I’m going to share my insight into cooking the perfect steak. The most important thing is to cook it at the right temperature. The second most important thing is your cooking method.
The temperature is something that many people overlook. In fact, it’s probably the most important aspect of cooking a steak, or any kind of grilled meat for that matter. If you don’t cook a steak at the right temperature, it will be tough and flavorless.
I like to cook my steaks at medium-rare, which means that I have to cook them at a temperature of about 135 degrees Celsius (275 degrees Fahrenheit). I know that that sounds pretty hot, but it’s really not – trust me on this one.
When you drop a piece of raw steak into a pan that’s heated up to 135 degrees Celsius, you can hold your hand there for about two seconds without getting burned. That’s two seconds more than I want my steak exposed to that kind of heat – I want it to spend as little time as possible directly in contact with the pan before I take it out and put it on my plate; ideally, I want it out after one second, so two seconds is too long.
My general rule of
For the ultimate in tenderness, cook the steak at a low temperature. This will take much longer but will ensure the meat is so soft that it will literally melt in your mouth.
A medium-rare steak is cooked just until it reaches an internal temperature of 135 degrees Fahrenheit. Medium steaks are cooked to 140 degrees while well-done steaks reach 150 degrees.
Tougher cuts of meat should be cooked at lower temperatures. If you’re cooking a steak on the barbecue, start off with a low temperature and increase it as the meat cooks.
Make sure that you rest your meat for five minutes after removing it from the grill, oven or pan. This short period allows the juices to redistribute themselves throughout the meat. If you cut into the steak immediately after cooking, all of its juices will spill out onto the cutting board!
Mixed Spice is a combination of ingredients that you can use when barbecuing or grilling. It can be used in place of salt and pepper, and it helps to give the meat a lovely flavor.
The ingredients are:
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
Mix the spices together in a small bowl and rub the mixture over the meat before cooking. You can cook the meat this way on the barbecue or in an oven on a roasting rack.
Tips:
Use fresh spices if possible. If you have to use dried spices, crush them with a mortar and pestle before mixing them together.
Mix the spices by hand, so that you know they are evenly mixed.
You should use only 1/8 tsp of mixed spice per pound of meat, but even this small amount can make your food taste delicious. The taste of mixed spice is very subtle, so don’t add too much or you will overpower any other flavors in your food and make it taste bland.
Mixed Spice
Mixed spices have been used to flavour meat and fish for centuries, and are a great way to liven up your cooking. They are simple to make and will last in an airtight container for up to three months.
Ingredients:
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp ground allspice
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 tbsp ground cloves
2 tsp ground ginger
Method:
Combine all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly. When using the spice mix, rub it into your meat or fish before cooking, as the heat from the grill will warm the spices and release their flavours.
Spices are used to enhance the flavor of food. There are many different kinds of spices and they all add different flavors to the food you cook. You should not use too much of one spice or else your food will have a strange taste.
You can use the spices listed below in various ways to add a unique flavor to your dishes. To get the most from your spices, you have to know how to mix them properly with other ingredients to create delicious foods.
Below is a list of spices and their uses:
Allspice- this spice is made from an evergreen tree in Jamaica and it is used in soups, stews, barbecue rubs, and many other dishes
Black Pepper- this spice is made from peppercorns and it is mostly used in dressings, sauces, marinades, casseroles, and meat dishes
Cayenne Pepper- made from ground chilis or peppers and it is mostly used in soups, salads, stews, rubs, chili powders, curry powders and hot sauce. Cayenne pepper also gives foods a spicy flavor
Cloves- made from the dried flower buds of an evergreen tree and used mostly in desserts such as pies, puddings and custards
I didn’t think we’d be featuring any blog recipes on this site, but I came across this one and couldn’t resist. The author, J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of SeriousEats.com, is a serious foodie and his recipe for the “ultimate rib-eye steak” had some interesting chemistry in it.
Truly excellent steaks start with dry-aging, a process that is far more common than you might think (and more affordable than you might hope). This involves storing the meat at refrigerator temperatures for weeks or even months to allow enzymes to break down muscle fibers—and thus tenderize the meat—while also concentrating the flavor compounds.
The result is worth the wait: he describes how a good butcher will have between 5 and 18 days of dry-aged rib-eye available at any one time; his recipe calls for 7 days.
Then there’s thi
Mixed spice, also known as pudding spice or pudding powder, is a popular English spice mix composed of nutmeg, mace, cinnamon and cloves. It is used in a range of sweet and savoury dishes, particularly in the UK. It is usually found in the form of pre-mixed jars or tins, although it can be purchased as a ready-ground powder. Mixed spice is used to add flavour to a variety of dishes from desserts to meats; however it is most commonly used with pork dishes like sausages and pork chops.
Spices were an extremely valuable trade commodity during the medieval period; hence nutmeg and mace have been compared to gold and silver in value. There are many recipes for mixed spice dating back to this period which simply list nutmeg, mace and cinnamon as the ingredients. One such recipe from 1390 lists these three ingredients at a ratio of 3:2:1 respectively.
In modern times most recipes have evolved towards increasing the ratio of cinnamon to 2:1 or 3:1.
Mixed spice is thought to originate from what was originally called “pudding” due to its use with meat products such as sausages – “puddings” being another word for sausages at