can't handle pink", I just dislike the flavor and texture of pink meat. Low-and-slow makes it fully-cooked without being briquette'd. That is my ideal, where the collagen has broken down and the meat just falls apart in your mouth.
What I do in the winter is pre salt my steaks and set them next to the wood stove until they are warm but not cooked, obviously, and still raw. If it gets a corner or side to start to cook, it doesn't do much with it . Then I cook it on my cast iron . I start with beef talo . Flipping it every 2-3 minutes. About half way through, I add grass fed butter and garlic and herbs and spoon it as a finish . Rest for 10 minutes next to the wood stove again . Perfect
Cantankerous French guy here: Maillard is pronounced ma-yar, not may-ar. There is no ‘eh’ sound in the first syllable! Thanks for the fantastic videos and your scrupulously systematic approach to investigating and demonstrating domain knowledge!
28:20 for example. Suggestion: USE WARMED PLATES. Get some small ceramic or glass plates and warm them for future tests. I feel like your results; although fair, are tainted by the fact that you are eating cooled off (if not cold) steak off of a PLASTIC lid. I’m sure the set-up to film that shot was enough time for the steak to get cold. Your videos are awesome and this is just a detail I thought might help.
Who, what, when, where, why. All cook books or cook shows have the what: ingredients and utensils. The when and where: the directions. The who is obviously you. But nothing I've ever seen has taken such a deep dive into the why as this channel. Absolutely amazing contributions to the food world. Even if it's been done before by food scientists 50 years ago or whatever, it's being done and reaching more people.
Torching is nice as it doesn't smoke out the house, but it takes longer than I usually have patience for (and a goodly amount of butane). Perhaps I just need a bigger torch. It is also very hard to torch if there is any surface moisture at all. I like to think torching gives you more control over cooking only the crust and not the inner layers as much. This is especially my concern if I've cooked it sous vide and am looking to brown it after.
Yooo. Ethan. You are hands down one of the best places to refer people to who are into the cooking hobby and would love to know more, while simultaneously thinking books like Harold McGee's "on food and cooking" or Kenji Lopez Alt's "the food lab" are too daunting to even start. You've managed to cook up the best broth of information density, rigourous testing and the everyday cook's perspective with that crisp humour on the side that really ties the thing together perfectly. You've effectively made many homecooks boldly go where they have not gone before, and this is such an amazing teaching + inspiring talent that you've developed over the years. I love how you've grown over the years and honestly, I'm struggling to think of ways you can improve still. But I thought the same thing about a year ago and even since then, your growth has been astonishing. Keep grilling it, Sir Stache.
Thank you so much Ethan. I love having all this information on the why of cooking steak. It feels good to have vindication on how I am not "doing it wrong" or "ruining" my steak when I have it how I like it. I can and always have just told those people to go to hell, but now I have the knowledge to tell them why their assertions that there is only one way to do it is wrong.
Really appreciate the analytical and explanatory approach to cooking. Understanding the why behind all of the hotly debated, and even mandated, techniques used to cook steak to "perfection" greatly helps in demystifying the swirling confusion that too often accompanies this beloved food. Knowing there is a significant degree of subjectivity behind these choices that all amount to improving the aroma of the finished product truly bolsters my confidence in approaching my next meal. :)
Agreed butter basting info, but I think he hits it that it slightly covers the steak, but by butter, herb basting at the end of the steak does a light cover on the top of the steak but makes a great drizzle for the steak after cut. And you have to put in the show factor of basting, it is visually enticing, so it gets the people watching the smells in the air and visual for that flavor so their brain will be prepared for the flavor. Another simple solution is a Board Dressing, re: Jamie Oliver: where you rest the meat on Olive Oil with herbs and then let the juice mix with that and cut it on that dressing so that the inside gets the flavor as well. As for temp of cook, is more a mouth feel I think. Still all in all pretty good.
I was freaken thinking the same thing! Guga would beg to differ when shunning the Sous Vide steak. Some of my best steak is Sous Vide and then dried left to return to room temperature, cooked with butter, time, rosemary, butter, butter, more butter and yes garlic. I lastly follow up with my SearPro.
@kkerrjr I don't think Ethan is "shunning" Sous Vide. It can cover the interanal temperature in his steak pyramid of needs. And using sear pro or pan searing can cover the maillard reaction. I like Ethan because he won't tell you what is the best or how you should do it. He will explain the "WHY" behind the process.
The standard perfect steak is Chicago/Pittsburgh medium-rare for fatty cuts, Chicago/Pittsburgh rare for lean cuts. If you want your steak well-done, just eat well-done pork - it'll be cheaper and tastes the same at that point. Always salt ahead of time at least 1 hour in advance. Pat the surface of the steak dry before cooking (cast iron or charcoal grill - place and time for both). Garlic, butter, herb aromatic basting. Rest 10 minutes loosley covered. Add finishing salt. This is the way.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
Personally, I like to comment on videos the instant they're uploaded, posting some asinine joke instead of engaging with the video's content, because being an early high-voted comment is more important to me than supporting the channel or turning the comment section into an interesting discussion 😇
This is a great video. Your channel and Guga have really inspired me to elevate my cooking and it has been so much fun to learn. I however disagree with the point made about Charcoal being odorless. You can let charcoal alone burn and still smell it. Additionally, I have made smash burgers over a charcoal grill on a griddle and you still get a charcoal flavor. Even though the griddle prevents any juices from dripping onto the charcoal.
One of the best grill guys I know has a method for avoiding grill marks and getting as much deep maillardization as possible. His argument is that deep browning is where all the flavor is, so you don't want grill marks; you want the whole thing gorgeously brown.
Sweet Jesus, thank you. I'm so tired of steak snobs acting like medium rare is the only way. I intuitively know that medium rare doesn't taste or smell as good, because if it did, there wouldn't be such a focus on using high heat to form a crust.
