Since this wasn't made clear enough in the video: Although it takes about an extra 90 seconds to cook the unbasted steak to a temperature (105°F) where it will end up reaching 128 °F after resting, this doesn't make it slower. The extra cooking time shortens the required resting time compared to the basted steak, and so both steaks end up at ~128 °F within ~47 seconds of each other on average. This is why I argue that basting doesn't appreciably speed cooking.
I appreciate this comment. All I would say is when you make a video showing so much detail and accuracy, it would be in your best interest to just highlight the variance. If you just said "Appreciably" in the video, that would go a long way. Sure, people would then be arguing about what "appreciably" means to them, but to just say "NO." is not sincere and pays your audience a disservice. And attention to detail like is even more important when you are marketing a product whose whole premise is being more accurate than the competitors.
I guess a bit less than a minute is not a significant difference for a home cook. But in a restaurant situation I would imagine that having similar total cook time but less active time to achieve the same end result is a significant advantage.
Basting might also make the steak feel juicier due to the fat being added and replacing the water lost...it would also be a vehicle for flavors picked up from the herbs to penetrate deeper in. It would also look juicier due to the butter layer. You also tend to have a different crust development, essentially a more of something more towards deeper pan fried rather than just the normal skillet "fry". Each are different results there that come down to personal taste... But then again, I've always liked to put a pat of butter ontop of a steak to melt over it anyway
You can almost get a deepfried crust with basting... I was taught sear in pan, flip then baste the hell out of that crap developing the seared side even more, and then it goes in oven to finish... take it out put it to rest and build sauce in pan.. now key is mainly temperature control throughout the process and right size everything so you don't burn your butter
OUTSTANDING a video. 👏👏👏👏 this is exactly what I want to see. I have always questioned basting with herbs at the end. Very much appreciate this info. I just subscribed.
One thing to bear in mind: Almost *all* of the cooking knowledge we commonly employ in our kitchens is from the late 18th and early 19th centuries -- well before electricity. People were still cooking over fires and coals -- often in homes that were heated by the very same fire. Cooking in those conditions, notably, would have had 2 effects: 1) Fire dries out air. Like, *a lot*. Drier air means that things sitting _in_ that air will more readily give up whatever moisture is inside of them - e.g. evaporation; 2) Fire and coals are notoriously difficult to properly gauge the temperature of. Wood coals, when glowing, can be anywhere between about 550F to about 1150F; The hotter coals are, the more brightly (and 'white') they'll glow, but even _that_ is a poor indicator to determine temperature, since ambient light will have an addative effect to coal glow -- so the same coals, at the same temperature, will look "hotter" on a rainy, overcast day than they would on a bright, sunny day, when under natural light. These two facts together means that it's very likely that people were simply cooking their food for much longer than it needed to be cooked, in a lot of cases -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering that was also the primary means of ensuring you didn't get parasites from what you ate; sometimes overcooking was necessary to ensure that the food you were eating was, in fact, safe to eat. But, with meat, that could lead to dryness, etc. So... there may have _once_ been a much more practical need for basting, when considering that history.
when you use wood for heating youre essentially cycling air through your house as it pushes hot air out, and sucks new air in, so id argue it doesnt affect air moisture, unless you keep it artificially higher inside, which is ruined by the cycling of air
@@TraktorTarzan Even just the hot air rising up around the pan generated by the fire could have some effect, compared to the targeted heat of a modern stove top
@@SkeleTonHammerlike professional chefs telling you to set your steak out at room temperature for half an hour before cooking. It only raises it from like 40 degrees to 43 degrees. It literally makes no difference, but they do it anyway.
@@SkeleTonHammer Plenty of scientists existed in that era, and their thoughts and methods were definitely sophisticated. Probably not so much the chefs though.
The reason why I enjoy basting is because I can strain out the leftover butter into a container and use it to make fried rice that tastes like a steak.
@@rickhapstley3866I just buy duck or goose fat for that purpose, it’s simpler than straining, cooling and skimming the fats from cooking and more pure.
I like the fact you took 6 minutes to make a 6 minutes videos. You tubers nowadays would tell the history of meat just to turn 6 minutes into 25. Great work! 👊👊
I like that the answers are NO NO NO NO so a final outcome of YES! Shows that cooking is not just the process of making food better to eat. And eating isn't just about consuming calories.
Another thing that isn't mentioned to much, but if you are looking for of a crust on your steak you can get that with butter by burning burning the milk solids in the butter a bit on the steak. You can combine butter with liquid with a lot of meats to get a more char-grilled flavor from a pan.
lol you are totally wrong lol. 1) It is obvious cooking makes some foods better to eat. His questions had nothing to do with making the food better to eat. 2) eating is by necessity just about consuming calories. Tell a child they need to let go of the teet because its eating wrong.
every single one of your videos leaves me with a question answered that i have always had. good stuff. thanks for your insights and scientific approach.
Yes but also with a new question in its place. Like : what if instead of browned butter, you just place a small amount of compound butter on the stake, while the stake is resting. I, for one, prefer this option, but to be fair I have never basted it using that much butter as in the video and I never will, It's too wasteful.
What about the fact that the answer is wrong? He says it does not save time, and then immediately say that you could get to the same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time.
@@johnandbuddy Is it wrong? The basted meat lays a bit longer after cooking, so you could cook the other meat for those let's say 30 seconds longer and get the same result. And even if it's possible to save a few seconds, it's not worth it in my opinion.
You can see in the time lapse that it was not the 30 seconds that did it. Right from the start of the time laps, at around 12mins of resting the basted steak is already hotter. "And even if it's possible to save a few seconds, it's not worth it in my opinion" I mean that is totally a valid opinion. I would guess it would be more like a couple minutes not a few seconds, but even that short time could be not worth it in your opinion. And thats perfectly fine. I was just purely stating that he is either being disingenuous in his video or after all the filming, scripting, and editing he and his team did not manage to catch that quite obvious wrong conclusion. And he seems like a pretty intelligent so I am thinking it's the former not the latter. I think he purposefully misrepresented information so that he could get a viral video because its so "illuminating" when people use science to disprove age old things the internet LOVEs it. He knows this, and took advantage of it to get views to market his companies product. @@ExtraVOO You are totally valid in feeling like basting is not worth it to you. I just really don't like the rampant misinformation spread all over the internet, that's all. Hope you have a good rest of your day.
Great content! Informative, straight to the point, objective and with a personal touch at the end. Couldnt ask for more! Earned yourself another sub, keep up the good work and thank you very much :)
A huge mess of old wives tales and bullshit passed down through endless generations of subordinates in a rigorously military fashion. It’s alot like a religion i guess? 😅
I love when people break things down so neatly it adds clarity to a concept and serves as a jumping off point for more experimentation; since you demonstrate everything I don’t have to just take your word for it either. Hope your channel has a nice long life of making experiments like this to come!
