@@raidcrhonos Looks to be an 'in camera' effect, a real pan cut in half with a clear side on it, not any cheaty graphics method. You can tell from the small amounts of liquids that are sometimes caught between the pan and the clear side.
I was watching this on my TV and had to hop on my phone just to leave a comment. That steak/pan cross section is hands down one of the best things I’ve ever seen in any type of entertainment media. Not even high cost productions have even done something like that ! I couldn’t tell if it was real or not at first, even if it was just graphics, it would be impressive. But the fact that it’s real AND cooking at the same time just blew my mind. And all of those close ups with the animations on it. Your channel is easily one of my favorites and I appreciate and admire all the hard work you’ve been doing to provide top of the line quality for our entertainment. The fact that this video is a month old and only has 33k views is absolutely a crime. RUclips needs to start pushing your content harder cause this sets an entirely whole new bar for creators, not just on this platform, but all platforms. Bravo 👏🏼
So, I believe that the myth is that searing your steak first would seal in the juices as opposed to the reverse sear technique. Not just searing in general. Also, I believe Kenji Lopez-Alt did this experiment awhile back, testing the moisture retention on chicken breasts that were seared first or seared after cooking and found no improvement. He also tested the difference between wet vs dry brining vs no brine or marinade.
The production value of these videos is crazy. Your videos seem professional enough to almost have a Food Network watermark in the corner, but also amateur enough that it still feels like a RUclips video. I applaud you.
The production value of this video is insane and your knowledge is amazing. Never stop making videos, i was a bit worried for a while when your last video was like 3-4 months ago and now i see that i have 3 weeks old videos to catch up to!!
This seems so obvious when it's laid out but I've never considered it before this video. This is what all good chefs go for, the process of consuming the food prepared and it's enjoyment. Dude, great video and outstanding production. The information and way it's delivered is why you're one of MAYBE 3-4 people I am subscribed, why I thumbs up, and why I have your notifications on. You get the views because you provide legit content and don't go for clickbait. You deserve the success because you're working hard for it. I will be a customer of the thermometer too, very soon.
Yes, definitely will increase saliva. Imma fan of squeezing sone charred lemon on a butter-basted steak and this is a nice justification beyond I think it tastes good
the best thing you can do for your steaks is a dry brine, salt them 24hrs beforehand heavily and then put them in the fridge with only a paper towel covering them. This draws out the moister of the steak and makes them tender. Then salt and pepper both sides before you put them in the smoker. Then reverse sear in a smoker. 1-1/1/2 hours in a smoker at 100°c and then sear off. Perfect steaks every time. Cook to whatever your guests desire, the reverse sear allows a medium rare without too much trouble, but you can easily go to however you want.
But the question remains: did you produce more saliva because you were tasting the sear, or because you were expecting to taste it? As Pavlov has proven - you don't actually need any food for your mouth to water. I doubt that any of the unseasoned steaks actually tasted good, but one looked much, much better. Diagonally cut sandwiches also taste better - and it's scientifically proven.
Excellent video and good experiments for science in the kitchen. Theoretically, seared meat, having a drier surface, will cause us to eliminate more saliva during chewing, since it is essential to be able to better dissolve the components and feel the flavor better. It's the same thing that happens when you chew on a crunchy cookie versus a softer cookie. But that is the good thing about science, that we are always thinking critically. Greetings! 👍🧪
@@horrorhotel1999just knowledge. Applications can be determined later. If the experiment shows it's basically the same as an unseared steak, then there really are not any potential improvements to be made. But if it's perceived to be just as good as a seared steak, then that opens possibilities. Like maybe a synthetic sear can be created that you just sprinkle on. Maybe not ideal for an actual steak, but good for say slices that end up in a sandwich.
Ask James about the time I tried to poison him with an absence amount of extracted caffeine. Us being idiots together in 2003 would be a good video to recreate.
Cut the pan with a bandsaw, and carefully slices the steak at various times. Pretty much how I did things for Modernist Cuisine too, just harder in video because you can't Photoshop out every mistake as easily.
I knew that searing, sealing in the juice HAD to be a myth. But I ALSO knew that a well seared steak SEEMED more tasty and juicy. I've never been able to reconcile these "facts". Now I CAN!!! Thank you, young man for an EXCELLENT and informative video. If I can make a steak even a TINY bit better, it's worth the effort. Thanks again.
I'm not sure why the math looks like 50% - 20% = 30% at 7:26. If the seared steak lost 20% of its weight during cooking, and then each slice gained 50% of its weight due to saliva, shouldn't the math look like 0.8 * 1.5 = 1.2? Meaning that each slice of the seared steak would have 20% more weight after the whole process?
So I thought about that, but ultimately decided what matters is the difference in juice is left in your mouth after an equal time of chewing. In a sense, starting juiciness doesn’t matter because the initial burst of juice is swallowed within a few seconds of the start of chewing. Said another way, we don’t actually care about the starting water content, we care about the sustained production of juice.
one of the main reasons for the perpetuation of this myth is that for many "experts" the ONLY valid technique for searing a steak is to flip it once. when scientifically the opposite is actually true (as you have already demonstrated last year)
Also, You mentioned that a hotter pan would only serve to overcook your exterior before the interior was cooked (wider gray band), and in another video I saw you lowered your pan temp depending on the size and thickness of the steak. I often get my pans to 500 degrees before I sear for a couple minutes, then finish in a low oven. Is this.... wrong? Would love to see a video comparing the hard sear (500 degrees) vs gentle sear (325).
it depends on how you're cooking the steak overall - if it's on the stove the whole time like he was discussing, gentle sear will get it more even. if you're using the oven to cook the internals, high temperature to establish the crust and avoid cooking the inside at all is the strat
Chris, I have a question about your thermometer. I own one, and it is truly awesome, it helped me coordinate a cook time of a spatchcocked chicken Farro, and sauted broccoli down to the minute. My question is though, shouldnt the thermometer be inserted at any angle BUT perpendicular to the temperature gradient direction? The way you have it inserted into this steak I believe in theory would only work as a probe, and not a predictor, as it cant measure temperature along the gradient.
