| AIRED VERSION | ALTON BROWN COMMENTARY ON AIRED VERSION |
A TALE OF TWO ROASTS (UNAIRED VERSION) [note: this show may be the reason it was originally called Family Roast] |
ALTON BROWN COMMENTARY ON UNAIRED VERSION | ||||||||||||||||
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As the holidays approach, Alton ponders the perfect roast beast, comes to terms with aging, discovers new ways to have fun with flower pots and produces the carnivores delight. |
Alton shares his innermost thoughts on this episode. |
The never-before seen version of Family Roast has a different take for tackling the holiday meal. This version has never made it to air and now you can see and hear the story directly from Alton. |
Alton shares his innermost thoughts on this episode. | ||||||||||||||||
SCENE 1
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Alton
Brown here. Evil Mastermind of Good Eats here to point out some things.
Like, for instance, this [cave wall] is Styrofoam. This is a piece of
Styrofoam. And this [table] is just a piece of wood in good lighting. Getting hold of those gauntlet hands, that's kind of hard to do. Okay, and this scene is a take of on the carving station, of course, at weddings. This is like the first time that I've had on Chef's whites on in like, I don't know, 3 years. Notice how thin I was then and how much hair I had. What went wrong? I don't know. If I remember correctly, this was just a curtain out in the middle of a sound stage. We used to rent a sound stage a few times a year to do scenes like this that we couldn't do anywhere else.
[note: at this time, they were still taping in the actual home of the producers Dana Popoff and Marion Laney.] |
SCENE 1
|
Alton
Brown here. Evil Mastermind of Good Eats here to point out some things.
Like, for instance, this [cave wall] is Styrofoam. This is a piece of
Styrofoam. And this [table] is just a piece of wood in good lighting. Getting hold of those gauntlet hands, that's kind of hard to do. Okay, and this scene is a take of on the carving station, of course, at weddings. This is like the first time that I've had on Chef's whites on in like, I don't know, 3 years. Notice how thin I was then and how much hair I had. What went wrong? I don't know. If I remember correctly, this was just a curtain out in the middle of a sound stage. We used to rent a sound stage a few times a year to do scenes like this that we couldn't do anywhere else.
[note: at this time, they were still taping in the actual home of the producers Dana Popoff and Marion Laney.] |
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[Good Eats Theme plays] |
I've never liked this animation. We designed it for the first shows, the pilot episodes, and I always meant to go back and replace it and I never did. |
[Good Eats Theme plays] |
I've never liked this animation. We designed it for the first shows, the pilot episodes, and I always meant to go back and replace it. | ||||||||||||||||
SCENE 4
|
Now see, I have to look at what
watch I'm wearing to know what season this is. This is season 5. I can
tell by the ???? timepiece. And that is not an endorsement by any means. |
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SCENE 5
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| [inside the meat cabinet pointing to examples] 'Prime' is the solid gold watch of the beef world. It's beautifully formed and heavily marbled. You notice there's not a lot of fat around the meat but there's a good bit inside the meat. That means it's going to melt in your mouth when it's cooked. Unfortunately there's not a lot of prime out there so you're going to be hard pressed to find it outside of a top steak house or a specialty butcher shop. Personally, I'm more than happy to cook and consume a piece of prime beef as long as somebody else is paying for it. |
Prime |
| One notch down is 'choice' beef. It's kind of like the watch you wear to work and to the occasional wedding. There's not as much intramuscular fat—there's a little more around the outer mass—but there's plenty of beef flavor here and a relatively high meat-to-bone ratio. When I'm buying, I usually buy choice. |
Choice |
| The next down is 'select'. 'Select' is kind of like, you know, that watch you keep in your desk at work when you leave your real watch at home. There's a good bit of bone, a good bit of connective tissue and it's kind of chewy. The truth is most butchers don't even deal with this stuff except as stew meat. It makes great stew because a lot of connective tissue. |
Select |
When it comes to roast, I'll take that [choice] one.
CC: That's a great piece of meat, Mr. B., but I'd suggest this one.
AB: What's the deal? They're, they're, they're both rib roasts?
CC: It's off of the same rib cut, but this comes from the loin end.
AB: What difference does that make?
CC: It's got one, less connective tissue and also has less bone mass in there as well. So pound for pound, dollar for dollar, you're getting more meat.
AB: So let me get this straight. Same cut, better value, less money.
CC: That's correct.
AB: I'll take 4 bones worth.
Ha, ha, ha. Another great reason for having your own personal butcher. Of course when you're buying beef these days, you're going to run into some other terms you're going to be curious about: all-natural, certified organic, um, hormone-free for instance. Want to find out more about those? Check out foodtv.com.
AB: Chris, thanks for setting me up, man. Just put this one my tab, okay? [begins to leave]
CC: Um, Mr. B. I'm going to need some cash.
[sighs] Oh bother.
And this is a little Deli in Atlanta that's got a really nice
little meat counter we moved around a lot. I don't think this guy
owns the place anymore. I don't think they got bought.
By the way, there is no Eliminator Cab. That's not a real
bowling shirt. That's from a company that makes reproductions.
Now this is important, this whole business about prime rib
and the fact that prime rib is only prime if is comes from prime.
See, now there you go: pork and lamb you can also get prime ribs.
I actually don't like prime beef that much. I think it's too
fatty. And when it comes to grilling, a lot of people think that
grilling prime meat is a good thing. But all of that fat oozes out,
goes down onto the coals and the flame bar, what have you, and
ignites. I think that choice is a far, far better choice for
grilling. And you know, you're paying for this huge amount of
fat. And if you don't cook it just right, it oozes out all over the
place.
I always prefer choice. I mean, I guess if I was going to go
have, you know, steak at a Japanese restaurant where I was going to
have Kobe, you know I would want that to be prime. But I think Kobe
steak is prime by definition. Anyway, I think the choice is a much,
much better deal.
Ah, select. Select is okay for making hamburgers. But it's
not good for much else.
Gosh, look at all that hair. Just amazing, isn't it? I guess it'll all fall out eventually.
Doing these kind of scenes is always kind of complicated
because the lighting is so strange in the uh ...
Oh, this is important. Yeah, [the loin end] has less
connective tissue by a long shot and less bone mass. So you're
actually getting a better ratio of meat to bone if you go from
something from the loin end.
I always buy roast by the bone. And usually, at home, when I do a
real standing rib roast, I just eat the ribs. I cut off the rib with
the meat that's in between them and I give everybody else the meat.
And I just chop the meat from the bones and gnaw on the bones which
is a heck of a lot tastier.
There is no foodtv.com anymore, by the way. It's foodnetwork.com.
And there he is wanting cash.
Oh bother.
SCENE 4
New Yorker Marketplace & Deli: Atlanta, GA
GUEST: Chris Casper, Butcher
Question: how can any culture that has more lawyers than butchers call itself a civilization?
CHRIS CASPER: Hey, my brother's a lawyer.
AB: Ooo. A shame your parents must bear.
CC: Well, at least they still have me.
AB: True. Tell me, what do you roast when you want to roast something really special.
CC: Ah, that's easy. That'd have to be a standing rib roast.
Ah, he must mean a prime rib.
CC: Not necessarily. There's a difference there. Prime rib must come from prime
beef. Otherwise it's just a standing rib roast.