This is actually a great example of someone using the "Scientific" approach is just a ruse to add false authority to his claims. He says it does not save time, and then immediately follows that with, you could get to the non basted steak to same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time. Therefore he is being disingenuous and just wanted to make an edgy video to spark convo to get views, to push his product (The thermometer)
@@johnandbuddy no, you could pump up the heat and make up for the amount of "time wasted", you'd have to cook the steak for about a minute longer to get the same effect. in the end you could say that picking up your butter for specifically basting steak (in the specific aisle) would make up for that amount of time you win. basting doesn't do much, not worth it considering the amout of butter being used.
@@slXD100 Huh? The time to pick up the butter in the specific isle... It is wild how far people will go to defend the stance they initially take. Like... what?!? I honestly could go into a bunch of detail but its not worth the time. Most people dont change their minds. But man oh man is it annoying. Why can't you just say "Basting saves you time, is it a small amount of time, yes. Is it worth it to me to use all that butter for such a small time savings, no" And that's all. Like... ugh, people are so frustrating. I am not attacking you our questioning your worth or intelligence.
@@johnandbuddy Does basting save more time than the extra cooking time though? If basting takes an additional minute and getting it to the same temp without basting takes an extra minute then you're not saving time
Thanks for the deep dive on this. Not everyone would put the effort you did to get to the bottom of something as simplistic as basting. Though the reality is, I'm sure a lot of folks (including myself) have wondered if it was worth the butter when the results felt minimal. I'm glad to hear they basically aren't and I can HAPPILY remove it from my thought process whenever I cook a quality steak.
man, I love your videos. so informative, and entirely factual and unbiased. I go into your videos thinking I want you to answer a question for me (I'm subscribed, but often I end up on your channel because I have something I want answered), and leave well enough informed to comfortably make a decision on my own. Thank you.
This is actually a great example of someone using the "Scientific" approach is just a ruse to add false authority to his claims. He says it does not save time, and then immediately follows that with, you could get to the non basted steak to same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time. Therefore he is being disingenuous and just wanted to make an edgy video to spark convo to get views, to push his product (The thermometer)
Huge respect for how scientific you've kept this entire process. Never seen this channel before so came in assuming this would just be cooking 2 steaks, eating then and saying which one's better. Very plesantly suprused earned you a sub
One thing that I really enjoy about basting is the end product of the pan sauce. While the steaks rest, I like to toss in some onions to the oil and butter and fry them up as well, then once they're out and plated up, i spoon out the butter and serve it as an extra flavor bomb for the steak.
I just cube some potatoes, sauté until halfway done, add minced mushrooms, finish sauté-ing, then top with some parsley and grated cheese. The oil practically deep fries the potatoes and then the mushrooms are like sponges for whatever's left.
ikr, my head is doin loops trying to square the circle on _wasting butter?_ how... even? I once founde an single egge in an egg basket... whatever would you cook yourself that couldn't _possibly_ benefit from one more egge?
I prefer caramelized onions instead, now for a side you can throw in onion, pepper, and some tomato along with something optional like zucchini and a little Cajun seasoning but that is better with a pork tenderloin, IMO.
I love the simplicity of these videos. Also nice to finally hear people saying you don't need a ripping hot pan to cook steaks. Had to work my way through that not-so-great advice by trial and error.
Thanks for making this. I always see chefs doing this using industrial quantities of butter like it's totally normal. When I've basted it adds a nice colour but the flavour difference is so minimal that to me it's simply not worth the waste of ingredients. It's always felt like a 'cheffy' pretension. It's nice to have these suspicions validated to some degree. I'll probably not bother with it from now on.
2 tablespoons of butter to baste my steaks for added flavour is good enough in my experience. When I made steaks without butter they still taste great with the seasoning I already use, it just doesn’t have that buttery taste. That’s about it.
Also the oils will carry flavors and help them mix evenly, as well as thoroughly coating the individual taste buds, providing a silky quality. @@YokaiX
In a kitchen extra heat while resting g and getting a constantly warmer end result to the customer is enough reason for most chefs to use butter. Adding that it also gets more even color on hard to reach spots also counts. Is it worth it at home. No. In a proffesional kitchen we're everything that improves food is used then yes.
Remember, theres a distinct difference between basted steak and NOT basted steak, although there might not be much difference in taste with basted steak and steak BRUSHED w/butter and herbs. if youre serving steak to guests, id still baste, just for that extra taste.
I did this experiment a long time ago and it does waste lots of butter. Now I cook dry-brined steaks in a convection oven to everyone's desired doneness, rest the steaks, dry the outside, and then pan seer them with 1-2 tablespoons of butter. You get good crust and all the flavor of the butter, and the steak is still hot when served without getting overcooked inside.
@@smokyz_ no, you don't need any oil. Just put the seasoned steak into the oven for like 10-15min at around 270f. Time is slightly different depending on how done you like it and your oven.
Chris, your incorporation of a true scientific method.. combined with real world sensory perception is welcome within the culinary landscape. Rock on brother.
I love the scientific precision you used in your experiments! Something to note here: using an induction burner will absolutely have an effect here. You have to at least tilt your pan in order to baste, in which case the burner is no longer heating the pan. I saw that in your trials, you made sure to very minimally tilt. For those looking to repeat at home, using cast iron or a similar metal that retains heat well is an absolute MUST here. In most professional kitchens, industrial gas stoves are still used, which means that the pan is still being heated even as the steak is being basted.
Another issue is that the induction burner was set to temperature control mode (2:03). I would expect the temperature to drop significantly when used with a gas or electric stove.
Not trying to be a douche here but wouldn’t scientific approach include many tasters and many steaks? n of 1 is not remotely close to a well powered study. And you can’t generalize to gas or other cooking as this was only done on induction. And if you’re just studying basting, the use of herbs really introduced an unnecessary variable.
I don't have an induction burner, but I'm pretty sure it still heats the pan when the pan is tilted. It is just heated less as the distance increases. You don't have to tilt much to get butter to pool.
Nicely done. I stopped basting steaks years ago when I just couldn't afford to use enough butter and just put a teaspoon of good butter (herbed or plain, both good) into the hot pan when I take the steaks out and pour it on top as the steak rests. No-one asked me what I did different so that's what I now do, uses a fraction of the amount of butter and still give that brown butter taste and mouth-feel.
As a humble professional chef, I am so grateful to you to have bring this topic on the dining table 👍🏻 My personal taste… no obscene amount of burnt butter of my filets
Good information and it makes a lot of sense. I personally don't waste any of the butter. I just add them to the steak after cutting and in my mashed potatoes, veggies or mushroom sauce
Thank you! For validating what I've always argued about basting, but also for addressing the ripping hot thing everybody always says for some reason. There's so much garbage cooking advice on the internet. Anyone who's ever cooked anything will know that heating a pan on high and cooking meat (or anything else) on it will immediately burn it. The only reason to heat anything on high is if you're bringing water to a boil, or you have an abnormally weak range.
Love these kinds of videos, and I appreciate this one especially. I used to always baste my steaks since that's what everyone else does in videos etc. But as I got more experienced, I started to feel like it's not really doing anything meaningful, and I'm just introducing another element that could go wrong and makes the process more complicated and less controlled. So I started cooking my butter with herbs separately. That way the steak can cook can be cooked ideally for a steak, and the infused butter cooked ideally for infused butter, and then just combine them at the end. It may not have that same flash, but it can produce good results consistently. I've wanted to do some side by side tests but yeno, I'm just a lazy normal joe lol, so it's nice to a see a pro do it better than I ever could have and give us the results. Keep em comin!
