Restaurant steak

[Bastet]

How do I get my steak to taste the same as in a restaurant?

I don't mean something that's covered in spices, crust or cheese/bacon, I mean a simple steak. I've tried to buy all sort of meat from rump to top filet, aged, not aged, grass-fed / grain-fed and whilst they taste really good they don't taste like in a top restaurant.

Any idea?

[HalcyonDaze]

How do you cook your steak?


Plus, there is the other thing that food always seems to taste better when someone else makes it for you - even if I replicate the recipe exactly, nothing tastes as good as some of the things Mum makes, simply because I haven't had to do the cooking and just get to sit and eat and enjoy it.

[sadiep]

My guess is cooking in an obscene amount of butter, with more salt than you might use at home.

[riverhorse]

It's funny, we were only talking about this tonight and wondering if the restaurants and hotels source their meat from a supplier that is better quality than what you can get in the supermarket or local butcher

[snowwhite]

I'd go with the butter suggestion. I've also heard tell of deep-frying steaks in restaurants.

[tinaja]

A lack of seasoning would be my guess from cooking shows I watch. Getting a good sear on the outside. And yes, as with the butter suggestions, restaurants use obscene amounts of fat to make things taste better.

[viv]

I'm less interested in the quality of the steak or how it's cooked. It's more about what your using to cook it on. A good cast iron skillet is what you need.

If anyone thinks their skillet is on it's way out, then you need to re-seal it. Scrub it, dry it, coat it in cooking oil, then put in the oven on a high heat for at least half an hour. That should do the trick.

[princessofpenguins]

I was also going to ask how you cook your steak...

[Raised_By_Wolves]

One can cook delicious steaks at home. Make sure your griddle is very hot, use little oil and turn only once. With enough experience you would know when it's done to your liking.

For steaks I use an old trusty cast iron griddle for the rest of the year and my gas Weber in the summer. Always good results with both.

Restaurants buy the best possible quality beef and have the equipment to make the perfect steak. Maybe strange to some to learn they use extreme high heat to sear then cook it in the oven/broiler.

However, in Argentina and Chile I always saw it done over charcoal. There they usually have the pit outside or by the entrance.

----------
saw this in a mag yesterday (BonAp).

[Bastet]

I've tried all sorts of ways but nowadays it's always on the BBQ - the smoke gives it a bit of extra good taste. Always done on high heat, leaving it to rest etc.


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[Webs]

Do you use salt?

Also, most people cook steak too long. You should watch one of Nigella Lawsons episodes on cooking steak. She does beautiful steaks.

[Webs]

Oh, and fat marbling, a good steak should be marbled with fat.

[sadiep]

BBQ-ed steak will taste different to a restaurant steak. I worked in a restaurant where the eye fillet was seared quickly with a generous amount of butter, in a really hot cast iron pan, then put into the oven to cook through. Good fling of salt too. End result was amazing.

[fishface]

I'll be honest here. I'm a rubbish cook* and didn't realise they put butter on it. How? Do the rub both sides in butter? leave a little piece on the top to melt in? Or do they just melt lots of butter first then cook it?

I could google. But I trust you lot.



* anyone who wants proof of that can look to my facebook page. I'm bringing crackers and cheese to an office 'bake off' tomorrow. I was told I couldn't buy a cake from the supermarket. So I will 'make' my crackers.

[tzarine]

absolutely fat marbly steak

i have been using salt lately
the steaks brown much nicer

i have also had steak in japanese restaurants where you grease the cooking surface w the steak fat & then dip the steak in a ponzu sauce, absolutely delicious

[jimm]

Sometimes I manage to cook a great steak, using the techniques mentioned above. Firstly I rub some evo and salt on both sides and the edges, particularly the fatty edge, and maybe some garlic. More often than not I will marinate it in a mixture of evo, salt, ground pepper and garlic, and a slurp of wine if there is some open, then leave it stand for an hour. I use one of those pans with raised ribs, oil it a little and heat it till just smoking. I then hold the fatty edge of steak on the hot pan using tongs until the fat is rendered a bit - maybe a minute. Then lay the steak down, press on it a little and leave it for about 2 minutes, then turn it around 90 degrees (not turned over, just around) so that the grill marks are criss-cross. After another 2 minutes turn it over, press down a bit so that all surfaces touch the pan. Rotate after 2 minutes as above.

I leave the gas on full the whole time, along with the exhaust fan! The pan should stay hot. When cooked, rest the meat on a warmed plate, cover with foil and a tea towel or hand towel and leave for a few minutes.

This should work, but the cooking time is something you have to experiment with. I have 2 rough guides for cooking time - one is that you watch for the pink juices to start forming on the top surface, then that is the time to turn it over, and when the pink juice appears on the upper previously cooked side, it is cooked. Another is that if you press the steak with the tongs or whatever you use, it should be as soft as the base of your thumb on the palm side if you like it on the rare side of medium.

Porterhouse is my favourite cut. Being pensioners we might have steak like this once a month.

I have to say that some of this I learned from watching Masterchef - eg the trick of rendering the fatty edge.

[sprite]

heston blumenthal had a great episdoe on steak, if you can find it online. fat and salt and high heat are used, but he also flips his regularly. a lot of people disagree, but whenever i use his technique i get a great steak.