A Cut Above the Rest

Posted: 29/05/2011 5:17:22 p.m.

In 1986, the food guru Harold McGee upturned the apple cart stating that searing does not seal, it merely browns creating flavour but that juices do escape or evaporate. Food programmes and printed cookbooks around the globe were now being contradicted by this declaration. Chefs were now sealing the meat quickly at a very high temperature then dropping down the heat to a low temperature. At a lower temperature, the muscle proteins contract and squeeze out the water far more slowly, crucial to keeping the meat moist. The lower temperature allows natural tenderisation done by ezymes performing their magic for longer before denaturing.
I applaude those of you who are making a signficient change to pull up in front of the local butchers window laden with passionate handmade smallgoods and tucked away in the rear of the shop, temperature controled aged meats. If you have the opportunity to grab a kilo of dry aging meat, then you are in for a real treat. Dry-ageing (anywhere between 10-18 months)gives the prime cut a wonderfully buttery and nutty taste. Meats are chosen that have sufficient marbling to protect the outer layer with a high percentage of the weight lost due to water evaporation and trimming the dried surface. As a rule of thumb, meat that is inspected with fine-flecked marbling, takes less time to dry. Meat at one week of aging is liver red, much like a knee graze; at fours weeks, cigar brown colour with a musky smell, wrinkly and weathered; and at ten weeks it resembles beef jerky with a reddish orange colour.
My first introduction as a kitchen hand was learning from Chef how a well-done steak (commonly called a Dunlop retread) was cooked. A slab of rump steak whacked onto a solid top grill with the simmering pot of rice dumped on top, cooking this beastie in no time! A few years on, and I can now advise you the no fools guide to steak cooking. An ownership of a solid non-stick frypan, ideally cast iron is the winner here. Pat-dry the steak, oil and season the steaks on a tray rather than pouring fat into the frypan. Based on a 220g steak, sear, turning as you go after each part of the steak is well caramelised. A medium rare will take 2-3 minutes each side (a core temperature of 55oC), a medium 4 minutes each side (60oC core) and 5-6 minutes for a well done (71oC core). For a rare, let the meat come to room temperature first before cooking. Unlike Chef, we all know good quality meat needs time, therefore no need to rush the process.