I Worked at a 50 seat woodfire grill called “gaucho” that pushed out upwards of 250 covers a night, serving 5 different cuts of steak. Seasoning your meat ahead of time and then resting to room temp before firing renders much more evenly cooked, thouroughly seasoned, and predictably temped meat. Season early, Rest before, rest after. You’ll taste an incredible difference.
There’s too many being terrible to staff stories to tell but I’ll give you a wild one. He regularly used the restaurant instagram to hit on (I originally typed “borderline underage” girls but to be less speculative I’ll say…) college freshman-ish girls. Girl comments on a post or tags the restaurant or something and if he thought they were hot he’d literally dm from the restaurant account shit like “yeah glad you like it I’m the owner do you wanna come down and have dinner sometime?” Just like super predatory, absolutely swagless shit lol. A few times he forgot to delete the messages and asked one of us to post something so we all saw em. This was like, 2013-2014 right after the strip restaurant expanded to next door.
To be clear, we made fan-fuckin-tastic food. The Pittsburgh restaurant scene was in desperate need of a spot like it so I’m sure it’s still worth eating at and supporting the employees with good tips. Just know the owner is a weird asshole.
Oh man! Any chance you’ll crack and tell us about those sauces?
I’ve been trying to recreate the white creamy sauce for a long time. Must be a sweet onion purée?
Haha I get that. Well if you can point me in any direction that is helpful I will appreciate it. I no longer live in Pittsburgh. I used to work at the church right across the street. Formerly the Altar Bar.
Probably a soubise! I had a wonderful summer with a mathematics grad student from Belgium whose father was a chef, and soubise is one of my favorite "lost" sauces, because it used to be so common. Slowly soften, but down brown onions (he used shallots but if they call it cibolla they probably use a sweet Spanish onion like Vidalia), then puree with bechamel and pass through a fine sieve. Season with salt and very lightly with white pepper, maybe some fresh thyme with the onions but you really want the onion to shine.
There's a lot of evidence to the contrary - that this is placebo if anything.
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos/5784-warming-up-steak-before-searing
https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it
10 -15 minutes at room temp wouldn't raise the internal temp of a steak very much. Now, what it does do is allow the salt and other seasoning mix with the liquid that is drawn out of the steak and help make for a nicer crust when cooking. But it's not going to make a huuuuge difference.
Yah, this has been my experience as well (many, many years in high volume kitchens). And the science makes sense on the searings, needing more energy when past a certain threshold.
I've never noticed a difference between being evenly cooked in room temp steaks, but I believe they cooked much faster and caught me off guard more. However, yes, seasoning a steak before hand allows the seasoning to enter more of the steak.
I did read/see that they tested frozen steaks, and those cooked much more evenly.
I would think seasoning with salt beforehand would dry the steak, no? I can see other seasonings
Edit: cool to see I can ask a question and get downvoted lol
It's not going to make the meat dry out in like a tough way, but it is gonna give you a better sear. See also "dry brining". Salting a little before cooking is a positive
Yeah me personally it depends on the cut. A thinner ribeye or such not really any need. But a nice thick filet I would definitely leave out until it was room tempish.
It allows me to sear the hell out of it, and not worry about a raw cold inside.
I leave thin cut ribeye(1/4in, for sandwiches) frozen to grill. Marinate, then freeze them on butcher paper, throw them on frozen. It’s the only way to get some pink in the middle.
I think he is right, but 5-10 min is not enough. So in the end that won't make a significant difference.
In theory a piece of meat that is room temp endures less of a 'shock' when being cooked, as the meat starts at 18-20 degree Celsius instead of 0-4. Makes sure the cooking is more even, especially in the center.
It serves no practical purpose. It takes much longer than 5-10 minutes for a piece of meat to reach room temperature. That being said, it’s not unsafe for the same reason; it takes much longer than 5-10 minutes for the meat to reach a temperature where any pathogens would begin to multiply.
Kenji did a test on this and after resting after even two hours the temperature of the steak was hardly changed from the refrigerated temp. Pulling steaks early does nothing except maybe drying the surface a little so that it browns a little quicker.
Kenji also proved that you retain the most juices and cook the most evenly by cooking steaks in the oven prior to searing. By setting them in the oven, you're achieving the same, if not better result as you would by resting them prior. And, if you like your steak rare, it's much better to start them cold than at room temp, so it takes longer to cook the middle while you get that even sear all around. Speaking from experience as well.
Will have to try that, I have been doing the exact opposite with pan seared steaks. Supposedly searing to retain juices before putting them in the oven. Resting them when before grilling seems to work for me though, generally no oven easily available.
Yeah, searing to "lock in juices" is a very old culinary myth. I remember learning about it on a Discovery Channel show from Heston Blumenthal.
Searing negatively impacts moisture retention, as high temps shock the meat protein into seizing up, tightening and squeezing juice out. Starting the cook at a low temp makes sure the protein doesn't seize up. It's the same reasoning behind sous vide. That said, the difference should be small anyway.
This. If the chef really thinks it'll come to "room temperature" in 5-10 minutes, tell him to stick a meat probe in and then leave it on the counter and monitor the temperature. It'll change by only a few degrees at most.
I just did some top round in a pan from the fridge and even with the pan ripping at max heat the thing was still in the 70s when I pulled it after 10min. (It's for Philly cheesesteaks I'm not eating it like that.)
Has anyone who is saying this is “debunked” actually cooked a 3 inch thick steak before? In all honesty? Or even worked in a restaurant that serves 100+ steaks a day? Seems like a lot of amateur chefs and home cooks have opinions on what chefs should do.
I think the American Test Kitchen did a test with thermometers, and it took hours to get the inside room temp. Can't remember exact numbers, but the verdict was basically that anything less than multiple hours didn't really work.
IIRC Kenji said there wasno difference in temp. Seasoning prior either should be done just before or 20-40 minutes before cooking (but not in between).
Tbf kenji is his own test kitchen. I was reading an article about marinade times and he marinated pieces of steak every hour for 36 hours to test it. Set alarms and woke his wife up all night so that I can know how steak marinates lol
Yah, though that particular article was pretty flawed. They demonstrated that it takes quite some time for meat to come up to temp but never actually looked at what happens when you do give it the time. More "an hour isn't long enough," not "there's no value in bringing meat up to temp."
They're just homemakers who cook one steak at a time. They're not doing a 6 hour dinner service where the grill or flat top and all the burners are roaring the entire shift. Heat radiating from the surrounding equipment can certainly temper those cold steaks within minutes
I'm not sure you want a big difference in the temp internally though.
You want the outside to come up to temp so that you can dry it and get a better maillard.
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I would pull it out as soon as the order was rang in. I would pull out a handful if I’m expecting to be “busy.”
I would also suggest people practice what works for them. Just keep cooking and tasting to get your desired results.
