The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Pan-Seared Steaks | Serious Eats The Food Lab's Complete Guide to Pan-Seared Steaks Butter-Basted, Pan-Seared Thick-Cut Steaks Summers are made for the grill, but what's a steak lover to do when the weather's too cold and wet to light the suckers up? Just cook them indoors. Indeed, pan-seared steaks have several distinct advantages over grilled steaks—enough that there are times when given the two choices, I'll choose pan-seared just for the sake of it. While grilling will get you a rapid-fire crust on your steak with all those delightfully crisp, on-the-verge-of-burnt bits and a good smoky flavor, I find that the even golden brown crust you can develop in a hot cast-iron pan really accentuates the flavor of the beef itself, letting it shine. On top of that, pan-searing affords you the opportunity to add your own flavorings in the form of aromatics. Pan-seared steaks come out about 4 percent moister to boot. Of course, you gotta know how to do it before you can git 'er done.

If you want to jump straight into the action, check out the step-by-step illustrated slideshow above , or go straight to the recipe here . The Basic Method When I've got plenty of time to kill, I occasionally employ a low-and-slow cooking method, such as sous-vide , or perhaps the reverse sear method I developed at Cook's Illustrated, in which you start the steak in a very low oven and finish it off on the stovetop. But you know what happens 99 percent of the time? I've got a steak, I want to get it on the table, and I don't want to fuss with it. After all, a steak is a quick-cooking thing. The king of fast food, if you will. I don't want to have to heat up a water bath or my oven, I don't want to have to wait for hours. That means I want to do it start to finish on the stovetop. Luckily, this is very easy to do. The TL/DR version: start with a good, thick, well-marbled steak. Season it well. Sear it in hot oil in cast iron, flipping as often as you'd like. Add butter and aromatics.

Keep flipping and basting. Rest. Carve. DIG IN. Read on for the long version. What Steak Should I Use? You can't end up with a great cooked steak if you start with a crummy raw steak. For the record, we're talking high-end steaks here—those are the tender ones cut from the loin of the cow that generally command the highest prices at the market. There are four different high-end steaks that you should know and each one is a little different. Ribeye, also known as a Delmonico or entrecôte, is my personal favorite. It comes with a large, tender eye of meat surrounded by a swath of fat and a cap that comes from the spinalis muscle. This cap is far and away the juiciest, most flavorful piece of meat that you'll find on any steak. Some folks might find a ribeye to be a little too rich and fatty. Some folks may well be lacking joy in their life. Strip, also known as New York Strip, Kansas City Strip, or contre-filet, is similar in texture to that central eye of meat in a ribeye steak. That's because it comes from the exact same muscle, just a little further back down along the cow.

People enjoy strip steak for its relatively tender texture and good amount of marbling (more on that in a minute). Tenderloin, also known as filet mignon, is the most tender cut of meat on the cow. When cooked, it has a buttery, almost spoon-tender texture. But what it has in tenderness, it lacks in flavor. As a nearly unused muscle in the cow, the tenderloin generally has very little fat, and almost no flavor to speak of, despite its crazy price tag. T-Bone, also known as Porterhouse when the tenderloin section is at least 1 1/2-inches wide, is simply a slice of rib with both the strip and the tenderloin still attached. It's certainly an impressive and daunting cut of meat, but I recommend avoiding it. See, the problem is that with relative little fat and a smaller profile, that small tenderloin section ends up cooking much faster than the larger strip section. What this means is that by the time your strip is perfectly medium rare, your tenderloin is overcooked. You're better off cooking your strip and tenderloin separately if you want both. That said, basting can help even out this dilemma.

Here are more tips for choosing a cut of steak . Making the Grade All beef that's sold in the U.S. is graded by the United States Department of Agriculture on a scale according to its tenderness and degree of marbling. At the top of the heap is Prime, which denotes an abundant degree of marbling in a cow under 42 months of age. Only about 2 percent of the beef sold in this country is designated Prime, and most of it goes to restaurants, specialty butchers, and high end supermarkets. Below that is Choice, followed by Select, which are the two grades you'll find in most supermarkets. The grades continue to go down all the way to Canner, which generally comes from very old cows with little fat in their tough meat. Luckily for us, you won't find that grade in stores (it's reserved for such savory applications as school lunches and dog food). While checking the grade is a quick and easy indicator of the quality of the meat, what you should really be checking for is the degree of marbling—that's the interstitial fat that shows up in white spiderwebs throughout the meat. Why, you might ask, is marbling important? Two reasons: moisture and flavor.