@@eldibs if any food tasted good it wouldn't need salt. And if salt tasted good it wouldn't need food. That is basically your argument. You need both components to make sense, not just isolating them.
My favorite way to sear a steak is with the Slow N Sear on a charcoal grill using the cold grate technique. They sell a grate that is made to spin, so you basically cook the steak at around 225-250 grate level until it hits 110 or so internal, remove the grate while you go in to pat dry, oil, and pepper the steaks (I dry brine, so salt is in there already), then when the fire is roaring hot, you put the cold grate back on the indirect side, spin the grated around, sear for a minute, flip the steaks off to the indiret side, spin again, repeat until fully seared. No grill marks, all over Maillard reaction, delicious. Of course if I've sous vided the steaks, I'm not going to light a fire just for the sear, so I'll just use the Su-V Gun.
These are my favorite of your food videos, not only because steak, but more so because it breaks down to the science of cooking. And that is actually what got me so into cooking many years ago, besides just loving to eat good food :)
I love these videos, this type of information is how you actually learn to cook instead of just following a recipe which is more about learning how to follow directions in a kitchen. I have played around these things quite a bit and can definitely say that even though I prefer steak medium-rare to medium, I have cooked them to well done and still had great results. I love doing a dry brine in the fridge overnight and up to a couple of days, that helps dry out the surface even more. Charcoal is also definitely the way to go, but you can still get great results, especially if you have a cast iron skillet on the stove.
Very interesting, indeed! One thing that would be really interesting to see, is how resting time after cooking affects the meat. I read that it relaxes the meat and prevents loss of juiciness that way.
I love how you show the science of how things work. I'm 61 yr and never liked cooking, which is prob bc I only cooked recipes exactly from my elders. I look forward to putting this science to work. Thank you and yes please continue the science part of cooking. 😊
Hey Ethan, something I don't see addressed enough is how to minimize the smoke that comes from cooking steak. Is smoke a foregone conclusion or is there a way to mitigate smoking out your house and kitchen because you like steak?
The tricks apparently are... hot and dry. However, no matter how dry my steak is or how hot the pan is, there always seems to be enough smoke that I'm setting off the smoke detectors. The only way I've found to avoid it is to put a lid loosely on the skillet, turn the exhaust fan on high, then when it is time to remove the lid I step outside (door is right next to the stove fortunately) and release the kraken. But I agree, it really seems impossible to not fill the house with smoke.
As a psychology student these self actualized steaks made my day. I got to learn a lot from your videos and you explain things in layman's terms with the the charts and all which makes it easier to understand. I thank you for this informative video.
My absolute favorite and most indulgent way to cook a steak is to reverse sear in a pellet smoker. Get a really thick NY strip; costco is my source. Choice cuts work fine. I season with Montreal seasoning...my preference do it how you want. Smoke at 180 or 225. Lower temp takes a couple hours...225 about an hour to 90 minutes. When it comes up to 125, pull it and let rest for 30 minutes. Then blast on a grill or in a well oiled skillet. Then, make a mushroom cream sauce with dijon and a splash of white wine, sherry, or an oaky liquor (a la steak diane). I keep the mushroom sauce on the side. Serve with a potato, preferably baked or steakhouse Romanov style. It's a liiiiittle tricky...and I usually make it drunk at midnight on a Friday night....but it comes out so juicy and flavorful. I've made steaks like this for at least a dozen people and I've permanently ruined steak houses for them. Lmao
Yes please! Best way to brown a steak! Also, I’d love to hear about alllll the different ways to cook a steak with cast iron, grill, etc. even knowing if it’s better to sear in cast iron then put in the oven vs keep on cast iron on the stove, would be awesome. Just subscribed. Thank you for your hard work!
The single BEST video on making an awesome steak... Well done (pun intended). Personally, I go sous vide and then hit it with a flamethrower. This video will make me experiment however.
For butter basting with aromatics, do both! Baste in the butter, garlic and herb, but also pour some of the infused oil over the plated meat. Doing it in the same pan as the meat gives you all the meaty flavours as well as the aromatics, and the 'gravy' is richer for it, and you add THAT to the plate. You can then stir your forked meat into the juice on your plate, and do the same with whatever else is on the plate.
I love how this and many of your other videos align with Adam Ragusea’s video about the common problem of cooking and lifting communities. That everyone has their own way of doing things that they insist is best but all of them essentially work.
We had a lot of people for Thanksgiving last year, so I ended up making two turkeys: one in the oven, one on the charcoal grill. Both were spatchcocked and dry brined. The one on the charcoal grill was unbelievably better. I highly recommend it
Wonderful insight, thank you. I'm a real foodie and I've have made loads of lovely meals and occasionally the results have been spectacular. This will enable me to understand what works and why. I've never seen anyone dissect Mcgee and Nostrat on video. Video is my most favoured medium for learning. Cooking is my most flavoured medium for learning.
Ever since I first saw Alton Brown’s show Good Eats, the original one in the late ‘90’s or early ought’s, I have loved learning about food science. KEEP THESE COMING!!!
Regarding the basting aromatic test, i think your conclusion matches the reason why gravy made from deglasing a pan is used. Those fat soluble volatile compounds are just so much more accessible when drizzled on afterwards
This essentially just confirms what I've learned through trial and error at home. I really love the butter flavor and traditional basting doesn't really impart that so, I started resting my steaks in foil with butter, crushed garlic and rosemary which was better than the traditional basting, but then I realized I could just make a garlic rosemary infused butter and drizzle it over and boom much better.
I have always been apprehensive about cooking steak for myself at home. Your way of demystifying the processes behind good steak helped me think I can now try to do it at home.
While I agree that the Maillard reaction is super important and one of the most influential in human history, the "most important reaction" has to go to fermentation and it can't be anything else. Throughout human history, preservation has advanced us as a species far more than deliciousness has
But... We've had refrigeration for a few generations. It's time to forget about all of human history and much of how the world works. Honestly though I think it's crazy how wasteful we've become as a result of most people not knowing how to preserve and make use of all the component parts of things. We throw things away because we just don't know that they're still useful, since they aren't without the ability to preserve them.