I think rather than waste the butter (thanks to this video I know) it would be better to finish a steak in compound butter to get the best of both worlds as you mentioned. -Another average joe at cooking
Great testing method. One additional upside to basting, I like to cook mushrooms in the pan with the leftover butter while my steaks are resting, reduces waste, plenty of similar things you can do too.
Fully agree! I was shocked when I first saw a friend's parent throw away the basting drippings: you're flavouring the butter more than you're flavouring the meat, use it!
I really like the scientific approach to discover the thruth of myths. And I like the conclusion to do something unnecessary just because of the fun of doing it. When I cook I don't mind to do an extra step to improve the result -- it is eaten in a couple of minutes with or without it. Then I decide if it was worth the effort. By the way, I usually cook for my own benefit and let others participate consuming the result. Most times they like my cooking. For those who don't? Tough luck! 🙂
The "Scientific" approach is just a ruse to add false authority to his claims. He says it does not save time, and then immediately say that you could get to the non basted steak to same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time.
@@johnandbuddy Except they finish resting at the same time, therefore they are ready to be eaten at the same time.. One minute less in a pan doesn't matter to your ability to prepare a side..
So Chris this gives us a natural followup - say you want to impart the flavor of brown butter, herbs, and garlic to your steak, the step you should take is to either sous vide the steak with your aromatics in the bag or to cook your aromatics alongside the steak in the pan and remove from heat before they get too brown/burnt. I always thought basting is marginally effective - only the surface of the meat is flavored so the flavor comes and goes quickly as you bite into the steak. And shoutout to Fallow, they really do post great POV and instructional videos.
Pretty much any way to get the flavored fat on the surface is going to do the job of making it delicious. The real takeaway is that fat doesn't penetrate into the meat, so you just need to anoint your steak with delicious fat.
I think a lot of people think basting is better because they use salted butter. People usually inadvertently underseason their steak because they underestimate the amount of salt lost to the pan in the cooking process. The salted butter adds back some saltiness. I always dry brine my steak which means all the salt get absorbed into the meat and if I baste it with salted butter, the steak will end up too salty. What I end up doing is just prepare garlic herb butter (unsalted) and put it on top the steak while it's resting. I get more or less the same result, but without actually having to do the basting and end up with a messy pan (butter basted cast iron pan are usually too greasy to just rinse off).
Great video, like your straightforward style, editing, and scientific approach. I honestly think a lot of popular cooking habits are bullshit. Like, we still have people actually adding oil while boiling pasta.
The oil sticks to the surface of the pasta and improves the flavour. It's objectively better. You can add it later to lose less of it if you like. But the oil objectively makes it taste better.
So, I am planning to cook two filet mignons next week. I was toying with the idea of simply oven cooking the seasoned filets for 40+ mins and reverse searing them in a skillet with half the normal called for butter and calling it a day. But, you have convinced me that I need to add one more step of using herb springs like a brush to top the meat with the leftover browned butter + herbs to maximize the flavour while maintaining my less is more rule when cooking most meals. TY!
Perhaps the hot butter could be better viewed as an effective way to infuse flavor from the herbs. I love the flavor of rosemary on a steak. I like to use Irish Cream butter and can definitely taste both the butter and rosemary in the finished product vs an unbuttered/non-herbed steak. Great video man. You definitely earned a like and subscribe from me.
@ChrisYoungCooks This answered a lot of questions about basting steak, but what about vegetables? At my old restaurant we used to base large specialty cauliflowers and rapinis, and I felt like that made a huge difference in terms of flavors because it sort of "penetrates" the vegetable as opposed to butter not doing that to meat.
It would be quite interesting to know if you would get the benefits (less cooling while resting, taste, and maybe even side color) with just adding a modest amount of butter and herbs at the end and quick basting / rolling the steak on it? (Like 30sec to 1min)
I subscribed!! Great technique instruction!! I have always added a couple of pats of butter when I’m at a restaurant having a Rib Eye. It really adds to the flavor.
If basting causes more carryover cooking, doesn't that mean you can cook the steak to a lower temperature to reach the same final doneness and thus it indirectly speeds cooking?
It washes out in the end. It takes about 1 minute longer for the non-basted steak to reach 105F, so that it reaches ~128F during resting. Whereas the basted steak is pulled at 95F and coasts to ~128F. BUT because of the extra heat from basting, resting actually takes a bit longer to reach it's peak temperature and in the end there was no time savings.
It is a strange conclusion that it doesn't speed cooking time. Because if you wanted the basted steak to be medium-rare too, then you actually need pull it off the pan earlier. And thus saving time.
I came here to say that. And found it even stranger that he literally comes to the conclusion that you could get to the same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting..... Like.... what? I feels like such an obvious oversight that I feel like he did it intentionally so that he could have that No. No. No. No screen just to be edgy. Not impressed
@@tidemeo yeah, and it's really disheartening to see how out of the 50 or so comments this and mine are the only ones that point this out. While majority praise him for doing great science... ugh, critical thinking needs to be one of the fundamentals in school along with Math, Language, etc.
@@johnandbuddy yeah 100% agree. it's very funny seeing everyone praise his scientific process but fail to do their own scientific process to review his work...... It's like wtf??? PS I also commented so we got 3 commented now hahah let's go!
I appreciate your honesty as, I was apprehensive clicking on this... 3 things I stopped / started doing when cooking steak (or meat in general): 1. I use cast iron, even on my grill... no flare ups, a better crust sear (rather than grill marks) and the carryover heat in the pan after the heat source is gone. 2. I use partially frozen meat, it allows for a better sear, yet maintains the inside color, moisture, thus flavor, way better. 3. I use a small amount of EVOO to cook in / with. It maintains a better exterior coating than butter, the taste is nearly indistinguishable (try EVOO on popcorn and you will see what I mean) I do infuse my oil with herbs (mostly rosemary) and found pouring the infused pan juice over at the end restores / enhances those desired flavors... Most important, as an Italian I was taught to NOT play with my food... LOL
It just comes down to whether you want your steak to have a buttery component to it, and if so, how much. I think a tablespoon to a steak is a enough to keep it subtle, and just makes for a way to round out the flavour, help bind it all, and definitely brings the sumptuousness. When steaks have been swimming for their lives in butter, to me it screams “I don’t know how to actually cook or enjoy meat”
You realise that there will be the same amount of butter on the steak in both examples, right? A tablespoon of butter is just very likely to burn. The rest of the butter stays in the pan.
it would be very interesting to see whether you would reach the same conclusions if you conducted the same testing on different cuts of steak, like a nice ribeye! I suspect that basting has a much more pronounced effect on steaks with more marbling than it does on filets/tenderloins.
even so i feel like youd have to stab the meat multiple time with a fork or whatever to actually get it to soak in. The marbling fat on a steak does NOT absorb the flavor.
This suggests you can produce the same effect with a small pool of butter+aromatics at the bottom of your pan that you just flip the steak in to coat. Avoids the obscene two tablespoons of butter that is usually left in the pan.