As well-marbled meat cooks, the fat will slowly melt, adding juiciness built right into the meat. Non-marbled meat might have plenty of fat on the exterior, but it doesn't enhance the steak in the same way. Sort of like the difference between drinking a glass of chocolate milk or drinking the milk then shooting the chocolate syrup. Flavorwise, almost all of the compounds our tongues sense that give us the thought, "Ooh, that's beefy," are found in the fat. In fact, if you take the fat out of a piece of beef and replace it with lamb fat, it'll taste like lamb. Want chicken-flavored beef? Cook lean beef in chicken fat. If flavor is what you're after, fat is your friend. Look for meat that's got plenty of marbling. Size Matters The thickness of a steak is not just about portion control. Without an adequately thick steak, it's very difficult to get that contrast between exterior and interior that is so desirable. Thin, thin steaks will tend to overcook before they can finish developing a nice crust, even over the hottest fire you can muster. I try to get steaks that are at least an inch and a half thick, if not two inches.

This does mean that each steak ends up weighing in at between 12 ounces and a pound—that's big, even for someone with a big appetite for red meat. But remember this: It's better to cook one large steak for every two people than to cook two smaller steaks. Learn how to share. Aging? There are two types of aging. So-called wet-aged meat is meat that has been placed in a vacuum-sealed bag and allowed to rest for a few weeks (usually while in transit from packing plant to distributor to supermarket). A wet aged steak shows some improvement over a standard non-aged steak in terms of tenderness—there are enzymes present in the meat that will break down tough connective tissue over time. Dry-aged meat is meat that has been stored in a temperature and humidity-controlled room for anywhere from a week and up to 10 weeks or longer. During this time, three things happen: Moisture loss is a major factor. A dry-aged piece of beef can lose up to around 30 percent of its initial volume in water loss, which concentrates its flavor. Tenderization occurs when enzymes naturally present in the meat act to break down some of the tougher muscle fibers. Flavor change is probably the most relevant.

Due to numerous reasons including enzymatic and bacterial action, properly dry-aged meat will develop deep nutty, cheesy aromas. Whether you want dry-aged meat or not is a matter of personal choice. I personally love the funky, blue cheese notes of a very old dry-aged steak and am willing to shell out the extra 20 to 25 percent it costs. Others prefer the cleaner flavor of fresh beef. And despite what some folks may tell you, it is pretty much impossible to dry age properly at home. To age a steak, you require an intact, untrimmed portion of beef (the outer layers become inedible and must be trimmed off). You can leave a steak in the fridge for a few days and some amount of tenderization will occur, but this is hardly the same thing, and in side-by-side taste tests between fresh steaks and steaks "aged" in a home refrigerator, the differences were nearly undetectable. Bone In, or Out? Talk to most chefs and they'll tell you that it's always better to cook meat with the bone-in because it adds flavor. I've always been pretty skeptical of this one for a number of reasons.

First of all, the exterior of a bone does not have much flavor in it at all—you have to dig down into the marrow to get at it (just ask my dogs). Secondly, meat muscle fibers are pretty tough customers when it comes to allowing molecules to move around within them. If an overnight marinade can only penetrate meat by a few millimeters, fat chance that flavor from a relatively flavorless bone is going to make much difference. Indeed, I tested this out with a few prime rib roasts a couple months back. One I roasted bone-in, another I removed the bone and tied it back on, a third I removed the bone and tied it back on with a layer of aluminum foil in between (to completely prevent any potential transfer of flavor), and the fourth I roasted boneless. All three of the roasts with bones tied on them were indistinguishable from each other in both texture and flavor, so there's that myth smashed for ya. On the other hand, the boneless roast did come out a little dryer in the specific region where the bone was missing.

Really, a bone accomplishes two things: It prevent some moisture loss by reducing the surface area of a steak, and it keeps that section of the steak from overcooking by acting as an insulator. Ok, three things if you count looking-really-awesome as an accomplishment. I personally still go with bone-in cuts when I have the option because I enjoy chewing the crispy bits of fat around the bone, but don't let anyone force you to do it if you aren't interested. With pan-seared steaks, bones pose another problem. As the meat heats, it contracts a bit, so while the meat of a raw, cut steak may be flush with the bone, as soon as you start cooking it, it shrinks away, causing the bone to protrude. This, in turn, elevates the meat from the pan, making it difficult to brown the areas of meat directly around the bone. But there is a solution to this: basting. That is, pouring hot fat over the meat as it cooks. We'll get back to that in a moment. Salt It Well Should you salt your meat right before cooking, well before cooking, or how about after cooking?

This is another point of contention amongst home cooks and chefs alike, and one of the ones for which steakhouse-methods often get cited as evidence. At (most) steakhouses, they salt the steak right before throwing it on the grill or under the broiler, so that must be the best way to do it at home, right? Well, consider that at a steakhouse, when a customer places an order for that giant côte du bouef, It's gonna take a minimum of 20 minutes to get it to medium rare in the very center. That's a lot of minutes in waiting-at-a-restaurant-for-your-food-to-come time. They salt right before cooking because they don't have the time to let the meat sit after salting. Truth of the matter is that you should salt your meat about 40 minutes before it hits the grill. When the salt first hits a steak, it sits on the surface. Through the process of osmosis, it'll slowly draw liquid out of the meat, which you'll see pool up in little droplets. As those droplets grow, the salt will dissolve in the meat juice, forming a concentrated brine.

