The Food Lab Video Series: Steak Lies

In this episode of the Food Lab video series, Kenji López-Alt and Katie Quinn join forces to bust common myths about cooking steak.

By
J. Kenji López-Alt
Kenji Lopez Alt
Culinary Consultant
Kenji is the former culinary director for Serious Eats and a current culinary consultant for the site. He is also a New York Times food columnist and the author of The Food Lab: Better Home Cooking Through Science.
Learn about Serious Eats' Editorial Process
Updated November 01, 2019

Several years ago, we produced a Food Lab video series for Serious Eats. The only problem? It lived behind a paywall, and almost nobody got to see it.

Food Lab Video Shoot-VMW_9859

Now, we're finally releasing it to our readership for free. You can check out our first episode, on burger science, here.

Today, episode two: steak lies!

If the world weren't currently imploding, #fakesteak would be the only hashtag we'd be using to describe the print media. That's because there are a ton of steak myths out there, and today we're going to explore some of them.

In this episode of the Food Lab video series, based on one of my most popular articles ever, we'll run a series of experiments to determine some truths about steak.

We'll test resting steaks at room temperature (a technique that is, as it turns out, like the inside of a Tauntaun: lukewarm). We'll poke holes in the idea that searing locks in juice. You'll flip when you see how many times you should turn your steak while cooking (hint: not just once). What really is the best way to cook a steak? And will my cholesterol ever return to normal levels again?

If you cook steak and want to cook it better, this is the episode for you.

More Serious Eats Recipes