In general, you're correct, being off-axis gives you more gradient information. But in a case like this, the thermometer still does okay and the algorithm does an okay job of figuring out it's in a slab-shaped piece of food. It is, however, more challenging to predict carry-over cooking in these situations because of the lacking gradient info. Something we're working on by making some inferences once we figure out we're probably in a pan or on a grill and cooking from one side.
Incredible. it makes so much sense. I know that in addition to salt, bitter foods like lemon and vinegar can stimulate salivation. Perhaps adding a side dish or topping to your steak that had these (or even just a vinaigrette with a salad before the meal) would increase the perception that the steak was even juicier? Like "revving up" the salivatory glands.
I think maybe the seared steak had less moisture and therefore was able to absorb more saliva from your mouth? Could be one explanation. Also that cutaway footage is so cool! Did you actually slice a pan in half?
Your guide for the thermometer has a section you must answer! "Contrary to tradition, science shows that resting your meat doesn’t improve juiciness. It mainly results in cooler food and less crusty crust." please explain there have been many videos proving this from your own partner Heston Blumenthal.
Becoming my go-to channel along with Kenji. When I was culinary director at a huge grocery store back in 2013 my co-worker and I messed around with your books quite a bit. Thanks for the video content. The pan cross-section is mind blowing.
Very interesting video. There are a number of studies that measure salivary flow rates for different flavors. It would have been interesting to add seasoned steaks to the mix. Also since chewing plays a part in saliva production I’d be curious to see if a tough cut of beef produces more moisture then a tender cut.
@@ChrisYoungCooks I've been cooking home raised beef steak like this: Sear in cast iron, convection oven until cooked to desired doneness. My dad tells me a a few have been the best steak he's ever had. Of course others aren't as good and he tells me that as well!
Could the fat in which you seared the steak play a role in the juiciness feeling? It would be interesting to see the same experiment, but with the steak seared in the pan without adding anything else, no oil, no butter or anything similar. Maybe the fat is what helps to accentuate the "juicy" feeling.
@@ChrisYoungCooks thank you for your answer. Then maybe this could be the reason for the better juiciness of the seared steak, or did you use oil or fat also on the sous vide one? I think you thought of a really interesting experiment!
"Magic is just science we don't understand yet." Chris, I love how you both challenge and confirm everything our grandma's taught is about cooking. Truly, appreciate what you do. Thank you!
The cross section……uhm….section of that video was great. Visually stunning. The content busts a myth long held. Chris it is great you can bring your knowledge and experience to everyone in a really accessible and fun way. 👍
Thanks Chris, so if i understand you correctly - by taking moisture out of the browned edge of the steak during the searing process, your mouth needs to fill with more saliva, as part of the way we eat foods which are drier and need more 'work' to help chew up and wash down to our stomach. And then because your mouth is wetter, you'll perceive the pink bit in the middle as relatively more 'juicy' even though it's actually covered in a dry crust. Presumably if you had trimmed off the outside of the seared steak - leaving just the medium rare fleshy bit - it would have the same mouthfeel as a similarly trimmed piece of sous vide steak when compared. The extra saliva is only happening because you have a bit of dry crust to chew and swallow. The logical extension to this is that instead of searing, you could get the same effect in terms of extra 'juice' by popping a piece of dry cardboard into your mouth with the pink fleshy meat. It would save you some cooking effort. Unfortunately, while the cardboard would contribute to extra saliva, causing some 'weight gain' in the cardboard, it's not as tasty as seared steak crust. I suppose this is why people sear their sousvide steaks after cooking, rather than simply serving them with a pile of shredded toilet roll tubes.
Been watching since I saw your hexclad video. Great stuff dude. I love the effort you put into each video. You really go above and beyond to make these videos perfect
I'm curious why you didn't test a reverse sear to see if the amount of weight loss was difference compared to the sear-first approach? I could see an argument that cooking the meat to temp first might change how much water the searing process pulls out, and the reverse sear would solve the "juiciness in mouth" problem. Thoughts?
Did try it actually, just didn’t make the video. Moisture loss whether pre- or post-sear is the same. No statistically significant difference, which is why I didn’t bother getting into it with this video.
@@ChrisYoungCooks Was there a difference in texture or flavor? I've honestly never thought of searing meat first and THEN sous viding it, but if it's worth the trouble...
@@DouglasRosser the seared beef flavor tends to get a bit more mellow and rounded in flavor with sear first, then sous vide. The crust continues to darken during cooking because the Maillard reaction, once started, will continue to progress developing more pigment molecules.
Hey Chris, great job as always! I do have a question though….. Would there be a difference in actual juiciness between hard sear method and the constantly flipping method of cooking the steak?
This is awesome. I'm a big fan of the MC books, got the series sitting on my shelf in front of me. A video series that captures some of the magic of the books is something I didn't know I needed, but I'm here for it.
Brilliant video! It also indirectly answers the question as to whether searing before or after the cook matters. Proponents of searing before say that searing seals in the juices, so that they don’t escape during cooking. That myth in completely busted, because what matters is that the steak is seared. Searing before cooking does not help make the steak juicier.
