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How is this steak cooked?

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UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,587
10,286
136
Originally posted by: Tick
The reason it's seared raw, is because the entire steak is heated to the point that you won't get food poisening, but no further. Hence the slight heated outer crust, and the consistent inner color. Also, from what it sounds like, you cooked it for relatively short duration under medium heat, but with a short time under high heat. This is consistent with seared raw.
Not sure about that. The broiler WAS preheated to 550, and the pan (left in for 5 minutes AFTER broiler at 550) came out hot, and I had set the stove on high the same time I put the pan in the oven, so the stove was hot (not that it mattered--only seared for 30 seconds each side.) But when I cooked it for 2 and half minutes each side, the broiler was still at 550.

 

imported_Tick

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2005
4,682
1
0
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: Tick
The reason it's seared raw, is because the entire steak is heated to the point that you won't get food poisening, but no further. Hence the slight heated outer crust, and the consistent inner color. Also, from what it sounds like, you cooked it for relatively short duration under medium heat, but with a short time under high heat. This is consistent with seared raw.
Not sure about that. The broiler WAS preheated to 550, and the pan (left in for 5 minutes AFTER broiler at 550) came out hot, and I had set the stove on high the same time I put the pan in the oven, so the stove was hot (not that it mattered--only seared for 30 seconds each side.) But when I cooked it for 2 and half minutes each side, the broiler was still at 550.

The fact that the pan was hot when taken out means that the pan was absorbing the heat, not the steak. Further, that still isn't that much cooking time.
 

Howard

Lifer
Oct 14, 1999
47,982
11
81
Originally posted by: cchen
One word of caution - its dangerous to cook a steak that rare at home unless you have a meat thermometer to tell the temperature of the meat
What'd kill you? The "bacteria" inside?
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,587
10,286
136
Originally posted by: Tick
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: deftron
When you cook a steak, you want to cook it at as high a temp as you can.

YOu probably didn't preheat anything
Actually, I did preheat the broiler...waited until the 'oven heating' light clicked off. I think my mistake was not leaving the pan inside while it was heating. Only after the light clicked off did I put the pan in for 5 minutes--but the recipe said only to leave it in for 5 minutes. It takes 15-18 minutes for my oven to reach broil temp (550 degrees) and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my pan in that long (550 is its rated limit and I don't know how much it can take!)

Actually, now that I think of it...I may have made one more mistake. I broiled the steak in the pan, not on the broiler. The broiler pan sits a lot closer to the heat, while the pan sits flat. I probably should have moved the oven rack up one level to put it closer to the heat. It was still a very tasty steak though!


A-hah! Always make sure to preheat your cooking surface when dealing with meat. You could have heated the pan over the stove top to like 400 degrees if you were worried about it.
You may have misinterpreted the 2nd half of my post. The steak was cooked inside the oven, under the broiler. But it was cooked in a 10" skillet and not on a broiler pan (the thingy with a rack on top of a pan that collects juices.) Broiler pans sit up high in the oven so the meat is only 4" from the heat source. But when cooked in a pan, the meat is 5-5 1/2inches from the heat.

Now about preheating on the stovetop--does that get hotter than the broiler? I was under the impression that broiler pwns all at 550 degrees because pans will say "not meant for temps above 500 or 550"--never seen a pan that said "don't cook under 'hi' heat". I think I followed the recipe to the T--only thing I might have done was repositioned the rack to cook the steak closer to the heat source.

 

imported_Tick

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2005
4,682
1
0
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: Tick
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: deftron
When you cook a steak, you want to cook it at as high a temp as you can.

YOu probably didn't preheat anything
Actually, I did preheat the broiler...waited until the 'oven heating' light clicked off. I think my mistake was not leaving the pan inside while it was heating. Only after the light clicked off did I put the pan in for 5 minutes--but the recipe said only to leave it in for 5 minutes. It takes 15-18 minutes for my oven to reach broil temp (550 degrees) and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my pan in that long (550 is its rated limit and I don't know how much it can take!)

