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best way to cook steak on a regular electric stove?

Kent Wang

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You are right that bacon grease may overpower the steak. If you want absolutely no taste from the fat, peanut oil will be ideal.
 

VKK3450

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Ahhh, I know. comparisons such as "best" can rarely hold up because someone can always find something....

For every great steak that I can find here, someone can pull some USDA prime, dry aged, etc... For every piece you pull, I can grab some..... and on and on it goes.

I love American steak. I was raised on it as I grew up in Atlanta. But seriously, the Hong Kong Chinese are so passionate about their food that the availability of good meat, fresh seafood, exotic vegetables, etc that you can find here really cannot be matched anywhere... Of course this does not apply to every local grocery store in Hong Kong, but WOW, you should see the Salmon Sashimi that they had tonight!!!

But one thing I am standing fast on. The Netherlands has horrible steak. I lived there for 5 years, and it was like the definition of insanity. I craved steak, and so would buy one thinking "this one will be decent", but they never were. Their beef is too lean to allow for a tender marbled piece of meat.

K
 

VKK3450

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Originally Posted by Kent Wang
You are right that bacon grease may overpower the steak. If you want absolutely no taste from the fat, peanut oil will be ideal.

I wonder about Butter. Doesn't Ruth's Chris do them in butter?

I would think that it would burn. Unless you found a clarified butter....

Anyone want to do a test?

K
 

Kent Wang

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You can clarify your own butter.

I believe Ruth's Chris adds the butter at the end.
 

edmorel

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Originally Posted by VKK3450
I wonder about Butter. Doesn't Ruth's Chris do them in butter?

I would think that it would burn. Unless you found a clarified butter....

Anyone want to do a test?

K


I always use butter, but I use a charcoal grill not a skillet. The butter will burn somewhat if you just rub it on as it. You can let it melt in a shallow plate and then skim off the fat. Use the remaining clarified butter on the steak as you would use olive oil or something. The other way to do it would be to have a couple of tablespoons of butter on a plate and then place the steak fresh off the grill directly on top of the butter ( I think this is what Ruths Chris and Peter Luger do). Lastly, you can buy "ghie"(definitely spelled wrong), Indian clarified butter.
 

j

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Ghee. I think Ruth's does put it on at the end. But melted/clarified butter is sometimes recommended to be added to the olive oil rub. I don't think it's going to burn a whole lot more than olive oil. Interesting tip about cheap olive oil burning less than the extra virgin type. Insert lame sexual joke here.
 

cchen

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Originally Posted by j
Ghee. I think Ruth's does put it on at the end. But melted/clarified butter is sometimes recommended to be added to the olive oil rub. I don't think it's going to burn a whole lot more than olive oil. Interesting tip about cheap olive oil burning less than the extra virgin type. Insert lame sexual joke here.

Yes, for any steak cooked with butter, its usually put on at the end because butter has such a low smoking point. About the "cheap" olive oil vs EV - they have different smoking points. Thats it. Nothing about the cost.
 

j

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Originally Posted by cchen
Yes, for any steak cooked with butter, its usually put on at the end because butter has such a low smoking point. About the "cheap" olive oil vs EV - they have different smoking points. Thats it. Nothing about the cost.
From what I was reading, the non-extra-virgin oil costs less. Not sure what your point was, though I've never looked at it myself - maybe they cost exactly the same.
 

shoreman1782

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OP: one thing on the cast iron skillet, you will get a lot of smoke and a strong beef smell. If you live in a small place, open up a lot of windows.
Definitely something to keep in mind. Like Mr Checks, I recommend searing the steak on the stovetop, then finishing it under a broiler, rather than doing all the cooking on the stove. It's a lot of heat, though.
 