My favorite steak preparation is to smoke my steak at 230 till it's around 110 degrees, then pull them off and hammer them with a high heat sear on my grill, pull them and rest them. It also means I never miscook steaks!
I don’t know if, scientifically, searing “seals in the juices” but without the Maillard reaction you won’t eat a pale gray, bland microwaved-looking steak. Do you prefer that?
The taste of food has always been subjective. My example: Back in the day when I worked for telephone repair service (Working outdoors in all weather conditions) I could sometimes be running late for work and skip breakfast. By 9 o'clock I was hungry as heck for eggs and bacon. Stopping at a local diner the anticipation of eggs and bacon and sausage, toast, brown beans and coffee would make the "taste" heavenly ! The same breakfast at home at the kitchen table could never match that late morning diner experience. The same thing applies when family gathers for BBQ steak, baked potatoes, steamed veggies, wine and laughter. The food tastes so much better. When really hungry even the cheeseburger will taste better. Great video !
If you're measuring the juiciness *effect* produced by searing, a 50% increase in juiciness over the meat's baseline weight is actually a 250% bigger effect than a 20% increase. Yes, it's a 30 percentage point difference, but your test was framed as measuring the effect produced by searing vs. not searing by comparing the final weight of the masticated meat to the starting weight of the bite of meat.
I have your combustion thermometer. About to take advantage of your sale to purchase the same for two of my sons who enjoy cooking. Interestingly they are both Oregon State Troopers. I am an M.D. So much for following in dad’d footsteps. Lol My comment on the video. I have cooking Sous Vide with the Joule for a long time. Certainly, at least with most proteins, a sear, either before or after cooking is necessary both to develop the tasty Maillard reaction and for visual appeal. It would seem that having a Sous Vide cooked steak, without a sear in any part of the cooking process, introduces an unfair variable. Especially when using saliva production as your main indicator of juiciness Thank you so much for your expertise Michael
If this means what makes steak "juicy" is subjective, how much is "juiciness" a biological response and how much is it a learned one? For example, if you grow up eating medium-well steaks all your life and have a vehement hatred towards anything less, would a medium-well steak actually be juicier for you alone than say, a medium-rare? That would remove a lot of so called "objectivism" in cooking culture particularly around steaks. But if biologically tastebuds prefer certain styles of cooking over others in terms of what triggers mouthwatering behaviors, then we're back to square 1 but with more interesting information. It also prompts the question if steakhouse steaks really are better, not because the meat is better or how they cook it but the whole process and experience. Smelling and seeing cooked steaks, sides around you. Maybe even the atmosphere and what kind of drinks (i.e. maybe you always drink red wine before a steak). Mouthwatering is a basic and classic goal of conditioning experiments so this would be pretty interesting research for anyone who owns a steakhouse.
150% 'juicer' or 30 percentile points 'juicier'.... I'm just nit-picking statistic, most people are not going to care. Fun little experiment and awesome shots.
This is legitimate lateral thinking. Never mind the cross section (which I don't even know how you did). Never mind that I still feel like this whole channel is an advertisement for your thermometer (it's on my Christmas list). This type of thinking is unique. And this channel is so good for that thinking. Good on you.
Great vid - love the critical approach to finding answers That said - there are a couple of unaccounted variables. With an n of 1 we can't generalize to the whole population. Maybe some people who don't like the sear will salivate more for the other steak? Or maybe different spices will trigger different responses in different people. For example I know someone that just doesn't like steak less than medium well done - for her the mental image of 'raw' steak might leave it feeling drier even when the medium rare is clearly more juicy. Maybe the net effect is that the steak you love is the juiciest?!?! Thanks for the information M
Maybe the sear is like Gore-Tex, it allows evaporation but comparatively less leaking of both rendered fat and moisture. Cauterization isn't a myth and chemically it's the same thing.
Are the black gloves some kind of in-joke that I don't get? They're certainly not being used in a way that makes things more hygienic...I'm genuinely confused.
Can't be measured with scales and thermometers... *proceeds to measure it with scales and thermometers* ;) Still, 100% valid point. There are multiple data points to measure to determine overall enjoyment.
Our perception can modify objective things so greatly that they might as well be purely subjective? I'm sure this video will help my cooking ability as soon as I finish the existential crisis.
Actually your measurement and evidence is still the objective truth measured objectively. At the very most, you might have to add an additional qualifier to shush any haters: "in mouths of with typical salivary behaviors."
Saliva is used to break down complex carbohydrates into simpler carbs. That's why when you put a cracker in your mouth and let it soak, it becomes progressively sweeter. Theoretically, the sear must be a carb or close enough to evoke saliva production.
but.. steak "juiciness" is the liquefied FAT content.. not water... the fat doesnt escape like the water does.. seems like this experiment is not addressing the issue!
I love the dedication to challenge your beliefs. I also have a question, why does the seared piece have a greater measure of juices gained? Is it really causing the mouth the produce more saliva? I understand the premise of parching your mouth the yield start from an equal starting point. Yet are you weighing only the food? Or are you weighing the food plus the retained saliva create form chewing? What if the dedication zone of the seared piece being drier is cabals of collecting more saliva than the non-seared and that could mean it’s advantage of saliva retention yields a greater weight gain. I think you could answer this question using your cotton balls. After you remove the chewed piece of steak you could add cotton balls you previously weighed dry and then use them to collect the remaining saliva produced from chewing the steak. This could account for all the saliva produced and could answer if the seared steak is produces more saliva or if it’s the same amount saliva but rather it’s seared crust allows for more juices to be retained than the non-seared? Perhaps this is a moot point, where the retention is the factor to indicate juiciness. It’s interesting none the less, because it appears the intent is to determine which stimulates the most saliva production as indication of yielding juiciness, so if that’s the case, you would need to account for all the saliva produced, that retained in the chewed steak and that in the mouth. Also what if there is a factor of the non-seared having the capacity to loose more moisture from chewing where the seared steak has less moisture to loose. In that case you would need to evaluate on a curve to account for moisture to lean mass ratio. Also variations in intramuscular fat could be a factors so an exception lean muscle would be ideal to avoid intramuscular fat discrepancies. Not trying to be rude, just was a fun exercise analyze your experiment. That’s what makes your content fun!