Sad to see this video didnt get to many views. You inspire me to keep on making amazing food and it honestly helps my mental health a lot. Appreciate Ethan. Keep on killing it!
I used to work at trader Joe's and I'd buy 2-3 new york strips a week. Simply because they were cheap, but still thick and looked good. I wanted to learn how to cook a steak better for myself. Id simply dry brine it in my fridge. Pat it dry. Let it get to room temp as i prep my cast iron, garlic, rosemary and thyme. And kerrigold butter. Sear it nice on one side for about a min and a half. Flip. Toss in butter and aromas. Baste for about 2 mins. Take off. Let rest. Snack on crispy thyme and rosemary and take garlic out of its skin. Cut steak. Add flakey salt. Fresh black pepper. Done. Thsts my personal preference.
There was a video I saw with Kenji and Adam where they browned sous vide steaks. Their favorite was charcoal, but using a chimney starter. They sell grill tops that go on a chimney starter. My guess is that the chimney starter helped to intensify the heat due to the chimney effect. Less mess than a full on charcoal grill, but you still get that extra charcoal flavor.
Very good video as always! Only one point I notice regarding the blind tests, as we are discussing flavors that are on the outside part of the meat, having very high cuts results in a cut with low inside to outside area ratio. This is more noticed in the aromatics test, where tasting the butter directly had the most effect. When doing brazillian barbecues, I like cutting thinner slices of picanha, so the internal area is 2x the external. This allows the tongue to feel the outside flavors more. But usually we salt it just before or during, not days before. So Ill give a test on that.
So this is what ive gathered from my own research and testing. The best way I've found for me. Remember everything is about your preference. Dry brined, thick cut at least 1.5-2", cold seared in clarified butter, and seasoned after resting and cutting with a pan sauce. It's important to pan sear because you can't make a pan sauce on the charcoal grill. That's just my two cents. It's like most anything else it's all about what you like best
2 months ago, my boyfriend shared with me your "garlic science" video, and I loved it! I've been watching your videos since then , I absolutely love them 👏🏼🤩
A couple weeks ago I was making ribeye steaks and an herby garlic butter bread for the side. I had extra of the herby garlic butter and decided to put it on the steak as it was resting and it was amazing. I cooked the steaks in an air fryer which works surprisingly well. the exposed fat gets nice crispy bits and makes for a nice texture.
I really appreciate your channel. Your content just gets better and better. You do all the things I wish I had time to do and share it with the rest of the world. Thanks a million!
Videos like this are really fun (and also challenging) to think through at the fundamental level. Everytime I make one I have many breakthroughs myself...so what food should we do next?
Also another thank you to Porter Road for supplying me with the outrageous number of steaks I cooked for this video: porterroad.com/steakaromas
More of a blind test video idea, but I'd like to see one comparing the different types / form factor of store bough broth / bouillon.
You need to send your cooking to me, that is all. If you think I'm kidding, turn around right now.
@@juliencharbonneau2404 A deep dive on stock in general would be really great. Store bought versus home made, versus bouillon, but then also when making stock, optimal times/temperatures to cook to extract the most flavor, if/when to add vegetables and/or aromatics(is there any value to adding flavors to stock, versus adding after, during use), some sort of exploration around optimal salt levels(when to add salt?), effects of meat, fat and bone on flavor and body, does skimming actually do anything? Does clarification affect flavor? etc... There's so many levers there to explore.
I agree, a review of store broth, homemade broth, and what aromatics make a broth would be great.@@juliencharbonneau2404
Different oil types and qualities. Things like smoke point, heating cadence, flavor, infusion, etc. why is olive oil the default. Why is it virgin. Why is it EXTRA virgin.
"If you want to see a video where we test what is the best way to brown a steak, let me know." A thousand times yes, Ethan! Great video, thank you!
Make that two thousand! 🙋♀️
Deep fry it
@@kxjx Would love to see that. My guess for the best method is sous vide then deep fry for the sear.
yes please!
This would be especially helpful for anyone who wants to cook the stake with a sous vide machine, since they''ll need to intentionally choose a browning method.
I'd like to see a deep dive on the common grocery store onions. Red, white, yellow, Vidalia. Taste differences and how interchangeable they are in recipes.
Yes! I wrote a similar comment on another video. I want to see a head to head of all them when they are raw, cooked translucent, then caramelized. And then throw in shallots and green onions as fun wild cards! The applications could be, using them raw in a salad or burger, then maybe a stir fry, and then if there's any difference if they're used in a French onion soup.
Helena Renie has a great video on this if you want to see that!
@@kastro8065 Leeks would be an interesting wild card too
@@Zaibech Leeks and shallots, side by side with all the different types of onion. Maybe even green onion, some of the little bulb chopped up.
make Ethan eat them raw without slicing first, for the final boss test LOL
Ethan is this generations' Alton Brown, but the director's cut version. The way he explains food science is absolutely top notch! His blind taste tests are excellent ways to prove the science. Great work sir!!
Thank you!
I wouldn't say he's comparable to Alton Brown in term of knowledge, which what makes him a better as a youtuber, Alton had lots of knowledge from his past years of research and experimentation, he can use it well, in make a recipe, but Ethan's channel is about his journey learning one thing at a time making it a lot easier to follow along and learn instead of having loads of different thrown at you at once
Alton also often did instruct in ways that only catered to his specific tastes where as Ethan gives as options to choose from, don't get me wrong LOVE Alton, probably wouldn't be even watching this right now if not for him, but they have different approaches suited to their mediums
Thankfully, Ethan has never said anything stupid like "Black GIs taught Koreans how to make fried chicken"
@@EthanChlebowskiwhat is the plastic or glass box you used for suis vid ? Have a link?
