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Salting things a while beforehand so the salt penetrates it is a good idea in general. You're supposed to do that to basically any savory food, including chicke

Salting things a while beforehand so the salt penetrates it is a good idea in general. You're supposed to do that to basically any savory food, including chicken, meat, eggs. For big things, like prime rib roasts, you salt it a whole day ahead. So, this guy compared wrongly-salted expensive steak to correctly-but-very-heavily-salted cheap steak. Unfair. Also, in general, expensive steak isn't expensive because it's aged. Aged steak is expensive, but the difference between cheap and expensive is more commonly just which part of the cow it is. Filet mignon is a happy tender fatty underused part of the cow. Also, not very much of it per cow. A good recipe for chicken: Turn your oven on high (450 if you have ventilation, 425 if not). Coat a 3- or 4-pound chicken with coarse kosher salt so that you have an appealing crust of salt (a tablespoon or so). Put the chicken in a pan, stick a lemon or some onion or any fruit or vegetable you have on hand into the cavity. Put the chicken in the oven. Go away for an hour. Watch some TV, play with the kids, read, have a cocktail, have sex. When an hour has passed, take the chicken out of the oven and put it on the stove top or on a trivet for 15 more minutes. Finito. From http://blog.ruhlman.com http://blog.ruhlman.com

d_c 17y ago
How would you do that with eggs?
- aarongough 17y ago
  Eggshells are actually very porous. Putting eggs in very salty water will see the salt get absorbed through the shell and into the white and yolk. 'Salty eggs' are often used in Chinese food...
- ecuzzillo 17y ago
  If you're frying or baking them, you salt them before they set, rather than after they go on the plate. If you're poaching, you salt the water. If you're doing the crazy poach-in-the-shell stuff, I imagine you do something with the shell porousness, like the sibling comment.
dzlobin 17y ago
ruhlman is the goddamn man.
wooster 17y ago
The difference between prime and choice is not aging, it's marbling. Marbling will also usually be the difference between pricing of different cuts of meat from the same animal, as more often-used muscles will tend to be leaner and tougher.
- drtse4 17y ago
  Right, marbling is what really makes a difference (just look at kobe beef, what is its key characteristic?). Btw, the linked article presents nothing new, over salting+removing is an approach already seen in many other places(even cooking show). As the advice of drying it, essential. @ecuzillo, the salt crust method is perfect for fish, salt encrusted seabass is pretty popular here.
tptacek 17y ago
Filet is more expensive than hanger, and often better. Dry-aged is more expensive than fresh, and always better. Prime is more expensive than choice, and always better. These things all matter. You're right, but I still want to stomp on the confusion about what "prime" means. I heartily endorse Ruhlman's "too stupid to cook" chicken recipe. Buy two chickens when you do it, save the other for leftovers. Whole chicken is much more economical than breasts.
- ajross 17y ago
  I think the second point is a matter of taste. Aging is a fermentation process, and it changes the taste of the meat. Some like it, some don't. It's not like prime vs. choice, which is an issue of fat distribution: people almost universally like well-marbled meat vs. lean or fatty chunks.
  - evgen 17y ago
    Part of the effect of dry-aging is the enzymatic breakdown of the proteins and fats (not really "fermentation") and the other part is the reduction in the moisture content of a particular cut. The loss of water weight is one of the reasons a dry-aged cut costs more. You can replicate a similar process at home by putting your cut of beef in an open container in your refrigerator (be sure to put a small rack under it to get air circulation on the bottom) and letting it sit for 3-4 days. For something like a rib roast the improvement in taste and texture can be quite significant.
- assemble 17y ago
  I actually prefer Strip or Sirloin to Filet. Filet is tender all the time, but I think the others have more flavor :)
illumin8 17y ago
A great way to cook a steak if you have good ventilation is to use a cast iron skillet and heat the skillet in an oven to 500 degrees. Brush the steak with olive oil ahead of time, and make sure it is room temperature (not fridge temperature). Pull the skillet out of the oven, put it on the stove. Turn the burner up on the stove, and cook the steak for 30 seconds on each side, then put the entire skillet back in the oven for 2 minutes on each side. The steak will be tender and juicy, since searing it at such a hot temperature locks in most of the juices, similar to the way a wound is cauterized. I only recommend you do this if you have a VERY well ventilated kitchen, as the amount of smoke generated will surely set off any smoke alarms in your house otherwise. Sidenote: Why is it that a lot of modern kitchens don't have properly ventilated hoods that actually vent outside? It seems ridiculous that most of the hoods over stoves nowadays just recirculate the air back inside. When I want to cook, I want to cook, damn it!
- logicalmind 17y ago
  Your instructions provide a perfectly reasonable way to cook a steak, but the theory on searing locking in juices has been proven false (see Good Eats or America's Test Kitchen). The purpose of searing steak is to invoke the Maillard Reaction which dramatically increases flavor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
  - tptacek 17y ago
    The step he's missing is resting the protein after it's cooked; over 15 minutes, the juices redistribute themselves throughout the meat. Here's a fun article on cooking beef: Bob del Grosso, from the Culinary Institute, losing his shit over how Mark Bittman writes up his technique for the NYTimes: http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2010/01/minimalist-of-skill.html http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2010/01/minimalist-of-...
  - illumin8 17y ago
    Interesting, I did not know that. I assumed it was similar to cauterizing a wound.

