{"id":6315,"date":"2018-02-28T09:52:21","date_gmt":"2018-02-28T09:52:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grillexperience.it\/en\/?p=6315"},"modified":"2018-12-17T11:15:06","modified_gmt":"2018-12-17T10:15:06","slug":"temperature-reverse-searing-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grillexperience.it\/en\/temperature-reverse-searing-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"The Reverse Searing Temperatures"},"content":{"rendered":"

Which Temperature\u00a0for the Enzymatic Phase?<\/span><\/h2>\n

If you have known me for a while or if you have taken part in one of my courses on the steakhouse cooking techniques, you have heard me tell this story at least a million times: have you ever seen the movie The devil\u00a0wears Prada<\/em>? Do you remember the scene where Anne Hathaway<\/em> to get in thanks to Meryl Streep runs like crazy to make the most absurd errands for her? Do you remember when laden of\u00a0packages, she passes directly through\u00a0the kitchens of\u00a0Smith & Wollensky<\/em><\/a> (famosa Steakhouse in\u00a0New York<\/em>) to pick up a “to go” steak for her\u00a0boss, then arrived\u00a0at the office, discovers that without even telling her she went out for lunch and angrily throws it\u00a0into the trash can? If you notice, just before being\u00a0put on\u00a0the plate by the restaurant chef, the steak is pulled out of an oven. Some call that method “newyorker<\/em>” but frankly I do not think it has a real name. It is simply the most common system for cooking and serving steak in those parts. This at least until the Reverse Searing<\/em> was born.<\/p>\n

\"Reverse<\/a><\/p>\n

I keep on\u00a0taking advantage of your sense of imagination to make you think how complicated it should be to give perfectly cooked steaks as you would expect from a Steakhouse, with a service speed considered acceptable in the States (therefore very fast) for the number of people who daily they crowd a local of that kind. The newyorker method (or whatever you may want to call it) in order to decrease the service time (that on those thicknesses it would be at least 10-15 minutes), calls for\u00a0proceeding to cauterization and then to maintenance at a controlled temperature in the oven.<\/p>\n

To a certain Christopher Finney<\/em> it occurred that perhaps it was more convenient to reverse the phases: first maintenance and then cauterization at the time of the order, offering a fresher and more fragrant product. The surprise was to discover that that stop at controlled temperature starting from raw meat, activates some of the infinite existing enzymes (cathepsins<\/em>) that proceeded to a partial demolition of the fibers. In essence, the final product was softer, more tender, yielding than the same raw material treated with the newyorker. This is how the Finney<\/em> or Reverse Searing<\/em> method, as it is more commonly known, was born, that means\u00a0inverse cauterization\u00a0or\u00a0the inverse of what\u00a0it happened before with the newyorker.<\/p>\n

And here’s how the object of today’s post is born. Finney<\/em> has made of his method a real reason for study and the whole first phase of Reverse Searing\u00a0media life was based on the setting created by its inventor: initial maintenance at 200\u00b0 F and then high temperature cauterization. Yes, you read correctly: 200\u00b0 F, or about 94\u00b0 C. The next phase, in which we started talking about Reverse Searing<\/em> in Italy, coincided with some studies that claimed that the enzymatic activity reached its peak in the temperature range around 50\u00ba C and not 100. This automatically became the most ridden setting in our country. About me, I can say that over the years I have further lowered this threshold to 35\u00ba C, empirically detecting at these temperatures the best results in terms of increased tenderness of the meat, without however finding any decisive correlation with the degree of dry aging\u00a0how I\u00a0heard about. But let’s see them in detail:<\/p>\n

<\/div>Theories on the Field
<\/div><\/span><\/h3>\n

The\u00a0Finney Method<\/strong><\/span> – The original method involved inserting a probe into the steak and letting it rest at 100\u00b0 C F until it has reached a temperature of less than 5 degrees to that corresponding to the preferred degree of cooking. It then proceeds with a rest until it does not fall further by 5 degrees, then grilling directly at high temperature. To give an example, if we want a steak at 55\u00b0 C at the heart, we should keep it in the Reverse up to 50\u00b0 C, then let it rest up to 45\u00b0 C and then cauterize it.<\/p>\n

Reverse at 50\u00b0C<\/strong><\/span> – The Reverse became in the following years a consolidated method and publications like Modernist Cuisine and similar began to go deeper into it, from which it would emerge how in reality the temperature range within which the Catepsins<\/em> would work best would be around 50\u00b0 C. As mentioned, this is the phase in which Reverse Searing<\/em>\u00a0was introduced in Italy. The steak is left to rest at 50\u00b0 C until it reaches a level of important surface dehydration (in any case not less than 1 h) so to\u00a0encourages cauterization in the subsequent phase of high temperature grilling.<\/p>\n

Reverse at 35\u00b0C<\/strong><\/span> – The studies continue and it turns out that the Catepsins<\/em> are not the only enzymes activated and responsible for the process. Moreover, one of the effects of the enzymes in question on the steak is to “break” the protein chains in amino acids, in a process similar to that which occurs during maturation and which involves the release of a series of peptides<\/em>, responsible for the known\u00a0enrichment of the aromatic profile, found both in a dry aged steaks and in a Reverse Seared steaks. The point is that it seems that among these additional enzymes, the Calpain<\/em> appears but it does not activate at temperatures above 40\u00b0 C. As said, the work of Calpain<\/em> and Catepsine<\/em> breaks down proteins into Peptides<\/em>, which in turn are broken down into free amino acids through aminopeptidases<\/em>. Of the latter there are different types and also in this case a temperature below 40\u00b0 C is the one that activates the most. All this chemical treatise serves only to say that in a nutshell it would seem that temperatures below 40\u00b0 C while not being the maximum yield of Catepsins<\/em>, add the effect of more enzymes increasing the final tenderness, but above all they give a more aromatic and tasty meat.<\/p>\n

\"Reverse<\/a><\/p>\n

Always if you know me, you know that I am very much for the “take it easy” way and I do not go crazy to transform the experience on the grill\u00a0in the exercise of a formula of chemistry or even of applied physics. This for several reasons:<\/p>\n