Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption
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dpack
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steak recipe for nickfrom the bbc
" Video transcript:
What’s the weirdest way to cook a steak?
PROF MARK MIODOWNIK:
The medium rare steak.
Succulent meat, pink in the middle with a seared coating on the outside.
Raw steak is made of muscle fibre bundles each packed with tightly coiled proteins called myosin and actin.
And it’s these proteins that hold the key to producing a juicy steak.
To cook my steak to medium rare, I start by vacuum sealing, then placing it in a warm water bath until it reaches the same temperature as the water precisely fifty five degrees centigrade.
At this temperature, the myosin proteins start to uncoil.
So the muscle fibres become looser, making the meat tender all the way through.
But a few degrees higher in a frying pan, and we’d notice the actin proteins uncoiling as well. As these muscle fibres collapse, the meat shrinks, squeezing out moisture that was trapped within the proteins.
The result a dry and tough piece of meat. No thank you!
So now I have a lovely medium rare steak on the inside, but what about that all important flavoursome crust?
That’s where some super cold liquid nitrogen comes in.
A quick dip 30 seconds for my steak seriously chills the outer few millimetres, without freezing the middle protecting that delicate pink interior.
Now I can sear the meat knowing it will still be medium rare inside.
ButI’m not using a conventional pan or grill.
I want something that will brown my steak from all directions at once.
A deep fat fryer!
As the heat from the oil ,I use duck fat ,transfers to the surface of the steak, an amazing, chemical reaction takes place.
Chains of proteins break apart and join up with chains of sugars present in the meat. This starts a
sequence of chemical reactions, creating thousands of new compounds.
Some of these give the steak its delicious flavours and aromas. Others provide the characteristic rich brown colour.
This process is called the Maillard reaction and it normally happens best at a hundred and forty
degrees or more. So I make sure the oil is pretty hot before I start.
The result a lusciously seared steak, medium rare all the way through. And not a pan in sight! "
that is what i call proper lab cooking sorry about the formatting ,im bored of sticking the words back together
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Nick
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If only I could buy liquid nitrogen easily, what fun we could have.
I did see cardice on sale in a supermarket last week tho, for the first time ever.
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dpack
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D I Y
although i recon dry ice / analar ethanol would work ok.it might need a bit of airing between the dip and the fryer unless you froze it in the bag and crunched the plastic off with a hammer.
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Nick
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I think I'll probably stick with a frying pan tho.
Liquid N2 ice cream works phenomenally well tho.
We made it in a vessel we'd previously powdered mouse mammary glands in tho, which gave it a weird flavour.
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dpack
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that is probably a flavour ben and jerry rejected
at ici we used to cook christmas puds with high pressure steam in a "well cleaned" paste barrel which gave a slight hint of russian roulette to the aroma of the outside of very well sealed puds.the inner wrapping and puds were fine.
it did a huge batch in about half an hour at about 220 c ,noisy though.
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Jam Lady
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Back in the day when I was taking invertebrate zoology in college we used to cook a few lobsters in the autoclave. Melt butter in a beaker over a Bunsen burner, then chow down while dissecting the formaldehyde preserved specimen lobsters. As long as you ignored the ambient aroma it was fine.
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Nick
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I have some lamb neck fillet at 55 degrees for 24 hours. When I get back from Wembley tomorrow, I'll deep fry it as a test. Still no N2 but mostly it's the same.
We shall see.
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wellington womble
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Could you do it with dry ice? That's fairly easy to get hold of.
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Nick
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Could you do it with dry ice? That's fairly easy to get hold of. |
Yeah it's a suggestion but I don't think it's needed.
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