1. Buy it from the butcher
Science behind meat cooking
1. Meat is about 70% water and much of that is locked in thousands of long thin muscle fibers. Heating meat always squeezes out juices and nothing can stop the process. Some juices drip off during cooking and some evaporate. Although searing turns the surface brown, makes it harder, and makes it better tasting, it does not somehow weld the fibers shut and lock in the juices. In fact, the reason the surface is crusty is mostly because it has dried out a bit due to the high heat.
2. As food scientist Harold McGee says in his landmark book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen "The crust that forms around the surface of the meat is not waterproof, as any cook has experienced: the continuing sizzle of meat in the pan or oven or on the grill is the sound of moisture continually escaping and vaporizing." I might add, any serious steak griller can tell you that as the meat approaches medium rare, juices start pooling on the surface, sear or no sear.
Usually, groceries have the worst type
very good - http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/3218/how-do-you-cook-a-steak-like-those-found-in-fine-steakhouses?rq=1
The most important thing you can do is buy quality beef. You can throw a USDA Select steak on a 700 degree charcoal grill, cook it perfectly, and it'll still be tough and not at all what you'd get at a fine steakhouse.
In the USA there are three grades of beef available to a consumer: Select, Choice, and Prime. There are lesser grades but they go to fast food joints, prisons, military personnel, and miscellaneous other weird uses.
In most american supermarkets you will find only select, period. This is an "average" steak. It's typically devoid of marbling, and results in a rather flavorless tough steak.
To find choice steaks you have to go to a higher end supermarket, e.g. Whole Foods You will pay significantly more for a choice steak, but the difference is marked. The marbling will result in a tenderer steak due to the internal fat melting and tenderizing the steak.
Finally, prime cuts. These are very hard to come by in any supermarket unless you live in a bigger city. You typically have to go to a specialty shop or butcher for these. Less than 2% of all beef is classified as prime. On top of this, restaurants get first pick. So even if you do buy a great prime steak, you are likely getting the lower end of the prime spectrum. However, the difference is amazing. The marbling is more intense, more evenly distributed and when cooked properly results in a steak that melts under your knife.
Another one-up a fine steakhouse has on you is they age their beef. Any steak you buy in the grocery store is minimally wet aged. The finest steakhouses dry age their beef. The difference? Wet aging consists of simply vacuum packing the meat (as in a whole side of cow) and refrigerating it for about a week. After that, it's cut smaller and sold to stores. Dry aging is a more complicated and expensive process. Dry aged beef is hung for at least two weeks in a refrigerator. Moisture in the meat is allowed to escape and evaporate, which concentrates the beef flavor of the beef. The beef also grows a moldy rind which is cut off and thrown away. After the aging is complete you're left with 75-80% of the meat you started with. This commands a premium price.
Unfortunately, you can't dry age a steak in your home. There are some refrigerator aging processes that you'll find on this site and others, but they aren't a true comparison.
Another variation that has become more popular is grass-fed beef. This has become a recent fad, at least in the USA. Cattle are traditionally fed corn which makes them fatter and "juicier", but it also leaves the meat tasting very bland. Likely, if you live in the USA, every steak you've ever had was corn-fed. Grass-fed beef on the other hand is fed predominantly grass, they're allowed to graze as cows should. This is good for the cows, because they don't actually eat corn. A cow is made to eat grass. Corn is rather harsh on their digestive system, but they are given no other choice. In the wild a cow would never eat corn. The end result is a very different flavored steak. Grass-fed beef has a much richer, meatier flavor. However, it's also tougher than corn-fed beef. For this reason a steak you will be served in a fine steakhouse is likely not to be grass-fed unless it is specifically designated as such.
With all that out of the way I suggest doing what I do. When I feel like an amazing home cooked steak, I'll splurge on a nice choice ribeye, dip it in a mixture of melted clarified butter and oil, season liberally with salt and pepper, and pan fry it.
Selection of the best steak
- Best steak usually has more 'fat'
- Beat steak usually has fat well spread-out (not
2. Storing steak
Never leave it in the open for more than 2 hours (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/46962/is-putting-meat-in-the-fridge-to-marinate-necessary)
3. Cooking
Cooking 'frozen' steak directly on hot pan gives best results (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/46962/is-putting-meat-in-the-fridge-to-marinate-necessary)
When cooking 'frozen' directly, there is less loss of water from the steak. Usually, when something is over-cooked, it losses it's water and becomes hard. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWsEg1LmaE)
4. Marination
Using Papaya and Pineapple for tenderizing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papain). Some ingredients contain proteases, protein digesting enzymes. Two that are common are papain (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papain) and bromelain (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromelain). These are found in papaya and pineapple respectively. (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/13534/is-it-bad-to-marinate-meat-for-too-long)
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/the-perfect-steak
http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/267/how-do-you-properly-cook-a-steak
Science behind meat cooking
1. Meat is about 70% water and much of that is locked in thousands of long thin muscle fibers. Heating meat always squeezes out juices and nothing can stop the process. Some juices drip off during cooking and some evaporate. Although searing turns the surface brown, makes it harder, and makes it better tasting, it does not somehow weld the fibers shut and lock in the juices. In fact, the reason the surface is crusty is mostly because it has dried out a bit due to the high heat.
2. As food scientist Harold McGee says in his landmark book On Food and Cooking: The Science and Lore of the Kitchen "The crust that forms around the surface of the meat is not waterproof, as any cook has experienced: the continuing sizzle of meat in the pan or oven or on the grill is the sound of moisture continually escaping and vaporizing." I might add, any serious steak griller can tell you that as the meat approaches medium rare, juices start pooling on the surface, sear or no sear.