Besides beef, standing rib roasts also come in pork and lamb flavors.
| [inside the meat cabinet pointing to examples] 'Prime' is the solid gold watch of the beef world. It's beautifully formed and heavily marbled. You notice there's not a lot of fat around the meat but there's a good bit inside the meat. That means it's going to melt in your mouth when it's cooked. Unfortunately there's not a lot of prime out there so you're going to be hard pressed to find it outside of a top steak house or a specialty butcher shop. Personally, I'm more than happy to cook and consume a piece of prime beef as long as somebody else is paying for it. |
Prime |
| One notch down is 'choice' beef. It's kind of like the watch you wear to work and to the occasional wedding. There's not as much intramuscular fat—there's a little more around the outer mass—but there's plenty of beef flavor here and a relatively high meat-to-bone ratio. When I'm buying, I usually buy choice. |
Choice |
| The next down is 'select'. 'Select' is kind of like, you know, that watch you keep in your desk at work when you leave your real watch at home. There's a good bit of bone, a good bit of connective tissue and it's kind of chewy. The truth is most butchers don't even deal with this stuff except as stew meat. It makes great stew because a lot of connective tissue. |
Select |
When it comes to roast, I'll take that [choice] one.
CC: That's a great piece of meat, Mr. B., but I'd suggest this one.
AB: What's the deal? They're, they're, they're both rib roasts?
CC: It's off of the same rib cut, but this comes from the loin end.
AB: What difference does that make?
CC: It's got one, less connective tissue and also has less bone mass in there as well. So pound for pound, dollar for dollar, you're getting more meat.
AB: So let me get this straight. Same cut, better value, less money.
CC: That's correct.
AB: I'll take 4 bones worth.
Ha, ha, ha. Another great reason for having your own personal butcher. Of course when you're buying beef these days, you're going to run into some other terms you're going to be curious about: all-natural, certified organic, um, hormone-free for instance. Want to find out more about those? Check out foodtv.com.
AB: Chris, thanks for setting me up, man. Just put this one my tab, okay? [begins to leave]
CC: Um, Mr. B. I'm going to need some cash.
[sighs] Oh bother.
And this is a little Deli in Atlanta that's got a really nice
little meat counter we moved around a lot. I don't think this guy
owns the place anymore. I don't think they got bought.
By the way, there is no Eliminator Cab. That's not a real
bowling shirt. That's from a company that makes reproductions.
Now this is important, this whole business about prime rib
and the fact that prime rib is only prime if is comes from prime.
See, now there you go: pork and lamb you can also get prime ribs.
Heavy marbling. I actually don't like prime beef that much. I think it's too
fatty. And when it comes to grilling, a lot of people think that
grilling prime meat is a good thing. But all of that fat oozes out,
goes down onto the coals and the flame bar, what have you, and
ignites. I think that choice is a far, far better choice for
grilling. And you know, you're paying for this huge amount of
fat. And if you don't cook it just right, it oozes out all over the
place.
Yeah, there's choice. I always prefer choice. I mean, I guess if I was going to go
have, you know, steak at a Japanese restaurant where I was going to
have Kobe, you know I would want that to be prime. But I think Kobe
steak is prime by definition. Anyway, I think the choice is a much,
much better deal.
Ah, select. Select is okay for making hamburgers. But it's
not good for much else.
Gosh, look at all that hair. Just amazing, isn't it? I guess it'll all fall out eventually.
Doing these kind of scenes is always kind of complicated
because the lighting is so strange in the uh ...
Oh, this is important. Yeah, [the loin end] has less
connective tissue by a long shot and less bone mass. So you're
actually getting a better ratio of meat to bone if you go from
something from the loin end.
I always buy roast by the bone. And usually, at home, when I do a
real standing rib roast, I just eat the ribs. I cut off the rib with
the meat that's in between them and I give everybody else the meat.
And I just chop the meat from the bones and gnaw on the bones which
is a heck of a lot tastier.
There is no foodtv.com anymore, by the way. It's foodnetwork.com.
And there he is wanting cash.
Oh bother.
SCENE 6
The Kitchen
Like balsamic vinegar and hard cheese, beef improves with age. That's because like vinegar and cheese, beef is mostly water.
In fact, about eight and a half pounds of this ten and a half pound roast is indeed H2O, a substance not famous for its flavor.
However, in just a few days we can eliminate enough of that water to seriously intensify the flavor of the meat. This is going to take time.
But that's okay, because meanwhile, enzymes inside the meat will be hard at work breaking down connective tissue, and that means a more tender
piece of meat.
Of course, um, there's a not so wide line between aging and rotting. So we have to observe some guidelines.
We need a temperature between 36 and 38 degrees, humidity around 50 percent, and plenty of air circulation. Sounds like
a job for your friendly neighborhood chill chest. Now you could leave the roast just hanging around on a plate, but we are talking about raw
meat here. That's why I cover mine with this prolifically perforated plastic bin. The holes promote air flow while the meat's juices are safely
sequestered. Now just put this as far back and down in your fridge as possible. How long? Well as little as 24 hours would make a difference,
but for a 10 pounder like this, 72 would be a lot better. Oh, you do have one of these [refrigerator thermometers] don't you?
You know, "Oh, Bother," that's from Winnie the Pooh, okay?
Some of you don't remember ... You wouldn't think that Winnie the
Pooh would be a regular reference for me. But I find that Pooh sums
up a lot of ... He wasn't terribly bright. I'm not terribly bright
either.
That's the same kind of scale that they used to weigh brains
and body parts when they do autopsies. I think that's where it may
have actually come from.
Now you see this little, this little box contraption that
let's the air flow? I only did that because, you know, everybody
wants everything to be non-contaminatable, you know. They want
everything to be safe from a food safety standpoint. When I really
do this at home, I just leave the thing uncovered. I've got
this old refrigerator down in the basement and I take it down there
and I just put it in there and I leave it uncovered so I've got
plenty of airflow. And if I want to speed up that process, you put a
little fan in there. You know those little battery operated fans?
And you put it in the refrigerator so that you get some convection
going. And you can do a really, really nice job of dry-aging a piece
of meat in very, very little time.
Ah, the refrigerator cam. You know, you see a lot of
refrigerator cam done these days. I saw a TV commercial the other
day with a refrigerator cam. But are they, like, sending me
thank you notes? No. I'm not getting any love from anybody.
SCENE 5
B.A.'s Apartment
To illustrate just how
simple roasting a great roast is, I've decided to roast my roast
here in my brother's roast which has got to be the most
gastronomically barren spots on planet earth. Liker urban T's on
Sorphia Lorren, beer improves with age. Why? Well, think about it.
Like all meat, beef is mostly from water. Now water is not famous
for having a whole lot of flavor. But believe it or not, after aging—just
a couple of days in the refrigerator—this piece of beef will loose
up to a cup of water: less water, more flavor. But wait, there's
more. During this time, enzymes inside the meat are continuing to go
about their business, breaking down connective tissue. So besides
more flavor, it's also going to be more tender.
Of course, if we don't stick to some guidelines, this can become a very
expensive and very stinky laboratory experiment. We need about 50 to
60 percent humidity, which is pretty close to what most residential
refrigerators maintain. We also have to have extremely good airflow.
Now you could just leave this meat uncovered in there and it would
certainly dry-age. But that's just a little too unsanitary for me.
Which is why I constructed this roast crypt. It's just a
plastic container that I've drilled full of holes. Placed thusly
[on top of the container containing the roast] I get
plenty of airflow while keeping things reasonably contained.
|
[now at the fridge] So, where does this go? Like Flip Wilson said, "On the booth in the back in the corner in the dark." All the way on the bottom shelf, all the way in the back. [sniffs] Ooo. Of course, there's kind of a thin line between dry aging and, well, rotting. And the line is temperature. You've got to keep this box between 34 and 38 degrees or what is in this box [the beef] will be in jeopardy. The only way to be absolutely sure, install one of these [fridge thermometers]. There's got to be one in every refrigerator in my world. |
Dry age your beef in the fridge for 2-4 days. |
[opens the oven] Hey, I've been looking for that mixer. Now, admittedly, a skilled grillman can cook a wonderful roast over open coals. But most of us do our roasting in an oven. But if your oven looks like a set piece from Journey To The Center Of The Earth, you'd better not expect much in the way of actual performance from it. Why? Well, because cleanliness is next to ... hot-liness. Yeah.