At this stage in the game—about 25 to 30 minutes in—your steak is in the absolute worst shape possible for grilling. That moisture will evaporate right off, leaving you with a tough, stringy crust. Give it a bit more time, and eventually that brine will begin to break down some of the muscle tissue in the meat, allowing the juices to be re-absorbed, and taking the salt right along with it. What does this lead to? Meat that is both better seasoned and more tender and moist when you cook it. All that said, you will not be destroying anything delicious if you choose to salt your meat straight out of the fridge and into the pan. Personally I season my steaks at least a few days in advance, to give the salt maximum time to work its way into the meat. Why steakhouses don't do this is a mystery to me. And remember: USE KOSHER SALT, not regular table salt.

The larger grains of kosher salt (which should more accurately be called "koshering salt," as salt itself is always kosher—kosher salt is coarse salt used in the koshering process) are easier to sprinkle evenly with your fingers, and will also draw more initial moisture out of the meat to dissolve than table salt. Rest at Room Temprature Before Cooking? Don't Bother You may have heard that it's a good idea to let your steak rest at room temperature before you sear it. Here's the truth: don't bother. A thick cut steak takes a long time to rise in temperature. After half an hour sitting on a plate in the kitchen, the internal temperature of my test models only rose by about 4°F. Even after an hour, they'd barely risen 9°F, not much of a difference. Cooked side-by-side against one straight from the fridge, the cooking time and eating qualities were nearly identical. So while it won'y hurt you to let your steak sit at room temperature, you're not really doing yourself any favors (despite what a certain very angry chef may tell you). Use Cast Iron A good cast iron pan is thick, heavy, and designed to hold on to heat for a long, long time.

Once properly pre-heated (that is, smoking hot), a good cast iron pan will practically sear a steak on its own, even if you lift it off its heat source. Fast searing is essential if you want to build a thick brown crust without overcooking the interior. Start in Oil, Add Butter Later What's the best medium to sear in? Butter, or oil? Some claim that a mixture of both is best, often using the excuse that butter alone has too low a smoke point—it begins to burn and turn black at temperature too low to properly sear meat in. Somehow, cutting the butter with a bit of oil is supposed to raise this smoke point. Unfortunately, that's not true. It's because when we say that "butter is burnt," we're not really talking about the butter as a whole—we're talking specifically about the milk proteins in butter, the little white specks you see when you melt it. It's these milk proteins that burn when you get them too hot, and believe me, they couldn't care less whether they're being cooked in butterfat or in oil. Either way, they burn. What all this means is that the best cooking medium for a steak is actually plain old oil.

And make sure to use plenty of it so that your steak cooks nice and evenly. I like to use at least a quarter cup in a 12-inch skillet. Adding butter to the pan a few minutes before it's done cooking is a fine idea. This is just enough time to allow the buttery flavor and texture (butter is creamier tasting than oil because it has a higher percentage of saturated fat) to coat the meat, but not so long that it will burn excessively, producing acrid undertones. Because it adds proteins to the mix, butter is a better medium for adding deep brown color to your steak as well, which means that even if your steak is looking a little pale after its initial sear, once you add that butter, it'll rapidly take on color. Flip Out If there's one piece of steak-grilling advice that people seem to get more persnickety about than anything, it's that your steak should only be flipped once. False. This is another hang-on gleaned from steakhouses in which it's simply impractical for a cook to flip more than once given the number of steaks they have cooking on a grill at the same time.

At home, you're probably only cooking a few steaks at a time, and it's ok—indeed, it's better—to flip your steaks more often. You don't have to take my word for it either. Famed food scientist and author Harold McGee has been advocating this method for years (and has the data to prove its efficacy). Dave Arnold over at Cooking Issues has replicated his tests , as have I (with hamburgers). You can quite easily do the test for yourself. By flipping a steak multiple times—as often as once every 15 seconds or so—you not only end up with meat that's more evenly cooked, you also cut down on your cook time by as much as a third, and develop a great crust on top of that. This is because with multiple flips, neither side is exposed to intense heat for too long, nor does it lose much heat to the relatively cool air above. It's the equivalent of cooking it from both directions simultaneously.

That said, the difference in the end result is not too pronounced, so if you want to leave the steak alone and enjoy your beer, or if you feel the need to placate that annoying uncle who gets visibly angered by mutli-flippers, go ahead and use the one-flip method—it won't destroy your steak. Fork It If You'd Like Similarly, using a fork to lift and flip will absolutely not destroy it. To hear people balk at the fork-flippers, you'd think that a steak is something like a water balloon, ready to shed all its moisture from a single puncture. This is not how a steak behaves. Rather than a balloon filled with liquid, a steak is actually a series of many many thousands of long, skinny balloons filled with liquid. Puncturing a single one will have no effect on its neighbor, and the amount of juice contained in a fork-poke-ful of punctures is small enough not to be noticed. Still, I find it easier to turn steaks with a combination of spatula-and-tong or spoon-and-tong. Baste, Baste, Baste! Basting is the real key to a perfect pan-seared steak. It performs two different functions.