Huntsman

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Don't use butter, even if you like it the a beurre noir. It will burn horribly at the prolonged temperatures employed. As it is there will be more than enough smoke to contend with. Butter is best applied to the surface of the just-cooked steak as it rests. Delish. The choice of olive oil is, as stated, merely a smoke point issue. The lightest oils extracted from the first cold pressing burn at significantly lower temperatures, but have the most flavor, and are considered extra virgin. 'Pure' oil is from the later cold pressings, and is slightly heavier and burns at a higher temperature. If you want to avoid scorching completely (I've never tasted it with this method over gas) go for avocado oil. If you want to avoid any flavor introduction from the oil itself, use canola (which also has a very high smoke point). Whomever brought up the smoke made a good point -- I cook under a 1000CFM blower and still leak smoke into the house. ~ Huntsman ps. Nice club steak, Kent.
 

GQgeek

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Great replies guys, my taste buds will thank you. I just need to get myself a good cast iron frying pan now and find a good butcher. Supermarket steaks are horrible. I'm gonna try and get more in to this cooking thing now that i've broken out of my two years of restaurant food streak.
 

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If you're getting sick of chicken breast (a bulking staple), get some good marinade. I was getting sick of it too, then I got some marinade... marinate for a few hours and chicken becomes amazing.
 

j

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Originally Posted by Violinist
If you're getting sick of chicken breast (a bulking staple), get some good marinade. I was getting sick of it too, then I got some marinade... marinate for a few hours and chicken becomes amazing.
Seconded - I generally don't like chicken much, but I got this powdered marinade stuff in the sauce section and put it over the chicken for about an hour before grilling it. It was much better than I was expecting, and the marinade is cheap.
 

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Originally Posted by edmorel
Easy there, big guy. I get some serious American dry aged steaks here in NY. The only foreign beef that has not disappointed me, has been Argentine beef and I still prefer the stuff my butcher gets.
Have you ever had REAL Kobe beef? I mean purebred Wagyu, slaughtered in Kobe, Japan. The US "Kobe Style" beef is (mostly) a Wagyu crossbreed, and in exchange for the rights to breed the pure strain overseas, the Japanese contractually still own the first rights to any and all of the cattle, so the best cows are shipped back to Japan. Anything sold in the US market is second run beef that the Japanese have already basically rejected as being sub-par. That being said, its still pretty damn good, if you don't make the mistake of cooking it like regular beef. Supposedly true Kobe Beef is sublime. Basically you have to eat it flash seared rare, or tartare to "get it". If you cook it, you've basically ruined it. I personally have never been able to afford any, since it can run over $300 a pound over there, (and they charge almost twice as much to ship it here, which is why you can't get it here) but maybe someday I'll get the chance to try it in Kobe.
 

GQgeek

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Originally Posted by Tokyo Slim
Have you ever had REAL Kobe beef? I mean purebred Wagyu, slaughtered in Kobe, Japan.

The US "Kobe Style" beef is (mostly) a Wagyu crossbreed, and in exchange for the rights to breed the pure strain overseas, the Japanese contractually still own the first rights to any and all of the cattle, so the best cows are shipped back to Japan. Anything sold in the US market is second run beef that the Japanese have already basically rejected as being sub-par. That being said, its still pretty damn good, if you don't make the mistake of cooking it like regular beef.

Supposedly true Kobe Beef is sublime. Basically you have to eat it flash seared rare, or tartare to "get it". If you cook it, you've basically ruined it. I personally have never been able to afford any, since it can run over $300 a pound over there, (and they charge almost twice as much to ship it here, which is why you can't get it here) but maybe someday I'll get the chance to try it in Kobe.


300 a pound? Jesus... I had kobe beef offered to me at a restaurant here in montreal (it was 70 bucks) but i went with braised oxtail on a bed of cheese-filled ravioli with a couple sauces, an emulsion, and fresh alba truffles.
inlove.gif
It was the best meal ever.

Is kobe beef really that good? At the time I thought 70 bucks was a bit overkill for a steak. One day I'm gonna have to sit down and compare various qualities of steak and see if I can tell the difference. I don't eat it enough (i never order steak at restaurants) to be much of a connoiseur. That may change.
 

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