And here comes the part of the show never seen before by civilian eyes.
The first place that we decided to do this show, was in a home owned by
a friend of a guy named Sother Teague who was the head of our culinary
department at the time. And we decided what we really wanted was the
antithesis of anything that you ever seen on a culinary show. Because,
you know, everything in food shows is nice and shiny and new. So we
decided to go into this really, really semi-ratty kind of place and
pretend it was my brother's, B.A., my alter ego, my doppelganger,
whatever. And that I would go to his house to do this.
I thought that it worked great. I thought it was really funny. And the
confines forced us to do some things we ordinarily wouldn't do with
camera placement and whatnot. But the creative folks in programming at
Food Network, at least at the time, decided that it was just too
extreme, too unattractive and requested that we re-shoot it. And we did.
We re-shot those scenes that, you know, that are shot here in this
house. And that's the way that the show aired. So now the original
version is being released and, I have to say, the version that I like
the most. Although I do like the spinning oven we ended up using in the
final version that was aired. I like this funky kind of nasty place. And
there's something about it that, I don't know, ... I'm glad that people
are finally getting to see this.
And believe me, this place got cleaned a lot before we used it. The guy
cleaned a lot.
It really did smell funny in there. I mean, this is like college guys.
Guys that, you know, I mean ... really ... not ... ornate. It was
perfect for this. The whole thing was that my brother was in a
convention, I can't remember ... He's a dentist or something. I can't
remember what it was. But he's in Vegas on a convention. And for some
reason I'm stuck in his house.
Now there's the mixer that he stole from me back in
American Pickle.
And we used that same goof, that same situation in the version that
aired. But the oven wasn't nearly as bad as this. This is the actual
oven in that actual house.
"Journey to the Center of the Earth." That's pretty funny. That's pretty
ghastly, isn't it? I have no idea what they've got on the walls of oven.
And now we go back to ...
SCENE 7
The Kitchen: 3 Days Later
Three days later and, uh,
the meat definitely looks dry on the outside. How dry is it really?
Well, wow. Nine pounds. That's a loss of something like 12.7
percent. That means the meat's going to taste that much more intense
and be that much more tender. Now if you've aged more than a couple
of days you might notice some little leathery spots on the meat.
That's okay. Just trim them off, making the cuts as shallow as
possible. You may also notice a slightly funky aroma. That's okay.
The smell of success.
Now just cover and leave on the counter for an hour. By
starting with a room temperature roast there's going to be less of a
differential between the oven and the inner core of the meat. And
that is going to help the roast to cook more evenly throughout. Also
gives us time to consider the cooking apparatus itself.
Top steak houses
may dry age
beef for up to 4 months.
[referring to the opening shot of the dry-aged meat] Yeah,
that looks disgusting. That "looks" disgusting, but it isn't.
It's got a nice dry coat on the outside. You can see that ... 12.7%
... like you figured that out in your head. I couldn't have figured
that out if you had given me an abacus and a calculator. Somebody
had to do that for me. I do not have much in the way of math skills.
Now this is back when we shot in a real kitchen and you can
tell because of the kind of the dimensions of things. And the fact
that the back room looks the way a real room does.
Ah, that was a bad cut. That's because I messed up something.
That was a bad cut. I hate when I see that.
"the cooking apparatus itself."
Now this is going into a scene. This show, as you probably
know if you have this DVD, is actually shot twice. It's the only
episode of Good Eats where that happened because they didn't like
the way I shot the first one.
SCENE 8
The Kitchen
To illustrate how utterly elementary roasting a great roast is, I've opted to roast my roast here, in my brother's oven. Now
don't worry. He's not going to miss it. He's at an orthodontist convention in Vegas. Besides I'm not sure he'd miss it even if he was here. Now
do we brave a look inside? I'm afraid we must.
[finds a mixer in the oven] Hey, I'd figured that mixer for a goner. You know, uh, most of us—certainly my brother—take this
space for granted, even abuse it a little. And that's bad because when it comes to ovens, cleanliness is next to hot-liness.
And this was originally in a scene that was in my brother's
house. Of course, my brother doesn't exist.
I don't remember where that oven came from. But that oven's
from, like, 1947 or something. Very, very old. A real beauty. It
still worked, too.
We had this on a turntable like they use for car commercials.
It's a big turntable that can handle a lot of weight.
Now those of you who are big Good Eats fans, will remember
that my brother stole that [mixer] from me in an episode called
American Pickle
and it's finally showing up again.
SCENE 9
Racquetball Court
Now let's say for just a minute that this [racquetball court] is the interior of a really clean oven. Okay now depending on
whether you own gas or electric, when you turn that thermostat to bake, one of two things is going to happen. Either an electric coil located
right along the floor is going to start glowing red or a gas burner located just under the floor is going to fire. Either way the air near the
floor is going to absorb heat, expand, and go up [throws red ball up in the air] to your food. There it's going to give up some of its heat and
return [a blue ball falls back down] a little bit cooler thus setting up a convection current which, if you have a convection oven, is going to
be enhanced by an electric fan. But, there's something else going on here, too.
Infrared waves are being emitted, either by the coil or the oven floor itself. Now these waves are going to ricochet all
around the oven and given time they're going to hit your food from just about every angle. Just even the nooks and crannies of this chicken.
Now since there's a pan protecting your food from direct thermal onslaught this is a relatively mild cooking method. I mean this doesn't carry
the kind of energy womp as 350 degree oil. Therein lies the essence of roasting: even, omni-directional heat. But what happens if your oven walls
are all scummed up?
[black drapes fall across the court walls] Now the energy meant for your roast is being either deflected by or absorbed by the
grunge on your oven walls. Now that's not to say that your beast isn't going to take a few hits here and there. But believe me, in the end it's
going to end up being done on one side and underdone on the other.
This next scene, this is a racquetball court at a health club
in Atlanta. The sound in there was really horrible. But I think this
is one of my favorite explanations of a science issue on Good Eats.
It was a lot of fun to shoot right up until the time when
they turned on the machine that throws the tennis balls. You don't
realize it, that it's ... [now referring to the oversized tennis
ball] ... of course, that's not a real tennis ball and someone up
there caught it. And I don't know remember how that happened,
exactly. And it comes down blue. It's amazing how many people don't
actually recognize that the ball changed colors.
[referring to the last line of this paragraph] Yeah, you bet
there is. It's you getting hit by tennis balls coming out of this
machine that just sends out these balls in an incredibly high
velocity. And you can't really see them because they move so fast.
And trust me, I'm getting nailed like 1 out of 5 balls is hitting
me. And I feel certain that that's because the prop guys were aiming
it at me. Did you see that one? It was right at my belt-line. That
hurt. Don't think that that didn't hurt.
I especially like the little helmet that they made for my chicken.
The very same guys that are pelting me with the tennis balls made
that little helmet for the chicken.
Oh, see that? That hurt. And that almost hit the microphone,
too. That's why you could hear it so well.
Now believe it or not, we never actually ... This is
moving to another location. It looked like we dropped curtains but
we didn't. That's on a sound stage in Atlanta. Because we couldn't
figure out how to rig the curtains on the actual walls of the health
club, there. Good illustration though. I like that.
