Go to the Recipe: Ultimate Chop Steak
Why no transglutaminase?
I guess you could if you wanted to. The way I understand how it works: TG creates a bond between two types of proteins, strengthening the structure, or creating a structure where one doesn't exist. With something like this: you already have the structure, but you're trying to disrupt that structure, and make it as tender as you would a steak. I would think that adding TG would make it something a bit denser or tougher. I'm not saying I'm right, that's just what little understanding I have of this material suggests to me how it would work. If you try it, let us know how it turned out.
was that chimichurri on there?? recipe please!
Can these chop steaks be frozen?
“Firm little buggers” too good, methinks Grants exposure to UK linguistic adventures has had a lasting result. Loving all these projects, one of the few good things out of lockdown? More Grant !
Grant, saw the gas/griddle cooking range in the background of your kitchen. What brand is it? Thanks in advance.
They sure can, But after they have sat over night so that the gelatin can hydrate.
If they are frozen, do we just follow the rule of 1.5x cooking time for the sous vide, so 135 min instead of 90?
I emailed them, and this was their response:
"I heard back from Chef Nick and he let me know that the sauce is a quick chimichurri he put together with things we had around and mostly from Grants garden. He used lemon zest, garlic, olive oil, parsley, rosemary, chives, mint and chili flake, and added the juice from the lemon just before serving or squeezed fresh on top. "
Chef Nick....??
Don't ask me any questions: i didn't write it. The above was copied and pasted from the email i received.
Its a kitchen aid range
that should work out for you.
NICK GAVIN is back in the studio with us now!
So after watching this and the salmon video, I ran it by the Mrs., who gave an emphatic thumbs up. So today, did the prep work, and are currently sitting in the fridge. After I got my kid down, i was sitting there and a thought occurred to me: fish sauce. What would your thoughts be on using this. it does give that nice funky flavor reminiscent to that of well aged meats, but without the waiting. Do you think swapping out the salt, using it in the mince, or do you think one should pack them in the fish sauce and let it set a few days as described in MCaH?
Kyl is correct, it's a 48" Dual Fuel Kitchen Aid
I think it should work fine, adding more moisture will make the "steak" more tender but that is not necessarily a bad thing. If you are not opposed to adding a step, marinating the finished steak in fish sauce, would tighten up the outside while drying out the interior, I'd go for that one personally.
You absolutely could add TG but we were trying to offer up a solution with more off the shelf product here. You should get great results adding TG, and if you do, expect a snappier steak.
@Grant Lee Crilly greatly appreciated sir.i never have a problem adding an additional step you get better railsresults. Good food takes time Got a few more to burn through, and I'll give it a go.
Since when is brisket cheap? Yeah, it used to be, but now it's more expensive than chuck or even sirloin. I blame Texas.
So how was the "steak"?
ChefSteps, there seems to be a problem with the top main video, where I get an error message:
"null
If the owner of this video has granted you access, please sign in."
All the other videos in this recipe play fine, and I've tried signing in and out.
How do you guys think this would work with a food processor instead of a grinder?
I wouldn't recommend it, but if you do try it I would assume you will end up with an over worked sausage texture.
should be working for you now
Would this work better using transglutaminase as the binder instead or combined with the gelatin and salt?
Can I use chuck roast? Or is brisket the superior meat?
It's usually 6 bucks a pound for whole prime briskets at Costco.
Yes, thanks.
Ditto on the other meat types; I’m in Spain and the choice of classic American meat cuts is more open to translation errors plus, while I can special order brisket, it’s the same price as good steak! Any thoughts?
The salt is the glue in this case and it adds a lot of flavor. I think TG would give it more of a squishy fish ball like texture, which isn't what you want from your steak. It would be fun to do the side-by-side on this though.
Hi Guys, Love the concept but I was just wondering about the food safety of cooking ground beef at 133F, according to foodsafety.gov ground beef should be cooked to a minimum 160F.
That is for hamburger which comes from more than one cow.
Thanks Craig, I'll put a meat grinder on my shopping list.
What is the sauce you are serving this with in the video?
Food processor isn't ideal, but if you do put the work bowl, and blade in the freezer as well as the meat. Slice meat into small uniform chunks first. If it's not almost frozen, the texture will turn to mush. Pulse in small batches.
Did you really say you sous vide them to seal in the juices? Oh Grant... you're better than that...
Why call this "wagyu" when it has nothing to do with Japanese cows? And, yes I read the description. I'm calling BS on this name... you guys are better than that...
I went ahead and made this without the TG, 65/35 blend. It was very good, but I think a small amount of TG would have made it slightly more steak-like and less burger-like. Only one way to find out though...
I need to try this. Brand of the grinder attachment? Doesn't look like the current KitchenAid offering...
Gvode metal food grinder, $60 on amz. Mine arrived today. The kitchen aid meat grinder sucks, too much plastic.
Will try this. How is it like with other cuts such as sirloin or ribeye? Chicken thighs?
Cheaper than Wagyu? I wonder if untrimmed short ribs I get at Costco would also work with this.
Then there is me dancing cuz I keep TG on hand...
rather than mixing by hand can I use the paddle attachment on Kitchen Aid mixer.
I made these just the other day. First, taste was amazing, succulent and beefy. Very good.
My issue was that mine didn't firm up after the 24 hrs like in the video. I did the same measurements and used the same gelatin. I mixed it pretty well and formed them what I thought was pretty firm. But the final product was closer to an outstanding meatloaf than a chopped steak I guess.
So do i need to emulsify more? or something else?
Hi James, just a couple of follow up questions to see if I can help narrow it down for you. Did you use the 3mm grind? That will be a big factor. Second is how much did you cream the mix? Let me know and I can try to help problem solve it with you.