When Ed walked by the kitchen in the office the other day and saw the big fat steak I was about to cook, his first question after hearing I was planning on cooking it stovetop was, "Isn't it going to burn before the inside cooks?" And the answer is yes—IF you cook it the traditional one-flip, no-baste way, that is. See, the problem, as Ed pointed out, is that with a screaming hot skillet, you end up overcooking the outside to a black crisp before the center has had a chance to even warm up. A combination of flipping and basting—that is, spooning hot fat over your meat—will help cook it more gently, and more importantly, from both sides simultaneously, drastically cutting down on its cooking time. A basted and flipped steak will hit its appropriate internal temperature a good 35 percent faster than a single-flip, no-baste steak. How's that for fast food? Basting also performs one more important function: It's a perfect way to perform touch-up jobs on your crust. Remember those pale spots that appear around the bones when you try and sear a bone-in steak? Spoon hot melted butter over them, and they'll quickly color in.

The easiest way to baste is to tilt your pan slightly so that hot butter collects near the handle, then use a spoon to pour it over the top of the steak. Add Aromatics Did I say that that's all basting does? There's one more function: distributing flavor from your aromatics. After the butter is melted, I add a handful of herbs such as thyme or rosemary, along with some sweet alliums like shallots or garlic. They pop and sputter, releasing their aromas and rapidly infusing the fat with their flavor. When you baste, you're adding that aroma with each spoonful. USE A THERMOMETER! I can't possibly emphasize this one enough. Use a thermometer! Use a thermometer! USE A THERMOMETER! Yes, you may look a bit less macho when you whip out a nifty Thermapen Splash-Proof Instant Read Thermometer from your back pocket, swing out the slender probe and insert it gently into the very center of your steak to register a reading, but believe me: Perfectly cooked meat will earn you more praise and appreciation than macho posturing any day of the week.

I like my meat at around 130°F—the medium-rare point. Many folks like their meat rare, but to me, that's a waste of a good, well-marbled cut of beef. You want your fat to be warm enough that it starts melting a bit, lubricating your meat and adding flavor and juice to every bite. With meat that's too rare, your fat remains solid. You end up with all the calories and not nearly as much flavor. On the opposite end of the spectrum with medium-well to well-done meat, not only have your juices been squeezed dry like water from a sponge, but your liquefied fat has already bought itself a one way ticket to the bottom of your grill. Remember: Thick steaks will continue to rise in temperature after you pull them off of the grill. Heat from the exterior layers will travel in as your steak rests. Make sure to pull it off the grill a good five degrees before you reach your final target. But what if I don't have a thermometer? I get it. Thermapens are pretty expensive.

With the amount of use mine gets (pretty much every time I cook), it's worth the price, and you can always get a slightly slower, inexpensive model like the CDN ProAccurate Quick Read , but what if you're stuck in the woods with no thermometer in hand? Is there anything you can do? Yes: Just go ahead and cut the sucker open to take a peek. Even slicing won't release too many juices. I know that everyone tells you you shouldn't poke the meat lest you "risk losing valuable juices," but honestly, the loss is not much. Certainly not enough for you to notice once the steak is done. And given the alternative (overcooked meat that will have lost a noticeable amount of juice), it's the best alternative out there. (More on that subject here .) Take a Rest Since I last wrote about resting your meat, there have been some questions called as to the validity of the science behind it. Here is the prevalent theory as to why resting your steak is important (pulled from an older article of mine ): As the steak cooks, the muscle fibers on its exterior tighten, squeezing juices out of its surface.

This creates an imbalance of juice in its interior, with most of the liquid being concentrated at the center of the meat. If you cut the steak open as soon as it comes off the grill, the juice has only one place to go—onto your plate. On the other hand, allow the steak to rest until its temperature has normalized, and the juices will distribute themselves more evenly throughout its interior. Cut the steak open, and the juice stays put exactly where it's supposed to be: in the meat. However, Nathan Myhrvold of the James Beard Best Cookbook winner Modernist Cuisine (see here for some behind-the-scenes shot of their lab ) says otherwise. His claim is that it's not so much about redistribution of moisture, but that it's about the relative viscosity of hot vs. cool liquids. The juices stay in place because they've managed to thicken up a bit as they cool. In either case, the fact remains: Resting your meat works. I recommend resting your steak until its internal temperature drops to about five degrees below its maximum temperature (That is, serves a medium-rare steak at 125°F, or a medium steak at 135°F). Get The Recipe!