d_c 17y ago

How would you do that with eggs?

aarongough 17y ago
Eggshells are actually very porous. Putting eggs in very salty water will see the salt get absorbed through the shell and into the white and yolk. 'Salty eggs' are often used in Chinese food...
ecuzzillo 17y ago
If you're frying or baking them, you salt them before they set, rather than after they go on the plate. If you're poaching, you salt the water. If you're doing the crazy poach-in-the-shell stuff, I imagine you do something with the shell porousness, like the sibling comment.

dzlobin 17y ago

ruhlman is the goddamn man.

wooster 17y ago

The difference between prime and choice is not aging, it's marbling. Marbling will also usually be the difference between pricing of different cuts of meat from the same animal, as more often-used muscles will tend to be leaner and tougher.

drtse4 17y ago
Right, marbling is what really makes a difference (just look at kobe beef, what is its key characteristic?). Btw, the linked article presents nothing new, over salting+removing is an approach already seen in many other places(even cooking show). As the advice of drying it, essential. @ecuzillo, the salt crust method is perfect for fish, salt encrusted seabass is pretty popular here.

tptacek 17y ago

Filet is more expensive than hanger, and often better. Dry-aged is more expensive than fresh, and always better. Prime is more expensive than choice, and always better. These things all matter. You're right, but I still want to stomp on the confusion about what "prime" means. I heartily endorse Ruhlman's "too stupid to cook" chicken recipe. Buy two chickens when you do it, save the other for leftovers. Whole chicken is much more economical than breasts.

ajross 17y ago
I think the second point is a matter of taste. Aging is a fermentation process, and it changes the taste of the meat. Some like it, some don't. It's not like prime vs. choice, which is an issue of fat distribution: people almost universally like well-marbled meat vs. lean or fatty chunks.
- evgen 17y ago
  Part of the effect of dry-aging is the enzymatic breakdown of the proteins and fats (not really "fermentation") and the other part is the reduction in the moisture content of a particular cut. The loss of water weight is one of the reasons a dry-aged cut costs more. You can replicate a similar process at home by putting your cut of beef in an open container in your refrigerator (be sure to put a small rack under it to get air circulation on the bottom) and letting it sit for 3-4 days. For something like a rib roast the improvement in taste and texture can be quite significant.
assemble 17y ago
I actually prefer Strip or Sirloin to Filet. Filet is tender all the time, but I think the others have more flavor :)

illumin8 17y ago

A great way to cook a steak if you have good ventilation is to use a cast iron skillet and heat the skillet in an oven to 500 degrees. Brush the steak with olive oil ahead of time, and make sure it is room temperature (not fridge temperature). Pull the skillet out of the oven, put it on the stove. Turn the burner up on the stove, and cook the steak for 30 seconds on each side, then put the entire skillet back in the oven for 2 minutes on each side. The steak will be tender and juicy, since searing it at such a hot temperature locks in most of the juices, similar to the way a wound is cauterized. I only recommend you do this if you have a VERY well ventilated kitchen, as the amount of smoke generated will surely set off any smoke alarms in your house otherwise. Sidenote: Why is it that a lot of modern kitchens don't have properly ventilated hoods that actually vent outside? It seems ridiculous that most of the hoods over stoves nowadays just recirculate the air back inside. When I want to cook, I want to cook, damn it!

logicalmind 17y ago
Your instructions provide a perfectly reasonable way to cook a steak, but the theory on searing locking in juices has been proven false (see Good Eats or America's Test Kitchen). The purpose of searing steak is to invoke the Maillard Reaction which dramatically increases flavor: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
- tptacek 17y ago
  The step he's missing is resting the protein after it's cooked; over 15 minutes, the juices redistribute themselves throughout the meat. Here's a fun article on cooking beef: Bob del Grosso, from the Culinary Institute, losing his shit over how Mark Bittman writes up his technique for the NYTimes: http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2010/01/minimalist-of-skill.html http://ahungerartist.bobdelgrosso.com/2010/01/minimalist-of-...
- illumin8 17y ago
  Interesting, I did not know that. I assumed it was similar to cauterizing a wound.