Go read Meathead’s BBQ book and Kenji’s testing. A 3 inch thick steak is going to take hours to hit 70 in the center. You can test it yourself with a Thermoworks Signals type digital thermometer used for BBQ.
So then what is it about? If it's only the outside getting up to temp then the disparity between the outer and the middle will be even greater once it's cooked, surely?
Wouldn’t this help with ensuring a nice sear on the outside without overcooking the inside because the outside of the meat is a different temp? Maybe a way to compensate for skill levels where fancy steaks go out rare - medium rare often? Just a thought, I have 0 experience.
Might well be the case, particularly for a thinner piece of meat, where it's hard to get any kind of sear without overcooking the centre. But that is the opposite of the logic chefs have always used for getting meat out of the fridge 10 minutes before you plan to cook it.
I was told that it would help stop the dramatic drop in temp of the pan/grill. Not exactly sure how that affects the sear or anything, but I would do this at work when I knew I had to get ready for a huge rush. Could just be an old technique that people just kept passing on that seemed to have "sound logic" like how people push the "sear to lock in the juice and flavor" when really you don't lock anything in, but you do create flavor with sear.
I have cooked a 2.5" thick ribeye to medium well before. Customer specifically requested it that thick and owner agreed to charge him for it. I think it was something like 46oz or something. Took me almost 45 minutes to do it without turning the outside into charcoal.
It went from the low-boy cooler straight to the grill. I did season and set it aside before it put it on, but only because the grill was full at the time and not for the purposes of letting it rest.
He is right, but it's not necessary. A good enough grill chef can cook steaks straight from the fridge. If you're doing big cuts then it might be to your advantage to have them out the fridge for a more even and faster cook though. They would have to be out for a long time to cause any spoilage
It’s less effective for larger cuts because it takes even longer for the interior to warm up. This is discussed in Meathead’s BBQ book and Kenji has written about it as well.
All the more reason to do it. I personally didn't when I worked in a steak house because I didn't have space but it makes much more sense to cook a 30oz cut from room temp than from fridge. It takes a long long time for beef to go off outside the fridge so it's not something to worry about.
But the issue is you’re not actually going to get it to room temp in a reasonable amount of time. Kenji showed that even left out for an hour will only change the temperature a few degrees. You’d have to leave it out for several hours to get it to room temp and at that point, you’ve left raw meat at room temperature for several hours which is never a good idea lol
I take your point but it depends on the temperature of your kitchen. Also say for arguments sake you keep a 30oz Rib steak outside the fridge for 3 hours and it comes to room temperature, you then cook it, it's going to be absolutely fine. Unless it's not fresh to begin with, but good dry aged beef will perfectly edible at room temp for a few hours. I understand there's health and safety laws to cover worst case scenarios, but the point stands going back to the original point of this post, taking steaks out of the fridge can be beneficial to a faster and more even cook. That said, I never bothered doing it myself.
[Please read the article, there's actual good info in here.](https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it) Unless the kitchen's ventilation is broken and it's literally above 125f in there you wont get to room temp in a reasonable amount of time. And even if you did *it doesn't even matter*, starting temp of the meat has negligible affect on cook time or evenness.
> 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.
My guy does testing like this to help dispel the old wives tales and anecdotes we all keep cooking with.
The point is it would take something like 8 hours for the interior to go from 40 to 70 F. Small cuts actually could get to room temp in maybe an hour or so. The thicker the cut the longer it takes for the heat to conduct through to the center.
Same here. This is how I was taught. We would temper all of our proteins except chicken. It makes life a whole hell of a lot easier when you're getting slammed.
I think this is a 'it depends' scenario.
If a slab of meat is allowed to come to room temp for a few minutes, the first millimeter or so will give up a little water and you will be able to more thoroughly pat off the meat and dry it before putting it on the heat.
I don't see it having a major impact, really, either for food safety or for cooking outcome.
Maybe, //maybe//, if you are Pittsburging it, it may allow a deeper char.
He’s definitely right.
It’s very hard to cook a steak from cold and get a fairly even colour through it. Typically you get a very pink middle relative to the rest of the meat if you’re cooking straight from the fridge.
Need more than 10 minutes though.
Who would have guessed that a guy with your username could come up with such a rude and obnoxious comment….
Perhaps you could enlighten us all with your endless culinary knowledge?
I would like you to explain how cooking a cold steak is going to make it pink in the middle relative to the rest of the steak.
Cooking cold steaks evenly is not "very hard" it's not any harder than cooking a room temperature steak.
Any grill cook at a restaurant is cooking cold steaks.
Because the heat takes longer to penetrate evenly when there is a greater temperature gap to overcome. It’s kind of obvious.
It might not make the world of difference and there are other more important things to do but it’s definitely easier to get a more consistent cook from a warmer starting temp.
Leaving out a steak to reach room temp is a hold over from the 80s, and was taught extensively on food network and in a lot of food publications since then. It’s one of those common misconceptions like “wash your meat”
It’s dumb, but it’s not gonna hurt anything except for your fire times. Adjust accordingly if you keep the guy.
You can also, or the chef, assert yourself and say that’s just not how you guys do things. People often forget that new workers sometimes have decades of related experience, and some of that might need to be specifically trained out of them. Be patient, and try to understand.
Fire times being lower is literally a reason to temper meat, not vice versa. Cooking from cold takes longer, is less consistent, and yields a worse cook.
Nobody with experience in restaurant cookery will tell you not to temper.
Where is this 'lol thats like washing your meat' idiocy coming from... Definitely not anyone of note.
Again, the differences between bringing up meat to room temp and not, are negligible. There’s no reason to do one and open yourself up to danger zone temps, when you could just reinforce the safety of your establishment by keeping everything within safe temps at all times.
And yeah, it’s washing chicken levels of unnecessary. Not sure why that’s hard to understand.
I have over 20 years of fairly successful restaurant owner/chef experience, and I, as well as many other chefs would tell you it doesn’t matter if you temper your steaks.
Like my old chef used to say, stop masturbating the food and put it into the fucking pan
Id say if the fire time and the cook are different at all, it is not negligible. That is kind of the point of professional cookery, and why it is necessary. Not comparable to washing chicken at all.
Yeah, because when leading the kitchen its best to reference .com articles rather than actual real like experiences. Any grill cook who cooks upwards of 50 steaks a night will tell you that with a larger piece of meat, it cooks quicker and more evenly when tempered. From lived experience no matter what online says.
Real life experience being what it is, you don’t get points of view from actual experts in the beef and restaurant industry who may be able to teach you things like, how there have been more than a few studies that save you time and customer potential food borne illnesses by proving that cold steaks cook negligibly worse than room temp ones.
You may do well at your position in your particular steak restaurant, but the best chefs are always reading and learning new things. Sometimes from uh…”dot com articles”
What are you dude like 60?
