Most overrated food

[OutHouse]

poutine

 

[Ns1]

I would agree with poutine but Asada fries would probably be in the same category and Asada fries are awesome. So I'm torn.

 

[bigboxes]

....or letting the meat start at room temp rather than pulling it from a cold fridge and dumping it in a smoker can change optimal cook times significantly in thicker cuts.

That's been proven false. There's absolutely no reason to let meat come to room temp. That's not to say that people still won't preach that as gospel. They heard it somewhere so it must be true!

 

[clamum]

Sriracha
Strawberries
Red apples
Sushi

 

[lehtv]

Ummm wow, you've never had BBQ pork that's been smoked at 200 degrees for 24 hours then.

No, I have not, sadly. The best pulled pork I've I made myself in the oven and it was not smoked... 8 hours at 250 deg IIRC.

I guess any pork is going to be awesomesauce when smoked for 24 hours - pulled or not. So the "pulled" part is probably still overrated

That's been proven false. There's absolutely no reason to let meat come to room temp. That's not to say that people still won't preach that as gospel. They heard it somewhere so it must be true!

Sarcasm?

If not... of course it's true, it's simple science. If it's cold, it takes longer for the heat to get to the center, so it takes longer to cook and it's more diffficult to cook it evenly.

 

[Ns1]

Here's just 1 link, many others like this exists. Awaiting any counterpoints with actual data.

If not... of course it's true, it's simple science. If it's cold, it takes longer for the heat to get to the center, so it takes longer to cook and it's more diffficult to cook it evenly.

The Theory: You want your meat to cook evenly from edge to center. Therefore, the closer it is to its final eating temperature, the more evenly it will cook. Letting it sit on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes will bring the steak up to room temperature—a good 20 to 25°F closer to your final serving temperature. In addition, the warmer meat will brown better because you don't need to waste energy from the pan to take the chill off of its surface.

The Reality: Let's break this down one issue at a time. First, the internal temperature. While it's true that slowly bringing a steak up to its final serving temperature will promote more even cooking, the reality is that letting it rest at room temperature accomplishes almost nothing.

To test this, I pulled a single 15-ounce New York strip steak out of the refrigerator, cut it in half, placed half back in the fridge, and the other half on a ceramic plate on the counter. The steak started at 38°F and the ambient air in my kitchen was at 70°F. I then took temperature readings of its core every ten minutes.

After the first 20 minutes—the time that many chefs and books will recommend you let a steak rest at room temperature—the center of the steak had risen to a whopping 39.8°F. Not even a full two degrees. So I let it go longer. 30 minutes. 50 minutes. 1 hour and 20 minutes. After 1 hour and 50 minutes, the steak was up to 49.6°F in the center. Still colder than the cold water comes out of my tap in the summer, and only about 13% closer to its target temperature of a medium-rare 130°F than the steak in the fridge.

You can increase the rate at which it warms by placing it on a highly conductive metal, like aluminum,* but even so, it'd take you at least an hour or so to get up to room temperature—an hour that would be better spent by, say, actively warming your steak sous-vide style in a beer cooler.

*protip: thaw frozen meat in an aluminum skillet to cut your thaw time in half!

After two hours, I decided I'd reached the limit of what is practical, and had gone far beyond what any book or chef recommends, so I cooked the two steaks side by side. For the sake of this test, I cooked them directly over hot coals until seared, then shifted them over to the cool side to finish.* Not only did they come up to their final temperature at nearly the same time (I was aiming for 130°F), but they also showed the same relative evenness of cooking, and they both seared at the same rate.

*Normally I'd start them on the cool side and finish them on the hot like in this recipe, but that method would have obscured the results of this test.

The cooking rate makes sense—after all, the room temperature-rested steak was barely any warmer on the inside than the fridged-steak, but what about the searing? The outer layer of the rested steak must be warm enough to make a difference, right?

Here's the issue: Steak can't brown until most of the moisture has evaporated from the layers of meat closest to the surface, and it takes a hell of a lot of energy to evaporate moisture. To put it in perspective. It takes five times more energy to convert a single gram of water into steam than it does to raise the temperature of that water all the way from ice cold to boiling hot. So when searing a steak, the vast majority of energy that goes into it is used to evaporate moisture from its surface layers. Next to that energy requirement, a 20, 30, or even 40 degree difference in the temperature of the surface of the meat is a piddling affair.

The Takeaway: Don't bother letting your steaks rest at room temperature. Rather, dry them very thoroughly on paper towels before searing. Or better yet, salt them and let them rest uncovered on a rack in the fridge for a night or two, so that their surface moisture can evaporate. You'll get much more efficient browning that way.



http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/06/the-food-lab-7-old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak.html

 

[nakedfrog]

Here's just 1 link, many others like this exists. Awaiting any counterpoints with actual data.

