<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by CRUZMISL:
Very few will pay Kobe prices, if any. Also for you to make any money your steak would have to be $75, it will cost you $30. I love Kobe but many don't because it does have a significant amount more intramuscular fat.
Searing does absolutely nothing to keep juices inside the meat. The browning or "the Maillard reaction" does give great flavor due to carmelization. Also letting the meat rest is important after cooking.
Salting prior to coooking also does NOT pull moisture out of the meat. It does pull specific proteins to the surface (can't remember the name) and will help in browning. Use kosher salt and salt about 20 minutes prior to cooking.
Lastly, stay away from marinades and or heavy spice rubs. You want the quality of the meat to shine.
Joe </div></BLOCKQUOTE>I just love it when some yoohoo posts information that contradicts what many others have said just to appear like he knows something. Joe, you are dumb. You deserve to be beaten up on because you could have done a little more research and posted here in a way as to not either a) call the other posters stupid or b) call them liars. That's exactly what you did with your post.
Searing is what it is called. In the US we do not use some Frenchie's name just because he wrote the chemical reaction explaining the searing that has been done for centuries. And yes searing DOES indeed seal in the juices, you said so yourself and didn't know it. Remember, you can't believe everything you read on the internet or from a book by Harold McGee. The carmelization process creates a barrier that slows the evaporative process that would naturally occur when cooking meat slower at a lower temperature. I guess the millions of people who grill meat every week are too dumb to know whether or not this is the case. Just like anything else, some chefs go to some French cooking school and are told that searing will not seal in all of the juices, it then becomes that "searing does absolutely nothing to keep juices inside the meat." Notice before that I said that it slows the process, and it indeed does and is a fact not a theory.
Secondly, it is quite dumb to say that "Salting prior to coooking also does NOT pull moisture out of the meat" as salt is the active item used to do just that in many moisture removal processes. Now some chefs will salt rub a cut of meat to remove moisture from the outer layer of the meat and effectively create a different searing which creates a different taste. With some moisture removed the searing process reacts differently. You were taught that main by-product of "the Maillard reaction" is water vapor, right? Why would you suggest to use Kosher salt? The reason one would use Kosher salt is that it is bigger crystals and absorb more moisture, but your comment is that it doesn't absorb moisture.
And, all the chefs theorize that you let the meat rest BEFORE you cook, not after you cook it. You serve the meat as soon as you can after cooking so that the eater might open up the meat and stop the continued cooking process. If you want to talk Kobe (it's true name is Tajima) beef, I'll be more than happy to set you straight on that too.
You could have moved along and not commented in this thread, but instead you decided to go against the grain (pun intended) and use some little known theories by others that just have to have a different answer from the rest of the world.