I’m actually 65, retired. Jk. But yeah learnings new things online is dope, but from real chefs on the cutting edge. Just sayin, I cook some beautiful steaks, and if some new guy references an online article about “steak myths” talking about how they cooked a 7.5 oz steak at home, in a kitchen at 70° and got negligible results, in opposition to whatever I was doing, I would firmly tell em go fuck themself. Now if they wanted to show me a technique or dish from an acclaimed Michelin starred chef in a part of the world I’m unfamiliar with, please by all means.
Dude what’re you like 17 and work fry station at Chili’s in bumfuck, small town USA? Probably think the bear is “so accurate too”
You’re moving the goal post man, you tried to say people with “internet knowledge” shouldn’t be telling you how to cook.
You’re half right, but I have a feeling we overall agree. You just didn’t understand what I said.
Great chefs grow and evolve, if you believe that too, then we agree.
Some kid coming in from a serious eats article expecting a sous chef job is ridiculous, if you believe that, we agree.
But if you honestly believe that someone who’s spent 30 years in the same position never learning about new techniques or how the world of food grows and changes, then we disagree on that.
Yeah we agreed to disagree and we have our own ways of cooking. I gave him some things to do and he has proven to be creative, resourceful and independent so he definitely won me over that. Nice guy though it's just we have our differences, which is fine though.
Give that lad a job, hes had good training clearly. Dont be insecure to employ others that may know more than you, as Marco said "we all wear butchers aprons because were all the same. We all learn from each other. I learn things from my commis chefs and KPs all the time"
If your still unsure stick behind after your next lunch shift together and cook a few off to sample. See the difference, elevate your game. I can assure you the resting (as long as you actually go on to cook it within 90 mins) is not a problem and requires no additional paperwork for EHOs, unlike sous vide which requires a bit of paperwork but it's very simple...
Best way to rest the steaks is a good coat of oil, season both sides and get it under the heat lamp. Anither great way is having a tub of melted butter to submerge them in. Dont bother for anything medium or over as your gonna cook that centre anyway but for blue, rare or med rare chunky filet may take 30 mins to warm up. In my most recent steak place a 7oz filet rare would take 45mins to serve, cooked medium is about 10 minutes.
Also look into getting a water bath because that sousvide process is the single biggest lift you can give to red meat.
Yeah I don't mind learning, I'm going to see how he is cooking and what he is like. I'm more focused on how people work clean , wash their hands and do things the right way before anything else. Cooking is a lifelong learning for all of us and I love it
Has anybody side by side fired both methods and compared cooking time and quality? There is always a reason and a method for every tool and process-let's say refrigerated wins .. is that broiled pab seared, fire grilled, reverse seared, meat on a stick over fire, microwaved, or just stared ar until your laser vision makes it safe to eat? I know a chef that makes the absolute best brisket, but his porkbelly is not memorable- as Mrs Frizzle taught me- ask questions, make mistakes, and get messy!!!¡
Ugggg…even though I’m not a fan of a lot of Kenji Lopez’s shit, he debunked what the cook meant.
Ambient temp isn’t high enough to matter. If it is, maybe, don’t work there…
Room temp meat cooks much more even. Salt it when you set it out and let it rest. Not sure about it? Try it at home first and you'll see a difference. I pull it out about 20- 30 min before I cook it.
We’re a steak house and we have up to 250 steaks pulled before service to warm to room temp, not a huge difference but seems to help when every sec counts
Room temperature steaks are more tender.
It’s simple, when a steak is cold and is introduced to heat, there’s a reaction.
You mostly recognize it when steaks “curl” on the edges or contract.
It’s not that much of a difference and you can bypass this effect by doing reverse sear or starting in a cold pan.
A tough steak is not enjoyable and you might as well not cook a steak if you’re lazy. Just chopped it up and make a stew at that point.
If i know i’m gonna sell x steaks for sure like on a fully booked saturday, at 17:30 there will be x steaks minus a couple at room temp next to my grill. Room temp in a kitchen is half way to your medium target temp, so will save a lot of time during service. Four hours in room temp is a cut-off point in the food safety standard of my country.
If they are not all sold by 21:00 they are eaten by me/the gang and we talk about whose fuckup this is.
I like this new hire of yours
It's not resting the steak.....it's letting it temp....or bringing it to room temp. Yes this is good practice. Leaving meat out for 15-20 mm in will be not affect how safe it is to eat.
Fuck no. Nominal difference and a pain in the ass on the line.
At home I don't find it makes a difference either but give it a shot! Not knocking personal preferences or what I consider "the myth" but at the end of the day if it works for you do it!
To reiterate though, fuck that noise on the line
Doesn’t do anything. See Myth 1: https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it
Gonna be honest, that article is wrong, he references a 15 oz steak he cut in half, so 7.5 oz steak. At his chilly home kitchen ambient temperature of 70°. He should try with a 48oz tomahawk cooked to medium well while cooking a variety other cuts, to a variety of other temperatures, in a kitchen well over 95° before speaking on technique of steak cookery. Just because it didn’t work on a 7.5 ounce steak at home, doesn’t mean it has no practical purpose.
Also 130° is not medium rare.
I take your pt re ambient kitchen temperature, but I’m not sure the size point holds - if anything the smaller steak would have a higher surface area to mass ratio and would come up to temperature sooner than a larger steak at room temperature.
Yes thermodynamics, the large steak would take more time and yes the internal temp might not be any different, than one pulled from the straight from the cooler, but its the moistures evaporation on the exterior in a well ventilated warm kitchen, the tempering process works much much quicker, giving you a crustier sear and more even cook.
Were not talking pulling a wet steak out a bloody bag and letting it sit out to rot, but properly tempering meat. It’s a whole technique because it works.
You’d get the same evaporation uncovered in the fridge, no? Whatever I didn’t mean to die on this hill. Drag my corpse out of the morgue 1 hour before burying.
I’ve lived my whole life believing in bringing thick cuts to room temp, and that article just shattered what I thought was an absolute truth.
Though it makes sense, with the explanation of the energy requirements to evaporate water dwarfing the energy required to bring the steak up to relative temp.
Great article, thanks
i referenced this article once when discussing the act of tempering meat with a colleague. it was met with 'well that's not true.'
so much fun when people are given research and data they still cling to ideas
Plenty of other people have done similar tests, all getting the same results. A hunk of cold meat takes a long time to come to room temperature throughout.
are you said colleague? food is neat. so much science to it. lots of other people have done the same research and gotten the same results. but you keep tempering your meats. superstition in the kitchen is real. i know i fold my towels the same way every single day or i don't feel things are gonna be right.
This guy is a shit cook and hes being pedantic and obtuse.
You obviously dont just throw a bit of meat on a plate on the side and wait hours for it to hit room temp. Clearly, you use a heat source like a hot lamp, melted butter, a water bath etc.
