My wife read an article about how the popular steak houses (Ruth’s Chris, Mortons, etc) cook their steaks. According to the author the steaks are initially broiled/seared at very high temps and then placed baked to cook the insides.
Can anyone verify the accuracy or dispel this?
I’ve seen this technique done many times on various cooking shows. Take Home Chef was my favorite. Curtis Stone would get the pan very, very hot. Then, sear the steak on both sides and place the pan in the oven to finish cooking.
I’ve heard the chefs on Top Chef complain that home stove tops (used on the show) don’t get as hot as commercial. They can sear it and caramelize the outside much better on a commercial stove top.
Alton Brown (via his book, not in person) taught me to do it that way.
Moving to Cafe Society from GQ.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
Yes. I believe they also preheat their plates to 500 degrees and warn you when the steak is served. That means the steak continues to cook even as it’s being brought to your table. Once you have the outside of a steak seared, the transmission of heat slows down, and the conditions inside the steak are the same in the oven or on the grill. But there’s less chance of burning the steak in the oven.
Yet he has this excellent and foolproof 500 degree cast iron recipe:
Apparently the new hotness is to sous-vide and then sear.
IIRC, Cook’s Illustrated has recommended that home cooks bake to bring the interior up to temp, and then sear the exterior.
Yes – I use the Cook’s Illustrated method and it works really well. The steaks look AWFUL when you take them out of the oven, but once you sear the surfaces they look great and the meat is evenly cooked all the way through with no gray ring of overcooked meat around the outside.
Isn’t that recipe doing exactly what the thread asks about? (basically) Sear in a hot pan, then place the pan in the oven.
I have eaten at Ruth’s Chris probably a dozen times but have not been inside the kitchen. IIRC, their menus state (or used to anyway) that their steaks were cooked in 1800 degree ovens. Pan frying or otherwise finishing the steak at a lower temperature was not mentioned. My experience eating there was that really thick steaks (2" filet mignion) were seriously undercooked on the inside and severely burned on the outside, which would support the story. Less thick steaks came out fine.
I use Alton’s method, heating the cast iron pan in the oven first, then putting it onto the stove, searing the oiled steak for 30 seconds per side, then putting it into the oven for 3 minutes (1.5 minutes per side).
Yep a lot of high end Steakhouses like Ruth’s Chris use these big honkin’ institutional steak broilers that have over under flames. This you tube video shows the broilers pretty well. I imagine it has advantages as far as the high temp all-around cooking and shortens cooking time and makes for a more consistent and easily tended product. So as far as your question… no, they are simply broiled, which could be considered searing and baking them all at once.
I just made lamb chops in this manner on Easter.
Psstt… it’s also the secret and basically the cornerstone of the Burger King franchise. Really, it’s the same technology.
Yeah, I misplaced the “not” in Pork Rind’s post, and read it as “taught me not to”.
Meh. I heat high to sear, then either kill the heat or finish in the oven. When I cook a steak for myself, I want it to be ready ASAP. I always finish with butter – compound or not, I don’t care – it makes for a nicer high note.
Frankly, all of the “American standard cut steaks” (1 1/2" or less) presliced from groceries or other Meat Houses I prepare at home are much too thin to benefit from the oven technique. I just do them in a pan on the stove top Italian Sear method, cranked to high. The oven would just overcook them.
My standard steak recipe is seared then kept warm in an oven. I then add the sauce base (butter wine and beef stock) to the pan that had the steaks and reduce it some more. Be sure to pour the extra steak juices (collected from the plate holding them in the oven) into the sauce before serving.
Did you expect pure fire-grilled steaks? Can’t build a pan sauce that way.
Brown also suggests doing it the opposite direction in one of his videos. Cook, then sear. That’s the way I always do it now.
I now cook mine in a $50 1200W turbo oven set on the thaw/wash setting. Pull them out about 30 degrees F below the recommended internal temperature for the doneness you want. Then either chuck in a stupidly hot pan, barbeque or blowtorch the desired level of searing. Always perfect and works for anything - steaks, chicken or fish. If you aren’t going to sear them as with some seafood cook until they are done.