Alain Ducasse Steak

[Calculator]

Has anyone tried Alain's method of cooking a steak? Thinking of giving it a whirl.

http://thepauperedchef.com/2009/04/the-butter-stea...

[grumbledoak]

Sounds like a mixed bag to me: a decent but not thermonuclear heat, yes. Render the fat from the edge, yes. Somewhere in the region of five mins and three, yes. Rest it well, yes. But all that butter is going to colour the flavour.

It'll be interesting to see if anyone recommends this method.

[Mobile Chicane]

I think it depends on the raw materials, and one's taste.

American beef, having been injected with all sorts of crap is more marbled with fat, and can take the longer slower cooking.

However I would not cook a European steak in that way. Mine gets the short, sharp shock treatment, and as a result is crusted on the outside, and rare and meltingly tender within - provided I haven't fked it up, of course. :-|

[zakelwe]

Yes I like mine black and blue on my skillet that has been preheated on full for 5 minutes. However I am prepared to test this and might have a bash tonight.

I'd have to reduce the times down though.

Andy

[DJFish]

I usually trim most of the fat off and render it down in the pan.
Lob the seasoned steak in for a minute or two either side then pop a dollop of garlic and tarragon butter on top.

Bearing in mind the temperature of the pan I'm not sure that drowning it in butter is going to do anything but make it taste of burned butter.

[zakelwe]

DJFish said:

I usually trim most of the fat off and render it down in the pan.
Lob the seasoned steak in for a minute or two either side then pop a dollop of garlic and tarragon butter on top.

Bearing in mind the temperature of the pan I'm not sure that drowning it in butter is going to do anything but make it taste of burned butter.

Yes, burnt butter is one of the things worrying me about this technique, other is

a) It will be too cooked and be medium at least. He gave his meat total of 17 minutes for both side, yikes.
b) It will not be crusty at all, or even brown enough.

I'm going to give it a bash, I bought a reduced price piece of ribeye as I don't want to by a good steak for this, £2 and small, just 5oz ..worst of all being the supermarket the person who cut it was not a butcher so it is 1 inch thick at one end and half inch at the other ... arrgh, how can you cook it like this uniformily?

I think I will do it on side to get the fat, then just use medium-low for 2 minutes per side without butter. Then with the butter 2 minutes per side on low so hopefully giving me medium rare rather than the rare/bloody I normally like. All a bit experimental so it might be well done, not brown and just taste of butter I'll take a photo of course.

Andy

[zakelwe]

Right, had a bash.

Decided to do the following

1 - One minute each side on medium.
2 - 2 minutes each side on medium-low whilst spooning butter.

I normally do my steaks at really high temps on a ridged iron griddle pan with no oil whatsoever with no resting as it is not really cooked internally, so this was a bit out of my depth and my normal black and blue might end up medium. You can tell from my times I chopped the original guys times down from 17 minutes to the bare bone on, admittedly, a thinner steak;.

So I got going, here it is in the pan on the "BUTTER" section. Butter in capitals as I used a lot.



Well it aint black and blue ! Also not the best cut of ribeye but whatever, I'll mark it up for that even if it is terrible. So after doing more ladling than a migrant african off the coast of the Canaries I gave it 3 minutes resting and cut into it, et voila



Pretty impressed, still how I like it in the middle. So rather than crusty and then bloody I have golden brown, then a layer of medium and then rare in the middle so not too bad.

Taste? Have to say I am a bit of a convert if this is the results of a first bash! The 3 different layers gave an extra dimension, it was very smooth and succulent with all that butter without being just buttery and it held the heat better. Golly, I was surprised. I'd still rather have it more brown and crusty on the outside and then the 2 layers as you see above I think. I need a better thicker bit of meat and will try it again soon.

Impressed and I didn't think I would be. I can also imagine that if some numpty turns up at your place asking for well done then you could almost get it tasting still not TOO bad with this tequnique. No, I'm not going to try it, rather eat my shoes.

Andy

[zakelwe]

PS bit of bread to mop up ....mmmmmmm

[grumbledoak]

I like the look of the outside; I only aim for a little more than that. The two distinct 'layers' look odd, I guess I'd try doubling the resting time.

But, the 'Biggie'- how much did the butter colour the flavour experience?

Well done for trying this, btw.

[zakelwe]

grumbledoak said:

I like the look of the outside; I only aim for a little more than that. The two distinct 'layers' look odd, I guess I'd try doubling the resting time.

But, the 'Biggie'- how much did the butter colour the flavour experience?

Well done for trying this, btw.

Hi, resting time at normal room temps will not change anything apart from how warm it is and where the juices are. The more you cook it the more you have to let things sink back in, taste wise no change but it is to do with trying to keep things succulent. At this point 100 PH FDR's tell me where I am wrong.

There are 3 layers and they look ok to me, due to the odd shape of the meat it wasn't very distinguished though.

Andy

Edited by zakelwe on Tuesday 5th January 19:37

[grumbledoak]

It's girlie night for the OH, so to compensate for having the nipper all to myself all evening I tried this tonight with over an inch thick Fillet steak from the Ginger Pig.

After 5mins and 3mins, then browning the edge, it was out with the oil and in with maybe 20g butter (I had planned more, but it really looked a lot). Off the heat, and basted on each side for a minute or so. Then rest under foil for 5mins.

I served it with garlic butter, and mash with the butter I'd not dared put in with the steak. It was lovely.

Edited by grumbledoak on Saturday 16th January 10:36

[OzzyR1]

That steak looks lovely.

[doc3]

I just gave this a go; mostly inspired by grumbledoak's pic!

I was a little worried about 'medium heat' as I really don't get on with my electric hob. I think I started a little cool, panicked at the lack of sizzling and turned it up about 3/4 full. It was a 12oz sirloin. I did 5 minutes on the side, 2 mins either side, then chucked in 2 cloves of garlic and a good knob of butter. Did another 2 mins each side constantly basting. It was pretty good; medium rare as intended. Was it better then my normal 2 mins a side at high heat? Probably similar, but took a bit longer. I may do it again for particularly thick steaks.

It was served with mash and some garlic butter and quite a bit of red!

Sorry , I should have taken a picture, maybe next time.

[grumbledoak]

doc3 said:

I just gave this a go; mostly inspired by grumbledoak's pic!

I was a little worried about 'medium heat' as I really don't get on with my electric hob.

Thanks! <blushes>

If it helps I, too, am on an electric hob. It goes off -> 6, and I find 4 is about right for frying. 3 for softening onions (heat to 4, then turn down and pop them in); 5 for the kettle; and 6 would probably melt my copper bottoms! I used 4 for this, waiting ten minutes for my thick-bottomed frying pan to thoroughly heat up.

And I did't eat all that butter; in truth I fished out the solid bit in the mash just after the photo- as with the steak recipe, it just looked too much.


Anyway, photos next time, please!

[Romanymagic]

gas jobbie, followed the instructions, came out alright, couple of issues. The only way I could get the steaks to stand on their marbelling/fat was to balance them together, in this particular case three steaks all leaning together.

Colour and flavour came out well, but overdone for each cut, so I would suggest 2 minutes less throughtout the process, my folk ended up with medium rare and well done, when they should have been rare and medium rare.