Chris doesn't just answer questions from his experience as a chef, he breaks down the science and gathers empirical data to produce tangible results and hard numbers that can't be denied. You can't argue with that.
I do think there's some benefit to putting things into context as well. I believe the myth is mainly operative on giving home cooks at the time the olutdated impression that if you aren't able to develop a crust quickly enough, then it's better to err on the side of overshooting a steak past one's desired doneness to develop the sear, since it's the development of the crust that allegedly keeps the juices in. Enthusiasts slammed this myth in order to enncourage home cooks to not be afraid to stop cooking below one's desired doneness, to account for carryover cooking. If put into such a context, I think it's still understandable why this should remain labelled as a myth because it tends to perpetuate bad habits from a more ignorant era of home cooking. In practice, this is to say that a well-seared crust combined with the desired doneness, together, will always be optimal, and that this is more attainable than ever with current knowledge and techniques. But in the event of insufficient heat and experience from the cook, I think that a medium-rare steak with a spotty crust would probably still be subjectively more delicious than if they had cooked it to well-done to develop the sear more fully. Having a crust is better than no crust, as you proved. But an incomplete crust is still preferrable to a full sear, if in cases where the latter is at the expense of overcooking the inside.
All this makes sense from an evolutionary prospective. Our ancestors evolved in such a way that food that is charred by fire on the surface activates our brain's reward system since fire cooked food is safer. Food that looks pale and uncooked is perceived naturally as unsafe. That's also why we have such strong preference for charcoal grilled steak over gas grilled or pan seared.
It's an incorrect methodology. Seared meat Mya be tastier and therefore you produce more salviva, it doesn't mean the meat has more juices. You should have squeezed the meat
From the fact of your experiment I think I've come to a different conclusion than yours. If what made a steak juicer is us, then what about people who doesn't like a sear on their steak? Wouldn't that made their mouth less watery and in effect made the steak less juicier? Or are you prepared to say that all the people in the world has the same taste and all of their moth waters when they see, and chew a seared steak?
My goodness - leaving a comment just for the cross section of the pan. Incredible commitment to the craft
🙏
Yeah i have no idea how it was done. So good
@@raidcrhonos Looks to be an 'in camera' effect, a real pan cut in half with a clear side on it, not any cheaty graphics method.
You can tell from the small amounts of liquids that are sometimes caught between the pan and the clear side.
My guess is he went to grab one from when they shot for modernist cuisine. They already had tons of pots and pans cut in half
Yeah, I felt the same with that graphic 😎
the production value of your videos never ceases to amaze me
Now I want more modernist cuisine-esque cross section videos
Then you'll like the glass smoker I've been building for upcoming videos.
please tell me that will be a product someday!
@@ChrisYoungCooks Please make a video explaining if this cross section is CGI or real!
@@josephhenriod2651it’s real! In the first 30 secs you can see the half pan over his right shoulder
I was watching this on my TV and had to hop on my phone just to leave a comment. That steak/pan cross section is hands down one of the best things I’ve ever seen in any type of entertainment media. Not even high cost productions have even done something like that ! I couldn’t tell if it was real or not at first, even if it was just graphics, it would be impressive. But the fact that it’s real AND cooking at the same time just blew my mind. And all of those close ups with the animations on it.
Your channel is easily one of my favorites and I appreciate and admire all the hard work you’ve been doing to provide top of the line quality for our entertainment. The fact that this video is a month old and only has 33k views is absolutely a crime. RUclips needs to start pushing your content harder cause this sets an entirely whole new bar for creators, not just on this platform, but all platforms. Bravo 👏🏼
What a good lad, took one for the team.
I would never have thought of taste causing more saliva and hence a “juicer” steak.
I was wondering why the thumbnail was blurred out. I'm just glad his mind didn't trick him into thinking those cotton balls were marshmallows.
Very interesting and unique experiment. Love food science channels!!
So, I believe that the myth is that searing your steak first would seal in the juices as opposed to the reverse sear technique. Not just searing in general. Also, I believe Kenji Lopez-Alt did this experiment awhile back, testing the moisture retention on chicken breasts that were seared first or seared after cooking and found no improvement. He also tested the difference between wet vs dry brining vs no brine or marinade.
Man this channel is a hidden gem! Awesome! So much Knowledge!
I appreciate that!
@@ChrisYoungCooksI agree. Just found the channel a week or so ago, and it is one of my favs - terrific, simple, concise, analytic….
The production value of these videos is crazy. Your videos seem professional enough to almost have a Food Network watermark in the corner, but also amateur enough that it still feels like a RUclips video. I applaud you.
The production value of this video is insane and your knowledge is amazing. Never stop making videos, i was a bit worried for a while when your last video was like 3-4 months ago and now i see that i have 3 weeks old videos to catch up to!!