SCENE 6
Racquetball Court
Now let's say for just a
minute that this [racquetball court]
is the interior of a really clean oven. Okay now depending on
whether you own gas or electric, when you turn that thermostat to
bake, one of two things is going to happen. Either an electric coil
located right along the floor is going to start glowing red or a gas
burner located just under the floor is going to fire. Either way the
air near the floor is going to absorb heat, expand, and go up
[throws red ball up in the air] to your food. There it's
going to give up some of its heat and return [a blue ball falls back down] a little bit cooler thus
setting up a convection current which, if you have a convection
oven, is going to be enhanced by an electric fan. But, there's
something else going on here, too.
Infrared waves are being emitted, either by the coil or
the oven floor itself. Now these waves are going to ricochet all
around the oven and given time they're going to hit your food from
just about every angle. Just even the nooks and crannies of this
chicken. Now since there's a pan protecting your food from direct
thermal onslaught this is a relatively mild cooking method. I mean
this doesn't carry the kind of energy womp as 350 degree oil.
Therein lies the essence of roasting: even, omni-directional heat.
But what happens if your oven walls are all scummed up?
[black drapes fall across the
court walls] Now the energy meant for your roast is being
either deflected by or absorbed by the grunge on your oven walls.
Now that's not to say that your beast isn't going to take a few hits
here and there. But believe me, in the end it's going to end up
being done on one side and underdone on the other.
... this is a racquetball court at a health club
in Atlanta. The sound in there was really horrible. But I think this
is one of my favorite explanations of a science issue on Good Eats.
It was a lot of fun to shoot right up until the time when
they turned on the machine that throws the tennis balls. You don't
realize it, that it's ... [now referring to the oversized tennis
ball] ... of course, that's not a real tennis ball and someone up
there caught it. And I don't know remember how that happened,
exactly. And it comes down blue. It's amazing how many people don't
actually recognize that the ball changed colors.
[referring to the last line of this paragraph] Yeah, you bet
there is. It's you getting hit by tennis balls coming out of this
machine that just sends out these balls in an incredibly high
velocity. And you can't really see them because they move so fast.
And trust me, I'm getting nailed like 1 out of 5 balls is hitting
me. And I feel certain that that's because the prop guys were aiming
it at me. Did you see that one? It was right at my belt-line. That
hurt. Don't think that that didn't hurt.
I especially like the little helmet that they made for my chicken.
The very same guys that are pelting me with the tennis balls made
that little helmet for the chicken.
Oh, see that? That hurt. And that almost hit the microphone,
too. That's why you could hear it so well.
Now believe it or not, we never actually ... This is
moving to another location. It looked like we dropped curtains but
we didn't. That's on a sound stage in Atlanta. Because we couldn't
figure out how to rig the curtains on the actual walls of the health
club, there.
SCENE 10
The Kitchen
Well there's no way my roast is going to get a fair trial in here. I could take the time to run it through, maybe, 3 or 4
self-cleaning cycles. But I can also find an intermediary structure. Excuse me for a moment. Now if I remember correctly the original Dutch
ovens were made of brick, not cast iron. And that makes sense because nothing heats as evenly as ceramic.
And a nice cut, see. Coming from black to black like that. I like that.
I like that with the turntable.
SCENE 7
The Kitchen
[since there are no commercials for this unaired episode, this ends up being one long scene]
Now although I seriously doubt we'll ever get this box back up to factory specs, I think we would certainly profit from running it through a nice long self-cleaning cycle.
An oven self clean cycle is simply a highly elevated temperature of 800ºF coupled with an oven door locking mechanism to protect the cook.
|
Two days later and our roast is definitely dry on the outside. How dry is it on the inside? Well, let's see. When we purchased this, it weighed about 9 and 1/2 pounds. Now it weighs ... |
2 Days Later |
AB: Scale please. [a grocery Detecto scale cranks into view]
... let's see. [places the scale on the scale]
Yeah. Jeepers. We've lost almost a pound of water. That's a pint to you
and me. That means that every single bite of this roast is going to be
even more luscious, even more flavorful, even more delicious than it
would have been before we aged it. Technically, it's also going to be a
little bit more expensive. But hey, it's worth it.
[sniffs the meat] Okay, you may notice that when dry-aging beef
there is a little bit of an aroma, okay? We're used to our beef being so
squeaky clean that there's no smell at all. This is going to have a
nice, kind of, earthy aroma. That's okay. That's the smell of success.
|
[back in the oven] Now just the move the ... [notices the grunge in the oven] ... egads. It would appear my brother's self-cleaning function is truly defunct. There's no way my roast is going to get a fair trail in this mess. What I need is an intermediary closure; something that will take whatever heat dinosaur will generate evenly feed it into the roast. Now what I need is like, a big Dutch oven. But I don't have a .... Wait a minute. |
Roast in a clean oven, or a clean intermediary structure. |
Now we're back to the nasty brother's house and the dirty oven.
Self-cleaning, of course, is nothing more than a really, really, really,
really high heating. You know, most self-cleaning ovens run up to about
850 degrees. And I like cooking pizzas at that temperature. So, I
actually used to have an oven where I had filed off, or I should say
sawed off, the locking mechanism so I could access the oven during the
self-clean. So that way I could do cookies, sorry, pizzas at a really,
really high temperature.
I love that scale. We ended up using it in the final aired version as
well. It's not an advertisement for Detecto scales, believe me. I just
love that swing in and swing out. I kind of got caught up there for a
second.
We used this one camera position which I think was from the top of the
refrigerator because it was, like, the only angle on the entire kitchen
that we could work. We couldn't move the steadicam around in there. So
we had to go with a static camera for most of the show with me just
sitting there. It's kind of like a security camera feel.
Yes, truly defunct. This whole idea of using the terra cotta pot to cook
in actually did come out of a situation where I was living in a place
that had a very, very, very very messed up oven and was trying to find a
way to get around that.
Now this terracotta planter borrowed from a neighbor is going to soak up whatever heat this thermo geezer can generate and then radiate it evenly to the roast. Now to avoid thermal shock, we're going to start this in a cold oven. Oh, and since we're going to want to make a pan sauce we're going to need another vessel that will fit inside, just big enough to hold the roast. Now we will bring this up to heat but remember, never, ever trust an oven. [places thermometer inside]
Ah, yes. Dutch ovens. This whole method ... If I've had any ... You know, people will come up and comment to me about stuff they see on the show a lot. But a lot of people didn't believe me about the terra cotta pot. And I picked this up at a nursery near my house up in Atlanta and started messing around with this method of cooking. And people said, "This is crazy. It's not going to work. There's no way I'm going to do that." And then people did, a couple of people started trying it and it worked really, really well. And they posted on the internet how well it worked. And other people started trying it. And now I've got, probably, 500 people come up to me over the last couple of years and comment about how, "we did the flower pot roast, it was really really good."
Now if memory serves me correctly,
the original Dutch ovens weren't cast iron at all. They were brick. And
that makes a lot of sense. Because nothing heats more evenly than
ceramic. Now this terracotta planter "borrowed" from next door, ought to
be a perfect oven inside an oven. In fact, you could use almost any
kiln-fired, unglazed vessel. Just make sure you put it in the oven when
the oven is cold. Otherwise, thermal shock will crack it like an egg.
Oh, and since we want to deglaze the pan that the roast is
sitting in, we're going to have to put something inside of this because
you can't really deglaze terra cotta. So, we'll just use a big pan. Of
course this one's not going to fit because of the ...
[handle, which he snaps off easily]
... handle. There we go. we'll let that preheat along with the rest of
the rig. Perfect.