Actually, now that I think of it...I may have made one more mistake. I broiled the steak in the pan, not on the broiler. The broiler pan sits a lot closer to the heat, while the pan sits flat. I probably should have moved the oven rack up one level to put it closer to the heat. It was still a very tasty steak though!


A-hah! Always make sure to preheat your cooking surface when dealing with meat. You could have heated the pan over the stove top to like 400 degrees if you were worried about it.
You may have misinterpreted the 2nd half of my post. The steak was cooked inside the oven, under the broiler. But it was cooked in a 10" skillet and not on a broiler pan (the thingy with a rack on top of a pan that collects juices.) Broiler pans sit up high in the oven so the meat is only 4" from the heat source. But when cooked in a pan, the meat is 5-5 1/2inches from the heat.

Now about preheating on the stovetop--does that get hotter than the broiler? I was under the impression that broiler pwns all at 550 degrees because pans will say "not meant for temps above 500 or 550"--never seen a pan that said "don't cook under 'hi' heat". I think I followed the recipe to the T--only thing I might have done was repositioned the rack to cook the steak closer to the heat source.

Ok, replace all use of pan in my posts with skillet. My points the same. And yes, the broiler is hotter than the stove top. So, if you didn't want to damage the skillet, you could have heated it on the stove top to like 400, then broiled the steak in it. Hence, pan is preheated, but doesn't spend time above rated temp.
 

deftron

Lifer
Nov 17, 2000
10,868
1
0
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: Tick
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: deftron
When you cook a steak, you want to cook it at as high a temp as you can.

YOu probably didn't preheat anything
Actually, I did preheat the broiler...waited until the 'oven heating' light clicked off. I think my mistake was not leaving the pan inside while it was heating. Only after the light clicked off did I put the pan in for 5 minutes--but the recipe said only to leave it in for 5 minutes. It takes 15-18 minutes for my oven to reach broil temp (550 degrees) and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my pan in that long (550 is its rated limit and I don't know how much it can take!)

Actually, now that I think of it...I may have made one more mistake. I broiled the steak in the pan, not on the broiler. The broiler pan sits a lot closer to the heat, while the pan sits flat. I probably should have moved the oven rack up one level to put it closer to the heat. It was still a very tasty steak though!


A-hah! Always make sure to preheat your cooking surface when dealing with meat. You could have heated the pan over the stove top to like 400 degrees if you were worried about it.
You may have misinterpreted the 2nd half of my post. The steak was cooked inside the oven, under the broiler. But it was cooked in a 10" skillet and not on a broiler pan (the thingy with a rack on top of a pan that collects juices.) Broiler pans sit up high in the oven so the meat is only 4" from the heat source. But when cooked in a pan, the meat is 5-5 1/2inches from the heat.

Now about preheating on the stovetop--does that get hotter than the broiler? I was under the impression that broiler pwns all at 550 degrees because pans will say "not meant for temps above 500 or 550"--never seen a pan that said "don't cook under 'hi' heat". I think I followed the recipe to the T--only thing I might have done was repositioned the rack to cook the steak closer to the heat source.



OK... sorry, but you def got it wrong..

When you broil something... you have to BROIL is in the broiler.
The broiler puts it like 2 inches from the heat source ... similar to grilling
Putting a non-preheated pan in the oven while your knob is turned to
the broiler setting isn't gonna cut it.

Most broiler have a pan built in to them.

Just put the steak on the broiler pan after you pan sear it.


 

mrchan

Diamond Member
May 18, 2000
3,123
0
0
Originally posted by: cchen
One word of caution - its dangerous to cook a steak that rare at home unless you have a meat thermometer to tell the temperature of the meat

not really. only the actual meat exposed to air really gets infected with bacteria, as long as you get a good sear you're good to go.
 

imported_Tick

Diamond Member
Feb 17, 2005
4,682
1
0
Originally posted by: mrchan
Originally posted by: cchen
One word of caution - its dangerous to cook a steak that rare at home unless you have a meat thermometer to tell the temperature of the meat

not really. only the actual meat exposed to air really gets infected with bacteria, as long as you get a good sear your good to go.

