Eating and drinking....

[Dsimon3387]

Your wish is my command....

Char-Grilled Steaks
The perfect steaks are salty, sizzling, almost singed on the outside, and juicy, red, and buttery within. We wanted to achieve this contrast on an everyday grill. Here’s what we discovered:

Test Kitchen Discoveries

In order to achieve a respectable crust, the steaks’ exterior must be dry. After trying numerous drying-out methods, including salting and aging, we considered the freezer. The freezer’s intensely dry environment sufficiently dehydrated the steaks’ exteriors, and since we were only freezing them for a short time, the interiors remained tender and juicy.

Rub the steaks with a mixture of salt and cornstarch before freezing. The salt assures they are well-seasoned, and cornstarch—a champ at absorbing moisture—allowed us to cut the freezing time in half.

STEP BY STEP

Keys to Crust

For steak with a steakhouse crust, freeze the steaks for 30 minutes before grilling.
1. Rubbing the steaks with salt and cornstarch before freezing accelerates drying.


2. Ready to grill? Remove the steaks from the freezer and season with pepper.


Char-Grilled Steaks
Serves 4

To minimize flare-ups, trim excess fat and gristle from the steaks before grilling.

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cornstarch
4 strip, rib-eye, or tenderloin steaks , about 1 1/2 inches thick
Pepper

1. CHILL STEAKS Combine salt and cornstarch. Pat steaks dry with paper towels and rub with salt mixture. Arrange on wire rack set inside rimmed baking sheet and freeze until steaks are firm and dry to touch, at least 30 minutes or up to 1 hour.

2. GRILL STEAKS Season steaks with pepper. Grill, covered, over hot fire until well browned and cooked to desired doneness, 4 to 8 minutes per side. Transfer to plate, tent with foil, and let rest 5 minutes. Serve.

how clever!

Haha! when at home I just got a decent range and usually just really kick the flames up and scare the family a bit! I also sometimes kosher the meats and then.... just dip them into a flame... this tende to give a nice crust but people will think you are nuts.

Mark have you tried carmalizing? adding sugar and getting a nice crust-on?

The cornstarch is very clever alton brown would no doubt aprove.

Heres one for you guys how do you get rid of the shmootz on eggplant?

instead of soaking for a long time, use salt. put salt on the pieces and put on paper towel... watch the **** that comes out! after about an hour or so repeat then gently rinse off all salt. and wipe clean.

[Mtripp]

Depending on the cut of meat and what I am going for I use many different ways. I do like caramelizing pork cuts.

[maofas]

Please tell your "SO" that she should let the people at America's Test Kitchen that she is SOOOO much better than they are that SHE should be on their PBS program in over 70 markets.....

...because THAT is where my recipes come from.

Well, seeing as she used to be a chef and is pretty much amazing at cooking anything from French to Indian food, I'm not going to argue with her on the basis of "Listen woman, there's this guy who is a rokodan in Judo who said it's good and he got it off a TV show on PBS, so there."

I'm sure the bean thing is just lovely, but I pick my battles TYVM!

[Lebell]

okay there's only one honorable way to resolve this: a cook out, Tripp and maofas wife will both cook topless under their aprins.

[Kovacs]

Woah... 'under' aprons??

[Lebell]

i mean they are topless but wearing aprOns .(thanx)

[Kovacs]

I know, I wa kinda hoping for no aprons but I can get on with 'just' aprons.

[LarsCG]

1974/75

For fscks sace, I was 2-3 at the time... And I haven't eaten meat the last 12 years, so the only part I could help with is the sallad. I do make a mean sallad though.

Hope you folks have a good time - Mr Tripp in particular, seems he's earned it several times over dealing with the BS bs and whatnot.

Kind regards from Lars in Sweden where we're sneaking up on mid-summers eve (big stuff around these parts)

[Dsimon3387]

Well, seeing as she used to be a chef and is pretty much amazing at cooking anything from French to Indian food, I'm not going to argue with her on the basis of "Listen woman, there's this guy who is a rokodan in Judo who said it's good and he got it off a TV show on PBS, so there."

I'm sure the bean thing is just lovely, but I pick my battles TYVM!

yeah a lot of chefs cringe at tailgate type fair.... but given the occasion certain conventions dictate. Remember at these events with good friends people will no doubt be grabbing and demonstrating things, yelling, drinking and in general acting like louts. My friends do!

I love French cooking... it is imo like the Koryu in Martial Arts, a wellspring, a lexicon of tradition and knowledge. If I was doing anything french for a sporting event I might do a giant Casole' repleate with duck legs and pork sausages.... Or if the seafood was good and people were sick of gumbo, a Boulbase', although a great gumbo can give a boulbase a run for the money.

[kelvis]

1974/75

Way before my time. It's changed a lot! The old PX burned down and they built a bigger one. Has less stuff in it though LOL.