This is all pretty much, based
on truth. "They were brick," that's right. So we're using the terra
cotta pot ... The importanat thing about cooking with terra cotta like
this, is that you use unglazed terra cotta. I find the ones made in
Italy are the best. Although, some people have told me you want American
ones, because American ones use a cleaner kind of clay. But you know
what? I've been cooking with this stuff for years and I haven't sprouted
a third eye, yet. So, I feel pretty good about it.
So far, we've got, like, two camera positions in this room. The one
inside the oven and the one on top of the refrigerator which is kind of
funny, I think.
{laughs at himself taking off the pan handle] So we sacrificed pan.
That's not so bad. I thought that was kind of funny, myself. And on goes
the lid. I can't imagine why anybody didn't like that [unaired] show.
Most reliable roast recipes suggest a two-tiered cooking approach. First you sear the meat over high heat in order to create a golden brown and delicious crust. Then you drop the temperature so that the roast can finish low and slow. Now this is a fine philosophy and yet fatally flawed because the higher the heat involved the more proteins in the meat are damaged therefore the more juices lost. So if we give it all this high heat at the very beginning, we're going to have more juice lost through the cooking process. So I say flip it. We're going to start the roast at a balmy 200 degrees until it reaches a certain internal temp then we'll put the spurs to it. In the meantime we'll take a little time to prep and maybe check on the fire extinguisher.
This all was
originally set in my brother's kitchen. But, you know, it was pretty
disgusting looking place and Food Network wouldn't go for that. I'm
glad somebody's finally going to get to see that show, though.
"...the more proteins that will be damaged, therefore the
more juices blah blah blah blah."
See, the common misconception is that you should always
sear first. But you shouldn't. You should always sear after you've
done the rest of the cooking. You save a lot more moisture that's
inside the food that way.
It's always good to have a fire extinguisher.
|
[setting the oven controls]
A great majority of roast recipes call for an initial
sear either on the cook top or in a 500 degree oven. The
idea is to create the hard deep-brown crust on the
outside of the meat and the drop the temperature and let
the roast coast the rest of the way to doneness. This is
an okay philosophy. But the truth is, is high heat
damages proteins, okay, and that translates to more
moisture loss. Now if we provide this big squeeze at the
onset of cooking, we're going to lose more juices
through the cooking process. And what's worse, they're
going to evaporate out of the pan before we get a chance
to turn them into a dipping sauce. And hey, that just
wouldn't be right. |
Bring meat to room temperature before roasting |
Go ahead and let this preheat for about 45 minutes just to get that terra cotta nice and hot. Meanwhile, we prep.
I think that oven was from 1961
or something like that. You know the thing is, is I think that most of
us have at some point in our life lived in a place that looked like
this. I mean, for me, heck, when I was in college, would have been a
step up from what I lived in. I don't think there's anything out of
character ... ??? Most of us have an experience like this.
Then only exception to this rule about searing, you know, doing the
searing after the main cooking is poultry. I always sear poultry first
because there's that subcutaneous um ....
|
Good beef, appropriately aged, needs very little help in the flavor department. Rub down with a canola oil, a few grinds of black pepper, and a little kosher salt is all we need. Now aside from seasoning, the salt will actually coax protein-rich liquids to the surface of the meat and that will aid in crust creation later on. |
Canola Oil |
I love that [oil] can. "A little canola oil." That oil container was something we were trying to convert from an Italian Mechanics oil can. And we thought that we were going to be able to use it for oil, but it started falling apart on the inside. Obviously it wasn't food grade metals so we quit using it. It's just another example of something we were trying to ????
|
As far as I'm
concerned, a good piece of beef appropriately aged
doesn't need much in the way of interloping flavors,
okay? A little oil would be a good idea. Just use a
little vegetable, canola, oil, a teaspoon tops, rubbed
on. |
Canola Oil Kosher Salt |
Now believe it or not, salt is not going to do anything. Nothing! Nothing at all for the interior flavor of the meat, okay? All it is going to do is pull juices up out of the meat. And that's important, though, because it's going to help create a better crust. It's also going to season the drippings of the meat which is a nice plus. Again, don't forget the bone side. You want to get this everywhere. Just sprinkle it on. I kind of like to pat it on to make sure it's thoroughly adhered to the meat. And don't forget the ends. Of course, this [end] is going to season the ends of the meat, which for two fortunate diners, well, that's a very good thing. And I'm going to make sure I get one of them. There. A little bit more on this end. There we go.
... Oh, we're going handheld [camera].
I love this that the door keeps opening. It really did do that.
Um, I sear poultry first because you want the subcutaneous fat to
move around and kind of fry the skin from the inside. But we don't need
the use of that subcutaneous fat in, you know, beef or pork. And the
truth is, is there isn't that much. It's kind of clotty; it's not all
around. So there's no reason not to do your searing at the end when
you've got a little bit more control over where the fat actually is.
I know that looks like a lot of salt.
Though it does a lot for the exterior of the meat. I actually went kind
of light on this. I really, really pack my rib roasts down with salt and
a lot of pepper so you get a real real solid crust. And no, it will not
flavor the interior of the meat. That would be impossible. But it does
change things and it does really, really, really upgrade the
quality of the outer crust.
I say, "two fortunate dinners" because I certainly like the ends best.
The middle doesn't have a whole lot to offer. I like the taste of the
char.
Once upon a time, doneness was believed to be a factor of weight, time and oven temperature. See. [opens lid of range to revel a cooking chart] Beef, 20 minutes per pound at 300 degrees. This led to many a discouraged cook and disappointed diner because this formula cannot factor in the most critical piece of information in meat cookery: the shape of the meat to be cooked. And since that's a rather fuzzy piece of logic, I think we're going to have to skip the time thing all together.
"20 minutes per pound." Nobody does that anymore. The whole
weight issue, weight/time issue really doesn't exist.
That's a great looking piece of meat. You know, this is one
of those Good Eats episodes where you're really nervous about
messing up the food because it's really expensive. That's a $100
roast or $85 roast. And we wanted to do as few passes at it as
possible.
When it comes to figuring doneness on a roast, there are a lot of recipes our there that will give you a formula. It says so many minutes per pound, 17 minutes per pound, 15 minutes per pound, 30 minutes per pound. I don't care how many minutes per pound they propose, it's bad math, okay? Because those formulas can not take two crucial things into account. One, the beginning temperature of the meat. And two the shape of the meat. And believe it or not, the shape, more than the weight, determines how slow or fast a roast is going to roast. So, how do we know when a roast is roasted? There's only one way to tell, you've got to use a thermometer.
[referring to the door swinging
open again] The really happened.
I got that shirt in Hawaii ... I think.
I actually like this piece of meat better than the one that we ended up
using in the version of this that aired. Just a little bit better shape,
better composition.
Truth is, the only way to know what's going on in your meat is to take its temperature. Now there are a lot of different meat
thermometers to choose from but I like the probe style that can stay inside the meat throughout the cooking process. I like knowing what's going
on. Positioning the probe is crucial. Just set the probe right in dead center and drive it down into center mass. But just
make sure you don't hit any bones. [checks thermometer insertion] Perfect.
Well what do you know. 210. I'll buy that. Now the rig comes out, the lid comes off, the roast goes in—watch out for the
probe—the lid goes back on, the rig goes in the oven and of course so does the thermometer just so you can keep a check on things.
|
How's a 10 pound roast like a scrambled egg? Well if they're both done when they come out of the pan, they'll be overdone by the time they hit the plate. That's because food doesn't stop cooking just because you turn off the heat. There's such a thing as carry over heat and the greater the mass, the more the temperature is going to rise post oven. |
Carry Over Heat |
Now as far as I'm concerned, there's only one temperature for a rib roast, that narrow range of joy in between 127 and about 132 degrees Fahrenheit called medium rare. Now I'm going to count on about 10 to 12 degrees of carry over so I'm going to set the alarm on my thermometer to go off at 118 degrees. Now how long is this going to take? Well that depends on the roast.