How To Tell When Your Steak Is Done | STEAKNIGHT Magazine How To Tell When Your Steak Is Done Posted in Cooking , Grilling Tips Home » Cooking » How To Tell When Your Steak Is Done Use a thermometer! Yes, you may look a bit less macho when you whip out a nifty Instant Read Thermometer from your back pocket, swing out the slender probe and insert it gently into the very center of your steak to register a reading, but believe me: Perfectly cooked meat will earn you more praise and appreciation than macho posturing any day of the week. Most like their meat at around 130°F—medium-rare point. Many folks like their meat rare. If you do you want to at least cook until your fats are warm enough that it starts melting a bit, lubricating your meat and adding flavor and juice to every bite. With meat that’s too rare, your fat remains solid. You end up with all the calories and not nearly as much flavor. On the opposite end of the spectrum with medium-well to well-done meat, not only have your juices been squeezed dry like water from a sponge, but your liquefied fat has already bought itself a one way ticket to the bottom of your grill.

Remember: Thick steaks will continue to rise in temperature after you pull them off of the grill. Heat from the exterior layers will travel in as your steak rests. Make sure to pull it off the grill a good five degrees before you reach your final target. But what if I don’t have a thermometer? I get it. Not everyone has a thermometer and they can get expensive and what if you’re stuck in the woods with no thermometer in hand? Is there anything you can do? Try the Finger Test to Check the Doneness of Meat There are two basic methods to test for how done your meat is while you are cooking it – use a meat thermometer, or press on the meat with your finger tips. The problem with the meat thermometer approach is that when you poke a hole into the meat with a thermometer, it can let juices escape, juices that you would rather have stay in the meat. For this reason, most experienced cooks rely on a “finger test” method, especially on steaks (whole roasts are better tested with a thermometer). This really isn’t rocket science. This is one of those things that gets easier with practice.

The next time you cook a steak, even if you are still planning to rely on a meat thermometer, press on the meat here and there while it cooks, and compare the feeling of the meat with the following finger test. With practice, you will become more confident. The Finger Test to Check the Doneness of Meat Recipe Open the palm of your hand. Relax the hand. Take the index finger of your other hand and push on the fleshy area between the thumb and the base of the palm. Make sure your hand is relaxed. This is what raw meat feels like. (Check this out the next time you have a raw steak to cook.) Now gently press the tip of your pinky and your thumb together. Again feel the fleshy area below the thumb. It should feel quite firm. This is what well done meat feels like when you press on it. (Check this out the next time you overcook a piece of meat.) Press the tip of your ring finger and your thumb together. The flesh beneath the thumb should give a little more. This is what meat cooked to a medium doneness feels like. Gently press the tip of your middle finger to the tip of your thumb. This is medium rare.

Press the tip of your index finger to the tip of your thumb. The fleshy area below the thumb should give quite a bit. This is what meat cooked to rare feels like. Open up your palm again and compare raw to rare. When all else fails just go ahead and cut the sucker open to take a peek. I know that everyone tells you you shouldn’t poke the meat lest you “risk losing valuable juices,” but honestly, the loss is not much. Certainly not enough for you to notice once the steak is done. And given the alternative (overcooked meat that will have lost a noticeable amount of juice), it’s the best alternative out there. The California Cook: Leg of lamb: Impressive — and impressively easy - LA Times Russ Parsons The California Cook Leg of lamb is delicious, makes an impressive presentation and is easy to prepare Want to become a great cook almost instantly, with hardly any work? Buy a leg of lamb. There are few things that are as easy to prepare and as impressive. Season with salt and pepper, roast at 325 degrees to a rosy medium-rare and then watch your friends drool while you carve. Even setting aside all the Easter metaphors, lamb is special.

It's got a rich, almost gamy quality that lends itself to all sorts of big flavors. For example, for my go-to leg of lamb, I cut little slits all over the surface and insert slips of garlic, rosemary and salted anchovy to perfume the meat while it cooks. It's a bit time-consuming, but after an hour or so in the oven, when the garlic, rosemary and umami-rich anchovy have melted into the meat …. Oh, my. And if you want to make this more easily, you can grind those ingredients with olive oil into a paste and simply rub it on the surface. The biggest thing you have to worry about when roasting a leg of lamb is doneness. We've been conditioned to equate rare meat with culinary sophistication, but while this may arguably be true when you're talking about a steak, it's definitely not right for a leg of lamb. Loin muscles, which run lengthwise along the spine, get very little work and so are naturally tender. Lamb's legs are very active, and the meat is full of connective tissue. This needs to be cooked to a higher temperature to soften and become palatable.