This seems so obvious when it's laid out but I've never considered it before this video. This is what all good chefs go for, the process of consuming the food prepared and it's enjoyment. Dude, great video and outstanding production. The information and way it's delivered is why you're one of MAYBE 3-4 people I am subscribed, why I thumbs up, and why I have your notifications on. You get the views because you provide legit content and don't go for clickbait. You deserve the success because you're working hard for it. I will be a customer of the thermometer too, very soon.
No one will ever think about this other than you. Great experiment!! Please keep up the good work!
Damn. The effects and visuals was astounding here. Great job, you should have a lot more subscribers.
Could acid (lemon juice, etc) on top of the steak increase the juiciness even further? . The lemon juice will create a lot of extra saliva.
Yes, definitely will increase saliva. Imma fan of squeezing sone charred lemon on a butter-basted steak and this is a nice justification beyond I think it tastes good
the best thing you can do for your steaks is a dry brine, salt them 24hrs beforehand heavily and then put them in the fridge with only a paper towel covering them. This draws out the moister of the steak and makes them tender.
Then salt and pepper both sides before you put them in the smoker.
Then reverse sear in a smoker.
1-1/1/2 hours in a smoker at 100°c and then sear off.
Perfect steaks every time.
Cook to whatever your guests desire, the reverse sear allows a medium rare without too much trouble, but you can easily go to however you want.
Would love to see a behind the scenes video of this video!
But the question remains: did you produce more saliva because you were tasting the sear, or because you were expecting to taste it? As Pavlov has proven - you don't actually need any food for your mouth to water. I doubt that any of the unseasoned steaks actually tasted good, but one looked much, much better. Diagonally cut sandwiches also taste better - and it's scientifically proven.
Excellent video and good experiments for science in the kitchen. Theoretically, seared meat, having a drier surface, will cause us to eliminate more saliva during chewing, since it is essential to be able to better dissolve the components and feel the flavor better. It's the same thing that happens when you chew on a crunchy cookie versus a softer cookie. But that is the good thing about science, that we are always thinking critically. Greetings! 👍🧪
Interesting experiment: smelling a freshly seared steak while chewing an un-seared steak. Is it a pavlovian type olfactory response?
What do you hope to gain from this experiment? What cooking and/or food preparation or serving improvements do you hope to gain from this?
@@horrorhotel1999just knowledge. Applications can be determined later. If the experiment shows it's basically the same as an unseared steak, then there really are not any potential improvements to be made. But if it's perceived to be just as good as a seared steak, then that opens possibilities. Like maybe a synthetic sear can be created that you just sprinkle on. Maybe not ideal for an actual steak, but good for say slices that end up in a sandwich.
for some weird reason, my mouth stopped watering when I 1st heard about that last juiciness test... XD
Wow, great video, I think you're like the James Hoffmann of cooking.
Ask James about the time I tried to poison him with an absence amount of extracted caffeine. Us being idiots together in 2003 would be a good video to recreate.
@@ChrisYoungCooks Make that happen. Or at least the 2 of you reminiscing on it.
lol this went in an unexpected direction
How did you do the amazing pan cut away? It can’t be CG right? It looks too good!
Cut the pan with a bandsaw, and carefully slices the steak at various times. Pretty much how I did things for Modernist Cuisine too, just harder in video because you can't Photoshop out every mistake as easily.
@@ChrisYoungCooks can you share any pics? that sounds like it would look pretty wacky
@@ChrisYoungCooks your level of commitment is insane. Keep it up!!
I knew that searing, sealing in the juice HAD to be a myth. But I ALSO knew that a well seared steak SEEMED more tasty and juicy. I've never been able to reconcile these "facts". Now I CAN!!! Thank you, young man for an EXCELLENT and informative video. If I can make a steak even a TINY bit better, it's worth the effort. Thanks again.
I've watched a LOT of steak videos. This one was likely the most unique. I enjoy alternative perspectives. Thanks for bringing one.
I'm not sure why the math looks like 50% - 20% = 30% at 7:26. If the seared steak lost 20% of its weight during cooking, and then each slice gained 50% of its weight due to saliva, shouldn't the math look like 0.8 * 1.5 = 1.2? Meaning that each slice of the seared steak would have 20% more weight after the whole process?
So I thought about that, but ultimately decided what matters is the difference in juice is left in your mouth after an equal time of chewing. In a sense, starting juiciness doesn’t matter because the initial burst of juice is swallowed within a few seconds of the start of chewing. Said another way, we don’t actually care about the starting water content, we care about the sustained production of juice.
one of the main reasons for the perpetuation of this myth is that for many "experts" the ONLY valid technique for searing a steak is to flip it once. when scientifically the opposite is actually true (as you have already demonstrated last year)
Also, You mentioned that a hotter pan would only serve to overcook your exterior before the interior was cooked (wider gray band), and in another video I saw you lowered your pan temp depending on the size and thickness of the steak. I often get my pans to 500 degrees before I sear for a couple minutes, then finish in a low oven. Is this.... wrong? Would love to see a video comparing the hard sear (500 degrees) vs gentle sear (325).
it depends on how you're cooking the steak overall - if it's on the stove the whole time like he was discussing, gentle sear will get it more even. if you're using the oven to cook the internals, high temperature to establish the crust and avoid cooking the inside at all is the strat
Chris, I have a question about your thermometer. I own one, and it is truly awesome, it helped me coordinate a cook time of a spatchcocked chicken Farro, and sauted broccoli down to the minute. My question is though, shouldnt the thermometer be inserted at any angle BUT perpendicular to the temperature gradient direction? The way you have it inserted into this steak I believe in theory would only work as a probe, and not a predictor, as it cant measure temperature along the gradient.
