Love Meat Tender

dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m

11 years ago

This is inspired by the Ã¢ÂÂQuick beef tenderloin prep?Ã¢ÂÂ thread, the Microwave thread, and my own insanity. :-)

Can you (and will you) cook expensive beef filet mignon in the microwave? And how do you make a Ã¢ÂÂperfectÃ¢ÂÂ medium rare filet mignon fast from frozen solid?

I have been mostly cooking meat with the sous vide cooker, so I have to give it a little figuring out how to do this. With my understanding of the microwave oven technology and heat conductivity of meat, I basically set the frozen beef to cook at the lowest power for 10 seconds, wait 10 seconds, flip the meat over and cook another 10 seconds. I repeated this many times, until the meat is completely thawed. I continue to cook the meat at the same pace but with a little higher power setting and continually change the position of the meat pieces to even out temperature distribution. At some point the meat was getting hot, and then I started to measure the internal temperature with a probe.

I stopped the heating when the temperature reached to 125F. I seasoned the beef with salt and pepper and let them rest for about 15 minutes. Then I seared the beef at beyond-smoking-hot cast iron skillet. As you can see, this resulted with the meat uniformly medium rare tender edge-to-edge, with a nice crust all around.

I made this a Surf & Turf dish. Salmon smoked at precisely 125F, succulent and tender.

Couple more things to share with you:

The filet mignon was frozen with free vegetable plastic bags for 8 months with no visible freezer burns. No need for expensive Foodsaver bags.

It helped me a lot to have a gas stove. The cast iron skillet was hot all the way up the edge, which permitted me to sear the bottom as well as the vertical sides of the meat at the same time, cutting the searing time in half and minimized overcooking.

dcarch

Comments (12)

chas045
11 years ago
Nice research dcarch. I remember your older plastic bag thread. These pictures are even more persuasive. Would you be so kind to at least give a guess to how long this took. I don't have a thermapen or whatever its called. Are we talking about 10 minutes (30 heat cycles) or twice that? And did you go up to 30%, or 10 to 20 to 30 to 40%?
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks chas045.

I don't remember exactly how long I was doing it because I was not trying to proof anything. I think may be 30 minutes? I don't know what is the power rating of my microwave. I have too much stuff piled on top to read the label on the back. I started out with 10% power and then 30%. At one point I took out the beef and heated up a cup of coffee.

One thing I know is my freezer can freeze food down to - 9 F. I did measure that.

dcarch
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Rusty
11 years ago
Sure looks good!

I've been using the free vegetable plastic bags, too.

Love them! ! ! !

Rusty
artsyshell
11 years ago
Interesting technique. Thanks!
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks Rusty and ssommerville.

Please don't try this at home. I don't want you to zap your filet to charcoal and blame me for it. :-)

dcarch
2ajsmama
11 years ago
I'm interested in the plastic bags. How many layers/bags? And you use the Foodsaver to seal? They don't melt and stick to the heating strip?
Rusty
11 years ago
ajsmama, I use just one bag per serving of meat,
they are very thin and all air is easily pressed out of them.
Then I put several (wrapped) servings
In either a Foodsaver bag and heat seal that,
Or in a regular ziplock type freezer bag,
and freeze that way.
Makes it so easy to remove just however many servings
you want at a time.
When I don't have the veggie bags on hand,
I use the cheapest fold over sandwich bags I can find
for the separate meat servings.

If I were to use the veggie bags only,
I would probably use 3 or 4,
but I've never been brave enough to try that.
I feel quite sure a Food saver would melt them
and they'd probably ruin the food saver.

Rusty
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
Original Author
11 years ago
ajsmama, the idea is very simple, but it is difficult to explain in words how I do it.

I will try to make a video in the next few days.

dcarch
2ajsmama
11 years ago
Thanks dcarch. Like Rusty, I figured that the bags would melt and ruin the Foodsaver. But I couldn't find a clear explanation of your method in a search, and you did say you use a FS?

I do save the FS bags that I freeze veggies in to reuse, but just don't trust the ones I've used for meat are clean enough after washing by hand. I just fear something lurking in the corners!
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
Original Author
11 years ago
Hopefully if you like my technique, there will be no more expensive Foodsaver bags, and no more washing of re-used bags.

dcarch
WalnutCreek Zone 7b/8a
11 years ago
dcarch, you are a braver person than me. I use my microwave a lot, but don't think I have the guts to cook a wonderful steak in it. Look forward to seeing your method of using veggie bags.
Rusty
11 years ago
Sorry, DC, I didn't realize there was more to it
than simply wrapping the meat snugly in the veggie bag,
then twisting the excess baggie snugly around the meat again.

I couldn't tell by the pictures.
I'm also looking forward to your instructional video.

Rusty

Love Meat Tender

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chas045

dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m
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