Cook a leg of lamb too little and you'll wind up with stringy meat. More is not better, of course. In fact, there are probably more sins committed against lamb at the opposite end of the doneness spectrum. Some cooks who are unfamiliar with lamb seem to be trying to punish it by incineration. Like any other meat, lamb will dry out and become tough if overcooked. (S. Irene Virbila) I find that pulling the leg from the oven at an internal temperature of about 130 to 135 degrees is just about perfect. After a 30-minute rest before carving, the meat will still be pink and juicy but firm, and the connective tissue will have softened. This basic method can be tweaked in many directions. You can do the anchovies-garlic-rosemary thing, of course. You can serve your leg with a black olive tapenade or marinate it in an Indian-influenced paste of yogurt and ginger. A leg of lamb even works well pot-roasted. In fact, one of my favorite lamb dishes is based on a Patricia Wells recipe that calls for baking it in a sealed Dutch oven at 425 degrees for up to six hours. (Sounds impossible?

Try it and see.) Grilling, of course, works great, particularly with "butterflied" legs of lamb, which have had the bones removed. In fact, most of the legs you'll find in markets these days have been butterflied. This has its advantages, because with a little nipping and tucking these will lie flat on the grill. Easter dining and recipes Read more stories A butterflied leg of lamb also offers the opportunity for a greater range of donenesses (the meat is not of an even thickness, so you'll get thick parts that are medium-rare and thinner parts that are more medium). And buying a boned leg also allows you to remove some of the interior pockets of fat, which will tame the wild flavor a bit for eaters who are not naturally lamb lovers. But I still think a bone-in leg is worth looking for. The meat seems to me to be a little juicier — and it certainly makes a more impressive appearance at the table. No matter which leg you buy, don't feel obliged to tell anyone how easy cooking it really is. :: Seven favorite leg of lamb recipes A basic roast leg of lamb is one of the best things you can cook.

But with a little more effort, you can make something really special. Here are seven of my favorite lamb dishes, for both bone-in and butterflied legs, cooked in the oven or on the grill, and even a couple of pot roasts. For full recipes for any of these dishes, search our California Cookbook recipe collection online (recipes.latimes.com). Roast leg of lamb with rosemary, garlic and anchovies: Cut thin slits all over the surface of a bone-in leg. Insert a thin slice of garlic, a tuft of rosemary and a smidge of salted anchovy into each slit. Rub with olive oil and roast. Leg of lamb stuffed with greens, feta and pine nuts: Combine braised cooking greens, crumbled feta and toasted pine nuts, and use this to stuff a boneless leg. Roll and tie the leg, rub with olive oil and roast. Before serving, make a pan sauce with red wine, rosemary and chopped green olives. Pot-roasted lamb with fennel and potatoes: Sear a tied boneless leg in a Dutch oven. Cook onion and garlic, then add quartered fennel bulbs and small potatoes.

Pour over white wine, return the leg to the pot, cover and cook. Easter: Recipes, egg decorating tips, L.A. brunch restaurants and more >> Lamb and lentils to eat with a spoon: Brown onions, carrots, garlic and a bone-in leg in a Dutch oven in a 425-degree oven. Add water, tomato paste and red wine, cover tightly and roast 5½ to 6 hours. Add cooked lentils and finish with minced herbs. Lamb marinated in yogurt, garlic and rosemary: Slather a boneless leg with a paste made from garlic, rosemary, olive oil and salt. Put it in a plastic bag and add yogurt. Rub well and refrigerate overnight. Great on the grill; really good in the oven. Indian-spiced grilled lamb: Stir together yogurt, red wine vinegar, garlic, black pepper, grated ginger, sliced serrano chile, ground cumin and salt. Put a boneless leg in a plastic bag and pour the marinade over. Refrigerate overnight. Perfect for grill or oven.

Grilled butterflied leg of lamb with olive-fennel tapenade: Thinly slice garlic and insert in thin slits cut in the skin side of a boneless leg. Season with salt and pepper, put in a plastic bag and pour over red wine. Refrigerate two to three hours before grilling or roasting. Make a tapenade to serve alongside by grinding together pitted brined black olives, minced garlic, fennel seed, red wine vinegar, olive oil, Pernod and minced parsley. Why Some Oolongs Taste Like Green Tea (And Some Taste Like Black Tea) - Golden Moon Tea Home › Marcus's Tea Blog › Why Some Oolongs Taste Like Green Tea (And Some Taste Like Black Tea) Why Some Oolongs Taste Like Green Tea (And Some Taste Like Black Tea) Do you know anyone who constantly overcooks their steak? They stand over the grill with an indecisive face, consistently poking at the food asking "Do you think it's done yet?" I, personally, am talking about my friend Ryan. It doesn't matter ifI tell him I like my steak medium rare, it always comes out close to well done.