I think it might be a different tale with barbecue, if you're doing a hunk of meat that's more like 5-15lbs versus 1lb.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

Here's just 1 link, many others like this exists. Awaiting any counterpoints with actual data.



The Theory: You want your meat to cook evenly from edge to center. Therefore, the closer it is to its final eating temperature, the more evenly it will cook. Letting it sit on the counter for 20 to 30 minutes will bring the steak up to room temperature—a good 20 to 25°F closer to your final serving temperature. In addition, the warmer meat will brown better because you don't need to waste energy from the pan to take the chill off of its surface.

The Reality: Let's break this down one issue at a time. First, the internal temperature. While it's true that slowly bringing a steak up to its final serving temperature will promote more even cooking, the reality is that letting it rest at room temperature accomplishes almost nothing.

To test this, I pulled a single 15-ounce New York strip steak out of the refrigerator, cut it in half, placed half back in the fridge, and the other half on a ceramic plate on the counter. The steak started at 38°F and the ambient air in my kitchen was at 70°F. I then took temperature readings of its core every ten minutes.

After the first 20 minutes—the time that many chefs and books will recommend you let a steak rest at room temperature—the center of the steak had risen to a whopping 39.8°F. Not even a full two degrees. So I let it go longer. 30 minutes. 50 minutes. 1 hour and 20 minutes. After 1 hour and 50 minutes, the steak was up to 49.6°F in the center. Still colder than the cold water comes out of my tap in the summer, and only about 13% closer to its target temperature of a medium-rare 130°F than the steak in the fridge.

You can increase the rate at which it warms by placing it on a highly conductive metal, like aluminum,* but even so, it'd take you at least an hour or so to get up to room temperature—an hour that would be better spent by, say, actively warming your steak sous-vide style in a beer cooler.

*protip: thaw frozen meat in an aluminum skillet to cut your thaw time in half!

After two hours, I decided I'd reached the limit of what is practical, and had gone far beyond what any book or chef recommends, so I cooked the two steaks side by side. For the sake of this test, I cooked them directly over hot coals until seared, then shifted them over to the cool side to finish.* Not only did they come up to their final temperature at nearly the same time (I was aiming for 130°F), but they also showed the same relative evenness of cooking, and they both seared at the same rate.

*Normally I'd start them on the cool side and finish them on the hot like in this recipe, but that method would have obscured the results of this test.

The cooking rate makes sense—after all, the room temperature-rested steak was barely any warmer on the inside than the fridged-steak, but what about the searing? The outer layer of the rested steak must be warm enough to make a difference, right?

Here's the issue: Steak can't brown until most of the moisture has evaporated from the layers of meat closest to the surface, and it takes a hell of a lot of energy to evaporate moisture. To put it in perspective. It takes five times more energy to convert a single gram of water into steam than it does to raise the temperature of that water all the way from ice cold to boiling hot. So when searing a steak, the vast majority of energy that goes into it is used to evaporate moisture from its surface layers. Next to that energy requirement, a 20, 30, or even 40 degree difference in the temperature of the surface of the meat is a piddling affair.

The Takeaway: Don't bother letting your steaks rest at room temperature. Rather, dry them very thoroughly on paper towels before searing. Or better yet, salt them and let them rest uncovered on a rack in the fridge for a night or two, so that their surface moisture can evaporate. You'll get much more efficient browning that way.



http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/06/the-food-lab-7-old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak.html

Reverse sear. Dries out the surface while getting internal temp perfect. Sears well.

 

[Ns1]

I think it might be a different tale with barbecue, if you're doing a hunk of meat that's more like 5-15lbs versus 1lb.

The science of amazingribs.com says to start cold.

Also, we now know thanks to the AmazingRibs.com science advisor, Dr. Greg Blonder, smoke sticks better to cold surfaces. Here are three beer cans. The one on the right sat on my desk during the experiment. The one on the left was filled with ice water and placed in a smoker. The one in the middle was empty and placed in the smoker. You can see that the cold wet surface of the one on the left attracted more smoke and thus more flavor.

http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_letting_meat_come_to_room_temp.html

 

[MaxDepth]

If by "classic culinary training" to mean those couples classes hosted by other hipsters out of their own kitchen, then yes, they're trained alright. No, a shit-ton of these guys come from money and they most likely have degrees from Duke or Brown. They are the slightly younger generation of family whose older brothers now make "bespoked" beer.

Their BBQ and "mongolian" coleslaw is shit, plain and simple. The sooner these guys go bust, the sooner I can swoop in a buy their equipment at auction.