What about basting fish? The texture of fish is much softer than a beef filet so its arguable that the basting flavor enters into the filet of fish easier. Would be interesting to find that out too!
gotta say, this is an outstanding video. cant imagine someone answering this question better. the rationalization sentence at the end was really strong doe
It seems like your fourth criteria was met because there was a significant difference of flavor between basted vs unbasted steak. You can achieve the same result by independently browning the butter and adding it afterward, but that doesn't change the fact that it significantly affected the final flavor, right?
Totally. It was a good experiment but the answers to the research questions are definitely not 4 times no. Don't understand why not more people point this out as unscientific.
I got unreasonably upset at the question posed by Chris' friend, but then I realized you were talking about steak. Basting eggs is night and day obviously and the technique is especially useful for fish since it goes between the layers. You will cook vegetables much faster in a pan with basting, depending on how you want them. Adding spices to your fat such as thyme here is a very good way of evenly seasoning. But yeah, I was surprised with the end result and now I have to check it for myself. This is soul crushing for cooks all around the world
Such a cool video! Thank you. Maybe there are a few more things that need to be said about basting. It's a pretty common technique that, however, for the most part is done wrong. When basting, butter must never really show any signs of particularly evident burning or, for that matter, even deep colouring. For a perfect baste, butter should always foam, not boil...but foam..., brown just mildly and never really have large brown specs of burned matter. The temperature range for this is sooooo narrow that a lot of experience is needed (generally a job reserved for very skilled sauciers or grilleurs). This is also why basting is best carried out in copper pans placed on of cast iron solid tops, quite common in old fashion kitchens buts now a mirage that can, however, be supplanted by induction and a nice thick bottomed stainless steel pan (however lifting and tilting of the pan must be kept to a minimum). Gas is not ideal because it tends to heat the sides off the pan more than the bottom, making accurate temperature control pretty hard. The even coating of all sides of the meat is something also only basting can really produce and, for that reason, it was the go to cooking technique of cuts like fillet and filet mignon, which for the most part had a rather even height to width ratio (current beef farming has changed this a little). Basting basically allows for even cooking of tall, not overly large cuts of lean meat where butter is the main flavour catalyst. Fattier cuts (rib on steaks, ribeyes, loins and to a certain extent porterhouses and t bones) were, generally but not always, cooked differently. Basting was also super poplar with other cuts, mostly game. Also, as pointed out, is sooooo cool to do. When done right it cooks the meat very gently and gives super tasty results! But man, it's tricky to get just right. Big up for the wicked work you're doing. So much fun!
This is how a detail-oriented type-A personality likes to see food testing! Just incredible work. I'm amazed with each video the lengths you go to testing out cooking theory. Subscribed, excellent work!
first time watching your videos. wow they're beautifully done. one of the fastest subs i've ever done. and i almost never watch food channels. algorithm selling to the caveman in me. thank you!
Your test confirmed what I already knew. Additionally, I was going to baste steaks but had unknowingly run out of butter, so I just added the herbs to oil and used that. My guests all praised the buttery flavor and added herbs.
Since this wasn't made clear enough in the video: Although it takes about an extra 90 seconds to cook the unbasted steak to a temperature (105°F) where it will end up reaching 128 °F after resting, this doesn't make it slower. The extra cooking time shortens the required resting time compared to the basted steak, and so both steaks end up at ~128 °F within ~47 seconds of each other on average. This is why I argue that basting doesn't appreciably speed cooking.
I appreciate this comment. All I would say is when you make a video showing so much detail and accuracy, it would be in your best interest to just highlight the variance. If you just said "Appreciably" in the video, that would go a long way. Sure, people would then be arguing about what "appreciably" means to them, but to just say "NO." is not sincere and pays your audience a disservice.
And attention to detail like is even more important when you are marketing a product whose whole premise is being more accurate than the competitors.
I guess a bit less than a minute is not a significant difference for a home cook. But in a restaurant situation I would imagine that having similar total cook time but less active time to achieve the same end result is a significant advantage.
Basting might also make the steak feel juicier due to the fat being added and replacing the water lost...it would also be a vehicle for flavors picked up from the herbs to penetrate deeper in. It would also look juicier due to the butter layer.
You also tend to have a different crust development, essentially a more of something more towards deeper pan fried rather than just the normal skillet "fry". Each are different results there that come down to personal taste...
But then again, I've always liked to put a pat of butter ontop of a steak to melt over it anyway
You can almost get a deepfried crust with basting... I was taught sear in pan, flip then baste the hell out of that crap developing the seared side even more, and then it goes in oven to finish... take it out put it to rest and build sauce in pan.. now key is mainly temperature control throughout the process and right size everything so you don't burn your butter
OUTSTANDING a video. 👏👏👏👏 this is exactly what I want to see. I have always questioned basting with herbs at the end. Very much appreciate this info. I just subscribed.
"I didn't want that to be true."
Which is exactly the reason we need you to do tests like this one. Thank you.
Thanks for not turning this into a 20 minute video. Straight forward and to the point!
i still skipped to the end hahaha
Yes, unlike a certain Polish cooking guy who “tests” even most obvious and stupid things to drag videos for as long as possible.
Who's that @@tatianaes3354
@@tatianaes3354Chlebowski?
One thing to bear in mind: Almost *all* of the cooking knowledge we commonly employ in our kitchens is from the late 18th and early 19th centuries -- well before electricity. People were still cooking over fires and coals -- often in homes that were heated by the very same fire. Cooking in those conditions, notably, would have had 2 effects:
1) Fire dries out air. Like, *a lot*. Drier air means that things sitting _in_ that air will more readily give up whatever moisture is inside of them - e.g. evaporation;
2) Fire and coals are notoriously difficult to properly gauge the temperature of. Wood coals, when glowing, can be anywhere between about 550F to about 1150F; The hotter coals are, the more brightly (and 'white') they'll glow, but even _that_ is a poor indicator to determine temperature, since ambient light will have an addative effect to coal glow -- so the same coals, at the same temperature, will look "hotter" on a rainy, overcast day than they would on a bright, sunny day, when under natural light.
These two facts together means that it's very likely that people were simply cooking their food for much longer than it needed to be cooked, in a lot of cases -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering that was also the primary means of ensuring you didn't get parasites from what you ate; sometimes overcooking was necessary to ensure that the food you were eating was, in fact, safe to eat. But, with meat, that could lead to dryness, etc. So... there may have _once_ been a much more practical need for basting, when considering that history.
when you use wood for heating youre essentially cycling air through your house as it pushes hot air out, and sucks new air in, so id argue it doesnt affect air moisture, unless you keep it artificially higher inside, which is ruined by the cycling of air
@@TraktorTarzan Even just the hot air rising up around the pan generated by the fire could have some effect, compared to the targeted heat of a modern stove top
@@SkeleTonHammerlike professional chefs telling you to set your steak out at room temperature for half an hour before cooking. It only raises it from like 40 degrees to 43 degrees. It literally makes no difference, but they do it anyway.
@@Not_Ciel And elsewhere we can find videos showing it is better to not cook the stake at room temp. Best from fridge to pan.
