The passing of labor day may mean the end of grilling season for some, but that doesn’t have to mean an end to delicious steaks. Cooking an excellent steak comes down to three simple things: 1) a high quality piece of meat, 2) getting the correct internal temperature, 3) getting a good sear on the outside. We find that a good rib-eye steak passes the quality test, and sous vide solves the correct internal temperature problem. But what is the best way to get a perfect sear?
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Since it happened to be a rare sunny winter day and one of the cats that resides at the primary testing facility was enjoying the sun, I wanted to see what he thought of my radiometer.
Despite being all ready to do science in honor of National Margarita Day (Feb 22), we were stymied by a late (read that non) delivery of a crucial supply. Plan ahead for your science (adult-sized and of legal drinking age) kiddies.
Low and slow vs a pressure cooker – which will win a taste test? which will use fewer electrons in the effort to turn pork ribs into tasty noms?
Alton Brown exposed many people to baking bacon via Good Eats. There seems to be some differing instructions online about time and temperature – in addition to some non-specificity on bacon thickness. Does it matter? We’ll cook some bacon in the name of science for you (you’re welcome).
The Gastropod podcast “looks at food through the lens of science and history”, so it’s only natural that they’ll cover stuff relevant to our interests here at Doing Science to Stuff. The May episode The Cocktail Hour provides a fascinating look at not only the history and craft of cocktail making, but also some modern techniques for enhancing the cocktail experience.
Initial observation:
Toward the end of the episode, they discuss a technique called boozewashing. The fundamental idea, expanded upon in Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence
Question:
How big an impact does boozewashing have on the flavor of tea-infused vodka? Does it impact mouth-feel at all? What about the overall appearance of the vodka?
King Arthur Flour had a very intriguing blog post recently about the steps necessary to create brownies with a shiny and flakey crust. They had some outstanding follow-up questions which we decided to investigate. Keep reading for more brownie science!
Here at the primary testing facility we are always looking for ways to improve how we cook delicious meats. So, when vacuum sealable zip-top bags recently appeared on the market we wanted to see how well they work for sous vide cooking. In this post these bags are put up against the older style bag while cooking rib-eyes steaks.
Pi-day, the perfect day for pie. While this post is pretty belated, we did celebrate on the appropriate day – for science, of course! This time, how does pie plate material impact the finished pie?
Doing Science To Stuff 