3. FoodNetwork personality Alton Brown attempted to get the truth out in 2008. He took two steaks of about the same size, seared one in a pan, and left the other alone. He then put them both in the oven on a wire rack and cooked them to his target temperature. When he removed them he weighed them again. The unseared steak lost 13% of its weight, but the seared steak lost 19%!
J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of SeriousEats.com did pretty much the same experiment except that he seared a roast before putting it in the oven and another after removing it from the oven. "The meat that was seared first then roasted lost 1.68% more juices than the one that was roasted first then seared." Why?
Cook's Illustrated came to the same conclusion after doing experiments with eight ribeyes "The notion of sealing in juices is thus nothing but an old wives' tale."
That doesn't mean that we should not sear. Searing produces brown products by the Maillard reaction and caramelization, and brown is beautiful! Click here to read more about searing steaks.
It's a myth. The myth that searing "seals in the juices" is an antique that just won't go away.
Usually, groceries have the worst type
very good - http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/3218/how-do-you-cook-a-steak-like-those-found-in-fine-steakhouses?rq=1
The most important thing you can do is buy quality beef. You can throw a USDA Select steak on a 700 degree charcoal grill, cook it perfectly, and it'll still be tough and not at all what you'd get at a fine steakhouse.
In the USA there are three grades of beef available to a consumer: Select, Choice, and Prime. There are lesser grades but they go to fast food joints, prisons, military personnel, and miscellaneous other weird uses.
In most american supermarkets you will find only select, period. This is an "average" steak. It's typically devoid of marbling, and results in a rather flavorless tough steak.
To find choice steaks you have to go to a higher end supermarket, e.g. Whole Foods You will pay significantly more for a choice steak, but the difference is marked. The marbling will result in a tenderer steak due to the internal fat melting and tenderizing the steak.
Finally, prime cuts. These are very hard to come by in any supermarket unless you live in a bigger city. You typically have to go to a specialty shop or butcher for these. Less than 2% of all beef is classified as prime. On top of this, restaurants get first pick. So even if you do buy a great prime steak, you are likely getting the lower end of the prime spectrum. However, the difference is amazing. The marbling is more intense, more evenly distributed and when cooked properly results in a steak that melts under your knife.
Another one-up a fine steakhouse has on you is they age their beef. Any steak you buy in the grocery store is minimally wet aged. The finest steakhouses dry age their beef. The difference? Wet aging consists of simply vacuum packing the meat (as in a whole side of cow) and refrigerating it for about a week. After that, it's cut smaller and sold to stores. Dry aging is a more complicated and expensive process. Dry aged beef is hung for at least two weeks in a refrigerator. Moisture in the meat is allowed to escape and evaporate, which concentrates the beef flavor of the beef. The beef also grows a moldy rind which is cut off and thrown away. After the aging is complete you're left with 75-80% of the meat you started with. This commands a premium price.
Unfortunately, you can't dry age a steak in your home. There are some refrigerator aging processes that you'll find on this site and others, but they aren't a true comparison.
Another variation that has become more popular is grass-fed beef. This has become a recent fad, at least in the USA. Cattle are traditionally fed corn which makes them fatter and "juicier", but it also leaves the meat tasting very bland. Likely, if you live in the USA, every steak you've ever had was corn-fed. Grass-fed beef on the other hand is fed predominantly grass, they're allowed to graze as cows should. This is good for the cows, because they don't actually eat corn. A cow is made to eat grass. Corn is rather harsh on their digestive system, but they are given no other choice. In the wild a cow would never eat corn. The end result is a very different flavored steak. Grass-fed beef has a much richer, meatier flavor. However, it's also tougher than corn-fed beef. For this reason a steak you will be served in a fine steakhouse is likely not to be grass-fed unless it is specifically designated as such.
With all that out of the way I suggest doing what I do. When I feel like an amazing home cooked steak, I'll splurge on a nice choice ribeye, dip it in a mixture of melted clarified butter and oil, season liberally with salt and pepper, and pan fry it.
Selection of the best steak
- Best steak usually has more 'fat'
- Beat steak usually has fat well spread-out (not
2. Storing steak
Never leave it in the open for more than 2 hours (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/46962/is-putting-meat-in-the-fridge-to-marinate-necessary)
3. Cooking
Cooking 'frozen' steak directly on hot pan gives best results (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/46962/is-putting-meat-in-the-fridge-to-marinate-necessary)
When cooking 'frozen' directly, there is less loss of water from the steak. Usually, when something is over-cooked, it losses it's water and becomes hard. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uLWsEg1LmaE)
4. Marination
in fact marinating started as a means of preservation rather than flavouring. Some of the first marinades were pure brine and vinegar. – jwenting Apr 18 '11 at 9:19
Salt and other substances that raise osmotic pressure kill bacteria. The concentration determines the efficacy. Lemon juice and vinegar are more than strong enough to kill bacteria at full strength.
Yes, they kill bacteria, but how much? To get the concentration you're referring to, the "marinade" would basically have to be a brine or pickling liquid
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Using Papaya and Pineapple for tenderizing (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papain). Some ingredients contain proteases, protein digesting enzymes. Two that are common are papain (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papain) and bromelain (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bromelain). These are found in papaya and pineapple respectively. (http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/13534/is-it-bad-to-marinate-meat-for-too-long)
http://www.precisionnutrition.com/the-perfect-steak
http://cooking.stackexchange.com/questions/267/how-do-you-properly-cook-a-steak