@@SkeleTonHammer Plenty of scientists existed in that era, and their thoughts and methods were definitely sophisticated. Probably not so much the chefs though.
Great video! Super cool to see a deep dive on this
hi nick
hi nick
🙏
Nick the goat 🐐
A 'deep dive?' Be quiet🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄.
The reason why I enjoy basting is because I can strain out the leftover butter into a container and use it to make fried rice that tastes like a steak.
I love reserving fats from cooking, especially bacon, butter and beef for use in future dishes.
@@danielriley7380 Duck fat is awesome for cooking potatoes
Yeah Fondant potatoes is what I'd do. Or mashed potatoes for a side
That’s a great idea, never occurred to me to do that. Thanks 🙏
@@rickhapstley3866I just buy duck or goose fat for that purpose, it’s simpler than straining, cooling and skimming the fats from cooking and more pure.
I just subscribed, your content is exceptional! TH-cam is lucky to have you taking the time to do it right!!! Keep up the great work!
totally agree, great video
Chef! Bet you're glad we need the butter! :D
Thank you very much chef! 🙏
100%, as a mere home / hobby chef, I keep short list of related subs since you just can't watch a ton regularly... subbed and really enjoyed this.
chef onyo! 😂
I like the fact you took 6 minutes to make a 6 minutes videos. You tubers nowadays would tell the history of meat just to turn 6 minutes into 25. Great work! 👊👊
@@Thalasaur Below 10 minute videos, you can only have 1 ad. They do 10 minutes for multiple ads.
Six minutes is too long. Make it three. Or just tell me yes or no?
@@irishkk88 why three? You can cut the video into 1 minute for Shorts.
I like that the answers are NO NO NO NO so a final outcome of YES!
Shows that cooking is not just the process of making food better to eat. And eating isn't just about consuming calories.
The Italians say something to the effect of: Cooking isn't a job, it's entertainment!
Cooking is Life !
Yes, engages all the senses.
Another thing that isn't mentioned to much, but if you are looking for of a crust on your steak you can get that with butter by burning burning the milk solids in the butter a bit on the steak. You can combine butter with liquid with a lot of meats to get a more char-grilled flavor from a pan.
lol you are totally wrong lol. 1) It is obvious cooking makes some foods better to eat. His questions had nothing to do with making the food better to eat. 2) eating is by necessity just about consuming calories. Tell a child they need to let go of the teet because its eating wrong.
Your content is so succinct and comprehensive, you really respect the viewer's time and deliver exceptional videos. Straight to the top with you!
This is very informative. I always enjoy watching your videos. Thank you for making great contents, Chris.
Another video that answers a question and justifies my subscription to this channel. Excellent work, Chris.
Fun video, keep it up Chris! Love the insight on techniques and home cooking gadgets.
every single one of your videos leaves me with a question answered that i have always had. good stuff. thanks for your insights and scientific approach.
Yes but also with a new question in its place. Like : what if instead of browned butter, you just place a small amount of compound butter on the stake, while the stake is resting. I, for one, prefer this option, but to be fair I have never basted it using that much butter as in the video and I never will, It's too wasteful.
@@MuaddibizeExactly! This is the way, actually eating the butter used.
What about the fact that the answer is wrong? He says it does not save time, and then immediately say that you could get to the same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time.
@@johnandbuddy Is it wrong? The basted meat lays a bit longer after cooking, so you could cook the other meat for those let's say 30 seconds longer and get the same result. And even if it's possible to save a few seconds, it's not worth it in my opinion.
You can see in the time lapse that it was not the 30 seconds that did it. Right from the start of the time laps, at around 12mins of resting the basted steak is already hotter. "And even if it's possible to save a few seconds, it's not worth it in my opinion" I mean that is totally a valid opinion. I would guess it would be more like a couple minutes not a few seconds, but even that short time could be not worth it in your opinion. And thats perfectly fine. I was just purely stating that he is either being disingenuous in his video or after all the filming, scripting, and editing he and his team did not manage to catch that quite obvious wrong conclusion. And he seems like a pretty intelligent so I am thinking it's the former not the latter.
I think he purposefully misrepresented information so that he could get a viral video because its so "illuminating" when people use science to disprove age old things the internet LOVEs it. He knows this, and took advantage of it to get views to market his companies product.
@@ExtraVOO You are totally valid in feeling like basting is not worth it to you. I just really don't like the rampant misinformation spread all over the internet, that's all. Hope you have a good rest of your day.
Spoken like a true iconclast. Love your stuff. Well done! The Myth Busters of Cooking. I smell a new TV series.
Great content! Informative, straight to the point, objective and with a personal touch at the end. Couldnt ask for more! Earned yourself another sub, keep up the good work and thank you very much :)
No nonsense, straight to the point, and no fart jokes like a certain few other cooking channels. Thanks for the upload Chris
It's an almost perfect video. It's just missing that fart joke or two
Nothing wrong with a bit of levity. Direct informational videos are needed but at the end of the day TH-cam is an entertainment platform.
The convergence of science and the esoteric in cooking is always so interesting to see.
A huge mess of old wives tales and bullshit passed down through endless generations of subordinates in a rigorously military fashion.
It’s alot like a religion i guess? 😅
If people would do this in all aspects of their lives, how much better off we would be (especially politically)...
@@nickdannunzio7683 Politics is about priorities and values, so a scientific approach wouldn't make sense.
... and then ignore the results completely making the effort an utter waste of time.
I love when people break things down so neatly it adds clarity to a concept and serves as a jumping off point for more experimentation; since you demonstrate everything I don’t have to just take your word for it either. Hope your channel has a nice long life of making experiments like this to come!
This is actually a great example of someone using the "Scientific" approach is just a ruse to add false authority to his claims. He says it does not save time, and then immediately follows that with, you could get to the non basted steak to same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time. Therefore he is being disingenuous and just wanted to make an edgy video to spark convo to get views, to push his product (The thermometer)
@@johnandbuddy no, you could pump up the heat and make up for the amount of "time wasted", you'd have to cook the steak for about a minute longer to get the same effect. in the end you could say that picking up your butter for specifically basting steak (in the specific aisle) would make up for that amount of time you win. basting doesn't do much, not worth it considering the amout of butter being used.
@@slXD100 Huh? The time to pick up the butter in the specific isle... It is wild how far people will go to defend the stance they initially take. Like... what?!?
I honestly could go into a bunch of detail but its not worth the time. Most people dont change their minds. But man oh man is it annoying.
Why can't you just say "Basting saves you time, is it a small amount of time, yes. Is it worth it to me to use all that butter for such a small time savings, no" And that's all.
Like... ugh, people are so frustrating. I am not attacking you our questioning your worth or intelligence.
@@johnandbuddy just turn the heat up a bit and there is no time-saving, that was the point I was ttying to make.
@@johnandbuddy Does basting save more time than the extra cooking time though? If basting takes an additional minute and getting it to the same temp without basting takes an extra minute then you're not saving time
Always wondered about this! Thanks for diving in on this topic!