Title checks out for a guy who eats most of his food blindfolded 😂
why I blindfold my cutting board, not myself
absolutely golden comment mate!! 😂😂
@@TheoneandonlyTB135Ragusea?
My yard Mot may 😢
My yard Not may yard!!!!!!
Last year I stopped basting for the reasons discussed in the video. Instead I started making compound butter and use a mini torch and melt it on at the end right before slicing, that way each piece gets a bit of it and it never disappoints.
It's also way easier to clean up.
Do you put it in right after you take the steak off the grill? Or do you pour it on after it’s on the plate and sliced?
Absolutely love the long form food science videos. You're really good at explaining things in an easily understandable way. It's a huge benefit to a fledgling home cook like myself to get WHY to do something, so I can apply it to more freeform, off recipe cooking.
This guy’s tenacity, organization and communication are borderline unparalleled.
When people ask me why I don’t do a TH-cam cooking show, guys like this are the main reason.
I feel like you at this point have a degree of knowledge of science and cooking that rivals professors, your style of video has improved so much, i wonder if they show your videos in college or school. As a graphic designer student, i really admire your graphic work. Good job! Keep it up!
Nice cheat is to start your sear in animal based fats be it bacon/ lambchops fat, tallow, ghee or a slab of "Superfry" or equivalent.
@@theophilusthistler5885 I was just suggesting the same thing with Tallow, just based on a result I had when using tallow on a carb. The browning was super fast compared to using butter, oil, or butter with oil.
One thought: traditional basting allows the butter to pick up some of the aromas of the toasty rendering beef fat. Melting a bit of butter into the same pan works too.
If you infuse aromatics in that butter while the steak rests then drizzle them on, it's really good.
I think this is really good advice for a true foodie. Took me years to learn and understand what you have achieved to summary in mere 40 minutes.
What advice is that
@@abedalam8072smell is really important even though it isn't common sense.
@@abedalam8072get a good crust, bar none. Use aromatics, be generous with salt
My parents love putting garlic salt in melted butter and putting that on a steak when it's on your plate. It works pretty well honestly.
You said the most important thing at the beginning: knowing "how does it work and why does it matter" is the most important part of learning how to cook. That's something that seems so obvious to me but I realize many people approach cooking techniques without knowing nothing about the chemical and physical processes that occours in our food and make it good or bad. Thank you for this video, good job!
Y'know what, I almost didnt watch this video because I dont cook beef. But I still learned something that will save me money: no more basting my meats with butter. Thank you for making your videos so educational beyond just how to make 1 dish. The things we learn from these videos have wide applications!
This is something I've been thinking about for quite some time, honestly. People way overcomplicate cooking steak, I think. The two basics that are more important than anything else, in my opinion, are also probably the easiest to do intuitively. Those being salting and getting a crust on the steak. As you noted, the real key for salting is just to add salt! The second part being crust is really quite easy to do whether you flip only one time or twenty times. Just keep an eye on it. In my experience, if you hit those parts right but your temperature is anywhere between about 125-145 degrees, you are going to have a delicious steak and juicy steak (I learned this as I got better and better at hitting a particular temp while cooking steak). Having additional aromatics is purely down to preference. A steak that's just salted is still absolutely delicious if you do everything else right.
Exactly. I actually don't like to put aromatics on my steak, i just love to focus on that beef taste and aroma.
As a southern brazilian.
We grow learning about all of this, but i still ejoyed every minute of this video and made plenty details much more clear for me.
Awesome work man, lets keep on eating steak
When it comes to the cooking oil, I think a lot of the issue is that a lot of the aromatics in the oil has also mostly broken down at searing temperatures. Most oils in and of themselves have very little flavor or odor. Even things like tallow and lard become tasteless when fully rendered.
As a side note, I found out about the actual smell of tallow from experimenting with tallow candles. One candle, which I’ve never been able to reproduce, smelled like perfectly cooked steak when it burned, all the others smelled like nothing.
Interesting comment makes a lot of sense to me
Absolutely amazing! Congratulations on the content you have been recently providing us with. I instantly clicked on this video when I saw it and didn't even notice it had just been uploaded, I thought this was an older one from this series that I hadn't watched yet. Thanks again, you are delivering pure gold to us.
Just wanted to say, your wraps videos changed my work lunches forever. So easy, nutritional, and filling. Really digging shredded chicken/turkey with greens/tomatoes/misc. sauce combo. A lot of good low carb/keto/etc wrap options widely available too.
The aromatics test (traditional vs infused oil vs brushed) really shows why compound butters added right before serving are so popular.
Traditional basting is better cause the butter rosemary topping or thrashing is too much rosemary flavour - it subdues the beefy flavours. My guess is Ethan really likes the rosemary flavour, but I would recommend traditional basting to have a nice compliment, but the focus is on the quality beef.
I always learn something from your videos. The vaporization process isn't something I'd thought of.
A 45 minute presentation on steak. I love it! Well done! (Pun intended lol) seriously though the effort is insane and I'm sure I speak for a lot of us when I say that we appreciate it!
He's kind of getting a raw deal.
@@riccocool 😂😂😂😂
Its quite rare to see one like this
I just found a way I really like. Marinate in Worcestershire sauce, before cooking set out on a paper towel to dry out the outside, then sear, remove to plate, reduction with rum barrel aged red wine(3 finger jack), standard herbs, butter, and im gonna guess a little honey on the next batch, then glaze steak in the pan to rare/medium rare and then plate with a side of the reduction.
just watched a 43 minute video about steak and my ancestors could'nt be more proud.
Thomas Keller has a Masterclass episode on prime rib which correlates to your teachings here, though with huge emphasis on texture (you touch on it at 15:45). He prepped the meat by browning with a blow torch, then used sous vide to cook, thus the internal color was consistent edge to edge. He pointed out that most people would see the internal color and presume it was too rare for their preference. Blindfolded, they would deduce otherwise as the meat had a texture of a more "done" piece of meat. Certainly texture informs greatly and often our eyes aren't always the best judge of ideal doneness.