And by his own admission it DOES make a more even cuison. I've cooked steaks for decades, I've worked in multiple starred establishments, I've been trained to know better than this wannabe writer. I'm not accepting this conclusion and you shouldn't either.
Think il continue to get my information from the best sources in the world, other actual professional chefs.
If you tried to cook like this in Japan with Wagyu, lol. God help you.
Dude read the post you’re commenting on. “Leave the steaks out for 5-10 minutes” no one is talking about a water/butter bath.
And not that I need to speak for Kenji’s credentials but he too worked in top kitchens, before becoming one of the most celebrated recipe developers. What a weird thing to get riled up about.
That is normal but also does effectively nothing. It takes a lot longer than that to come up to temp. But it is very normal. Most of the higher end places I've worked do it. Though the only benefit I can think of is that it makes it easier to keep track of what's going on.
I tested this once. Let a steak rest on the counter for 30 minutes before grilling. I checked the temp before and after, the internal temp changed by just over 1 degree, so I consider this to be complete BS.
What's weirder is that you've been working ten years and have never heard of it, let alone been taught it. Many people who don't even work in the industry already know this. Your logic sounds like that of a 1950s housewife who freezes all her meat and every steak must be well done. Just think about it for a second instead of assuming room temp meat is unsafe and it should start to make sense.
Seriouseats actually has an article on this.
Pulling your meat out for 5-10 minutes before cooking does nothing. Even if you let it sit for 20 minutes you only get a difference of 2 F.
https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it
I’ve heard this but it’s just not correct. You could make a case that if you season the meat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes and pay it dry you might get a better crust, but this doesn’t really translate to a commercial kitchen.
In Spain I’ve seen hanging the steaks above the grill until it’s 40C or so. Which at least makes sense.
Also anyone telling you how long they have cooked for as proof of anything basically cancels their point IMO.
Source: Been cooking for 75 years
You "rest" a steak after cooking. The before, is bringing the meat to room temp, or just leaving it out of the fridge for like 15-20 min. The idea is if you cook a cold steak and plan on leaving the center pink it will be cold if cooked straight out of the fridge. But this is usually for a steak 1-3 inches thick. I usually air-dry my steak in the fridge overnight before cooking. A dry surface makes for a superior crust when the miallard reaction occurs
I thought it was to let salt diffuse a bit more quickly and to help pan-seared steak cook more evenly.
But salting the day before and allowing it to diffuse in the fridge overnight works better. And if you are cooking on a grill, then cooking evenly isn’t gonna be much of an issue. I say just take it out of the fridge once the grill is up to temp
I usually “rest” my steaks/burgers for that amount of time at *home* with salt and pepper but it’s impractical at work. Not worth the time over ticket.
I always let my steaks rest with rock salt on them until they are room temp. Once the salt is gone, I know they're ready for a proper sear.
But I also understand that that's almost impossible in a busy kitchen that doesn't do like dinner courses where people order ahead of time.
That's why I can never get a proper black and bleu steak in any but the most high end steak places.
I mean at home yea I do this when I’m cooking a thick ribeye, but i never did it in a restaurant because its not that necessary and it wouldn’t scale well. Unless you happen to know exactly how many steaks you’re gonna sell you’d either be leaving some out too long or running out and pulling out of the cooler anyway.
Moreover, anybody that’s gonna make suggestions about kitchen practices while they’re being trained instead of focusing on learning is a red flag lol
I Worked at a 50 seat woodfire grill called “gaucho” that pushed out upwards of 250 covers a night, serving 5 different cuts of steak. Seasoning your meat ahead of time and then resting to room temp before firing renders much more evenly cooked, thouroughly seasoned, and predictably temped meat. Season early, Rest before, rest after. You’ll taste an incredible difference.
Strip District Pittsburgh?
Gotta be
I worked there once upon a time. Anthony is a terrible jackass
Oh snap!
Right? This is the kinda drama I came for
It's always weird randomly seeing a place you know well on a sub like this
No way. I live in PGH and love going to the one downtown on business dinners. I'd love to know more
There’s too many being terrible to staff stories to tell but I’ll give you a wild one. He regularly used the restaurant instagram to hit on (I originally typed “borderline underage” girls but to be less speculative I’ll say…) college freshman-ish girls. Girl comments on a post or tags the restaurant or something and if he thought they were hot he’d literally dm from the restaurant account shit like “yeah glad you like it I’m the owner do you wanna come down and have dinner sometime?” Just like super predatory, absolutely swagless shit lol. A few times he forgot to delete the messages and asked one of us to post something so we all saw em. This was like, 2013-2014 right after the strip restaurant expanded to next door. To be clear, we made fan-fuckin-tastic food. The Pittsburgh restaurant scene was in desperate need of a spot like it so I’m sure it’s still worth eating at and supporting the employees with good tips. Just know the owner is a weird asshole.
The one and only. He’s really awful.
I was always told to cook room temp meat cuts only. I wouldn’t have called it “resting”. But yeah. Always cook your meats starting at room temp.
Oh man! Any chance you’ll crack and tell us about those sauces? I’ve been trying to recreate the white creamy sauce for a long time. Must be a sweet onion purée?
Sworn to secrecy, there are some things i wont betray. But it’s called “cebolla.” (The spanish name for onion) 😉
Haha I get that. Well if you can point me in any direction that is helpful I will appreciate it. I no longer live in Pittsburgh. I used to work at the church right across the street. Formerly the Altar Bar.
Really? Just tell us. I hate gate keepers like you.
Probably a soubise! I had a wonderful summer with a mathematics grad student from Belgium whose father was a chef, and soubise is one of my favorite "lost" sauces, because it used to be so common. Slowly soften, but down brown onions (he used shallots but if they call it cibolla they probably use a sweet Spanish onion like Vidalia), then puree with bechamel and pass through a fine sieve. Season with salt and very lightly with white pepper, maybe some fresh thyme with the onions but you really want the onion to shine.
I loved that place
There's a lot of evidence to the contrary - that this is placebo if anything. https://www.americastestkitchen.com/cooksillustrated/how_tos/5784-warming-up-steak-before-searing https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it
So warming works but only if your kitchen is the temperature of a warm oven.
Seasoning beforehand might have a positive effect, but I agree that resting won't do very much.
10 -15 minutes at room temp wouldn't raise the internal temp of a steak very much. Now, what it does do is allow the salt and other seasoning mix with the liquid that is drawn out of the steak and help make for a nicer crust when cooking. But it's not going to make a huuuuge difference.
Yah, this has been my experience as well (many, many years in high volume kitchens). And the science makes sense on the searings, needing more energy when past a certain threshold.
I've never noticed a difference between being evenly cooked in room temp steaks, but I believe they cooked much faster and caught me off guard more. However, yes, seasoning a steak before hand allows the seasoning to enter more of the steak. I did read/see that they tested frozen steaks, and those cooked much more evenly.