Rare 120°-127°
Medium Rare 128°-135°
Medium 136°-145°
Toast 146° and up
That little
pig, that's from a show, an episode ... Sorry, a show in season 2
called Pork Fiction
where we did some ribs. I remember sitting in the car riding down to
the location. (And I had found this lamp at a shop, I think it
was in Chicago, and there was this pig with a light on the inside.)
And I pulled the light bulb out and sat down with a roll of tape and
one of those little P-Touch things that you get at the office store
and made that pig and did all of it's cuts and everything. He's
still with us, too. He's still a good thermometer holder.
Those red mitts came from an industrial supply place. And
even though they are hard to keep clean, they're still just about
the best mitts I've ever had. I'm not sure what they were originally
designed for. They're just really, really heavy terry [cloth]. I
think they were for use around some kind of industrial furnace or
something like that. They cost about 40 bucks if I remember
correctly.
Now if I remember correctly, there's a piece of lumber like a
2 x 4 that's ... Oh, no, no, no. We were trying to figure how to
make this thing spin while I was talking and I ended up just doing
it myself, just using my legs. Lots of times when we do a moving
thing like this we have a big piece of wood like a 2 x 4 spin the
piece.
It's hard to talk and pretend you're on a Merry-Go-Round at
the same time. Luckily I can talk and do about anything at the same
time.
There's the very same painting in the background, the
Styrofoam that's used at the very beginning of the show. I think
it's hanging in my office now, if I remember.
A nice steadicam push there.
[notices some flatware in
the drawer] Hey, gee. That looks an awful lot like grandma
Brown's silver. But it couldn't be, because that was stolen from my
house during a burglary in '92. Hmm. Oh, well.
I like proper thermometers because I like knowing what's going on during
the cooking process. And they all come with a long skinny probe. And the
art is knowing exactly where to put this device. You've got to survey
around and look at your meat. Because you want to go for center mass but
you want to miss bones. So, I like to go right dead down the middle on a
piece like this, about half way through to the bone. Next up, the oven.
Be sure to use just enough oil for lubrication and rub down the rib side.
[takes the terra cotta out of the oven, puts the roast in the pan, lids up and closes the oven]|
Okay, here's the tricky thing. The cooking isn't going to stop just because we take the roast out of the oven, okay? Because there's such a thing as carry-over. Once heat starts to push into the meat it keeps going, even when there's not more heat behind it. |
200° Carry Over Heat |
Now a lower roasting
temperature is going to result in less carry-over. But the internal
temp is still going to increase about 10 degrees once the meat's on
the counter.
Now as far as I'm concerned, there's only one temperature for a rib
roast, medium rare: that narrow beam of joy between 127 and 132
degrees Fahrenheit. Now I'm going to count on about 10 to 12 degrees
of carryover. So I'm going to set this to go off at 118 degrees. How
long is this going to take? Depends entirely on the meat.
[referring to the stolen
spoons] Whah, whah, whah, whah. I've got to write more parts for my
brother. I like him because he's quiet.
This is important. A lot of people have a hard time with probe
thermometers because they don't get the placement right. And it really
is kind of a finicky issue. I used to say "put it in the deepest part of
the meat." But I've come to the conclusion that I don't think that's
right because, let's face it: most of meat isn't in the deepest part.
But I think only 1/3 into the meat is enough. Because you just don't
want to shoot for taking your temperature at the deepest part of the
meat because the majority of the meat isn't the deepest part of
the meat. The nice thing about this method in going very, very low and
slow in the beginning is that you've got evenness going for you.
The bigger the piece of meat, the more there's going to be carry-over.
Big roasts, turkeys, usually end up being over cooked for one reason and
one reason alone, and that's because people don't think about the fact
that there's going to be carry-over heat which is going to take the meat
up, up, like I say there, 10 degrees quite possibly. And sometimes that
10 degrees makes a huge difference.
Wow, I look so young. I was. Like Indiana Jones said, "it's ain't the
years, it's the mileage."
[referring to this line] That's not true. It also depends,
somewhat, on the oven. But mostly on the meat.
SCENE 11
The Kitchen
[beeper goes off] It seems we have
arrived at our first thermal destination, 118 degrees. Now let's
just take a look at what's happened inside. Now be careful when you
open this because there's going to be some steam, right? Open it
away from you. Well, gee. Nice but kind of pallid. That's okay. It's
only mostly cooked at this point. Still, we're going to give this a
rest. Just take it straight up to a, to a cooling rack or a cutting
board, whatever, and then cover it with foil. We don't want to pull
out that probe so just cut the foil [beeper
goes off again] to go around it. Be sure and turn off
your alarm. There. Now how long to let this rest? Well, until this
stops going up. It should be just enough time to go to our next
thermal destination which is 500 degrees. And, uh, I can only hope
that Chitty-Chitty-Bang
-Bang here [the oven] can
make it.
Time to get crusty. Now we may not really care about the
internal temperature on this roast anymore. After all, it is
thoroughly rested. But we do have an issue which is if we pull out
this big metal probe and put this roast in the oven, it's going to
spout like a whale. So just leave that where it is but you don't
have to plug this up anymore.
Now let's check on the oven. Say, 505 degrees. Who
thought the ole guy had it in him? Now let's get this out as quickly
as we can, carefully. We don't want to waste any of that energy. Now
always open away. Slide that roast right back into place. There's
going to be some sizzling. That's all right. Make sure you're
centered up. Lid goes back on. And carefully back in. There we go.
Now we may not care about temperature any more, but we do
care about time at this point. I'm figuring about 15 minutes, uh,
between us and crust. Go beyond that and, uh, you're probably
talking toast, another thing all together. [sets timer]
One of the
hardest things to work on Good Eats is thermometers. Now we actually
have a remote thermometer where we can dial in the temperature. But,
like, in the early days we actually had to wait for things to be
that temperature. You have no idea hard that is. When the script
says, "118 degrees", yeah it's easy to say. But then the thermometer
sits at 119 or 117 and you're like, "argh!" Everyone's standing
around waiting on the thermometer. Now we can just dial it in which
is pretty cool.
"Open away." That's a very good looking piece of meat. "Only
mostly cooked." Of course that's a rip off from the Princess Bride.
"He's only mostly dead." It's funny how lines like that will stick
in your head. It's not that I think that, you know, that great of a
movie. But I don't know how many times, you know, say things like,
"someone has bested a giant." I use a lot of obscure lines on Good
Eats. I guess I like it when people 'get it.' But I also like it
when they don't get it. They just think I'm crazy. "What's he
talking about?" There are only 10 people on earth that get, like,
all the "in" jokes on Good Eats. Most people don't even know there
are "in" jokes on Good Eats.
Of course, that oven doesn't actually work. It's completely
fabricated.
"Time to get crusty." The problem with this kind of
thermometer, of course, we started using these things, probe
thermometers, from day 1. The problem is is that the cables that run
from the probe to the thermometer unit itself have a very, very
short life. They've improved a lot over the last couple of years.
But back in the late 90's and like around 2000, 2001, they would
only last maybe, I don't know, 30 or 40 uses it seems.