I LOVE these scientific videos you do; i feel like it makes me better at cooking because it teaches us WHY certain techniques and things have an effect on food, rather than just teaching us a new trick in the kitchen
Only recently discovered your channel. But it has quickly become my favorite food-science foodie channel. Loved the video. Couple of questions that remain for me:
1) Regular sear vs reverse sear.
2) Clad vs Carbon steel vs cast iron.
Thanks so much for your videos!
For me, reverse sear, makes for a far more tender protein. Not sure about question two.
Awesome video. I am sure most of us can not even come close to guessing how many hours it took you to make this video. Expert explanations and I love your content. Viewer for life...
Great video as usual! Old habits die hard. It will be difficult for me to stop basting my steaks. It’s just so satisfying.
Love these deep dives dude 👍 I learned a lot on this one, and I've been cooking steaks commercially and at home for 25 years 😄 super cool comparisons and data. Thanks for all the effort you put into these videos Ethan ✌️
Glad to hear it! Anytime I do these, I learn a ton myself.
This type of content is what I want to watch. I can recipes anywhere. I want to know when, why and how to make the little changes in my technique that bring out the flavors I'm looking for. The garlic and onion videos were awesome also. I used to dump all my ingredients in a pot at the start, no more. Now I create layers of flavor. Some ingredients only get mixed in at serving, some at resting.
Rare to find this kind of quality in this medium. Well done!
How long did it take you to cook that one up?
Bro this is such a great video. I feel like I kinda knew a lot of it from watching other videos, but this explains the WHY so well and condenses it all together in one nice package.
It also confirmed a lot of theories i had while making/trying steaks at restaurants.
Oh man, loving the long-form content! Time to get educated on meat!
Didn't hold back in this one!
Pause, tho I love the content
@@EthanChlebowski Can you try smoking other types of things; say alcohol, breads, jerky.
I watch your channel and like it. Normally I wouldn't say I like cooking channels because they never talk about normal peoples kitchens. people that don't have the money for a well-stocked kitchen. So in that spirit here's how I cook steak for my family.
i dont know if the way I cook steak is "culinary" or not, but my family loves it to the point that if were having steak - I'm cooking it. no one orders it in a restaurant any more. well to start - ribeye, but you cant always find that so you get the best you can. I start by taking the meat out and letting it get to room temp, I use only two spices, garlic salt and lemon pepper - NOTHING ELSE. I usually cook for a group of 4. to start bring the grill up to 450, sear the steak 1 to 4 min per side, sometimes more if the beer is flowing - rofl (depending on how thick it is), lower the temp to 250, stack the steaks on top of each other, so the juice drips across the others - off the heat - circulate them (bottom to top of the stack, flip so on and so forth) every 15min for one hour - done. My son in law is crazy and likes his well done so I sear his a bit longer. My wife likes the hour cook time so she can make the rest of the meal, potatoes, lemon brussel sprouts. shes the best, I love to share the cooking with my wife. Just my way, I've been doing it for 30 years.
As someone who learned to cook through Alton Brown's Good Eats, I love your more abstract investigation of cooking. It's great to see a more scientific investigation of why we tend to think the correct way is the correct way.
These videos are just right for me. They don't explain to me what I should do, but why. That's why I can easily remember things I saw in one of your videos after years, whereas I quickly forget "normal" recipe videos.
Thank you Ethan! Keep up the good work.
One thing with butter that's important to remember is that it tastes better when it hasn't split. You still get that creamy taste before then, so basting with fully split butter of course will taste less intensely of butter.
First time I heard this term, so looked it up and butter splits @160F. So aeromatic butter sauce will have to be made separately from cooking the steak.
38:30
with regards to charcoal vaporizing dripping fats and juices to envelop food in the aroma, this is a big focus in yakitori. yakitori chefs get the most expensive binchotan charcoal that flare up the least while producing that perfect smoke.
you may also try getting a small electric yakitori grill that has exposed heating elements and see if you reproduce the same flavor
Seeing all those steaks made me so hungry 🤤 But what an informative video! I love that you explain the reason behind why and how food and cooking works. It's easy to just follow what someone else says, but by being informed like this, we can decide for ourselves what works best for us.
I cook my steaks on a grill with direct and indirect method.
1. Light charcoal, set grillgrates on (type grillgrate on TH-cam) and get hot. I get my grates to 550-600 ideally
Salt, pepper, garlic. Use a finer grind pepper, hit grillgrates with avocado oil spray.
Sear for 80-120 seconds per side, flip once. Set to indirect heat and close lid. Cook to 125 and remove, set in warm spot (I use my microwave) and rest 8-10 minutes.
Slice and serve.
Should've used tallow/lard to compare with peanut oil rather than butter mixed with peanut oil
Totally Agee.
Although it took me several trials to get it right, i found the best steak in your home (without a grill) is to broil it in your oven. Put aluminum foil on a baking pan that is at least 2 inches tall, turning up all sides of the foil along the edges to create a trap. Put a generous amount of salt on the foil. Like, several tablespoons. Get a metal wire rack, and place that on baking pan, so it creates a drip space to the salt underneath. Put your steak on top of the rack above the salt, and sprinkle both side with salt and pepper. The salted pan is hugely important, because it prevents greases from popping all over your oven, and getting messy, or even getting smokey.
Preheat oven with the broiler set to High. Wait 5 minutes or so. Put the steak on the top rack in the oven, so that steak is about 2 inches from flames. Flip halfway through, and cook until done. Make sure to watch, as it cooks pretty quickly. Cooking time varies based on your steak, your broiler, and the desired doneness, so you will have to figure out that part on your own. Like me, it will require some experimentation. But it's the best way to get char on your steak, and still be able to cook the inside rare, medium-rare or medium.
