Low Temperature cooking question

Unknown · July 2007

I am interested in the egg partly because I have read so much about the dangers of high-temperature cooking (Heterocyclic Amines and so on).[p]Can someone recommend some good egg recipes for low temperature cooking? I am particularly interested in finding out if steak and salmon can be cooked well under 250 degrees.

stike · July 2007

Agnosy,
you are hot smoking if you do salmon under 250 or so and above 140.[p]steaks... i dunno. better to sear them. sous vide (sp?) cooking is ultra low temp and under vacuum (no air for the bacteria to grow on at those temps i believe), but steaks at 250 in the grill? you wouldn't have much in the way of browning and carmelization without a sear.[p]roasts are often done at 250 for the majority ofthe cook, til 125/130 internal, then seared (again, for color and flavor). then you cut steaks (or slices) from the roast. think prime rib. but individual steaks, i don't see the benefit of going lo.

tach18k · July 2007

Agnosy, a good stable temp for the Egg is 250. You can go as much as 18 hours at 250 for some real low and slow. Lot's of Eggers do a slow cook on thing like briskets, shoulder, butts, roasts, foul, and then sometimes follow it up with a 600 degree sear depending on the meat. Others do it just the reverse. High temp first then low and slow. If it can be done in a conventional oven it can be done on an Egg.

gdenby · July 2007

Agnosy,[p]Most of the "big 3" of BBQ, pork butts, ribs, and briskets, are done at temperatures around 225. This is hot enough to cause the Maillard reactions that give the "meaty" taste, but not hot enough to cause much of those heterocyclics. Look up directions for "low and slow" BBQ.[p]I'm not sure that a sear would cause much of a problem with steaks, just because only the top 1/8th inch or so is hit by the high heat. A method I'm fond of is called "hot tubbing." Similar to the sous vide, you plastic bag the steak, and immerse in hot water. (Set your water heater to about 125o) That brings the meat up to almost cooked rare. Then just 30 seconds per side per half inch finishes the meat to rare - medium rare. Assuming a nice thick steak, 70 to 85 % of the meat has not been warmed enough for the bad amines to form. [p]gdenby

BlueSmoke · July 2007

Agnosy,
Until your post I didn't even know there was such a phrase as heterocyclic amines... So I googled on the phrase and got to the National Cancer Institute's webpage on them. It says in part "One study conducted by researchers showed a threefold increase in the content of HCAs when the cooking temperature was increased from 200° to 250°C (392° to 482°F)." 392 degrees is pretty durn hot to begin with, much less 482. I'd think you could cook pretty much anything you wanted below 392.[p]Two things I didn't see when I skimmed NCI's webpage - how big was the sample populatioon, and, what quantity relative to body weight was consumed both at a single sitting and over time. To have that data absent makes the whole thing look like "middle school science fair science".[p]My $0.02[p]Ken

Low Temperature cooking question

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