In general, you're correct, being off-axis gives you more gradient information. But in a case like this, the thermometer still does okay and the algorithm does an okay job of figuring out it's in a slab-shaped piece of food. It is, however, more challenging to predict carry-over cooking in these situations because of the lacking gradient info. Something we're working on by making some inferences once we figure out we're probably in a pan or on a grill and cooking from one side.
this is insanely good content, thank you Chris!
Incredible. it makes so much sense. I know that in addition to salt, bitter foods like lemon and vinegar can stimulate salivation. Perhaps adding a side dish or topping to your steak that had these (or even just a vinaigrette with a salad before the meal) would increase the perception that the steak was even juicier? Like "revving up" the salivatory glands.
I think maybe the seared steak had less moisture and therefore was able to absorb more saliva from your mouth? Could be one explanation.
Also that cutaway footage is so cool! Did you actually slice a pan in half?
Your guide for the thermometer has a section you must answer! "Contrary to tradition, science shows that resting your meat doesn’t improve juiciness. It mainly results in cooler food and less crusty crust." please explain there have been many videos proving this from your own partner Heston Blumenthal.
It’s on the list. Trying to figure out a really interesting experiment to prove the point.
Came for the infotainment, stayed to try to figure out whether or not these graphical displays were incredible engineering or overtly expensive CGI.
Real video. Cut the pan in half with a bandsaw and used multiple shots for different exposures, then composited everything together.
Becoming my go-to channel along with Kenji. When I was culinary director at a huge grocery store back in 2013 my co-worker and I messed around with your books quite a bit. Thanks for the video content. The pan cross-section is mind blowing.
Your video production is TOP notch, and the questions you’re answering are very interesting. Keep it up!
Very interesting video. There are a number of studies that measure salivary flow rates for different flavors. It would have been interesting to add seasoned steaks to the mix. Also since chewing plays a part in saliva production I’d be curious to see if a tough cut of beef produces more moisture then a tender cut.
1 man 2 cups
Blurgh
(and lmao)
Really liked the content and the quality of the presentation, subscribed!
Amazing!
But side note... Your cotton ball segment made my teeth hurt!
It was... not delicious.
@@ChrisYoungCooks I've been cooking home raised beef steak like this: Sear in cast iron, convection oven until cooked to desired doneness. My dad tells me a a few have been the best steak he's ever had. Of course others aren't as good and he tells me that as well!
That steak cutaway view in the pan just got you a new subscriber!
Amazing approach to analyze this! Just wow!
the production value on these is insane!
Could the fat in which you seared the steak play a role in the juiciness feeling?
It would be interesting to see the same experiment, but with the steak seared in the pan without adding anything else, no oil, no butter or anything similar.
Maybe the fat is what helps to accentuate the "juicy" feeling.
Oil creates an even heating layer ie better crust, and fat itself helps carry flavor to your mouth, so it definitely should have an impact.
Yes, fat, oil, collagen, gelatin, seasonings all interact with our perception of taste and flavor.
@@ChrisYoungCooks thank you for your answer.
Then maybe this could be the reason for the better juiciness of the seared steak, or did you use oil or fat also on the sous vide one?
I think you thought of a really interesting experiment!
"Magic is just science we don't understand yet." Chris, I love how you both challenge and confirm everything our grandma's taught is about cooking. Truly, appreciate what you do. Thank you!
Ok that cooking steak and pan cut in half shot is definitely worth a sub. Now let's get cooking.
The cross section……uhm….section of that video was great. Visually stunning. The content busts a myth long held. Chris it is great you can bring your knowledge and experience to everyone in a really accessible and fun way. 👍
The research and production level is amazing!!
Bro did you really cut a pan in half? That's Flexseal level of production! Amazing, you get a subscriber
Thanks Chris, so if i understand you correctly - by taking moisture out of the browned edge of the steak during the searing process, your mouth needs to fill with more saliva, as part of the way we eat foods which are drier and need more 'work' to help chew up and wash down to our stomach.
And then because your mouth is wetter, you'll perceive the pink bit in the middle as relatively more 'juicy' even though it's actually covered in a dry crust.
Presumably if you had trimmed off the outside of the seared steak - leaving just the medium rare fleshy bit - it would have the same mouthfeel as a similarly trimmed piece of sous vide steak when compared. The extra saliva is only happening because you have a bit of dry crust to chew and swallow.
The logical extension to this is that instead of searing, you could get the same effect in terms of extra 'juice' by popping a piece of dry cardboard into your mouth with the pink fleshy meat. It would save you some cooking effort. Unfortunately, while the cardboard would contribute to extra saliva, causing some 'weight gain' in the cardboard, it's not as tasty as seared steak crust.
I suppose this is why people sear their sousvide steaks after cooking, rather than simply serving them with a pile of shredded toilet roll tubes.
Been watching since I saw your hexclad video. Great stuff dude. I love the effort you put into each video. You really go above and beyond to make these videos perfect
I'm curious why you didn't test a reverse sear to see if the amount of weight loss was difference compared to the sear-first approach? I could see an argument that cooking the meat to temp first might change how much water the searing process pulls out, and the reverse sear would solve the "juiciness in mouth" problem. Thoughts?
Did try it actually, just didn’t make the video. Moisture loss whether pre- or post-sear is the same. No statistically significant difference, which is why I didn’t bother getting into it with this video.
@@ChrisYoungCooks Was there a difference in texture or flavor? I've honestly never thought of searing meat first and THEN sous viding it, but if it's worth the trouble...