Thanks for the deep dive on this. Not everyone would put the effort you did to get to the bottom of something as simplistic as basting. Though the reality is, I'm sure a lot of folks (including myself) have wondered if it was worth the butter when the results felt minimal. I'm glad to hear they basically aren't and I can HAPPILY remove it from my thought process whenever I cook a quality steak.
man, I love your videos.
so informative, and entirely factual and unbiased.
I go into your videos thinking I want you to answer a question for me (I'm subscribed, but often I end up on your channel because I have something I want answered), and leave well enough informed to comfortably make a decision on my own. Thank you.
This is actually a great example of someone using the "Scientific" approach is just a ruse to add false authority to his claims. He says it does not save time, and then immediately follows that with, you could get to the non basted steak to same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time. Therefore he is being disingenuous and just wanted to make an edgy video to spark convo to get views, to push his product (The thermometer)
Great info, well said, thoughtfully designed experiments, absolute banger
Wow, what a wonderful video. Short but very informational. First time in this channel, definitely not the last!
Huge respect for how scientific you've kept this entire process. Never seen this channel before so came in assuming this would just be cooking 2 steaks, eating then and saying which one's better. Very plesantly suprused earned you a sub
Interesting as always. Honestly with the price of butter now days, I´ll skip the basting!
One thing that I really enjoy about basting is the end product of the pan sauce. While the steaks rest, I like to toss in some onions to the oil and butter and fry them up as well, then once they're out and plated up, i spoon out the butter and serve it as an extra flavor bomb for the steak.
I bake some fingerling potatoes, and then pour some of that hot butter in them and it crisps them up real nice.
I just cube some potatoes, sauté until halfway done, add minced mushrooms, finish sauté-ing, then top with some parsley and grated cheese. The oil practically deep fries the potatoes and then the mushrooms are like sponges for whatever's left.
ikr, my head is doin loops trying to square the circle on _wasting butter?_ how... even?
I once founde an single egge in an egg basket... whatever would you cook yourself that couldn't _possibly_ benefit from one more egge?
What about Mushrooms??
Mmmmmm!
I prefer caramelized onions instead, now for a side you can throw in onion, pepper, and some tomato along with something optional like zucchini and a little Cajun seasoning but that is better with a pork tenderloin, IMO.
This is so clear and informative in just 6mins. Love it.
First video I saw from this channel and I subbed! Love the no bs right to the point content
I love the simplicity of these videos. Also nice to finally hear people saying you don't need a ripping hot pan to cook steaks. Had to work my way through that not-so-great advice by trial and error.
I start hot and then lower the flame, it works for me.
Thanks for making this. I always see chefs doing this using industrial quantities of butter like it's totally normal. When I've basted it adds a nice colour but the flavour difference is so minimal that to me it's simply not worth the waste of ingredients. It's always felt like a 'cheffy' pretension. It's nice to have these suspicions validated to some degree.
I'll probably not bother with it from now on.
2 tablespoons of butter to baste my steaks for added flavour is good enough in my experience. When I made steaks without butter they still taste great with the seasoning I already use, it just doesn’t have that buttery taste. That’s about it.
Also the oils will carry flavors and help them mix evenly, as well as thoroughly coating the individual taste buds, providing a silky quality. @@YokaiX
In a kitchen extra heat while resting g and getting a constantly warmer end result to the customer is enough reason for most chefs to use butter. Adding that it also gets more even color on hard to reach spots also counts. Is it worth it at home. No. In a proffesional kitchen we're everything that improves food is used then yes.
Remember, theres a distinct difference between basted steak and NOT basted steak, although there might not be much difference in taste with basted steak and steak BRUSHED w/butter and herbs. if youre serving steak to guests, id still baste, just for that extra taste.
A steak that hasn't seen butter is not a real steak.
Unless it saw the glowing ember of stack of coals.
Chris, I really appreciate the scientific approach to this. Very precise and extremely detailed. Thank you
Straight to the point while being very technical, subscribed!
I did this experiment a long time ago and it does waste lots of butter. Now I cook dry-brined steaks in a convection oven to everyone's desired doneness, rest the steaks, dry the outside, and then pan seer them with 1-2 tablespoons of butter. You get good crust and all the flavor of the butter, and the steak is still hot when served without getting overcooked inside.
Same!
Fuck thats smart. I'll try doing that the next time I'll cook my steaks. Do you start cooking in vegetable oil till the desired doneness?
@@smokyz_ no, you don't need any oil. Just put the seasoned steak into the oven for like 10-15min at around 270f. Time is slightly different depending on how done you like it and your oven.
The dry brining enables using less butter. It is how I do it but in the fridge. Depending on the cut I might reverse sear.
I have stopped using butter and use rendered fat instead, because in my household we prefer our steaks to taste of meat rather than butter.
Mind blown. Subbed is great content. Quick and to the point but super educational!
Exceptionel content. Subscribed Right away.. love your conclusion.
This video needs to spread more.
This is a great test. Thanks for sharing this test result with us. I really appreciate how you conducted the experiment.
You're going to go a long way in this game! The quality of your concepts and the execution and production are all incredibly high. Keep it coming!
He's been in the game for a minute lol. Keep it coming nonetheless!
Chris, your incorporation of a true scientific method.. combined with real world sensory perception is welcome within the culinary landscape. Rock on brother.
Well done! Triangle test plus the anointing test *chef’s kiss*
Thanks for the video: short, clear, substantiated review and conclusions. Enjoyed and appreciated. 😀👍
I love the scientific precision you used in your experiments!
Something to note here: using an induction burner will absolutely have an effect here. You have to at least tilt your pan in order to baste, in which case the burner is no longer heating the pan. I saw that in your trials, you made sure to very minimally tilt.
For those looking to repeat at home, using cast iron or a similar metal that retains heat well is an absolute MUST here.
In most professional kitchens, industrial gas stoves are still used, which means that the pan is still being heated even as the steak is being basted.
That's why professional kitchens use gas. Hotter quicker and always covering the pan.
Another issue is that the induction burner was set to temperature control mode (2:03). I would expect the temperature to drop significantly when used with a gas or electric stove.
Not trying to be a douche here but wouldn’t scientific approach include many tasters and many steaks? n of 1 is not remotely close to a well powered study. And you can’t generalize to gas or other cooking as this was only done on induction. And if you’re just studying basting, the use of herbs really introduced an unnecessary variable.
Yeah, I use cast iron for the soffrito these days, just so reliable for simmering it.
I don't have an induction burner, but I'm pretty sure it still heats the pan when the pan is tilted. It is just heated less as the distance increases. You don't have to tilt much to get butter to pool.
Well done! I really enjoyed watching this. I'd say I'll keep doing it just to do it too then, it really is so satisfying.
great video; detailed and thorough, leaving nothing to question. oh, and concise! subscribed
Killing it as always! Appreciate the myth busting!
"Geez this bird is dry. Haven't you people ever heard about basting?"
Nicely done. I stopped basting steaks years ago when I just couldn't afford to use enough butter and just put a teaspoon of good butter (herbed or plain, both good) into the hot pan when I take the steaks out and pour it on top as the steak rests. No-one asked me what I did different so that's what I now do, uses a fraction of the amount of butter and still give that brown butter taste and mouth-feel.
