More Low-Carb Cooking Excellence – Stupidly Simple Meat Cooking

Ok, as we laid out in yesterdays “Essential Equipment” post – On hand we’ve got a cast iron pan, olive oil, and some simple seasonings. Now for the fun part. The meat. I guess it all depends on what KIND of meat we’re working with here.

So we’ve got to narrow that down. I’m going to use BEEF as an example.

With beef – it all depends on the size of the steak and the type of beef you’re cooking. Different people will tell you different things, but basically it all boils down to this – cooking expensive meat longer makes it tough (not good), and cooking cheap meat longer makes it tough as well – so let’s just try to cook everything “just enough” for our tastes, but never too much. Sounds stupidly simple, right?

Right.

First we need to “prepare” the meat. For beef we can safely leave it out for for awhile and not worry about it being tainted (chicken or pork… not so much). In fact, its often recommended to bring the meat to room temperature so its not as “shocked” when it hits the pan. I usually lay it out on a cutting board (the “meat” cutting board, if you have multiples – or don’t like cross-contamination) and season both sides – occasionally I’ll use a few dabs of Worcester sauce depending on the meat (esp on ground beef for burgers).

Then, just let it sit there for awhile.

You might want to cover it up if you’ve got cats, dogs, birds or lizards that might wander by and try to devour it or drag it all over the floor. We do NOT want to season with “floor spice”. Contrary to the restaurant rhyme – it does NOT make “everything nice”.

While we’re waiting, turn your oven on at 375 degrees (or use the broiler instead, its all personal preference on how you like it cooked) and let it pre-heat (we’ll get to why later)…

Next, lets get our cast iron pan on the stove-top and turn the heat up to Medium High (I like to go to about 4 or 5 o’clock on my stove knob – but yours might not even HAVE a knob, or have a digital display, or some other kind of steering wheel contraption, so “Medium High” it is). While its heating up, put some Olive Oil in the center and turn the pan so it coats the entire bottom. My stove is at a slight slant so it always wants to pool on one side – which requires spreading it around this way (thank you to the person who installed and leveled my appliances – you do good work).

When the pan is good and hot you’ll see the olive oil start to smoke up a little bit – that’s ok, just turn the overhead “hood fan” on or else your smoke alarm is going to go ballistic.

Its now time to place the meat on the pan – go ahead and get it on there and DON’T fuss with it at all (and don’t burn yourself). We’re trying to get a nice sear on each side – which is going to mean a little black / brown and a helluva lot more smoke (depending on the pan and the temperature).

When both sides are seared pretty good you have two options depending on your tastes:

• If its a decently thin steak or a high-quality piece of meat that should be eaten rare to medium rare – then throw it on a plate and eat it medium rare (which is should be close to)

• If its a hugely thick piece of meat and totally not cooked in the middle, or maybe you just like your beef cooked all the way through (shame on you), then go ahead and pop the whole pan into the oven and let it “bake” a bit.

If I’m going to put something in the oven for a few minutes generally I like to put something in with it – like a few big pats of butter, or a bit more olive oil on the top of the steak just to keep it from drying out in there.

When its done to your liking (either by sight or maybe using a fancy meat thermometer) take it out and enjoy!

For chicken and pork, you’re going to want to do the quick sear and then leave it in the oven for an extended period of time to make sure its cooked all the way through. No one wants to eat “medium” chicken or pork. Yeesh. Make sure its cooked all the way, and then let it sit for 5 minutes or so before eating. Viola!

Remember there is generally 7g of protein in 1oz of lean meat – so it makes a really easy way to hit your protein goals for the day – and incredibly delicious too!

If anyone else has any sure-fire meat cooking tips, please let us all know in the comments!

Related posts:

1. 3 Carnivore Kitchen Essentials for Low-Carb Cooking Excellence