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Restuarant Secrets

post #1 of 36
6/28/07 at 12:02pm
Thread Starter 
I consider myself ok on the grill. I've been doing it for a while and have learned so much and have so much more to learn. My question is this: When I go out to eat and order something grilled from the menu, it never fails to have this distinct "restaurant" taste that for the life of me I can't duplicate at home. Everything just tastes "more grilled" is the best way I can describe it. I just don't know how they do it. I've tried gas and charcoal. I can't figure out if it's the quality meat that they are getting, or the way they season the meat maybe, or what? Some of these places are locally owned and operated and still have this taste down cold. Are there any secrets besides just being a professional cook? Thanks guys!
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post #2 of 36
6/28/07 at 12:47pm

More Fire

It's true, the professional equipment gets hotter, faster and retains the heat longer.
A teacher/chef of mine used to get PO'd if a student didn't cook with high heat! "You don't want to boil it, you want to sear it!!!" and then a saute pan would go flying thru the air!:suprise:

Bigger BTU's!

:bounce:
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post #3 of 36
6/28/07 at 12:51pm
Thread Starter 
Thanks. I feel better already!
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post #4 of 36
6/28/07 at 1:41pm
Hi Surge84,

M Brown is right about the BTUs.

I find that there's also a distinctive taste on flame broiled steaks that resembles like butane (petrochemical). If you are referring to that taste/smell that is due to the fat rendering and falling on very hot flames or surfaces. The flare up a restaurant grill makes gives off a distinctive flavour that is hard to duplicate at home.

The main reason is there's more fat being ignited due to the volume of food being processed during the whole day. Some of the fat just smokes on cooler surfaces instead of igniting also giving that distinctive butane note (similar to the smoking process).

This flavour can be duplicated in an industrial process by using vegetable oil and basically burning it then capturing the fumes with water mist. The resulting product is called a Grilled Flavour that often is added to fast food burgers, chain restaurant seasoned meat and even snack foods to simulate this grilling flavour you describe.
see: Process to produce grilled flavor composition - Patent 5952029
or
Grilled flavor without a grill - R&D Applications - New outdoor grill taste for foods - Brief Article - Product Announcement Prepared Foods - Find Articles

Luc
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post #5 of 36
6/28/07 at 3:33pm
Da Hotter Da Better............Discover how much water is the makeup of foodstuff and conquer the evaporation via heat source. It's not a secret, It is more heat. Simple .......................
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post #6 of 36
6/28/07 at 4:48pm
'We're ALL amateurs; It's just that some of us are more professional about it than others'. Hah I like that. If there was nothing more to learn in my trade, I'd do something else.
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post #7 of 36
6/28/07 at 5:37pm
I think Luc is referring to PAH's
Poly Arromatic HydroCarbons
They really do make a steak taste 'grilled'.

BTU's and commercial equipment also comes into play, as does aging, pinning etc.

Retail outlets rarely age fresh beef properly because they don't want to lose shelf life, whereas a steakhouse chain know;s exactly what it's going to use week in and week out. Therefore, they can administer any customized specs they want.

Cat Man
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post #8 of 36
6/28/07 at 6:12pm

Thought it was maybe a soap

Restaurant secrets--I'm glad to hear this is about the recipes and not about which employee is seeing another employee's ex-boyfriend :bounce:
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post #9 of 36
6/28/07 at 7:52pm
Take off the blinders my friend................:chef:
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post #10 of 36
6/28/07 at 7:54pm
There has never been a secret in a restaurant that wasn't in a houshold first.....I'll bet my life on that.:chef:
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post #11 of 36
6/28/07 at 9:33pm
Ma Facon

Oh come on now. Are you suggesting that a new creative culinary invention hasn't been created outside the home kitchen?

That's absurd. However, I will admit that many great culinary inventions have been created in home kitchens.

Cat Man
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post #12 of 36
6/28/07 at 10:17pm
Cat Man

Oh c'mon now....men who were chefs stole ALL the ideas off their wives at home and claimed they invented them themselves in restaurants. :p

I'll run away now so you can't slap me :D hehe

DC
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post #13 of 36
6/28/07 at 10:29pm
Then how come I cook way better than my wife does, and she admits it . . :D
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post #14 of 36
6/28/07 at 10:51pm
Oh because she kind of likes me doing the cooking . . . :look:
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post #15 of 36
6/29/07 at 12:11am
She's a clever lady. My other half says I make the best coffee, and he gets it every time. Me sucked in ha! :)
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post #16 of 36
6/29/07 at 6:39am
Homes were used for cooking long before any rest place was offered. When people went on long journeys they brought food from home. The only difference is that a pro kitchen offere focus without distraction, Unlike the home. You can burn food in both enviroments. There is nothing new under the sun. Claims of "I did it first " in a pro kitchen is a falicy. It's all been done. We just continue to "mix and match" It's old news...............Put it on the paycheck.:smiles:
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post #17 of 36
6/29/07 at 11:21am
It's rare that I have steak in a restaurant that is better than what I can do at home, unless it's a top of the line steakhouse. I've even been in some of those that have served up something I considered mediocre. Not too modest I know, but that's the way it is. I use prime cuts and cook them either on a charcoal grill, using hardwood charcoal, or in a cast iron skillet and finish it in the oven - both ways have their own flavors. I don't have any distractions though, no little kids running around, etc., and I've been doing it a long time.