@@DouglasRosser the seared beef flavor tends to get a bit more mellow and rounded in flavor with sear first, then sous vide. The crust continues to darken during cooking because the Maillard reaction, once started, will continue to progress developing more pigment molecules.
Really enjoying my Combustion thermometer and your videos. Please keep it up. This one is like Modernist Cuisine in video.
Hey Chris, great job as always! I do have a question though….. Would there be a difference in actual juiciness between hard sear method and the constantly flipping method of cooking the steak?
I much prefer the *Cold Sear* method for my Ribeyes and NY Strips. I get hardly any grey band and pink inside. I like my steaks rare to medium rare.
Just fantastic. Leaving a comment so it'll invoke the algo overlords of YT. You'll be at 500K subs in no time!
This is awesome. I'm a big fan of the MC books, got the series sitting on my shelf in front of me. A video series that captures some of the magic of the books is something I didn't know I needed, but I'm here for it.
wth the production value is nuts
This is culinary journalism on steroid. Its truly an amazing discovery.
Brilliant video!
It also indirectly answers the question as to whether searing before or after the cook matters.
Proponents of searing before say that searing seals in the juices, so that they don’t escape during cooking. That myth in completely busted, because what matters is that the steak is seared. Searing before cooking does not help make the steak juicier.
My favorite steak preparation is to smoke my steak at 230 till it's around 110 degrees, then pull them off and hammer them with a high heat sear on my grill, pull them and rest them. It also means I never miscook steaks!
This is undoubtedly the best video on the subject. Excellent work.
I don’t know if, scientifically, searing “seals in the juices” but without the Maillard reaction you won’t eat a pale gray, bland microwaved-looking steak. Do you prefer that?
The taste of food has always been subjective. My example: Back in the day when I worked for telephone repair service (Working outdoors in all weather conditions) I could sometimes be running late for work and skip breakfast. By 9 o'clock I was hungry as heck for eggs and bacon. Stopping at a local diner the anticipation of eggs and bacon and sausage, toast, brown beans and coffee would make the "taste" heavenly ! The same breakfast at home at the kitchen table could never match that late morning diner experience.
The same thing applies when family gathers for BBQ steak, baked potatoes, steamed veggies, wine and laughter. The food tastes so much better.
When really hungry even the cheeseburger will taste better.
Great video !
If you're measuring the juiciness *effect* produced by searing, a 50% increase in juiciness over the meat's baseline weight is actually a 250% bigger effect than a 20% increase. Yes, it's a 30 percentage point difference, but your test was framed as measuring the effect produced by searing vs. not searing by comparing the final weight of the masticated meat to the starting weight of the bite of meat.
I have your combustion thermometer. About to take advantage of your sale to purchase the same for two of my sons who enjoy cooking. Interestingly they are both Oregon State Troopers. I am an M.D. So much for following in dad’d footsteps. Lol
My comment on the video. I have cooking Sous Vide with the Joule for a long time. Certainly, at least with most proteins, a sear, either before or after cooking is necessary both to develop the tasty Maillard reaction and for visual appeal. It would seem that having a Sous Vide cooked steak, without a sear in any part of the cooking process, introduces an unfair variable. Especially when using saliva production as your main indicator of juiciness
Thank you so much for your expertise
Michael
Wow. The production value here is off the charts. Very well-made video!
If this means what makes steak "juicy" is subjective, how much is "juiciness" a biological response and how much is it a learned one? For example, if you grow up eating medium-well steaks all your life and have a vehement hatred towards anything less, would a medium-well steak actually be juicier for you alone than say, a medium-rare? That would remove a lot of so called "objectivism" in cooking culture particularly around steaks.
But if biologically tastebuds prefer certain styles of cooking over others in terms of what triggers mouthwatering behaviors, then we're back to square 1 but with more interesting information.
It also prompts the question if steakhouse steaks really are better, not because the meat is better or how they cook it but the whole process and experience. Smelling and seeing cooked steaks, sides around you. Maybe even the atmosphere and what kind of drinks (i.e. maybe you always drink red wine before a steak). Mouthwatering is a basic and classic goal of conditioning experiments so this would be pretty interesting research for anyone who owns a steakhouse.
Amazing video and content. But your math is off, the seared is not 30% juicier, it's 150% juicier. Or 2.5 times juicier if you will.
50%-20% =... 30%?
Hmm
Starting moisture levels were different, so 30% is not exact number, but we get the idea.
150% 'juicer' or 30 percentile points 'juicier'.... I'm just nit-picking statistic, most people are not going to care. Fun little experiment and awesome shots.
Such a great channel and informative videos!!! Thanks so much Chris!
This is legitimate lateral thinking. Never mind the cross section (which I don't even know how you did). Never mind that I still feel like this whole channel is an advertisement for your thermometer (it's on my Christmas list). This type of thinking is unique. And this channel is so good for that thinking. Good on you.
If I remember correctly Alton Brown tested it in Good Eats, my favourite TV show back in the day. Although this production level beats that by spades👏
Great vid - love the critical approach to finding answers
That said - there are a couple of unaccounted variables. With an n of 1 we can't generalize to the whole population. Maybe some people who don't like the sear will salivate more for the other steak? Or maybe different spices will trigger different responses in different people.
For example I know someone that just doesn't like steak less than medium well done - for her the mental image of 'raw' steak might leave it feeling drier even when the medium rare is clearly more juicy.
Maybe the net effect is that the steak you love is the juiciest?!?!
Thanks for the information
M
Maybe the sear is like Gore-Tex, it allows evaporation but comparatively less leaking of both rendered fat and moisture. Cauterization isn't a myth and chemically it's the same thing.