Technically ... I'll tell you the truth when I do this, and I
do use this method, I don't actually use the glass [pan inside the
terra cotta]. I used that [here in the show] because I thought there
might be a sanitation issue. Truth is, I just drop the roast right
down on the terra cotta. It gets discolored, you know, as it soaks
up some of that fat. But I've really never have had any problem with
it. And I actually think that it may help protect the terra cotta
against thermal shock. Because the ones I've actually put the meat
right down on top of didn't crack and have lasted a lot longer than
the ones that I didn't treat that way.
[he opens the oven after the temp has reached
118] Now, let's take a look. Now be sure to open this away
from you in case there is steam, okay? Well, that looks pretty pallid.
But remember, we're at this point it's only mostly cooked, okay? We've
brought it up to 118, but we've still got the whole outside issue to
deal with.
|
Still, we're going to go ahead and let this rest because we don't want the inside to get any hotter. So, a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil, torn thusly around the probe of the thermometer. And just lightly clamp that around the edges and remove to the counter. |
Give it a rest |
|
Now, how long to let that rest? Well, until the numbers on the thermometer quit going up. Which will give us just enough time to boost our box here and our beehive oven to 500 degrees. |
500° for 15 mins. |
Hard to believe, but this
old clunker actually did make it to the big 5-0-0. So, it's time to
get crusty. Just be careful, okay? This stuff is rocket, rocket hot.
So the roast goes back down. And of course we must remove the foil.
If the foil's there, you won't get a crust.
Now I'm not really concerned about the internal temperature of the roast
any more because we've rested this. But, if I were to pull this [probe] out, it would be like opening up a spigot in the
side of the meat. We'd lose a lot of juice and that's not good. So
I'm going to leave it for now. Top goes back on and in we go. How
long? Depends on the meat.
Some ovens include
time/weigh guides for roasts.
Only trust a good probe thermometer.
And there wasn't [steam], of course, because it was cold by then. I don't
think that oven worked at all. We were cooking ... Actually, we had an
oven, a real oven, that worked in a truck outside. And so we would take
it out and we would go into the back of this truck and then we would do
the cooking and then we would move the meat in. Just the challenges of
cooking on location. Hey, once season 5 started we were cooking on a
loading dock most of the time. So, it wasn't that big of a change for
us. We've been, like, Bedouin 90% of our show life.
There really is such a thing as a beehive oven. It's usually kind of an
earthen almost an adobe like oven. Small, usually used for making
breads.
[timer goes off] Here we go. Now that is what I call crusty. As beautiful as sight as that is, though, there is another one
waiting for us. Now first we've got to move this to a cutting board and just cover with the very, very same piece of foil still leaving that
little probe in there for now.
And looky what we've got. That's what the French call fond. It basically means instant sauce.
All we have to do is add water to liberate it. But the first step to making a sauce out of this is to get rid of at least some of the grease
that's accumulated in there. Whatever you do, do not throw this grease away because it is really great for making Yorkshire pudding but that's,
uh, that's another show. Ooo. Don't want to waste that. Now put this [pan] back on to high heat and,
uh, as long as you've got cook top-proof bakeware, this isn't going to hurt anything. You can do it in metal if you've got a metal pan that fits.
But glass is fine, too.
|
Now in order to turn this into a sauce, we've got to deglaze these bits, dissolve them, and then basically any type of water type liquid will do. In fact, there's nothing quite like water to do the job so pour in one cup's worth. Of course, as wonderful a solvent as water is, it's not really famous for bringing a lot of flavor to the party. So I also like to add a cup of red wine. Now as this comes to a boil, just scrape it. I like to use a wooden spatula. We're really going to scrape those bits off the bottom of the pan. |
Deglaze 1 Cup H2O 1 Cup Red Wine |
Now a lot of folks like to use just wine for this. But I really do think when it reduces down it's way, way too strong. So just keep scraping until you feel nothing but smooth glass then reduce this by half.
|
When your sauce is down by half, time for a quick herbal addition. Sage is what I like and no I don't want to chop it up because I just don't want to half to fish out all of those little spent green bits later. Three or four leaves will do. Just give it a good bruise and toss it in. Let that cook for another 60 seconds, not a second longer, then strain and serve. Oh, we've got meat to cut. |
3 - 4 Sage Leaves, Bruised |
For a thicker sauce, stir a couple of pats of
butter into the hot liquid just before serving.
It is a heavy ...
Once you've got that loaded up, that's pretty gosh darn heavy. I think
that it's probably about 30 pounds. It's a great looking roast. 4 bones.
It's probably enough for 8 people? Three if one of them's me. But I
really don't care about the main chunk of the meat. I want those ribs
down there.
Let it rest! Resting is like one of the issues that people
have the most befuddled by when it comes to meat cookery. "Why do I need
to do that?" And I can't think of single activity more crucial to meat
than the resting process.
[referring to the Yorkshire pudding comment] It is, indeed.
It's a little on the salty side, but that's okay.
Now, of course you could do this with a metal pan. There's
absolutely no reason to do this with glass. And metal is actually a
better pan. I don't even know why I didn't use metal here because
ordinarily I would've. Lot's of times it's because of the camera. You
know, you want to get a low angle looking into something. Glass is a lot
more convenient because you can see through the stuff. Metal ... you
know, if you've got one pan that's got a little bit too much
reflectivity on it can be a real problem.
There goes the glove. One of the worst burns I ever had in
the kitchen came off of a glass vessel like that. You know, glass just
never looks hot. It's an insulator, you know, so it's not the king of
thing you think about being hot.
I wasn't a very big fan of that range. I didn't like the
grates on that range. It's too hard to slide things across. I like cook
tops that have integrated grates so that you can basically, easily move
something from one side all the way over to the other. I was happy to
see that one go.
It's funny, we've changed appliances so many times on Good
Eats, changing the cook top is one of the things people notice less than
anything else. They'll notice if, you know, a toy on the counter changes
but not so much the cook top. And I wonder why that is. It's something I
always worry about, that every time something changes, it's going to be
a problem for folks. I think people are actually, because they see
things change in their own kitchen so much, they're a lot more likely to
accept it of a television show, especially one like this that's, you
know, obviously in a real place.
later at the oven] The moment of truth. Now that's why I call
crusty. Just go ahead and get that probe out of there. Put this
[terra cotta top] back in the oven
to cool off. This [meat] we move straight
to the cook top because it is time to make a juice. Now some people like
to call it jus but I think that's just kind of funny talk. Put
this [bottom terra cotta piece] in
[the oven]. There.
Now just go ahead and move the roast directly to a cutting board.
Don't stick a fork in it. And cover it with foil. That'll wait on us.
Now the first step to making a juice is we've got to get the grease out
of this pan. But do not throw it away because it's really great for
making Yorkshire Pudding. That's another show. So, just drain. I use the
term "pan" very loosely in this case. There we go. And then turn this
[pan] onto high heat.
|
Now, at this point we really want to dissolve all those little bits on the bottom of the pan. That's really, really good stuff. And to do that, we need water or water-type liquid. And to tell you the truth, there's nothing better for it than water. One cup, right in the pan. You know, water's good at dissolving things, but it doesn't bring much to the party as far as flavor goes. That's why I also add a cup of red wine. Like the stem-ware?r |
Deglaze 1 Cup H2O 1 Cup Red Wine |
Now a lot of folks like to do the entire deglazing and sauce making with just wine. But I kind of feel like that once this reduces down, if it was just wine it would be too strong and it would overwhelm the meat. And that's why I go with a half-and-half mixture. Speaking of half, reduce this by half.
|
Time to add herbs. Sage, in my case. And you know what? I don't want to chop it up because I don't wan to have to strain it out of there later. So, I just give it a good bruising and into the pan. Let this cook for one minute more. Not a second longer. |
3-4 Sage Leaves, Bruised |
For a thicker
sauce, stir a couple of pats of
butter into the hot liquid just
before serving.