I like hipsters joining the BBQ world. Many have classic culinary trainings and backgrounds and they bring new insights. You need new blood and experimentation for the field to advance. As someone who loves BBQ, I welcome it as long as I can still buy cheap meats.

Ns1, at Mensho Tokyo SF, hispanics were doing the prepping and the cooking in the kitchen. I watched them as they made my ramen. So does that mean it's not good ramen shop as well?

 

[MaxDepth]

You just threw in strawberries to see if anyone was reading your posts,right?

Sriracha
Strawberries
Red apples
Sushi

 

[nakedfrog]

The science of amazingribs.com says to start cold.



http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_letting_meat_come_to_room_temp.html

I was just throwing it out there. Interesting though.

 

[ponyo]

The science of amazingribs.com says to start cold.



http://amazingribs.com/tips_and_technique/mythbusting_letting_meat_come_to_room_temp.html

Yep. I don't worry about resting meat to room temperature before cooking. I get the fire in the smoker lit and then take the cryovac ribs out of the fridge to apply the rub while the smoker is warming up. Sometimes being lazy has its advantage.

 

[IronWing]

It's called steak.
If you call something else steak, you have to qualify which type.

It's called overrated.

 

[Ns1]

If by "classic culinary training" to mean those couples classes hosted by other hipsters out of their own kitchen, then yes, they're trained alright. No, a shit-ton of these guys come from money and they most likely have degrees from Duke or Brown. They are the slightly younger generation of family whose older brothers now make "bespoked" beer.

Cash me outside howbow dah.

(see, they're always white dudes)

 

[nakedfrog]

But he hasn't got a beard.

 

[MixMasterTang]

No, I have not, sadly. The best pulled pork I've I made myself in the oven and it was not smoked... 8 hours at 250 deg IIRC.

I guess any pork is going to be awesomesauce when smoked for 24 hours - pulled or not. So the "pulled" part is probably still overrated



Sarcasm?

If not... of course it's true, it's simple science. If it's cold, it takes longer for the heat to get to the center, so it takes longer to cook and it's more diffficult to cook it evenly.

Well it's actually the Pork Shoulder Butt that you use, and after 24 hours of slow cooking it is absolutely impossible for it not to become pulled pork, because as soon as you poke it or cut into it it's so tender it just falls apart.

 

[Iron Woode]

wait. wait. wait.

did zimfamous say that bacon is better than ham?

no. no. fuck no.

given the choice between bacon and ham, ham wins every time.

Damn, this thread is making me hungry. Now I have a craving for ham.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

wait. wait. wait.

did zimfamous say that bacon is better than ham?

no. no. fuck no.

given the choice between bacon and ham, ham wins every time.

Damn, this thread is making me hungry. Now I have a craving for ham.

If you're talking about that nasty ham that people serve during the holidays eww.

Gimme some good euro ham any day.

 

[ponyo]

I once drove to Canada while in college in search of Canadian bacon. I came back disappointed.

 

[Darwin333]

Sperm is actually called milt. It's a different delicacy, distinct from uni.

Well if you'd like to try other types of delicacies similar to milt and you're ever in New Orleans I can introduce you to people who would be happy to provide it, extremely fresh.

All kidding aside, I can't believe you actually knew that and had to look it up to confirm.

 

[Xstatic1]

I escaped from an event with about 2 liters of fancy white truffle oil and thought I was somehow running away with liquid gold. And then i opened it, and tried to put it on a few things....I love mushrooms and truffles occasionally, but I have no idea what this white truffle oil is for, other than making food taste like butt.

LOL.

The truffle salt I bought smells awful, but tastes wonderful as a finishing salt. Based on your *review* of white truffle oil, I'm certainly not gonna be adding it to my grocery list anytime soon.

Give truffle salt a try, you may enjoy it.

 

[AznAnarchy99]

LOL.

The truffle salt I bought smells awful, but tastes wonderful as a finishing salt. Based on your *review* of white truffle oil, I'm certainly not gonna be adding it to my grocery list anytime soon.

Give truffle salt a try, you may enjoy it.

Truffle oil is supposed to be used super sparingly I think. I had an amazing truffled gricia in Rome that I think they just used a bit to cook toss it with.

 

[Ns1]

All kidding aside, I can't believe you actually knew that and had to look it up to confirm.

some people in LA go crazy for that shit.

Cod Milt Tacos (Shirako Poached in Dashi, Okinawa Sweet Potatoes, Chile Morita, Scallions):

 

[Iron Woode]

If you're talking about that nasty ham that people serve during the holidays eww.

Gimme some good euro ham any day.

actually, I prefer Shoulder Ham instead of leg ham.

I like Olymel's shoulder ham: http://www.olymel.com/en/products/hams/ham/smoked-shoulder-pork-picnic/