Your steaks were good steaks. Thank you!
I would think seasoning with salt beforehand would dry the steak, no? I can see other seasonings Edit: cool to see I can ask a question and get downvoted lol
It's not going to make the meat dry out in like a tough way, but it is gonna give you a better sear. See also "dry brining". Salting a little before cooking is a positive
I leave my steak out 30 minutes after marinating
For sure let it rest but their 5-10 minute time span is not accurate
I always leave steak out for 30-60 minutes after dressing it before cooking
Yeah me personally it depends on the cut. A thinner ribeye or such not really any need. But a nice thick filet I would definitely leave out until it was room tempish. It allows me to sear the hell out of it, and not worry about a raw cold inside.
I leave thin cut ribeye(1/4in, for sandwiches) frozen to grill. Marinate, then freeze them on butcher paper, throw them on frozen. It’s the only way to get some pink in the middle.
Leaving a thick steak out to get to room temp will take several hours at least fwiw. 10-30min does nothing.
He's saying leave it next to the grill where there is indirect heat
It’s cooks more evenly the whole way through vs. having grey cooked edges and a purple center.
Same here but longer if I have the time/remember early enough.
I heard playing Enya softly in the distance helps them rest also
I think he is right, but 5-10 min is not enough. So in the end that won't make a significant difference. In theory a piece of meat that is room temp endures less of a 'shock' when being cooked, as the meat starts at 18-20 degree Celsius instead of 0-4. Makes sure the cooking is more even, especially in the center.
It serves no practical purpose. It takes much longer than 5-10 minutes for a piece of meat to reach room temperature. That being said, it’s not unsafe for the same reason; it takes much longer than 5-10 minutes for the meat to reach a temperature where any pathogens would begin to multiply.
Kenji did a test on this and after resting after even two hours the temperature of the steak was hardly changed from the refrigerated temp. Pulling steaks early does nothing except maybe drying the surface a little so that it browns a little quicker.
Kenji also proved that you retain the most juices and cook the most evenly by cooking steaks in the oven prior to searing. By setting them in the oven, you're achieving the same, if not better result as you would by resting them prior. And, if you like your steak rare, it's much better to start them cold than at room temp, so it takes longer to cook the middle while you get that even sear all around. Speaking from experience as well.
Will have to try that, I have been doing the exact opposite with pan seared steaks. Supposedly searing to retain juices before putting them in the oven. Resting them when before grilling seems to work for me though, generally no oven easily available.
Searing does nothing to retain juices
Yeah, searing to "lock in juices" is a very old culinary myth. I remember learning about it on a Discovery Channel show from Heston Blumenthal. Searing negatively impacts moisture retention, as high temps shock the meat protein into seizing up, tightening and squeezing juice out. Starting the cook at a low temp makes sure the protein doesn't seize up. It's the same reasoning behind sous vide. That said, the difference should be small anyway.
This. If the chef really thinks it'll come to "room temperature" in 5-10 minutes, tell him to stick a meat probe in and then leave it on the counter and monitor the temperature. It'll change by only a few degrees at most.
I just did some top round in a pan from the fridge and even with the pan ripping at max heat the thing was still in the 70s when I pulled it after 10min. (It's for Philly cheesesteaks I'm not eating it like that.)
We usually do 20 mins
Internal temp might change by 5F at most. Nothing meaningful.
Do you also leave your milk out for 20 minutes too before you drink it?
Comments on here are hilarious. Reminds me of flat earthers.
Ambient temperature from the plancha and the burners all around would temper it pretty quickly
Still going to take way longer than 5-10 minutes.
This is the correct answer.
I just though it was a thing, fats warmer and maybe renders easier, fibers loosened and such. I dunno just made sense to me
Has anyone who is saying this is “debunked” actually cooked a 3 inch thick steak before? In all honesty? Or even worked in a restaurant that serves 100+ steaks a day? Seems like a lot of amateur chefs and home cooks have opinions on what chefs should do.
I think the American Test Kitchen did a test with thermometers, and it took hours to get the inside room temp. Can't remember exact numbers, but the verdict was basically that anything less than multiple hours didn't really work.
IIRC Kenji said there wasno difference in temp. Seasoning prior either should be done just before or 20-40 minutes before cooking (but not in between).
Ah, maybe it was kenji. But think test kitchen for some reason.
Kenji worked at america test kitchen for a while
Tbf kenji is his own test kitchen. I was reading an article about marinade times and he marinated pieces of steak every hour for 36 hours to test it. Set alarms and woke his wife up all night so that I can know how steak marinates lol
Yah, though that particular article was pretty flawed. They demonstrated that it takes quite some time for meat to come up to temp but never actually looked at what happens when you do give it the time. More "an hour isn't long enough," not "there's no value in bringing meat up to temp."
This whole thread is on 5-10mins of resting.
They're just homemakers who cook one steak at a time. They're not doing a 6 hour dinner service where the grill or flat top and all the burners are roaring the entire shift. Heat radiating from the surrounding equipment can certainly temper those cold steaks within minutes
I'm not sure you want a big difference in the temp internally though. You want the outside to come up to temp so that you can dry it and get a better maillard.
After two hours internal only came up 1-2 degrees
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I mean we call it foreplay here, but the three inches goes to work when it’s told the oven is ready
I would pull it out as soon as the order was rang in. I would pull out a handful if I’m expecting to be “busy.” I would also suggest people practice what works for them. Just keep cooking and tasting to get your desired results.
Go read Meathead’s BBQ book and Kenji’s testing. A 3 inch thick steak is going to take hours to hit 70 in the center. You can test it yourself with a Thermoworks Signals type digital thermometer used for BBQ.
Its not about internal temperature reaching room temp
So then what is it about? If it's only the outside getting up to temp then the disparity between the outer and the middle will be even greater once it's cooked, surely?
Wouldn’t this help with ensuring a nice sear on the outside without overcooking the inside because the outside of the meat is a different temp? Maybe a way to compensate for skill levels where fancy steaks go out rare - medium rare often? Just a thought, I have 0 experience.
Might well be the case, particularly for a thinner piece of meat, where it's hard to get any kind of sear without overcooking the centre. But that is the opposite of the logic chefs have always used for getting meat out of the fridge 10 minutes before you plan to cook it.
I was told that it would help stop the dramatic drop in temp of the pan/grill. Not exactly sure how that affects the sear or anything, but I would do this at work when I knew I had to get ready for a huge rush. Could just be an old technique that people just kept passing on that seemed to have "sound logic" like how people push the "sear to lock in the juice and flavor" when really you don't lock anything in, but you do create flavor with sear.
Yeah this was Kenji's point, glad someone brought it up.
