The Lemon Fool

BobbyD wrote:
Resting is of course good, but the thing which makes most difference to meat generally and steak in particular in my book is salting. In the case of
a steak 40+ mins before cooking, enough time for the salt to draw liquid out of the steak and then be carried in as the moisture is reabsorbed. Resting reduces juice loss during eating, salting means it retains more juice during cooking. Thankfully we don't live in a world where you have to choose one or the other.

Is that salting or brining?

sg31 wrote:

BobbyD wrote:
Resting is of course good, but the thing which makes most difference to meat generally and steak in particular in my book is salting. In the case of
a steak 40+ mins before cooking, enough time for the salt to draw liquid out of the steak and then be carried in as the moisture is reabsorbed. Resting reduces juice loss during eating, salting means it retains more juice during cooking. Thankfully we don't live in a world where you have to choose one or the other.

Is that salting or brining?

Salting. Obviously related but much less messy, and easier for meats you want to sear which requires a dry surface. Simply sprinkle salt over the meat, I generally do this when removing it from the fridge an hour plus prior to cooking.

Timing is important. Lots of people salt to season immediately before cooking, and you'll hear that you should only season immediately prior to cooking to avoid liquid loss and to keep the surface dry for a good sear. The reasoning is good. Salt will draw liquid out of the meat, and a few minutes after salting you have effectively created a self wettening surface which will self-steam rather than frying, but if you leave it longer you'll see the liquid reabsorbed and the surface dried, you'll have meat which is seasoned from the inside, and loses less liquid during cooking. However you prepare steak I'd always give it a quick wipe with kitchen roll before putting it in the pan to ensure the surface is as dry as possible.

I was reading this story and it reminded me of a post I'd made a couple of years ago about the absurdly long recommended cooking time for a Tesco steak.

It seems that it's not only steak that the supermarkets are recommending to cremate, and that many people are wasting vast amounts of energy simply because the supermarkets are giving out completely duff advice about cooking times. (Sorry about the DM link, but the only other papers that seem to have reported it are the Times and the Telegraph, both of which are paywalled).

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... bbery.html

I bought a probe thermometer about 10 years ago. It has changed the way I cook chicken beef and fish. I had been over cooking chicken and fish for years and the change is for the best. At 75°C internal chicken is cooked, much moister and the breast no chance of grainy/chalk that over cooking leads too. I usually go to about 80 and for a while, if you serve as soon as it reaches 75 you'll find connective tissue especially in the legs a bit harder work when eating. For beef, being about able to bring the internal temperature up in a water bath to your preferred doneness before searing in a griddle gives excellent steaks and takes the guesswork out of joint.
Most of the fish I cook is frozen, often battered and has a better flake now I just check temperature rather than times as per the packet.

kempiejon wrote:I bought a probe thermometer about 10 years ago. It has changed the way I cook chicken beef and fish. I had been over cooking chicken and fish for years and the change is for the best. At 75°C internal chicken is cooked, much moister and the breast no chance of grainy/chalk that over cooking leads too. I usually go to about 80 and for a while, if you serve as soon as it reaches 75 you'll find connective tissue especially in the legs a bit harder work when eating. For beef, being about able to bring the internal temperature up in a water bath to your preferred doneness before searing in a griddle gives excellent steaks and takes the guesswork out of joint.
Most of the fish I cook is frozen, often battered and has a better flake now I just check temperature rather than times as per the packet.

It's getting off the topic of Tesco steak but it's only since the increase in energy prices that I've become conscious of the oven cooking times for products which are already cooked so only really need warming. Take a meat pie for example where the typical instructions are to warm the oven for 10 minutes to 200c then cook for 25 minutes for a total of 35 minutes oven time.
I'd now put that in the cold oven set the temp to 200c then switch the oven off after 15 minutes but leave the pie in for a further 15 or 20 minutes. I do this routinely now for pre cooked products and the results the same for a 20 minutes saving in energy use.

Sweeping generalisations here. It varies hugely between different dishes I might happen to be cooking ...

I've spent most of my life giving things longer than the instructions.

Then I got the Ninja cooker, and found things cooked well in a much shorter time. I could get away with giving things less time than the instructions, as well as not needing to pre-heat the thing. Though on the very rare[1] occasions I cook something too big for the Ninja, it still takes forever.

Conclusion: it varies based on your equipment.

[1] Rare because the full-sized oven is so useless I tend towards active avoidance of recipes that need oven-cooking but can't be done in the Ninja.

UncleEbenezer wrote:Then I got the Ninja cooker, and found things cooked well in a much shorter time. I could get away with giving things less time than the instructions, as well as not needing to pre-heat the thing. Though on the very rare[1] occasions I cook something too big for the Ninja, it still takes forever.

Most of the time I'm cooking for just myself. Would a Ninja be suitable/useful for preparing meals for one? How much of a faff is it to clean? And can it stir fry?

mc2fool wrote:

UncleEbenezer wrote:Then I got the Ninja cooker, and found things cooked well in a much shorter time. I could get away with giving things less time than the instructions, as well as not needing to pre-heat the thing. Though on the very rare[1] occasions I cook something too big for the Ninja, it still takes forever.

Most of the time I'm cooking for just myself. Would a Ninja be suitable/useful for preparing meals for one? How much of a faff is it to clean? And can it stir fry?

There's a couple of existing threads. I posted in viewtopic.php?f=22&t=33760 .

Yes you can stir-fry, but I don't: the only frying I do in it is to pre-fry onions/etc when making a soup in it. Mine's a couple of metres away from the extractor fan, so generally I'm better-off using the regular hob for frying.