And, as a matter of fact - that's what's on the menu for tonight! Grilled New York strips with garlic, rosemary and lemon. I like steak with rosemary involved.
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post #18 of 36
6/29/07 at 2:50pm
I always cook a better steak at home. In fact I do not know of anything I can't cook at home that I desire that I would want to get out. Simplicity, Flavor, Direct, Fresh, I would rather enjoy the product than fight the system:smiles::chef:
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post #19 of 36
6/29/07 at 3:28pm
When my twins were tiny, wife and I enjoyed anything if someone else was cooking and washing the dishes :)
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post #20 of 36
6/29/07 at 10:41pm
Well, Mr. Smart*** here - even though he's made this before several times - overdid the lemon tonight. Overpowered the other flavors. It was still good but not up to snuff. That is the difference between being a professional and being able to replicate a dish as opposed to doing it once and awhile and messing it up. Not very messed up but I'm picky.

My wife liked it but I think she was being kind. What I enjoy (not steak related) is when she asks me what I'm making and I tell her that it's something I've never made before - the look on her face is priceless!
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post #21 of 36
7/3/07 at 1:03am
Same here. Weber grills with mesquite lump charcoal for our steaks. I brought my wife home my leftovers from a client dinner at Ruth's Chris. The 1st words out of her mouth were, they used gas to cook this steak, your's are better.
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post #22 of 36
7/4/07 at 4:22am
I'm not sure about propane yard grills, but I could never understand why steakhouses would use Natural Gas to grill with. Its got stinky "mercaptans" in it so you'se can smell gas leaks.

Surely, some of that stinky mercaptans is getting into whatever you grill with, even a residential house gas grill in a cooktop, assuming you're using natural gas.

doc
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post #23 of 36
7/4/07 at 5:24am
Personal experience with a mesquite grill doing 300+ covers, showed me that it is difficult to maintain a consistent heat and cook at the same time. Grill was either too hot or too cold and Chef didn't care which one, he just wanted food NOW when called for. It was not one of my favorite experiences in 30+ years, actually rates near the bottom.:lol:
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post #24 of 36
7/4/07 at 6:30am
I haven't eaten at a steakhouse in a couple of years. We stopped going to them because I kept tasting something that tasted like petroleum on my steaks! I got this at two different places...and we were paying $25.00 and above for my steak...

I believe that it was either the cooking fuel wasn't completely combusting and burning off so it was going onto our meat. Or the grill oil they use was being cooked over open flames (flare ups) so that it was creating the burned petroleum taste from that?

Has anyone experience this before? I've only ever tasted it one other time and that was on lamb chops when using our propane grill. It was a new canister. I rubbed them with olive oil and herbs and there were flare ups that were difficult to control.
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post #25 of 36
7/4/07 at 10:57am
A long time back I was a cook at a Ponderosa Steakhouse. We received the steaks frozen from the distributor. They were really low grade meat with some tenderizer, and we had to let them sit in the fridge 24 hours before cooking, to let the tenderizer do its thing.
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post #26 of 36
7/4/07 at 11:12am
Hi Bluezebra,
If you look earlier in this post I explain that companies can intentionally add a <grill flavour> in their product (without flame broiling). (I attached a link to an article there and here.. see above).

If you ever tasted a BKing burger you will notice that butane/petroleum flavour. I suspect they add a grill flavour in their meat. I have worked in the food industry long enough to know these flavours are added to many products including BBQ sauces and seasoning/spice blend/marinades.

They are as common as liquid smoke to replace natural wood smoke.

Luc H
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post #27 of 36
7/4/07 at 11:22am
Using lighter fluid for charcoal broiling really sucks. You can taste the lighter fluid. I use a brazing torch (used in my line of work) to light mine.
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post #28 of 36
7/4/07 at 5:51pm
Wow Luc! So what about the petroleum flavor on my lamb chops at home? I know all I put on it was olive oil, fresh oregano and lemon zest and garlic but it too tasted like those steaks. I figured it was cuz of all the flare ups?
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post #29 of 36
7/4/07 at 6:08pm
BlueZebra,

Grill flavours are made by <burning> oil which simulates flare-ups.
What you were tasting with your lamb chops was the real McCoy most probably i.e. Flaring olive oil.

Luc H
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post #30 of 36
7/4/07 at 6:53pm
I'll let you in on a secret. Most of the time we don't get to pick our own produce!
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