The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

Q: What exactly is searing, and does it really “seal in juices”? Since the mid-nineteenth century up ...

oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes (during which time its internal temperature should rise b ...

Q: So why do we bother searing at all? It’s simple: flavor. The high heat of searing triggers ...

increase the savoriness of foods, but it also adds complexity and a depth of flavor not present in ...

After two hours, I decided I’d reached the limit of what is practical, and had gone far beyond what any book ...

are not in direct contact with the metal. But what’s the best medium to sear in? Butter or oil? And, if I’m ...

Butter browns rapidly as it gets to searing temperatures. ...

What all this means is that the best cooking medium for a steak is plain old oil. At least to start. ...

only flip a steak (or a burger, for that matter) once, right? I mean, how can you even ask t ...

flipped multiple times were more evenly cooked. It wasn’t enough of a difference to make anyone say that ...

out there, don’t worry, you’re doing the right thing. And for all you single-flippers? Well, you can ...

wanted to lay out some actual data on temperature versus eating quality. So I cooked five Pri ...

MOISTURE LOSS VERSUS FINAL COOKING TEMPERATURE IN BEEF 130°F (medium-rare): The meat has begun to turn pink an ...

juicier and more tender, but also delivers fat-soluble flavor compounds to the tongue and palate—beef ...

And as for people who cook their beef well-done, well, let’s just say that you have a special place in ...

Poking a steak with a fork leads to negligible moisture loss. The thing is, with steaks, moist ...

minimal. Cut-and-peek too many times, though, and you run the risk of shredding your steak. In ...

orders for chicken that table twelve is waiting for. At home, we don’t have the same urgency—we have ...

{^ DRY-AGING BEEF^ } Sometimes I get e-mails from readers that say something along the lines of, ...

contradicting itself: the bad kind. Science by definition needs to be open to considering and acce ...