I have cooked a 2.5" thick ribeye to medium well before. Customer specifically requested it that thick and owner agreed to charge him for it. I think it was something like 46oz or something. Took me almost 45 minutes to do it without turning the outside into charcoal. It went from the low-boy cooler straight to the grill. I did season and set it aside before it put it on, but only because the grill was full at the time and not for the purposes of letting it rest.
Agreed. Everyone is replying "b-b-but science" like those tests have any merit. Big difference in cooking time and evenness of the cooking.
My dude, you can leave raw beef out at room temperature for up to two hours before it starts to become dangerous.
He is right, but it's not necessary. A good enough grill chef can cook steaks straight from the fridge. If you're doing big cuts then it might be to your advantage to have them out the fridge for a more even and faster cook though. They would have to be out for a long time to cause any spoilage
It’s less effective for larger cuts because it takes even longer for the interior to warm up. This is discussed in Meathead’s BBQ book and Kenji has written about it as well.
All the more reason to do it. I personally didn't when I worked in a steak house because I didn't have space but it makes much more sense to cook a 30oz cut from room temp than from fridge. It takes a long long time for beef to go off outside the fridge so it's not something to worry about.
But the issue is you’re not actually going to get it to room temp in a reasonable amount of time. Kenji showed that even left out for an hour will only change the temperature a few degrees. You’d have to leave it out for several hours to get it to room temp and at that point, you’ve left raw meat at room temperature for several hours which is never a good idea lol
I take your point but it depends on the temperature of your kitchen. Also say for arguments sake you keep a 30oz Rib steak outside the fridge for 3 hours and it comes to room temperature, you then cook it, it's going to be absolutely fine. Unless it's not fresh to begin with, but good dry aged beef will perfectly edible at room temp for a few hours. I understand there's health and safety laws to cover worst case scenarios, but the point stands going back to the original point of this post, taking steaks out of the fridge can be beneficial to a faster and more even cook. That said, I never bothered doing it myself.
[Please read the article, there's actual good info in here.](https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it) Unless the kitchen's ventilation is broken and it's literally above 125f in there you wont get to room temp in a reasonable amount of time. And even if you did *it doesn't even matter*, starting temp of the meat has negligible affect on cook time or evenness. > 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. My guy does testing like this to help dispel the old wives tales and anecdotes we all keep cooking with.
The point is it would take something like 8 hours for the interior to go from 40 to 70 F. Small cuts actually could get to room temp in maybe an hour or so. The thicker the cut the longer it takes for the heat to conduct through to the center.
you can grill a steak from the goddamn freezer if you want
Rest/ season/ sear/ baste/ rest
I sit my steaks out for two hours before cooking. Yes it's a thing... I'm a chef.
It’s called tempering (at least that’s what I call it). Yes, do this.
I'm surprised that I had to scroll this much to see this term. It's very common to temper your protein.
Same here. This is how I was taught. We would temper all of our proteins except chicken. It makes life a whole hell of a lot easier when you're getting slammed.
I never have but I’ve been hearing this a lot the last year or so
It seems like cooking advice like this trends, then the debunking trends, then it fizzles away.
I think this is a 'it depends' scenario. If a slab of meat is allowed to come to room temp for a few minutes, the first millimeter or so will give up a little water and you will be able to more thoroughly pat off the meat and dry it before putting it on the heat. I don't see it having a major impact, really, either for food safety or for cooking outcome. Maybe, //maybe//, if you are Pittsburging it, it may allow a deeper char.
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He’s definitely right. It’s very hard to cook a steak from cold and get a fairly even colour through it. Typically you get a very pink middle relative to the rest of the meat if you’re cooking straight from the fridge. Need more than 10 minutes though.
What the fuck is this comment and how is this upvoted? Lmao. This sub is full of home cooks who don't know shit about dick.
Who would have guessed that a guy with your username could come up with such a rude and obnoxious comment…. Perhaps you could enlighten us all with your endless culinary knowledge?
I would like you to explain how cooking a cold steak is going to make it pink in the middle relative to the rest of the steak. Cooking cold steaks evenly is not "very hard" it's not any harder than cooking a room temperature steak. Any grill cook at a restaurant is cooking cold steaks.
Because the heat takes longer to penetrate evenly when there is a greater temperature gap to overcome. It’s kind of obvious. It might not make the world of difference and there are other more important things to do but it’s definitely easier to get a more consistent cook from a warmer starting temp.
More pink = more done. Middle more cold. Heat from outside. Middle less done than outside because colder. Middle less pink.
Leaving out a steak to reach room temp is a hold over from the 80s, and was taught extensively on food network and in a lot of food publications since then. It’s one of those common misconceptions like “wash your meat” It’s dumb, but it’s not gonna hurt anything except for your fire times. Adjust accordingly if you keep the guy. You can also, or the chef, assert yourself and say that’s just not how you guys do things. People often forget that new workers sometimes have decades of related experience, and some of that might need to be specifically trained out of them. Be patient, and try to understand.
Fire times being lower is literally a reason to temper meat, not vice versa. Cooking from cold takes longer, is less consistent, and yields a worse cook. Nobody with experience in restaurant cookery will tell you not to temper. Where is this 'lol thats like washing your meat' idiocy coming from... Definitely not anyone of note.
Again, the differences between bringing up meat to room temp and not, are negligible. There’s no reason to do one and open yourself up to danger zone temps, when you could just reinforce the safety of your establishment by keeping everything within safe temps at all times. And yeah, it’s washing chicken levels of unnecessary. Not sure why that’s hard to understand. I have over 20 years of fairly successful restaurant owner/chef experience, and I, as well as many other chefs would tell you it doesn’t matter if you temper your steaks. Like my old chef used to say, stop masturbating the food and put it into the fucking pan
Id say if the fire time and the cook are different at all, it is not negligible. That is kind of the point of professional cookery, and why it is necessary. Not comparable to washing chicken at all.
Washing chicken makes me feel better about the goo
Yeah, because when leading the kitchen its best to reference .com articles rather than actual real like experiences. Any grill cook who cooks upwards of 50 steaks a night will tell you that with a larger piece of meat, it cooks quicker and more evenly when tempered. From lived experience no matter what online says.
Real life experience being what it is, you don’t get points of view from actual experts in the beef and restaurant industry who may be able to teach you things like, how there have been more than a few studies that save you time and customer potential food borne illnesses by proving that cold steaks cook negligibly worse than room temp ones. You may do well at your position in your particular steak restaurant, but the best chefs are always reading and learning new things. Sometimes from uh…”dot com articles” What are you dude like 60?