I’ve never cared for the butter baste thing. Melting seasoned butter over it after cooking has always been better to me. Now I understand why. Great video!
One important consideration with aromatics is that there are easily overlooked best practices when eating steak. Slice it very thin across the grain to expose as much of the surface area as possible. You need a thin knife with a sharp point to do this well. Then, drag your slice of steak through the drippings on the plate in order to flavor that interior meat that may not be as well seasoned. Only then do you bring the bite to your mouth.
I prefer four seasonings on my steak: salt, black pepper, sugar, and Mrs. Dash. Everyone knows the first two. Sugar caramelizes when the flame hits it and adds body to the crust. Mrs. Dash is a great mix of garlic, rosemary, thyme, onion, and a dozen other things that suffuse a complexity to the aroma. Since I drag my meat (and my potato!) through the plate drippings, I don't worry so much about when I season and let the fire have its way with my meat rub.
Pat your meat dry, sprinkle all seasonings liberally and rub them in, grill as you like, then save those juices. If it's not a particularly juicy steer, you can take the hot gristle you cut off, put it in a sandwich bag, and squeeze it to get more of that flavored fat to improve your meal.
Why does no one ever consider Medium Well as a "doneness" for steak? It's still super juicy but just so not pink , so it actually has good texture and flavor.
Because people that can't handle pink only do well done. And people that can handle pink will get it medium or less. It's just in a weird grey zone
Medium well is my favourite.
@@Ash_Wen-li I usually ask for medium well because restaurants will er on the side of overdone rather than undercooking in most cases. Some will also be spiteful if you ask for well-done and I dislike char much more than if they make it a bit underdone.
And it's not that I "can't handle pink", I just dislike the flavor and texture of pink meat. Low-and-slow makes it fully-cooked without being briquette'd. That is my ideal, where the collagen has broken down and the meat just falls apart in your mouth.
@@Aubreykun I agree with the low and slow/indirect heat, with a reverse sear. but I doe love medium rare with that method.
What I do in the winter is pre salt my steaks and set them next to the wood stove until they are warm but not cooked, obviously, and still raw. If it gets a corner or side to start to cook, it doesn't do much with it . Then I cook it on my cast iron . I start with beef talo . Flipping it every 2-3 minutes. About half way through, I add grass fed butter and garlic and herbs and spoon it as a finish . Rest for 10 minutes next to the wood stove again . Perfect
Cantankerous French guy here: Maillard is pronounced ma-yar, not may-ar. There is no ‘eh’ sound in the first syllable!
Thanks for the fantastic videos and your scrupulously systematic approach to investigating and demonstrating domain knowledge!
Didn't have to declare you're French. We already knew. Jk.😜
A Grammar Nazi i see ..
The more you know!™
28:20 for example. Suggestion: USE WARMED PLATES. Get some small ceramic or glass plates and warm them for future tests. I feel like your results; although fair, are tainted by the fact that you are eating cooled off (if not cold) steak off of a PLASTIC lid. I’m sure the set-up to film that shot was enough time for the steak to get cold. Your videos are awesome and this is just a detail I thought might help.
Why I Season My Nose, Not My Cutting Board
Who, what, when, where, why. All cook books or cook shows have the what: ingredients and utensils. The when and where: the directions. The who is obviously you. But nothing I've ever seen has taken such a deep dive into the why as this channel. Absolutely amazing contributions to the food world. Even if it's been done before by food scientists 50 years ago or whatever, it's being done and reaching more people.
I would love a video on the best way to brown steaks, especially since I'm considering buying a food torch
Torching is nice as it doesn't smoke out the house, but it takes longer than I usually have patience for (and a goodly amount of butane). Perhaps I just need a bigger torch.
It is also very hard to torch if there is any surface moisture at all.
I like to think torching gives you more control over cooking only the crust and not the inner layers as much. This is especially my concern if I've cooked it sous vide and am looking to brown it after.
Yooo. Ethan. You are hands down one of the best places to refer people to who are into the cooking hobby and would love to know more, while simultaneously thinking books like Harold McGee's "on food and cooking" or Kenji Lopez Alt's "the food lab" are too daunting to even start. You've managed to cook up the best broth of information density, rigourous testing and the everyday cook's perspective with that crisp humour on the side that really ties the thing together perfectly.
You've effectively made many homecooks boldly go where they have not gone before, and this is such an amazing teaching + inspiring talent that you've developed over the years. I love how you've grown over the years and honestly, I'm struggling to think of ways you can improve still. But I thought the same thing about a year ago and even since then, your growth has been astonishing.
Keep grilling it, Sir Stache.
Thank you so much Ethan. I love having all this information on the why of cooking steak. It feels good to have vindication on how I am not "doing it wrong" or "ruining" my steak when I have it how I like it. I can and always have just told those people to go to hell, but now I have the knowledge to tell them why their assertions that there is only one way to do it is wrong.
Really appreciate the analytical and explanatory approach to cooking. Understanding the why behind all of the hotly debated, and even mandated, techniques used to cook steak to "perfection" greatly helps in demystifying the swirling confusion that too often accompanies this beloved food. Knowing there is a significant degree of subjectivity behind these choices that all amount to improving the aroma of the finished product truly bolsters my confidence in approaching my next meal. :)
I'm early and I'm here to learn all about Ethan's meat
Agreed butter basting info, but I think he hits it that it slightly covers the steak, but by butter, herb basting at the end of the steak does a light cover on the top of the steak but makes a great drizzle for the steak after cut. And you have to put in the show factor of basting, it is visually enticing, so it gets the people watching the smells in the air and visual for that flavor so their brain will be prepared for the flavor. Another simple solution is a Board Dressing, re: Jamie Oliver: where you rest the meat on Olive Oil with herbs and then let the juice mix with that and cut it on that dressing so that the inside gets the flavor as well. As for temp of cook, is more a mouth feel I think. Still all in all pretty good.