This really isn't a big deal, but he has people over to his place and cooks steak all the time. It used to be frustrating, but then I thought about it and decided to take a different approach. The next time I saw Ryan I asked him to cook my steak so it looks bright red (the color of medium rare) in the center. His reaction was "Dude, that is raw steak!" With this, I figured out the problem. The Problem was the Terminology We both have a common term when cooking steak, "medium." The issue is that medium encompasses a large range when cooking steak. In basic terms, medium is between raw and fully cooked. Ryan might not agree with me, but there is a huge gap between the two. This gap doesn't apply only to steak, it also applies to tea. With tea, there are green and white teas which are barely oxidized (or "cooked"). At the opposite end of the spectrum there are black teas which are fully oxidized. The large gap between barely and fully oxidized is where you will find oolongs. Oolongs are Partially Oxidized Oxidation is the process that turns tea leaves different colors.

It is the same concept that turns an unripe green banana into a sweet yellow banana. If you applied a percentage to different oxidation levels in tea, green and white teas would be under 20% and black tea would be above 80%. Oolong teas would cover the range from 20% - 80%. The Broad Range Gives Two Basic Styles of Oolongs This is why some oolongs taste like green tea and some taste closer to black tea. Think about this in terms of steak. A medium rare steak is closer to "raw" than fully cooked, similar to a green oolong. On the other hand, a medium well steak is closer to fully cooked, similar to a black oolong. The Different Styles of Oolongs Green Oolongs (list increasing in oxidation) Pouchong Ti Guan Yin "Medium" Oolongs Dan Cong Dark Oolongs (list increasing in oxidation) Bai Hao Big Red Robe (Da Hong Pao) Summary Before purchasing oolong tea, make sure you are aware of the oxidation level, otherwise you might be in for a big surprise.

The easiest way is to ask if it is a "green oolong" or a "black oolong." While you're at it you may also want to order your steak by color, especially if Ryan is cooking. The Complete Guide To Beef Cuts - Great British Chefs The complete guide to beef cuts by Great British Chefs 22 July 2016 22 July 2016 Can you tell your sirloin from your beef shin? Want to know how to cook the perfect onglet? Read on to find out how to prepare, cook and serve specific cuts of beef, how they differ, what part of the cow they come from and what they taste like. Great British Chefs While most of us know the rough difference between the most popular cuts of steak , when it comes to the more unusual cuts it can all get a bit confusing. Many of them fall in and out of fashion; only recently have cuts like onglet started to appear on menus and there’s a growing demand for fattier steaks over the traditional leaner favourites. As a nation we’re much more interested in how to cook, too, so cuts that require specific cooking methods aren’t as inaccessible as before.

Of course, there are lots of different ways to cook beef, and that’s even before you’ve paired it with other ingredients to create a dish. But knowing whether something should be flash-fried or slow-cooked makes all the difference to the flavour and texture of the meat. Here are some of the most popular cuts found in butchers’ shops today – as well as some lesser-known ones – with top tips on how to prepare, cook and serve each one perfectly. The cuts The folder name ' ' already exists. Please choose a different name. Okay Please enter a name for the new folder. CLOSE Beef brisket comes from the chest area between the shoulders of the cow, which means it’s a working part of the animal and moves around quite a bit during its lifetime. It also has a large amount of fat which is marbled throughout and adds bags of flavour to the meat. It is usually sold boned and rolled as a full joint, and the high amount of fat and connective tissue means it needs to be slow-cooked to render it all down. Traditionally, brisket is slow-roasted in the oven until the meat is falling apart and meltingly tender (it’s easy to think of it as the beef equivalent of pulled pork).

In the US the cut has always been associated with pit-smoking and barbecue , which has spurred on brisket’s recent popularity. However, it is also the most popular cut for making corned beef and pastrami, and can also be turned into mince as the fat prevents it from drying out during cooking. Please enter a name for the new folder. CLOSE Chuck steak Quite often sold as braising steak, chuck comes from around the shoulders and is often sold pre-diced to be used in certain dishes. The shoulders are one of the hardest working parts of the animal, so chuck can be quite tough if not cooked correctly. However, this also makes it one of the most economical, widely available cuts out there. Because it has a good fat and tissue content which needs to be broken down, chuck steak is usually used in stews , casseroles or pies , which are cooked for over an hour. The sauce takes on the flavours of the beef during cooking, while ensuring the meat doesn’t dry out during the cooking process. Please enter a name for the new folder.

CLOSE Fillet Still regarded as the king of all steaks, fillet is a prime cut that tends to be associated with grand celebratory dishes, due in part to its high price. It comes from the lower middle of the cow’s back and does the least work of all the beef cuts, making it incredibly tender. It also contains very little fat, which means there’s no need to cook fillet for a long time to break down any collagen. A fillet steak should be cooked over incredibly high heat as quickly as possible, to prevent the meat drying out. However, larger pieces of fillet are used to make dishes such as beef Wellington and chateaubriand, which are cooked in the oven for longer. Please enter a name for the new folder. CLOSE Onglet Also called hanger steak, onglet has only recently become known about in the UK but is now appearing on menus and in shops – before then it was often pocketed by the butcher. Taken from the cow’s lower belly, it has been enjoyed in France for years thanks to its intense meaty flavour and satisfyingly chewy texture.