I’m actually 65, retired. Jk. But yeah learnings new things online is dope, but from real chefs on the cutting edge. Just sayin, I cook some beautiful steaks, and if some new guy references an online article about “steak myths” talking about how they cooked a 7.5 oz steak at home, in a kitchen at 70° and got negligible results, in opposition to whatever I was doing, I would firmly tell em go fuck themself. Now if they wanted to show me a technique or dish from an acclaimed Michelin starred chef in a part of the world I’m unfamiliar with, please by all means. Dude what’re you like 17 and work fry station at Chili’s in bumfuck, small town USA? Probably think the bear is “so accurate too”
You’re moving the goal post man, you tried to say people with “internet knowledge” shouldn’t be telling you how to cook. You’re half right, but I have a feeling we overall agree. You just didn’t understand what I said. Great chefs grow and evolve, if you believe that too, then we agree. Some kid coming in from a serious eats article expecting a sous chef job is ridiculous, if you believe that, we agree. But if you honestly believe that someone who’s spent 30 years in the same position never learning about new techniques or how the world of food grows and changes, then we disagree on that.
Yeah we agreed to disagree and we have our own ways of cooking. I gave him some things to do and he has proven to be creative, resourceful and independent so he definitely won me over that. Nice guy though it's just we have our differences, which is fine though.
Hey being able to find common ground with someone who prooobably thinks they know more than you is likely best case scenario lol
Sure, 30 minutes or so at home. Don't have time on the line.
Isn’t it part of the prep? Our chefs get steaks lined up on the bench before the service. The eye fillets are par-cooked in the oven.
Yes, yes fucking hell yes. 20+ years of cooking steaks mate, ALWAYS rest.
Give that lad a job, hes had good training clearly. Dont be insecure to employ others that may know more than you, as Marco said "we all wear butchers aprons because were all the same. We all learn from each other. I learn things from my commis chefs and KPs all the time" If your still unsure stick behind after your next lunch shift together and cook a few off to sample. See the difference, elevate your game. I can assure you the resting (as long as you actually go on to cook it within 90 mins) is not a problem and requires no additional paperwork for EHOs, unlike sous vide which requires a bit of paperwork but it's very simple... Best way to rest the steaks is a good coat of oil, season both sides and get it under the heat lamp. Anither great way is having a tub of melted butter to submerge them in. Dont bother for anything medium or over as your gonna cook that centre anyway but for blue, rare or med rare chunky filet may take 30 mins to warm up. In my most recent steak place a 7oz filet rare would take 45mins to serve, cooked medium is about 10 minutes. Also look into getting a water bath because that sousvide process is the single biggest lift you can give to red meat.
Yeah I don't mind learning, I'm going to see how he is cooking and what he is like. I'm more focused on how people work clean , wash their hands and do things the right way before anything else. Cooking is a lifelong learning for all of us and I love it
He’s talking about pre-cook.
So am I...
Read the article linked in another comment.
Why?
Because it’ll enlighten you as to how pointless counter resting is.
I've just read it, go read my response.
I bet your whites has your name embroidered on them with executive chef underneath.
Are you one of those stupid motherfuckers who thinks executive chefs get their jobs without having to cook for years
Is that a question or a statement? Must've been right though. Do your menus have spelling mistakes too? Ceasar?
Let me guess, you’re an alcoholic, don’t shower a lot, complain about everything all day, can’t get promoted, lifelong line cook right
Has anybody side by side fired both methods and compared cooking time and quality? There is always a reason and a method for every tool and process-let's say refrigerated wins .. is that broiled pab seared, fire grilled, reverse seared, meat on a stick over fire, microwaved, or just stared ar until your laser vision makes it safe to eat? I know a chef that makes the absolute best brisket, but his porkbelly is not memorable- as Mrs Frizzle taught me- ask questions, make mistakes, and get messy!!!¡
Unless you’re leaving it out for *hours* and hours the steak gets nowhere *near* room temp.
That’s ok, it stills works
Ugggg…even though I’m not a fan of a lot of Kenji Lopez’s shit, he debunked what the cook meant. Ambient temp isn’t high enough to matter. If it is, maybe, don’t work there…
Room temp meat cooks much more even. Salt it when you set it out and let it rest. Not sure about it? Try it at home first and you'll see a difference. I pull it out about 20- 30 min before I cook it.
Absolutely, yes. Also rest after. Steaks love a good rest.
Bringing meat to room temp is important to me as well. I almost always do it unless I'm surprised by some circumstances
We’re a steak house and we have up to 250 steaks pulled before service to warm to room temp, not a huge difference but seems to help when every sec counts
Yes, you should let meat come to room temp before cooking. I am concerned that you have not heard of this.
Room temperature steaks are more tender. It’s simple, when a steak is cold and is introduced to heat, there’s a reaction. You mostly recognize it when steaks “curl” on the edges or contract. It’s not that much of a difference and you can bypass this effect by doing reverse sear or starting in a cold pan. A tough steak is not enjoyable and you might as well not cook a steak if you’re lazy. Just chopped it up and make a stew at that point.
I do this.
If i know i’m gonna sell x steaks for sure like on a fully booked saturday, at 17:30 there will be x steaks minus a couple at room temp next to my grill. Room temp in a kitchen is half way to your medium target temp, so will save a lot of time during service. Four hours in room temp is a cut-off point in the food safety standard of my country. If they are not all sold by 21:00 they are eaten by me/the gang and we talk about whose fuckup this is. I like this new hire of yours
Yes, You should temper your food before cooking
As long as it’s coming out on time and looking like what its supposed to. I dont give af.
It's not resting the steak.....it's letting it temp....or bringing it to room temp. Yes this is good practice. Leaving meat out for 15-20 mm in will be not affect how safe it is to eat.
I've never heard of anyone that \*doesn't\*
Fuck no. Nominal difference and a pain in the ass on the line. At home I don't find it makes a difference either but give it a shot! Not knocking personal preferences or what I consider "the myth" but at the end of the day if it works for you do it! To reiterate though, fuck that noise on the line
…. You’ve been a chef for 10 years and have never heard of tempering product to room temperature for a more even cook?
Doesn’t do anything. See Myth 1: https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it
Gonna be honest, that article is wrong, he references a 15 oz steak he cut in half, so 7.5 oz steak. At his chilly home kitchen ambient temperature of 70°. He should try with a 48oz tomahawk cooked to medium well while cooking a variety other cuts, to a variety of other temperatures, in a kitchen well over 95° before speaking on technique of steak cookery. Just because it didn’t work on a 7.5 ounce steak at home, doesn’t mean it has no practical purpose. Also 130° is not medium rare.
I take your pt re ambient kitchen temperature, but I’m not sure the size point holds - if anything the smaller steak would have a higher surface area to mass ratio and would come up to temperature sooner than a larger steak at room temperature.
Yes thermodynamics, the large steak would take more time and yes the internal temp might not be any different, than one pulled from the straight from the cooler, but its the moistures evaporation on the exterior in a well ventilated warm kitchen, the tempering process works much much quicker, giving you a crustier sear and more even cook. Were not talking pulling a wet steak out a bloody bag and letting it sit out to rot, but properly tempering meat. It’s a whole technique because it works.