We need Guga to comment on this
I was freaken thinking the same thing! Guga would beg to differ when shunning the Sous Vide steak. Some of my best steak is Sous Vide and then dried left to return to room temperature, cooked with butter, time, rosemary, butter, butter, more butter and yes garlic. I lastly follow up with my SearPro.
@kkerrjr I don't think Ethan is "shunning" Sous Vide. It can cover the interanal temperature in his steak pyramid of needs. And using sear pro or pan searing can cover the maillard reaction. I like Ethan because he won't tell you what is the best or how you should do it. He will explain the "WHY" behind the process.
The standard perfect steak is Chicago/Pittsburgh medium-rare for fatty cuts, Chicago/Pittsburgh rare for lean cuts. If you want your steak well-done, just eat well-done pork - it'll be cheaper and tastes the same at that point. Always salt ahead of time at least 1 hour in advance. Pat the surface of the steak dry before cooking (cast iron or charcoal grill - place and time for both). Garlic, butter, herb aromatic basting. Rest 10 minutes loosley covered. Add finishing salt. This is the way.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
I like the cut of your jib, sir!
who asked
Personally, I like to comment on videos the instant they're uploaded, posting some asinine joke instead of engaging with the video's content, because being an early high-voted comment is more important to me than supporting the channel or turning the comment section into an interesting discussion 😇
@@BeefinOut or a life
This is a great video. Your channel and Guga have really inspired me to elevate my cooking and it has been so much fun to learn.
I however disagree with the point made about Charcoal being odorless. You can let charcoal alone burn and still smell it. Additionally, I have made smash burgers over a charcoal grill on a griddle and you still get a charcoal flavor. Even though the griddle prevents any juices from dripping onto the charcoal.
Who else was waiting for Guga to show up?
I loved how excited you got during the basting segment :) its cool to see someone share the same level of enthusiasm with the things you love
As a well done steak man, I see this as an absolute win.
This is why i season my nostrils instead of my steak
One of the best grill guys I know has a method for avoiding grill marks and getting as much deep maillardization as possible. His argument is that deep browning is where all the flavor is, so you don't want grill marks; you want the whole thing gorgeously brown.
Sweet Jesus, thank you. I'm so tired of steak snobs acting like medium rare is the only way. I intuitively know that medium rare doesn't taste or smell as good, because if it did, there wouldn't be such a focus on using high heat to form a crust.
NO, one can have both medium rare and a great crust with indirect low heat and reverse sear. For a far more tender steak.
@@thomass5169 You seemed to have missed what I was saying entirely. If medium rare tasted and smelled good, it wouldn't need a crust.
@@eldibs respectfully, I missed nothing.
@@eldibs if any food tasted good it wouldn't need salt.
And if salt tasted good it wouldn't need food.
That is basically your argument.
You need both components to make sense, not just isolating them.
Great video! I appreciate the graphs and charts. Definitely paused on those to take a look.
My favorite way to sear a steak is with the Slow N Sear on a charcoal grill using the cold grate technique. They sell a grate that is made to spin, so you basically cook the steak at around 225-250 grate level until it hits 110 or so internal, remove the grate while you go in to pat dry, oil, and pepper the steaks (I dry brine, so salt is in there already), then when the fire is roaring hot, you put the cold grate back on the indirect side, spin the grated around, sear for a minute, flip the steaks off to the indiret side, spin again, repeat until fully seared. No grill marks, all over Maillard reaction, delicious.
Of course if I've sous vided the steaks, I'm not going to light a fire just for the sear, so I'll just use the Su-V Gun.
That absolute best way to cook a steak at home is whatever way makes the biggest mess of the entire kitchen! I've proven this method for 71 years.
These are my favorite of your food videos, not only because steak, but more so because it breaks down to the science of cooking. And that is actually what got me so into cooking many years ago, besides just loving to eat good food :)
I love these videos, this type of information is how you actually learn to cook instead of just following a recipe which is more about learning how to follow directions in a kitchen. I have played around these things quite a bit and can definitely say that even though I prefer steak medium-rare to medium, I have cooked them to well done and still had great results. I love doing a dry brine in the fridge overnight and up to a couple of days, that helps dry out the surface even more. Charcoal is also definitely the way to go, but you can still get great results, especially if you have a cast iron skillet on the stove.
Very interesting, indeed! One thing that would be really interesting to see, is how resting time after cooking affects the meat. I read that it relaxes the meat and prevents loss of juiciness that way.
I love how you show the science of how things work. I'm 61 yr and never liked cooking, which is prob bc I only cooked recipes exactly from my elders. I look forward to putting this science to work. Thank you and yes please continue the science part of cooking. 😊
Hey Ethan, something I don't see addressed enough is how to minimize the smoke that comes from cooking steak. Is smoke a foregone conclusion or is there a way to mitigate smoking out your house and kitchen because you like steak?
The tricks apparently are... hot and dry. However, no matter how dry my steak is or how hot the pan is, there always seems to be enough smoke that I'm setting off the smoke detectors. The only way I've found to avoid it is to put a lid loosely on the skillet, turn the exhaust fan on high, then when it is time to remove the lid I step outside (door is right next to the stove fortunately) and release the kraken.
But I agree, it really seems impossible to not fill the house with smoke.
As a psychology student these self actualized steaks made my day. I got to learn a lot from your videos and you explain things in layman's terms with the the charts and all which makes it easier to understand. I thank you for this informative video.
My absolute favorite and most indulgent way to cook a steak is to reverse sear in a pellet smoker. Get a really thick NY strip; costco is my source. Choice cuts work fine. I season with Montreal seasoning...my preference do it how you want.
Smoke at 180 or 225. Lower temp takes a couple hours...225 about an hour to 90 minutes. When it comes up to 125, pull it and let rest for 30 minutes. Then blast on a grill or in a well oiled skillet. Then, make a mushroom cream sauce with dijon and a splash of white wine, sherry, or an oaky liquor (a la steak diane). I keep the mushroom sauce on the side. Serve with a potato, preferably baked or steakhouse Romanov style.