It’s possible that onglet wasn’t popular in the past as it can become very tough if not cooked correctly – it either needs to be served quite rare or slow-cooked for a long time. It takes on marinades very well and is particularly suited to barbecuing, as the smokiness complements the almost offal-like flavour of the cut. Serve it cut into slices across the grain to make it as tender as possible. Please enter a name for the new folder. CLOSE Rib-eye steak Rib-eye is fast becoming one of the most popular steaks around thanks to its incredibly rich, beefy flavour. It is cut from just above the ribs, an area which does little work and makes rib-eye exceptionally tender. There are also ribbons of fat found throughout the meat, adding plenty of flavour, and an ‘eye’ of fat in the centre, which needs to be rendered down during cooking. While every person has their own preferences on how rare or well-done they like their steak, with rib-eye it’s generally suggested to cook it until medium at the least, as this gives the fat time to render down and baste the meat. Rump Another classic steak cut, rump is at the opposite end of the spectrum to fillet.

What it lacks for in tenderness, however, it more than makes up for in flavour. Cut from the backside of the cow, it’s a muscle that’s used quite a bit during the animal’s life, which means it’s tougher than other ‘prime’ steaks. However, it is still tender enough to be fried quickly and served rare (if desired). Rump steaks are also a good choice when making kebabs or skewers, as it takes on marinades very well and can hold its own against stronger flavours. It can also be sliced very thinly and used in stir-fries or Asian dishes, which require very fast and hot cooking. Please enter a name for the new folder. CLOSE Shin One of the cheapest cuts of beef available, shin comes from (as you can probably guess) the foreleg of the cow. Until recently shin was usually sold as generic ‘stewing steak’, but chefs and butchers are now understanding how to make the most of the cut. It requires long, slow braising, as there are thick ribbons of tissue and gristle running throughout the meat, but once these break down the meat falls apart in the mouth.

Shin is particularly well-suited to stews as it creates a wonderfully flavourful sauce if cooked in liquid. The meat almost melts into the liquid to become rich and sticky, with plenty of savoury beefiness. Silverside Just above the leg is the silverside, so-called because of the thin, silvery tissue covering one side of the joint. It is often used to make salt beef or corned beef, roasted as a whole joint in the oven or sliced into minute steaks. It has very little marbling and overall is quite a lean cut. If roasting whole, silverside should be regularly basted or partly-submerged in liquid to prevent it drying out. It is sometimes sold with an added cap of fat tied around it, which keeps it moist and adds flavour. Please enter a name for the new folder. CLOSE Sirloin steak Sitting somewhere between rump and fillet in terms of taste and texture, sirloin steak has the perfect balance of fat and tenderness. It comes from between the fillet and the rib, and is also sometimes sold as a rolled and boned joint, ready for roasting whole.

Sirloin steaks should be cooked in a similar way to rib-eye, allowing the fat to melt into the meat and to prevent chewy gristle. If roasting the joint whole, make sure there is a nice thick cap of fat on top of the meat to prevent it drying out, and regular basting during the cooking process helps keep everything tender. Skirt Skirt can be found near the onglet, by the lower belly and ribs, and shares many of the same characteristics. It is full of flavour but quite tough, so needs careful cooking. It is quite a thin steak covered in a tough membrane, which needs to be removed before cooking, and either needs to be cooked very quickly in a pan or very slowly in liquid. Skirt steaks are typically associated with Mexican dishes, as they can take on punchy marinade flavours such as lime and chilli and are suited to barbecuing. They are also used in Cornish pasties , as they make a fantastic gravy, but when served on their own skirt steaks should be sliced against the grain and cooked over as high a heat as possible. Please enter a name for the new folder.

CLOSE T-bone steak T-bones are one of the few cuts of beef that are always served on the bone (which is shaped like a capital T, hence the name). On one side is a piece of sirloin and on the other is a smaller piece of fillet, which means there’s more variety, flavours and textures going on. The fillet will always stay slightly rarer than the sirloin, as they cook at different speeds in the pan, and often the steak is seared and then finished off in the oven to ensure even cooking. The flavour of a T-bone steak is big and bold, gaining an extra boost from being cooked on the bone. This means it won’t get overpowered by sauces, which can often mask the flavour of the meat itself. Peppercorn, béarnaise or chimichurri complement the beefy taste perfectly. Topside Topside is quite similar to silverside and comes from the inner thigh of the cow. It is sold as a roasting joint and almost always has a layer of fat secured to it which will baste the meat while cooking. Because of the low fat content in the meat itself, topside can be roasted and served rare whilst remaining nice and tender.

Known as an ‘easy to carve’ roast, topside is incredibly simple to cook and serve. It also doesn’t require low and slow cooking, so is perfect for a Sunday dinner when you haven’t got time to spend all day in the kitchen.

Question: In cooking steak, what lies on the opposite end of the spectrum from rare?
Answer: Well Done