And, out come the roast. That's
just about perfect, too. I really, really, really liked this piece of
meat and how this one turned out. We got it all in one. I think we had
bought $500 worth of meat and we got it on the very first one. It was
just ideal.
That is a jus. Jus is for juice. What's funny is au jus
which means "with juice." ... Or "with au jus." That's the way it
is. That's right. Au jus, 'with juice' instead of saying "with
au jus" is the funny talk.
And most of the folks that make jus for roast have problems
because they don't get enough of the fat off. And fat can throw off
everything. Although any sauce that you make like this, a jus or
a gravy, you can always cook to the point that all the oil comes up to
the surface and you can dab it off. You can get it off with a ladle or
you can take it off with a paper towel.
I think in the 2nd version of this show, we contemplated getting rid of
the water and just using wine. But the balance was never quite there.
Yeah, we talk about this with just the wine. It was a hard decision to
make. And it really does depend on the wine. You know, there are some
wines you can do the deglaze and the cook-down with just wine and it's
fine. Others, it's not. Wines like Cabernet-Sauvignons are way too
tannic.
Sage is a tricky thing. Yeah. Don't chop that up if you don't absolutely
have to. Just get it nice and open and let the heat do the rest of the
work.
SCENE 12
The Kitchen
Whenever carving time comes around, I reach for electric. And this is why. [carves the bones off and then cuts each of the 4 bones into separate pieces] These are for later, as in for me.
And that probably ... You could let a piece of meat probably
like that rest, if you keep it covered, I've actually let one rest
like that for an hour and it was still perfectly warm on the inside.
Certainly warm enough to serve.
I wish I could find an electric knife that had a blade just 2
inches longer than this. It always seems to be a little bit too
short. But I really do like electric knives. And for the money you
can't beat ... [reacting to the just cut-open meat] Now that's it,
that's it right there. There's dinner. Carve those up like that and
just gnaw on them for 6 or 7 days like a hyena. You can keep the
rest of it and just let me have that [bones with meat].
And the next day you can take and wrap it up in a little foil and
stick in the oven ... Ahh, that's really, really great.
When it comes to carving, I go electric. And this is why.
[cuts the bones off and in between them in mere
seconds] These are like gold. But I wouldn't serve them to
anybody because I plan to eat them later. A little salt, a little
pepper, wrap them in foil, put them in the oven for 350 degrees, great
stuff.
Now the rest of this we will slice into half inch pieces which is going
to be easy because we've basically got a boneless roast here. Meanwhile,
my brother will take care of recapping today's events.
Back to my brother's house and for the carving. And I really, really like
the way this meat looks. Going at it from a different angle than we have
before. Oh, look at that [ribs]. Oh, yeah. Now you can take the whole
rest of the roast. Just let me have those ribs ... right ... there. I
would actually put those back under a broiler for a few minutes.
A big boneless rib roast.
| Now we've basically got a big, boneless roast and I like to take off this big hunk of fat right here. This is why the dogs all love me. Now we're basically facing a big, rib-eye roast. Start slicing from the end and make sure you don't go less than a half inch. Now would a good time for review. |
Semi-skilled professional in a real kitchen ... do try this at home ... but be careful won't you? |
| Remember, when it comes to a great roast, where and what you buy matters a lot more than where you roast it. So talk to your butcher. If you don't have a butcher, well find one. Soon. |
Talk with your butcher before making any roast purchases |
| Dry age your beef in the refrigerator for 2 to 4 days. | Dry age your beef in the fridge for 2 - 4 days |
| Bring it to room temperature. Season it simply but thoroughly. |
Bring meat to room temperature before roasting Season simply but thoroughly |
| Roast it in a clean oven or a vessel that promotes even heating at 200 degrees or until it reaches an internal temperature of 118. |
Roast it in a clean oven, or a clean intermediary structure 200° 118° internal temp. |
| Then give it a rest. And then blast it at 500 for another 15 minutes or until crusty on the outside. |
Give it a rest 500° for 15 mins. |
| Then deglaze and prepare to amaze. | Deglaze pan and build sauce |
Mmmm. Now I know that standing rib roast is technically a special-occasion kind of food. But, hey, who's to say what qualifies as a special occasion. I mean, uh, maybe your new sweepstakes entry came in the mail today or maybe the nice lady who reads the meter dropped by or maybe it's Wednesday or maybe ... [phone rings] Excuse me. [notes Caller ID] Or maybe your brother comes home from Las Vegas.
AB: Hey how was the convention? ...
You're kidding? They broke in?
See you next time on Good Eats.
AB: I hope they didn't take anything important.
Oh no. That's just freaking me.
Say, they didn't happen to get my, uh, mixer did they?
No. Hmm. I just ... Never mind. No. I'm having a TV dinner.
Nah. No special occasion. [laughs knowingly]
You wouldn't like it.
I used to feed
that [fat] to my dogs. Right there. I cut it in half and watch them
fight over it. Ah, I even mention that. I forgot about that. That's
true. The dogs do love me. I've always been good to the dogs.
[as he is cutting off the end piece] Now that's my favorite
piece. If I'm going to eat off of the main piece, that's the one
right there because I like that crustiness on the end.
Now see this, technically speaking, this piece of meat is a
little over done. But I remember why we chose it. The one that was
actually more perfectly done on the inside didn't look as good on
the outside. And so we decided to kind of punt and go with the one
that was better on the outside. Then we boosted the red a little bit
in post production. It's always a thing about meat, though, it's so
... [the scene changes to a close up of the roast being cut] That's
actually a different roast. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. We pulled a
quick one. That's actually the first roast that didn't have as nice
appearance on the outside. That one looks pretty good on the inside,
though. Right at medium. I'd say that that's actually medium. We
tried to pass it off as medium rare. But looking at it today, if I
saw that in a restaurant I'd probably say that was medium. Still a
great piece of meat.
Very nice. And that jus is just thickened enough.
Actually, I didn't have a glass of wine. I think that that
was a glass of whatever ... the same wine that I poured into pan
earlier.
Well, I guess that's all I have to say about that.
|
BA:
Remember, when it comes to a great roast, where and what
you buy matters a lot more where you roast it. So, talk
with your butcher. If you don't have one, one will be
appointed for you. Dry age your beef in your
refrigerator for 2 to 4 days, bring it to room
temperature, season it simply but thoroughly. Roast it
in a clean oven or a vessel that promotes even heating
at 200 degrees or until it reaches an internal
temperature of 118. Then give it a rest. And then blast
it at 500 for another 15 minutes or until crunchy on the
outside. Then deglaze and prepare to amaze. AB: It's your birthday. BA: Cool. Whatdaya get me? AB: A mixer. BA: [looks back at the one he originally stole] Cool. |
Talk with your butcher before making any
roast purchases. Dry age your beef in the firdge for 2 - 4 days. Season simply but thoroughly Bring meat to room temperature before roasting Roast in a clean oven, or a clean intermediary structure. 200° Give it a rest 500° for 15 mins. Deglaze pan and build sauce. |
Of course my brother didn't
appear.
I like him better when he doesn't talk.
You can almost ... You can't see the split screen. But this is actually
two shots that are married together right there, the line is right off
my left foot and my right ... I'm sorry, my left shoulder, left foot.
Timing is everything to make these shots work. Being able to react to
each other. But actually, the back of the shot over by the counter I'm
listening to playback of the shot in the foreground so that I know
exactly what I'm saying at what time. Like right there. See?