Review: Follow The Instructions To the 'T'
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 7, 2014
Like the author, I found myself seeking the perfect steak. Also like the author, I explored several different methods and recommendations often finding the results weren't truly to my taste because the methods, developed by others, were others' ideas of perfect.This is the crux of the issue here. For the first few tries at this author's method, I did a shortcut or two resulting in a steak different from what the author said I'd get. Eventually I settled down and decided to follow the author's recommendations step by step with no added flourishes or shortcuts to reduce the time needed.The results I got after slavishing following the instructions were just as the author said they'd be. I was amazed to cook a steak to a perfect medium rare (remove at 125F using a sophisticated meat thermometer) and find it contained almost all the juice it did raw. I'd say the juice loss was no more than 10% if that. Given my usual seared steer on the gas BBQ, this was astounding. Also as promised the resulting meat was very tender with a nice 'crust' due to a full Maillard Reaction.However, to my shock, I didn't particularly like the food. I am used to a much drier steak and having one this tender and juicy was disorienting and not, to me reminiscent of eating a 'steak'. It reminded me of watching an Austrian cook frankfurters. He steeped them in sauerkraut letting the kraut juice do the cooking. He said this is the proper way to cook them. Grilling in a pan, on a BBQ or even in a broiler is a crime against the meat.So for my next batch of 'dogs I tried it his way. I don't doubt this was proper but it also didn't work for me. I'm used to a tough skin 'dog from the BBQ or the grill pan. In the same way, I'm used to and expect a drier, tougher steak than this method results in so for me, I'm back to 'ruining' my meat on a BBQ.Very glad I at least managed to try this new method even if I probably won't stick with it.