Are the black gloves some kind of in-joke that I don't get? They're certainly not being used in a way that makes things more hygienic...I'm genuinely confused.
He cut the pan!! What a mad lad! A+ for dedication to teaching, that blew me away!
The cross-section is SO FACINATING!!! I still can't figure out how it is done. Is it CGI? Or like a glass container?
50%-20% = 30% more juice
is technically 150% “juicier”?
if correct, minimally more views? 🤔🧐
Can't be measured with scales and thermometers... *proceeds to measure it with scales and thermometers* ;) Still, 100% valid point. There are multiple data points to measure to determine overall enjoyment.
Says can't be objectively measured while objectively measuring it. I like this channel :)
Our perception can modify objective things so greatly that they might as well be purely subjective? I'm sure this video will help my cooking ability as soon as I finish the existential crisis.
Actually your measurement and evidence is still the objective truth measured objectively.
At the very most, you might have to add an additional qualifier to shush any haters: "in mouths of with typical salivary behaviors."
Saliva is used to break down complex carbohydrates into simpler carbs. That's why when you put a cracker in your mouth and let it soak, it becomes progressively sweeter. Theoretically, the sear must be a carb or close enough to evoke saliva production.
but.. steak "juiciness" is the liquefied FAT content.. not water... the fat doesnt escape like the water does.. seems like this experiment is not addressing the issue!
Wow...another great video. You always make the science behind cooking interesting. I'm blown away by your cut away frying pan.
Just discovered this channel. My fav already. HIDDEN GEM!!!!!
I love the dedication to challenge your beliefs. I also have a question, why does the seared piece have a greater measure of juices gained? Is it really causing the mouth the produce more saliva? I understand the premise of parching your mouth the yield start from an equal starting point. Yet are you weighing only the food? Or are you weighing the food plus the retained saliva create form chewing? What if the dedication zone of the seared piece being drier is cabals of collecting more saliva than the non-seared and that could mean it’s advantage of saliva retention yields a greater weight gain. I think you could answer this question using your cotton balls. After you remove the chewed piece of steak you could add cotton balls you previously weighed dry and then use them to collect the remaining saliva produced from chewing the steak. This could account for all the saliva produced and could answer if the seared steak is produces more saliva or if it’s the same amount saliva but rather it’s seared crust allows for more juices to be retained than the non-seared? Perhaps this is a moot point, where the retention is the factor to indicate juiciness. It’s interesting none the less, because it appears the intent is to determine which stimulates the most saliva production as indication of yielding juiciness, so if that’s the case, you would need to account for all the saliva produced, that retained in the chewed steak and that in the mouth. Also what if there is a factor of the non-seared having the capacity to loose more moisture from chewing where the seared steak has less moisture to loose. In that case you would need to evaluate on a curve to account for moisture to lean mass ratio. Also variations in intramuscular fat could be a factors so an exception lean muscle would be ideal to avoid intramuscular fat discrepancies. Not trying to be rude, just was a fun exercise analyze your experiment. That’s what makes your content fun!
That cutaway was one of the coolest FX ive ever seen. Super interesting that saliva is such a contributive factor to juiciness..
Chris doesn't just answer questions from his experience as a chef, he breaks down the science and gathers empirical data to produce tangible results and hard numbers that can't be denied. You can't argue with that.
I do think there's some benefit to putting things into context as well. I believe the myth is mainly operative on giving home cooks at the time the olutdated impression that if you aren't able to develop a crust quickly enough, then it's better to err on the side of overshooting a steak past one's desired doneness to develop the sear, since it's the development of the crust that allegedly keeps the juices in. Enthusiasts slammed this myth in order to enncourage home cooks to not be afraid to stop cooking below one's desired doneness, to account for carryover cooking. If put into such a context, I think it's still understandable why this should remain labelled as a myth because it tends to perpetuate bad habits from a more ignorant era of home cooking.
In practice, this is to say that a well-seared crust combined with the desired doneness, together, will always be optimal, and that this is more attainable than ever with current knowledge and techniques. But in the event of insufficient heat and experience from the cook, I think that a medium-rare steak with a spotty crust would probably still be subjectively more delicious than if they had cooked it to well-done to develop the sear more fully. Having a crust is better than no crust, as you proved. But an incomplete crust is still preferrable to a full sear, if in cases where the latter is at the expense of overcooking the inside.
That's an astoudingly astute investigation about steak cooking. It makes the whole concept of scientific enterprise worthwhile to the epicurious.
6:18 I don't find the experiment gross as such. That 70s porn score, though...
Bless your sacrificing heart. I litteraly gagged at my desk when you mentioned chewing on cottonballs...
All this makes sense from an evolutionary prospective. Our ancestors evolved in such a way that food that is charred by fire on the surface activates our brain's reward system since fire cooked food is safer. Food that looks pale and uncooked is perceived naturally as unsafe. That's also why we have such strong preference for charcoal grilled steak over gas grilled or pan seared.
It's an incorrect methodology. Seared meat Mya be tastier and therefore you produce more salviva, it doesn't mean the meat has more juices. You should have squeezed the meat
I can only imagine Alton Brown watching this then looking at the styrofoam balls, pool noodles, and sock puppets he’s holding.
From the fact of your experiment I think I've come to a different conclusion than yours. If what made a steak juicer is us, then what about people who doesn't like a sear on their steak? Wouldn't that made their mouth less watery and in effect made the steak less juicier? Or are you prepared to say that all the people in the world has the same taste and all of their moth waters when they see, and chew a seared steak?
Any behind The scenes on The crossfit steak and pan? :o mindblowing