Go to the Article: Tips & Tricks: 5 Reasons to Grill With a Pan
Sooooo hungry!!!
Cheeeeeeeeese
Really want that queso fundido recipe!
What about a discussion on seasoning and care of your cast iron pan?
What do you mean, smoky flavor?
Maybe its a placebo effect or residue in your sinuses you are feeling guys...
Food in a pan shallow or deep on a grill isolates the food from that nice smoke...
Second that request for quest fundido recipe!
Oil is a great absorb-er of smoky flavors. Put a shallow pan of oil in a grill with a live fire and close the lid, then bring that same oil inside and cook with it on your stove and you will still taste smoke.
I hate you ChefSteps. Everything you make I want to make! My mouth is watering... again. OK, I don't hate you, I love you. I'm so conflicted! LOL, I think I gain weight just watching your cooking. I'm going to watch again. Food porn!!!
The pan is the only way to do rack of lamb. It works so well and you do not need to put tinfoil on the bone ends.
I'd like the queso fundido recipe as well.
I'd also like to know what kind of grill you're using in the video? The grill grates appear to be vee-shaped and I'm curious the brand of grill.
The skillet is from a company called Finex. They're great (I have one), but expensive (in the $400 range, if I remember right). They tout that the pans are CNC'd and have a steel spiral wrap around the handle for heat diffusion. I love mine, but it was a gift. Very pricy for cast iron.
How can they make this video and not list the ways to make the food?
Looks like an Argentine grill, try grillworksusa.com, but very expensive......
Try grillworksusa.com, but very expensive.....
That's an interesting concept. I'm going to give it a try.
Edit: I tried it. I put oil in a small smoker and gave it 2 hours with hickory. The oil had a smokey odor when I took it out but it did not impart much of that on a test steak and seemed a bit funky when it got hot.
Where is the recipe for queso fundido please??
BTW, I just found many queso fundido recipes online. Yum! Most call for chorizo. Some use bell peppers but I'm gonna go with Hatch chilis. Hey, it's Mexican, right!?!?
But can you get that char smokey flavour from a pan? If not, especially with steak, why would you cook on a pan?
They call them Hatch Chile because they are from Hatch, New Mexico. It's the same concept of Terrior for wine, but instead of grapes it's green peppers. I lived in New Mexico on and off for 15 years!
I tried it the first time for searing foie-gras. On a regular Lodge cast iron skillet. Anyone who's done that knows the amount of smoke that generates. On the pan it works great and all that smoke stays outdoors!
Here's how I do it. new pans suck. They are left "as is" after the sand casting. So I put a sanding shoe on my drill press and take them from 80 grit to 320 and make them very smooth ( like an old Griswold ). I wash them and put a light coat of oil in the raw surfaces to keep rust from forming. Then I almost never cook with them because they are so gross. But if I do, I scour them with oven cleaner and a coarse wire sponge after cooking. And again apply a light coat of oil. Cast Iron pans, today, are for course cooking. Like searing. If you need a non-stick surface I can't imagine why you would use a clunker cast iron pan when a good nonstick is a few bucks.
You can get them for a bit less than that. I have a 12 inch with lid and I think it was about 250. They come "polished" but not very much so. But their fit and finish is awesome.
I think the videos imply you do get some smoke flavor, but I don't think it's the same amount as cooking directly on the grill. But keeping the smoke out the house alone is worth it sometimes, especially if you're coming at someone else's place and they don't like smoke in their house.
The point of grilling in a pan isn't so much about grilled flavor. It's more about high heat input often missing from indoor searing (exhibit A: my crappy electric range) and additional options to allow you to cook outdoors. Grilled flavor doesn't come from smoke, but rather from fat dripping onto the heat source (coals or hot metal), then vaporizing and sticking to the product. Modernist Cuisine proved this, and this concept is the main selling point of Grill Grates.
The smoky oil might not have worked, but if you want actual smoke flavor in the pan, you could try the hickory again with a braise. You would still want the lid of the pan on (or slightly ajar to allow for controlled reduction) for much of the slow cook phase, but spending some time with the pan uncovered and the grill closed while burning wood should add some smoke to the braise. Love to hear how that works out!
Steaks taste better when cooked on a pan. It's the Maillard reaction, which isn't as extensive on a grill. (You can keep moving the steak around so that you don't end up with lines, but rather the entire surface of the meat a nice uniform caramelized brown.) Or set up your grill for low temperature smoking, smoke the steak and bring the internal temperature up a bit, then throw it on the afterburner. http://amazingribs.com/recipes/beef/extreme_steak.html
On the David Chang season of Mind of a Chef he butter bastes a rib eye in a cast iron on a french top. I was intrigued when i saw him do it and started experimenting on my grill as I don't have a french top. I char the steak as normal on the grill but on a thick steak you need a secondary to get the center to temp. I have the cast iron hot with a melted stick of butter, rosemary and garlic in it. Transfer the steak to the tilted pan - use a big spoon to ladle the butter over the steak. The hot fat brings the center to temp much quicker than the cold side of the grill and gives you a lot of control. You get the best of both worlds. You can throw it back on the flame at the end to rebuild your crust.
It’s criminal really.
i grill steaks on a plancha on a grill over wood fire. the smoke gets in there.
Let's see if Studio Pass will get a response 3 years later... I struggle to see how you do the butter basting that is always so elegantly shown in the videos. If I cook sous vide and want to get a cook crust with a sear in the pan, then I have to have it hot. Butter won't last a second there and so I use a neutral oil with a high smoke point. Is this butter basting approach only going to work when you cook the steak fully on the grill? Also, that much butter also makes it very hard to get the crust - too much fluids. When do you use the butter basting method on a med-rare sous vide steak?
Hi there, Jeff! In the video above the steak is being cooked from raw, not sous vide. So you do have more time to be able to build that crust at a lower, more even heat. If you want to cook a nice sous vide steak like this I would recommend icing down or fully cooling your steak after the sous vide. Then you use the sear as a way to rewarm the steak. When using butter you don't want to be on max heat but still high will work. Go a bit heavier on the butter to help with it burning or browning too fast. And if you take a look at the video we tip the pan when basting and adding the butter. This draws the moisture and milk content of the butter to the edge of the pan and not directly under the steak, that would lift the browning. Once the butter is browned the liquid is cooked out and that shouldn't be an issue. Also you should still sear the steak with a neutral high smoke oil, then use the butter to finish and baste the steak for flavor. It is not the type of fat to sear and cook from the beginning. If you have any other questions let me know.
NEW Mexican! Gotta be specific.You know how those folks are about their beloved Hatch chiles!
If you've got thyme in the garden, I highly recommend switching out the rosemary for thyme sprigs sometimes. Plate the steak when it's done, then throw a bit of minced shallots into the pan and brown for a few seconds.Add just a splash of red wine,.reduce it quickly by half and drizzle over steak, This should only take a minute or two. NOW you've got yourself restaurant fare!
Use ghee and you will get the best of both worlds!
queso fundido recipe!
