The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science

ingredients, slapping them on the hot grill or under a
mammoth broiler only after you place your order. Grilling,
pan-searing, and broiling are among the most ancient of
cooking methods, and they bring out the primal urge in all
of us. How many of you can resist a hot rib-eye steak fresh
out of the pan with a crisp, well-charred crust and a juicy
medium-rare center, dripping with juices? Go on, raise your
hands.
I thought so.
Many people see a meal at a steak house as the ultimate
night out. The way to celebrate that big promotion or
graduation. A means to reaffirm your dominance in the food
chain. A once-a-year splurge to be taken with plenty of red
wine, creamed spinach, hash browns, and brandy, and a
time when neither your significant other nor your doctor can
say peep. This is my life, my day, my meat, you silently tell
yourself as you bang your fat steak knife on the table,
toppling that neat tower of asparagus into its pool of creamy
hollandaise.
But here’s a little secret: there’s nothing those steak
houses do that you can’t do better at home, and cheaper. All
it takes is a bit of science, know-how, and practice.
In this chapter, we’ll not only talk about how to roast the
tenderest, crispest-on-the-outside, juiciest-on-the-inside,
melt-in-your-mouthiest prime rib roast to feed a whole
crowd of hungry carnivores, but we’ll also address the
“fast” part of fast-cooking methods. That is, steaks, chops,
chicken breasts, and other proteins that can go from fridge
to table in thirty minutes or less. Are you ready?