Starting meat at room temperature

Your guess is as good as mine. The meat doesn't get to room temperature. The internal temp of the meat won't change but a few degrees in that time. I've tested it.

Fidel wrote:

Your guess is as good as mine. The meat doesn't get to room temperature. The internal temp of the meat won't change but a few degrees in that time. I've tested it.

I agree that it takes longer than 30 minutes.

Since I have started doing a reverse sear, I generally just leave the steaks out to let the rub melt in, while the grill is being lit and coming to temp.

It can actually make a huge difference in my experiences. Especially for large roasts, example prime rib, that you would like a nice crust on the outside, yet an even med-med rare inside. They require 3-4 hours out of the fridge for the temp to balance out. I start a large roast high temp to sear (only for 20 minutes or so), then finish low and slow.
In my experiences, it has helped the meat cook more evenly to the center.
In opposition, with a steak that I want rare or med-rare, since it is thinner, I start the cook with it very chilled. It helps get a sear on the outside, yet remain rare to med-rare in the center.
My opinion is it depends on the cut of meat, and the desired result.

it's not possible to start meat at "room temperature", not without leaving it out four or five hours, anyway.

i go to a restaurant once every couple years on business, and they have a stack of steaks that sit out in the open all night, maybe five hours. those DO get cooked at room temp.

here, we have a few guys that will 'hot tub' a steak. that's prewarming it, in a bath of hot water. it raises the internal temp to 100 or so, and the finish sear is all that's required to take it to 130. there are lines of thought that the longer time warming up will allow enzymes to develop flavors and break down the meat. what it definitely does is reduce the depth of the sear.

think about it. if you want 130 in the center, and you throw on a cold chunk of beef, the amount of time required for the sear to raise the center to 130 will be enough that you will desecrate the rest of the meat in the effort to hit 130 in the center. if it goes on warmer, you will have a minimal depth of the 'well done' portion. like this. seared is on the left. prewarmed is on right.



this is also something you can achieve with a two-stage cook. "Trex" steaks are done by searing first to the desired level of sear only. then yank the steak off, choke the grill down to 400 or so, and put the steak back on to cruise until done. the roasting portion at the end is gentle, and won't create a deep layer of overdone meat like you'd get if you just sered until it reached the desired internal temperature.

a reverse sear does this too. raise the internal temp gently, then sear. you can do this with a roast as well. i did my prime rib indirect by going at 200 for about 5 hours until it was 120 internal, then jacking the dome temp to 600 for 15 minutes or so.

there are many reasons to do it. first is perhaps the best ability to manage the internal temperature. historically though it was too develop extra flavor, and minimize the overdone exterior

i remember, as fidel said he also experienced, that i left a steak out for an hour or so in great expectation of achieving the much sought-after'room temperature' experience.

it came out of the fridge at 34. i took its temp as i was putting it on the grill and it was 40 degrees. hahaha

so much for THAT!.

someone posted the hot tub method as described by 'cooks illustrated', and it was for cheaper cuts (flank steak?), developing the esters that similarly arise from dry aging, and to allow enzymes to break down the muscle. all i know is it makes it a much better cross-section of 'medium-rare' when i put on a warm steak versus an ice cold one!

Stike,

The CI recipe that featured the hot water bath focused on a London broil. One of their goals was to eliminate off flavors (I recall either "metallic" or "iodine" mentioned, neither of which I had ever experienced).

Central to their method was the addition of salt to the meat before it goes into the bath, creating a brine-like situation for that one hour. When I use the hot tub method I always season before bagging it.

ah., that's it. london broil.

i remember that they had 'other reasons' for doing it. i just do it for the indirectly intended result! hahha

maximum cross-section of medium rare.
good stuff

i don't understand why folks hot tub at 100-104. i use straight tapwater, at 140 or so. i hit 100 easily in about 15 to 20 minutes.


Without doing a side-by-side I could only guess that getting to 100° internal in 20 minutes might be too fast (you may be cooking instead of warming) and that 100° temp might be too close to your target finish temp of 125° to have control during the cook. How long does it normally take you to finish off a normal size steak?

Getting the internal in the 75° range still gives you a bigger window of cooking and some time for getting some color on the surface.

because it warms the steak and gives me the better cross section of medium rare than i'd get if i did a straight sear. also, i usually cook after work, but still early enough that the kids eat with us at 6pm or so. frankly, helps speed things up. no time for Trex cook or reverse sear.

light the grill while the steak are warming. when the grill hits 700 or so, i toss them on for maybe 90 seconds to 2 minutes a side. the time from lighting to plate is maybe 20-30 minutes, and allows us to do the veggies, have the kids set the table, etc.

Yup.

I tried that too and posted about it after someone called me out on it

Bottom line was about a 1 degree difference for every 10 minutes sitting out. So you would be waiting for hours and hours for it to get to room temp.