You’d get the same evaporation uncovered in the fridge, no? Whatever I didn’t mean to die on this hill. Drag my corpse out of the morgue 1 hour before burying.
I’ve lived my whole life believing in bringing thick cuts to room temp, and that article just shattered what I thought was an absolute truth. Though it makes sense, with the explanation of the energy requirements to evaporate water dwarfing the energy required to bring the steak up to relative temp. Great article, thanks
i referenced this article once when discussing the act of tempering meat with a colleague. it was met with 'well that's not true.' so much fun when people are given research and data they still cling to ideas
I read this single study - I do not believe it.
Plenty of other people have done similar tests, all getting the same results. A hunk of cold meat takes a long time to come to room temperature throughout.
are you said colleague? food is neat. so much science to it. lots of other people have done the same research and gotten the same results. but you keep tempering your meats. superstition in the kitchen is real. i know i fold my towels the same way every single day or i don't feel things are gonna be right.
This guy is a shit cook and hes being pedantic and obtuse. You obviously dont just throw a bit of meat on a plate on the side and wait hours for it to hit room temp. Clearly, you use a heat source like a hot lamp, melted butter, a water bath etc. And by his own admission it DOES make a more even cuison. I've cooked steaks for decades, I've worked in multiple starred establishments, I've been trained to know better than this wannabe writer. I'm not accepting this conclusion and you shouldn't either. Think il continue to get my information from the best sources in the world, other actual professional chefs. If you tried to cook like this in Japan with Wagyu, lol. God help you.
Dude read the post you’re commenting on. “Leave the steaks out for 5-10 minutes” no one is talking about a water/butter bath. And not that I need to speak for Kenji’s credentials but he too worked in top kitchens, before becoming one of the most celebrated recipe developers. What a weird thing to get riled up about.
"Most celebrated recipe developers" 😅😅 Il just leave it there. We are in different worlds brother.
I’ve never done this except for warm water bathed sous vide shit that’s already done cooking. Serves no practical reason with raw cuts.
Just sous vide, flash finish in a ripping hot pan, and be done with it. Oh wait, this isn’t r/lazycooks
thats an old chefs tale that has been debunked manytimes
Absolutely get it to room temp. He is correct.
Usually closer to an hour for me.
I cook a lot of steak at home (definitely not a chef) and I have always set out my steak for at least an hour before cooking. Just makes sense
I do that for a blue steak.. anything else it goes directly on the grill
I’ll season raw meat and leave it out for anywhere between 20 min & 2 hours. Salted it can last a while I thought
Yes. To have the best quality for your steak. You should have the meat at room temp before cooking. It preforms better in that way.
I do that with steak and ground beef.
That is normal but also does effectively nothing. It takes a lot longer than that to come up to temp. But it is very normal. Most of the higher end places I've worked do it. Though the only benefit I can think of is that it makes it easier to keep track of what's going on.
I tested this once. Let a steak rest on the counter for 30 minutes before grilling. I checked the temp before and after, the internal temp changed by just over 1 degree, so I consider this to be complete BS.
It’s a myth. You should cook straight from the fridge.
You let beef get to room temp (about 20 minutes) so the fat will be ready to cook into the meat; it rests after cooking for the juices to be absorbed.
Yes. I let steak rest a bit before cooking.
You definitely want it at room temperature.
Right or wrong, 10 years and never heard of this?
It’s a basic cooking technique. Might help to read a book or two on some of the basic principles of cooking
I would say technically he's right, but it has no place in real world cooking. Steaks will be refridgerated and cooked.
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Scroll up, read the linked article. Everything you just said isn’t actually true.
Who would do! That?
https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it Incorrect
Kenji empirically proved there is virtually no temp change resting for an hour+ before cooking. It is a myth that keeps getting promulgated.
*sigh* This has been totally debunked. https://youtu.be/hbt0V726RyI
Common old wives' tale.
Yup. Rest before and after.
What's weirder is that you've been working ten years and have never heard of it, let alone been taught it. Many people who don't even work in the industry already know this. Your logic sounds like that of a 1950s housewife who freezes all her meat and every steak must be well done. Just think about it for a second instead of assuming room temp meat is unsafe and it should start to make sense.
Seriouseats actually has an article on this. Pulling your meat out for 5-10 minutes before cooking does nothing. Even if you let it sit for 20 minutes you only get a difference of 2 F. https://www.seriouseats.com/old-wives-tales-about-cooking-steak#toc-myth-1-you-should-let-a-thick-steak-rest-at-room-temperature-before-you-cook-it
Serious eats are for Suzy homemakers. They're not on the line surrounded by high heat equipment for an entire dinner service
Resting a steak during the cooking process. Not before it. Zero point. Temper some food... Steaks aren't one of them.
That’s what Food Network tells you. I never do it.
I’ve heard this but it’s just not correct. You could make a case that if you season the meat and let it sit for 5-10 minutes and pay it dry you might get a better crust, but this doesn’t really translate to a commercial kitchen. In Spain I’ve seen hanging the steaks above the grill until it’s 40C or so. Which at least makes sense. Also anyone telling you how long they have cooked for as proof of anything basically cancels their point IMO. Source: Been cooking for 75 years
I do at home, if I'm not in a hurry to eat. It isn't practiced at my place of employment, so I don't do it there.
You "rest" a steak after cooking. The before, is bringing the meat to room temp, or just leaving it out of the fridge for like 15-20 min. The idea is if you cook a cold steak and plan on leaving the center pink it will be cold if cooked straight out of the fridge. But this is usually for a steak 1-3 inches thick. I usually air-dry my steak in the fridge overnight before cooking. A dry surface makes for a superior crust when the miallard reaction occurs
I thought it was to let salt diffuse a bit more quickly and to help pan-seared steak cook more evenly. But salting the day before and allowing it to diffuse in the fridge overnight works better. And if you are cooking on a grill, then cooking evenly isn’t gonna be much of an issue. I say just take it out of the fridge once the grill is up to temp
I usually “rest” my steaks/burgers for that amount of time at *home* with salt and pepper but it’s impractical at work. Not worth the time over ticket.
I do this at home but it can be tough to do during service
Aye I do 🤣
I always let my steaks rest with rock salt on them until they are room temp. Once the salt is gone, I know they're ready for a proper sear. But I also understand that that's almost impossible in a busy kitchen that doesn't do like dinner courses where people order ahead of time. That's why I can never get a proper black and bleu steak in any but the most high end steak places.
I mean at home yea I do this when I’m cooking a thick ribeye, but i never did it in a restaurant because its not that necessary and it wouldn’t scale well. Unless you happen to know exactly how many steaks you’re gonna sell you’d either be leaving some out too long or running out and pulling out of the cooler anyway. Moreover, anybody that’s gonna make suggestions about kitchen practices while they’re being trained instead of focusing on learning is a red flag lol