I like how you are honest enough to say you've disproved much of its utility but your still going to do it anyway.
As a humble professional chef, I am so grateful to you to have bring this topic on the dining table 👍🏻 My personal taste… no obscene amount of burnt butter of my filets
Use clarified butter like I do, no burning. As a so-called professional you should know that.
Good information and it makes a lot of sense. I personally don't waste any of the butter. I just add them to the steak after cutting and in my mashed potatoes, veggies or mushroom sauce
Thank you! For validating what I've always argued about basting, but also for addressing the ripping hot thing everybody always says for some reason. There's so much garbage cooking advice on the internet. Anyone who's ever cooked anything will know that heating a pan on high and cooking meat (or anything else) on it will immediately burn it. The only reason to heat anything on high is if you're bringing water to a boil, or you have an abnormally weak range.
Great video.
Thank you for a concise video and that the video does what it says its going to do.
Looking forward to more
Love these kinds of videos, and I appreciate this one especially. I used to always baste my steaks since that's what everyone else does in videos etc. But as I got more experienced, I started to feel like it's not really doing anything meaningful, and I'm just introducing another element that could go wrong and makes the process more complicated and less controlled. So I started cooking my butter with herbs separately. That way the steak can cook can be cooked ideally for a steak, and the infused butter cooked ideally for infused butter, and then just combine them at the end. It may not have that same flash, but it can produce good results consistently. I've wanted to do some side by side tests but yeno, I'm just a lazy normal joe lol, so it's nice to a see a pro do it better than I ever could have and give us the results. Keep em comin!
I think rather than waste the butter (thanks to this video I know) it would be better to finish a steak in compound butter to get the best of both worlds as you mentioned.
-Another average joe at cooking
Eh, I mostly do it for the resulting sauce, I pour over while it rests on the rack and then serve once rested.
@@bryantg8749 I use clarified butter with thyme and pour it over as is rests as well.
Great testing method. One additional upside to basting, I like to cook mushrooms in the pan with the leftover butter while my steaks are resting, reduces waste, plenty of similar things you can do too.
Yeah thats big brain, perhaps asparagus? Peppers and onions
Fully agree! I was shocked when I first saw a friend's parent throw away the basting drippings: you're flavouring the butter more than you're flavouring the meat, use it!
Bro you're wild. This was a supreme treat to watch. Sincerely, someone that wanted to be a chef since 4 and has minor science background too
The conclusion 😂❤. That was very insightful. Thank you so much.
I really like the scientific approach to discover the thruth of myths. And I like the conclusion to do something unnecessary just because of the fun of doing it. When I cook I don't mind to do an extra step to improve the result -- it is eaten in a couple of minutes with or without it. Then I decide if it was worth the effort.
By the way, I usually cook for my own benefit and let others participate consuming the result. Most times they like my cooking. For those who don't? Tough luck! 🙂
The "Scientific" approach is just a ruse to add false authority to his claims. He says it does not save time, and then immediately say that you could get to the non basted steak to same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting. Therefore Basting saves time.
@@johnandbuddy Except they finish resting at the same time, therefore they are ready to be eaten at the same time.. One minute less in a pan doesn't matter to your ability to prepare a side..
So Chris this gives us a natural followup - say you want to impart the flavor of brown butter, herbs, and garlic to your steak, the step you should take is to either sous vide the steak with your aromatics in the bag or to cook your aromatics alongside the steak in the pan and remove from heat before they get too brown/burnt.
I always thought basting is marginally effective - only the surface of the meat is flavored so the flavor comes and goes quickly as you bite into the steak.
And shoutout to Fallow, they really do post great POV and instructional videos.
Pretty much any way to get the flavored fat on the surface is going to do the job of making it delicious. The real takeaway is that fat doesn't penetrate into the meat, so you just need to anoint your steak with delicious fat.
I am quite impressed with this video and my suspicions were confirmed. Love how you look at cooking scientifically and enjoy your A b c testing idea.
I think a lot of people think basting is better because they use salted butter. People usually inadvertently underseason their steak because they underestimate the amount of salt lost to the pan in the cooking process. The salted butter adds back some saltiness. I always dry brine my steak which means all the salt get absorbed into the meat and if I baste it with salted butter, the steak will end up too salty.
What I end up doing is just prepare garlic herb butter (unsalted) and put it on top the steak while it's resting. I get more or less the same result, but without actually having to do the basting and end up with a messy pan (butter basted cast iron pan are usually too greasy to just rinse off).
butter is unsalted in many european countries...
Great video, like your straightforward style, editing, and scientific approach. I honestly think a lot of popular cooking habits are bullshit. Like, we still have people actually adding oil while boiling pasta.
The oil sticks to the surface of the pasta and improves the flavour. It's objectively better. You can add it later to lose less of it if you like. But the oil objectively makes it taste better.
@@psevdhomeyep the oil absolutely makes a difference.
@DoomedTraveler No, even if you eat it with something, putting oil in enhances the flavour. Try it sometime.
Fabulous analysis and overall excellent video. Thanks!
BRO i havent finish your video, i am at 2:11 but I LOVE this Scientific Methodology you are already using! Thanks for that!... so now, to enjoy it!
Let's also not forget you can strain the butter from the pan afterwards to use for a bearnaise sauce or add extra flavour to potatopuré etc!
I never baste, I just add a pat of garlic butter on top of the steak when it's resting. I feel validated.
Love the content. Thanks for the honesty!
So, I am planning to cook two filet mignons next week. I was toying with the idea of simply oven cooking the seasoned filets for 40+ mins and reverse searing them in a skillet with half the normal called for butter and calling it a day. But, you have convinced me that I need to add one more step of using herb springs like a brush to top the meat with the leftover browned butter + herbs to maximize the flavour while maintaining my less is more rule when cooking most meals. TY!
Conclusion: It doesn't work as we thought, but I like to do it. So I'll keep doing it. 😂
Perhaps the hot butter could be better viewed as an effective way to infuse flavor from the herbs. I love the flavor of rosemary on a steak. I like to use Irish Cream butter and can definitely taste both the butter and rosemary in the finished product vs an unbuttered/non-herbed steak. Great video man. You definitely earned a like and subscribe from me.
Great video! Thanks for the comprehensive experimentation
Excellent! Thanks for this video. I always wondered about this.
@ChrisYoungCooks
This answered a lot of questions about basting steak, but what about vegetables? At my old restaurant we used to base large specialty cauliflowers and rapinis, and I felt like that made a huge difference in terms of flavors because it sort of "penetrates" the vegetable as opposed to butter not doing that to meat.
Depends on the veg, with carrots you need to coat them with a reduction. One of my favorites is chicken broth with tarragon.
It would be quite interesting to know if you would get the benefits (less cooling while resting, taste, and maybe even side color) with just adding a modest amount of butter and herbs at the end and quick basting / rolling the steak on it? (Like 30sec to 1min)
Not sure but I drizzle it on while it cools on the rack, never to do so but it seems logical.
I subscribed!! Great technique instruction!! I have always added a couple of pats of butter when I’m at a restaurant having a Rib Eye. It really adds to the flavor.
subscribed!!! thank you for being straight forward and informative
If basting causes more carryover cooking, doesn't that mean you can cook the steak to a lower temperature to reach the same final doneness and thus it indirectly speeds cooking?