Yes you can, just make sure not to turn it into sausage.
One cow doesn't make it safe.
According to Baldwin, it would take ~3 hr at 133°F to reach pasteurization for this thickness.
Since the inside of beef muscles can be assumed to be sterile (as long as it wasn't blade tenderized), you could briefly boil the brisket before grinding to sterilize the exterior, which would greatly reduce the risk.
https://www.douglasbaldwin.com/sous-vide.html#Beef
I did you the 3mm grind. Honestly I mixed it by flipping and stirring to make sure it was mix thoroughly, but I was too afraid to over mix and melt the fat. I kept it as cold as I could, I just wasn't confident in how much I should mix it. I did form the steaks fairly compact, but after the 24 hr rest, they still felt a little loose, not that firm finger flicking tap sound (question here, do you covered them or leave them uncovered, I covered with plastic wrap on the tray) Thanks for any help. Because the taste of these is amazing.
I thought these were really good, but I had a smaller amount of brisket, and I obviously had trouble with the math. They were much too salty. But otherwise delicious.
Yeah, right. So if I just toss some some gelatin powder into a grind of cheap brisket, I'm going to get something comparable to Wagyu? Seriously? Seriously! This recipe was a revelation, well worth the price admission to Studio Pass. I did take a few liberties. SV was at 135F. I added a small amount of white truffle infused hot sauce to the grind, barely discernible. Finished in a carbon steel pan. At the end of the meal, it was all gone!
I made this over the weekend, and we had some last night. First, make sure you do the 3mm grind. I didn't have a 3mm die so I used what I had and it ruined it. They ended up like burgers. They cut like burgers and ultimately, we ate them on buns. I'd try this again after buying a new grinder. I have a 15+ year old kitchen aid deal and it worked fine but I really need a better blade and a smaller grind. Second, they were very salty. I had almost the exact weight and yet they were super salty.
We ate 2 lbs (2 "steaks") and I took the other 4, cut them horizontally into 1/2 thickness and then vertically to form 4oz patties and froze and will make smash burgers out of them. They were tasty--why wouldn't ground brisket and fat be delicious--but they were nothing like steaks. They literally pulled apart as I was trying to cut them, so I expect it was the larger parts of fat pulling.
@CJ sullivan jeez! That's up there. I usually get it for about and change per pound at my Costco
They should be covered, but I would say you probably needed to mix it a little more, with this application we actually want the Miocene to bind and create a snappy texture, don't worry about creaming the fat too much.
Your high tech veggie burger has about 4% TG by weight to beans (50g/1200g). That sound about right for this?
Did more research. Sound like about 1% by weight is the way to go
How do these hold up to being frozen? I'd like to make a dozen and freeze them individually. Best to let them sit in the fridge for a night before freezing and let the salt do it's thing?
After they rest overnight, freeze any portions you don’t plan on cooking within the next couple of days.
Trying this today. Scored an 8.15 lb packer brisket from Costco (Canada) for about $30.00 (CAD). The price of two nice ribeyes from the same shop. The brisket was about $2.79 (USD) per pound. Almost free! I have trimmed the brisket, cubed it, and now have the meat on trays in my freezer. It is keeping the grinder components company. Once I finish my workout I suspect I will start the grind. Looking forward to the end result. The gang has not steered me wrong so far.
I was just wondering if this recipe could be combined with "Steak from the Future: The Modernist Strategy to Dry Age Beef" to produce the ultimate steak experience.
Could you use agar agar or something else instead of gelatin?
Don't
5kg of skeaks ready for tomorrow. Smash-burgers tonight... meat sweats by Friday.
You guys are continuing to kill it.
ePop
Is there anything that can be used instead of gelatin?
Hi guys, hope you're all doing well.
Was just wondering as to whether the inclusion of egg yolk like the Smash Burger recipe would be of benefit to this?
There just wasn't a need for extra binding with the added gelatin.
Thanks Kyl. I wasn't sure if this would add extra "juicyness" as grants speaks more about adding/retaining moisture by the inclusion of egg yolk (in addition to added gelatin) in that recipe as opposed to acting as an additional binding agent.
Chuck has great beefy flavor but insufficient fat to achieve the sweet spot on your fat to meat ratio, so if you opt to buy & grind up a chuck roast it’ll be quite tasty, however just ask your butcher, or meat cutter, to cut & package up some beef fat separately, which they may label as beef suet.
Could you freeze them after cooking sous vide and then throw them on the grill another time after being thawed?
Michael, Wagyu is a reference to the fat marbling not the ethnicity of cows...
I see a lot of comments about the texture not having the "steak" texture. While chop and cube steak aren't really supposed to have that, I wonder if the addition of Transglutaminase and cutting the gelatin content in half or quarter would solve that problem? Is that a abhorrent solution?
Actually, "wagyu" is the Japanese word for "Japanese cow" and has nothing to do with fat. It collectively refers to several different breeds developed in Japan and sometimes exported and bred elsewhere.
That will work as well.
Can I Substitute the gelantine with meat glue instead? What would be the amount needed per pound/kg?
My first thought is sure, you could try that out. We have not tested it and liked the texture we had achieved with the activity as is. When it comes to the amount needed I would recommend starting at .5% and see if that works out for you. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.
I think they're referring to literally sealing in the juices in the bag, Also I think that "wagyu" is used figuratively - it's got the quotation marks to help convey that, and since wagyu can refer to the cattle as well as the beef obtained from the cattle, these terms are fair. Cursory examination into their terminology can make you think it was poorly chosen, but slightly more examination reveals that it's totally fine. No worries!
https://www.google.com/search?q=wagyu+def&rlz=1C5CHFA_enUS818US818&oq=wagyu&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i57j0i20i263i433l2j0i457j0i402j0i433j69i61.1216j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