Unless the meat was improperly handled. But anyway, that's why it's possible to order seared raw, but not raw.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,587
10,286
136
Originally posted by: deftron
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: Tick
Originally posted by: UNCjigga
Originally posted by: deftron
When you cook a steak, you want to cook it at as high a temp as you can.

YOu probably didn't preheat anything
Actually, I did preheat the broiler...waited until the 'oven heating' light clicked off. I think my mistake was not leaving the pan inside while it was heating. Only after the light clicked off did I put the pan in for 5 minutes--but the recipe said only to leave it in for 5 minutes. It takes 15-18 minutes for my oven to reach broil temp (550 degrees) and I didn't feel comfortable leaving my pan in that long (550 is its rated limit and I don't know how much it can take!)

Actually, now that I think of it...I may have made one more mistake. I broiled the steak in the pan, not on the broiler. The broiler pan sits a lot closer to the heat, while the pan sits flat. I probably should have moved the oven rack up one level to put it closer to the heat. It was still a very tasty steak though!


A-hah! Always make sure to preheat your cooking surface when dealing with meat. You could have heated the pan over the stove top to like 400 degrees if you were worried about it.
You may have misinterpreted the 2nd half of my post. The steak was cooked inside the oven, under the broiler. But it was cooked in a 10" skillet and not on a broiler pan (the thingy with a rack on top of a pan that collects juices.) Broiler pans sit up high in the oven so the meat is only 4" from the heat source. But when cooked in a pan, the meat is 5-5 1/2inches from the heat.

Now about preheating on the stovetop--does that get hotter than the broiler? I was under the impression that broiler pwns all at 550 degrees because pans will say "not meant for temps above 500 or 550"--never seen a pan that said "don't cook under 'hi' heat". I think I followed the recipe to the T--only thing I might have done was repositioned the rack to cook the steak closer to the heat source.
Putting a non-preheated pan in the oven while your knob is turned to
the broiler setting isn't gonna cut it.

Most broiler have a pan built in to them.

Just put the steak on the broiler pan after you pan sear it.
So in other words, the Food TV recipe was wrong? It said preheat 5 minutes, I preheated the pan 5 minutes, AFTER the broiler element had already reached 550. The recipe said once the pan was ready, take it out of the oven, put it on the preheated stove element (on Hi) and drop the steak on to sear 30 seconds each side. I seared 30 seconds each side. It then said to put the pan BACK under the broiler element for 2 minutes each side (I had a bigger steak so I picked 2:30 each side.) You can't go from broiler to stovetop and back with a broiler pan--you've gotta use a skillet. I think the only place I might have messed up was the rack position under the broiler...perhaps I should've moved it up one inch. The recipe didn't make any note of how far from the heat element the meat should be.

 

Crescent13

Diamond Member
Jan 12, 2005
4,793
1
0
EEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. you do realize when you eat rare meat you are pretty much eating a dead cow that hasn't been cooked. look at this

---------------------------------------------
Well aged usda quality beef, very rare.
---------------------------------------------

now look at this,

---------------------------------------------
old, dead, cow.
---------------------------------------------

does one look more appitizing than the other?
 

GuitarDaddy

Lifer
Nov 9, 2004
11,465
1
0
The color in the picture appears to be oversaturated to compensate for the flash washout which makes it look rarer than it really is. But nun the less it looks very rare.
 

UNCjigga

Lifer
Dec 12, 2000
25,587
10,286
136
oh well, if I die, at least the dinner tasted good! If I live, next time I go to a good steak-house (last time was Chicago Chop House 3 years ago) I'll just order medium-rare and memorize the color.