It's a liiiiittle tricky...and I usually make it drunk at midnight on a Friday night....but it comes out so juicy and flavorful. I've made steaks like this for at least a dozen people and I've permanently ruined steak houses for them. Lmao
Yes please! Best way to brown a steak!
Also, I’d love to hear about alllll the different ways to cook a steak with cast iron, grill, etc. even knowing if it’s better to sear in cast iron then put in the oven vs keep on cast iron on the stove, would be awesome. Just subscribed. Thank you for your hard work!
The single BEST video on making an awesome steak... Well done (pun intended). Personally, I go sous vide and then hit it with a flamethrower. This video will make me experiment however.
For butter basting with aromatics, do both! Baste in the butter, garlic and herb, but also pour some of the infused oil over the plated meat. Doing it in the same pan as the meat gives you all the meaty flavours as well as the aromatics, and the 'gravy' is richer for it, and you add THAT to the plate. You can then stir your forked meat into the juice on your plate, and do the same with whatever else is on the plate.
I love how this and many of your other videos align with Adam Ragusea’s video about the common problem of cooking and lifting communities. That everyone has their own way of doing things that they insist is best but all of them essentially work.
We had a lot of people for Thanksgiving last year, so I ended up making two turkeys: one in the oven, one on the charcoal grill. Both were spatchcocked and dry brined. The one on the charcoal grill was unbelievably better. I highly recommend it
Wonderful insight, thank you. I'm a real foodie and I've have made loads of lovely meals and occasionally the results have been spectacular. This will enable me to understand what works and why. I've never seen anyone dissect Mcgee and Nostrat on video. Video is my most favoured medium for learning. Cooking is my most flavoured medium for learning.
Ever since I first saw Alton Brown’s show Good Eats, the original one in the late ‘90’s or early ought’s, I have loved learning about food science.
KEEP THESE COMING!!!
Regarding the basting aromatic test, i think your conclusion matches the reason why gravy made from deglasing a pan is used. Those fat soluble volatile compounds are just so much more accessible when drizzled on afterwards
Love it. Finally answered my question of as a kosher eater how much am I missing out that I can’t sear my steak in butter.
Answer: nothing.
This essentially just confirms what I've learned through trial and error at home. I really love the butter flavor and traditional basting doesn't really impart that so, I started resting my steaks in foil with butter, crushed garlic and rosemary which was better than the traditional basting, but then I realized I could just make a garlic rosemary infused butter and drizzle it over and boom much better.
I have always been apprehensive about cooking steak for myself at home. Your way of demystifying the processes behind good steak helped me think I can now try to do it at home.
While I agree that the Maillard reaction is super important and one of the most influential in human history, the "most important reaction" has to go to fermentation and it can't be anything else. Throughout human history, preservation has advanced us as a species far more than deliciousness has
But... We've had refrigeration for a few generations. It's time to forget about all of human history and much of how the world works. Honestly though I think it's crazy how wasteful we've become as a result of most people not knowing how to preserve and make use of all the component parts of things. We throw things away because we just don't know that they're still useful, since they aren't without the ability to preserve them.
Sad to see this video didnt get to many views. You inspire me to keep on making amazing food and it honestly helps my mental health a lot. Appreciate Ethan. Keep on killing it!
I used to work at trader Joe's and I'd buy 2-3 new york strips a week. Simply because they were cheap, but still thick and looked good. I wanted to learn how to cook a steak better for myself. Id simply dry brine it in my fridge. Pat it dry. Let it get to room temp as i prep my cast iron, garlic, rosemary and thyme. And kerrigold butter. Sear it nice on one side for about a min and a half. Flip. Toss in butter and aromas. Baste for about 2 mins. Take off. Let rest. Snack on crispy thyme and rosemary and take garlic out of its skin. Cut steak. Add flakey salt. Fresh black pepper. Done. Thsts my personal preference.
There was a video I saw with Kenji and Adam where they browned sous vide steaks. Their favorite was charcoal, but using a chimney starter. They sell grill tops that go on a chimney starter.
My guess is that the chimney starter helped to intensify the heat due to the chimney effect. Less mess than a full on charcoal grill, but you still get that extra charcoal flavor.
Very good video as always! Only one point I notice regarding the blind tests, as we are discussing flavors that are on the outside part of the meat, having very high cuts results in a cut with low inside to outside area ratio. This is more noticed in the aromatics test, where tasting the butter directly had the most effect.
When doing brazillian barbecues, I like cutting thinner slices of picanha, so the internal area is 2x the external. This allows the tongue to feel the outside flavors more. But usually we salt it just before or during, not days before. So Ill give a test on that.
So this is what ive gathered from my own research and testing. The best way I've found for me. Remember everything is about your preference.
Dry brined, thick cut at least 1.5-2", cold seared in clarified butter, and seasoned after resting and cutting with a pan sauce. It's important to pan sear because you can't make a pan sauce on the charcoal grill.
That's just my two cents. It's like most anything else it's all about what you like best
2 months ago, my boyfriend shared with me your "garlic science" video, and I loved it! I've been watching your videos since then , I absolutely love them 👏🏼🤩
A couple weeks ago I was making ribeye steaks and an herby garlic butter bread for the side. I had extra of the herby garlic butter and decided to put it on the steak as it was resting and it was amazing. I cooked the steaks in an air fryer which works surprisingly well. the exposed fat gets nice crispy bits and makes for a nice texture.
I might have thought some of these things, thank you for saying it out loud so we can relax a bit and enjoy our steak!
I really appreciate your channel. Your content just gets better and better. You do all the things I wish I had time to do and share it with the rest of the world. Thanks a million!
Ethan, you are GOATED.
Your editing preferences, style, etc. is so special, entertaining, and relatable.
Hall of Fame of food TH-camrs