I’d go so far as to say it Directly decreases cook time, if you baste without resting. You’re essentially cooking it from 2 sides.
It washes out in the end. It takes about 1 minute longer for the non-basted steak to reach 105F, so that it reaches ~128F during resting. Whereas the basted steak is pulled at 95F and coasts to ~128F. BUT because of the extra heat from basting, resting actually takes a bit longer to reach it's peak temperature and in the end there was no time savings.
It is a strange conclusion that it doesn't speed cooking time. Because if you wanted the basted steak to be medium-rare too, then you actually need pull it off the pan earlier. And thus saving time.
I came here to say that. And found it even stranger that he literally comes to the conclusion that you could get to the same temp by cooking it a little longer without basting..... Like.... what? I feels like such an obvious oversight that I feel like he did it intentionally so that he could have that No. No. No. No screen just to be edgy. Not impressed
Yeah i think he reaches a false conclusion as well. He literally said that the way to substitute for basting your steak is to "cook it for longer".
@@tidemeo yeah, and it's really disheartening to see how out of the 50 or so comments this and mine are the only ones that point this out. While majority praise him for doing great science... ugh, critical thinking needs to be one of the fundamentals in school along with Math, Language, etc.
@@johnandbuddy yeah 100% agree. it's very funny seeing everyone praise his scientific process but fail to do their own scientific process to review his work...... It's like wtf???
PS I also commented so we got 3 commented now hahah let's go!
@@tidemeo hahahah hell yeah, let the critical thinkers powers combine!
I appreciate your honesty as, I was apprehensive clicking on this... 3 things I stopped / started doing when cooking steak (or meat in general): 1. I use cast iron, even on my grill... no flare ups, a better crust sear (rather than grill marks) and the carryover heat in the pan after the heat source is gone. 2. I use partially frozen meat, it allows for a better sear, yet maintains the inside color, moisture, thus flavor, way better. 3. I use a small amount of EVOO to cook in / with. It maintains a better exterior coating than butter, the taste is nearly indistinguishable (try EVOO on popcorn and you will see what I mean) I do infuse my oil with herbs (mostly rosemary) and found pouring the infused pan juice over at the end restores / enhances those desired flavors... Most important, as an Italian I was taught to NOT play with my food... LOL
Wow great content and production I just subscribed 👍
It just comes down to whether you want your steak to have a buttery component to it, and if so, how much. I think a tablespoon to a steak is a enough to keep it subtle, and just makes for a way to round out the flavour, help bind it all, and definitely brings the sumptuousness. When steaks have been swimming for their lives in butter, to me it screams “I don’t know how to actually cook or enjoy meat”
You realise that there will be the same amount of butter on the steak in both examples, right? A tablespoon of butter is just very likely to burn. The rest of the butter stays in the pan.
it would be very interesting to see whether you would reach the same conclusions if you conducted the same testing on different cuts of steak, like a nice ribeye!
I suspect that basting has a much more pronounced effect on steaks with more marbling than it does on filets/tenderloins.
even so i feel like youd have to stab the meat multiple time with a fork or whatever to actually get it to soak in. The marbling fat on a steak does NOT absorb the flavor.
Definitely, some cuts you barely sear, but thickness is the MORE important.
Thanks for not dragging this video out to a needless 15 minutes like other TH-camrs do
That's a TOP level content creation. You are going to be famous soon.
This suggests you can produce the same effect with a small pool of butter+aromatics at the bottom of your pan that you just flip the steak in to coat. Avoids the obscene two tablespoons of butter that is usually left in the pan.
What about basting fish? The texture of fish is much softer
than a beef filet so its arguable that the basting flavor enters into the filet of fish easier. Would be interesting to find that out too!
gotta say, this is an outstanding video.
cant imagine someone answering this question better. the rationalization sentence at the end was really strong doe
It seems like your fourth criteria was met because there was a significant difference of flavor between basted vs unbasted steak. You can achieve the same result by independently browning the butter and adding it afterward, but that doesn't change the fact that it significantly affected the final flavor, right?
Totally. It was a good experiment but the answers to the research questions are definitely not 4 times no. Don't understand why not more people point this out as unscientific.
I got unreasonably upset at the question posed by Chris' friend, but then I realized you were talking about steak. Basting eggs is night and day obviously and the technique is especially useful for fish since it goes between the layers. You will cook vegetables much faster in a pan with basting, depending on how you want them. Adding spices to your fat such as thyme here is a very good way of evenly seasoning. But yeah, I was surprised with the end result and now I have to check it for myself. This is soul crushing for cooks all around the world
No.
Your channel makes my inner geek and foodie smile. subbed!
This was great, very concise and entertaining!
Such a cool video! Thank you. Maybe there are a few more things that need to be said about basting. It's a pretty common technique that, however, for the most part is done wrong. When basting, butter must never really show any signs of particularly evident burning or, for that matter, even deep colouring. For a perfect baste, butter should always foam, not boil...but foam..., brown just mildly and never really have large brown specs of burned matter. The temperature range for this is sooooo narrow that a lot of experience is needed (generally a job reserved for very skilled sauciers or grilleurs). This is also why basting is best carried out in copper pans placed on of cast iron solid tops, quite common in old fashion kitchens buts now a mirage that can, however, be supplanted by induction and a nice thick bottomed stainless steel pan (however lifting and tilting of the pan must be kept to a minimum). Gas is not ideal because it tends to heat the sides off the pan more than the bottom, making accurate temperature control pretty hard. The even coating of all sides of the meat is something also only basting can really produce and, for that reason, it was the go to cooking technique of cuts like fillet and filet mignon, which for the most part had a rather even height to width ratio (current beef farming has changed this a little). Basting basically allows for even cooking of tall, not overly large cuts of lean meat where butter is the main flavour catalyst. Fattier cuts (rib on steaks, ribeyes, loins and to a certain extent porterhouses and t bones) were, generally but not always, cooked differently. Basting was also super poplar with other cuts, mostly game. Also, as pointed out, is sooooo cool to do. When done right it cooks the meat very gently and gives super tasty results! But man, it's tricky to get just right. Big up for the wicked work you're doing. So much fun!
Great video! I've wondered the answer to this question for years.
Well presented, clear and concise. Thanks for the information
This is how a detail-oriented type-A personality likes to see food testing! Just incredible work. I'm amazed with each video the lengths you go to testing out cooking theory. Subscribed, excellent work!
first time watching your videos. wow they're beautifully done. one of the fastest subs i've ever done. and i almost never watch food channels. algorithm selling to the caveman in me. thank you!
So all of your videos are this good? Subscribed!
What a great and useful content for traditional restaurants. They can save a lot of time and money!
Fascinating experiment. Great work.
Your test confirmed what I already knew. Additionally, I was going to baste steaks but had unknowingly run out of butter, so I just added the herbs to oil and used that. My guests all praised the buttery flavor and added herbs.
Fresh thyme is the safest choice, for duller cuts like a NY strip I use tarragon.
Great Video! Intelligent analysis!