Vol. XXXIV · History and Projects Plate 5 of 13project, steak, core temperature, grey band, crust, browning, reverse sear, oven, pan, resting, carryover, thermal model, design brief, donenessHT

Project: The Steak.

A 40 mm steak seared hard in a pan until done in the middle carries a grey band 20 mm thick. The brief allows 12.

This project uses the thermal bench of the whole course (II, XV, XVIII). A thick steak cooked only in a hot pan browns well, but by the time the centre is done, a wide band below each surface has passed well beyond the target — the grey band (XV.2). Cooking it gently first, in a low oven, brings the whole piece up evenly; a short, very hot sear then builds the crust (VIII.1) without driving heat deep; a rest lets the centre coast up a few degrees (II.8). That is the reverse sear (XV.7).

Your design: oven temperature and minutes, then minutes in a 260 °C pan, flipping every 30 seconds, then a five-minute rest. The checks are measured on the thermal model: peak centre temperature, total thickness of meat that passed the target by 8 °C or more, and the browning index of the surfaces. Change the design until every check passes; the brief below reports each reading as you go. The starting design — a hot oven, briefly — fails.

Below: the steak's highest temperature through its thickness (thermal bench, beef, 40 mm, from 5 °C) for your design, the readings, and the brief with each check.

What you will learn
Workshop
Thermal bench: a 40 mm slab of beef composition (USDA) from 5 °C; oven step at the temperature and time chosen; pan step at 260 °C flipping every 30 s for the minutes chosen; then 5 minutes resting in air. Readings: peak centre temperature; grey band = total depth whose highest temperature reached 62 °C or more (target 54 °C + 8); browning index 0–1.

Gentle first, fierce last

A pan-only design — no oven, 12 minutes at 260 °C — peaks at about 52 °C with a crust of 1.00 but a grey band of about 21 mm: it fails the band. Lowering the oven and lengthening its time brings the whole steak up evenly; a minute of searing at the end makes the crust; the rest carries the centre into range. There is more than one solution — the brief only fixes the result.

At the stove the same design reads: salt the steak a day ahead (XVIII.4); bake on a rack at about 110 °C until the centre reads about 45–48 °C; sear in a smoking-hot heavy pan with a little oil, about 30 seconds a side, turning often, basting with butter at the end; rest five minutes; slice across the grain (XVIII.10). Check the centre with a probe — the model gives the plan, the thermometer confirms it (I.4).

At the stove

Cook two steaks of the same thickness, one by pan only and one by your project design. Cut them side by side and measure the grey band with a ruler.

The reverse sear spread through American food writing in the 2000s and 2010s, popularised among home cooks by J. Kenji López-Alt; the principle — gentle heat first, intense heat last — is the same one Chinese cooks use when they poach or steam a chicken before crisping its skin in hot oil.

Terms

Brief
The checks a design must meet.
Grey band
Meat cooked well past the target beneath the crust.
Reverse sear
Gentle oven first, hot sear last.
Carry-over
The centre rising while the steak rests.
Meet the brief with gentle heat first (low oven) and a short, fierce sear last, then rest: centre 52–58 °C, grey band ≤ 12 mm, crust ≥ 0.6. Pan-only cooking overshoots the band.

Sources

  1. USDA FoodData Central, SR Legacy (April 2018), public domain.
  2. Differential scanning calorimetry of muscle: myosin denatures around 54–58 °C, collagen shrinks around 60–67 °C, actin around 70–80 °C (A. Wright, I. B. Leach and P. Wilding, "Differential scanning calorimetric studies of muscle and its constituent proteins", J. Sci. Food Agric. 28, 1977; H. McGee, On Food and Cooking, 2004). The course uses midpoints within these ranges.
  3. A teaching value chosen for the course: the right order of magnitude and shape, not a measurement of a particular food.