So Jaybill and I have been experimenting with our steak process, well at least part of our steak process.  We always sear in smoking hot cast iron, and finish in a 400 degree oven.  Jaybill read somewhere we could achieve a better crust by drying out the meat over a rack in the fridge for a few days.  We first tried a quick-fast drying with a tenderloin that involved an elevated cooling rack and a fan (above, right.)  This did give us a noticeably quicker sear, and a decidedly crisper crust.  It makes sense, I mean it’s culinary 101: to brown, you must remove moisture.  Here we did it before it even hit the pan.  This got us to thinking that if we did the drying slowly, over more time, say a week, we’d get an even better result.  Next thing you know we’ve got two ribeyes kicking it in the fridge all week, over a wire rack.  Every time I opened the fridge I thought about sauces, side dishes, but mainly about that super-crust we were about to create.  The steaks when we finally seared them even sounded different.  The sizzling noise of water vapor was replaced by a deeper, more meaty sound.  As it turns out, you can over-dry the beef.  The rib-eyes were succulent and delicious, mind you, but the drying process had altered the tetxure slightly.  I think in the future we’ll dry two days, and then do a generously salted 30-40 minute rest at room temp. This long period will start to break down the connective tissue, and then absorb some of that salty goodness before it is patted dry, lightly oiled, and dropped into that smoking hot pan.  Enter Maillard reaction.  I whipped up a Sage Bearnaise for slathering, we still had our sage infused clarified butter in the freezer.  While I was making that the protien rested in Beurre Monte, because that’s what the French Laundry does.  While Jaybill prepared the cheese course, we heated up some New Seasons stunt potatoes to soak up the left over butter-egg yolk emulsion.  It was a damn tasty experiment.

So we’ve all had Beef Tartare, or at least we all should have had it, but how many of us have eaten it from a crispy parmesan cone?  Chef whipped this up as part of a five course dinner for his fiancee Meghan’s Birthday.  The chorizo oil really makes this plate pop, but I wanted to eat that little cone so bad!  I need to start taking pictures of the food that’s on the menu, it all looks as scrumptous as this.  This week Chef was away in New York doing a James Beard Dinner , but us cooks held down the kitchen admirably while he was gone.  Good training goes a long way, and so does confidence in your crew.  I’m still eating very well, there often seems to be a random duck leg laying around, which I will happily take care of.  Here’s one below prepared by saute cook Micheal, with carrots, mushrooms and sprouts.