# Do you cook your steak in beef fat?



## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

I wonder if any of you have ever tried to cook your steak in beef fat? In theory it seems like it would make the taste of beef stronger, and that would be a good thing. I only tried it once, and I didn't like the result, which probably explains why I've never seen or heard of anyone else doing it? 

I cut off a bit of extra fat from around a large rib eye steak, placed it in a cold pan on low heat until rendered. Then made sure the fat was real hot and seared the steak in it. 

The result was a taste that was almost too strong, and not exactly like a stronger beefier steak... more like an added bad taste to the steak.


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

I can imagine it would taste as you described.  Probably because prolonging the cooking of the fat gave it the opportunity to burn.  Fat is meant to be rendered, not twice boiled.  I prefer to add a pat of butter near the end of cooking a steak and baste baste baste.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

Koukouvagia said:


> I can imagine it would taste as you described. Probably because prolonging the cooking of the fat gave it the opportunity to burn.


Huh? Why would you think that? Beef fat has a pretty high smoking point, and I never let it smoke. It did not burn, nor did it taste burnt.

Quote:

Originally Posted by *Koukouvagia*

Fat is meant to be rendered, not twice boiled.

Not sure why you're saying that here? Like I said in my original post, I rendered the fat, I did not boil it - not once, not twice.

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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Actually all steaks are cooked /or with beef fat.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

chefedb said:


> Actually all steaks are cooked /or with beef fat.


Not sure what you mean. My question is about using beef fat vs oil or butter in your pan.


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## sherbel (Sep 10, 2011)

He means that when you cook a steak the fat from within the meat/edge of the steak will melt and become part of the cooking fat. Since you didn't enjoy the taste, and found it 'bad', you could avoid using added rendered beef fat for steak cookery in the future.


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

French Fries said:


> Huh? Why would you think that? Beef fat has a pretty high smoking point, and I never let it smoke. It did not burn, nor did it taste burnt.
> 
> Quote:
> 
> ...


When fat gets hot enough to fry in it's essentially boiling, no? I was never very good in science.


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## boar_d_laze (Feb 13, 2008)

Posted by *Koukouvagia* 


> When fat gets hot enough to fry in it's essentially boiling, no?


No. Fat's boiling point is hotter still.

BDL


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

Chef SherBel thanks for answering him. Rendered fat could be rancid . Most of the time it is rendered at to high a temp anyway and taste nasty.


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## french fries (Sep 5, 2008)

chefedb said:


> Chef SherBel thanks for answering him. Rendered fat could be rancid . Most of the time it is rendered at to high a temp anyway and taste nasty.


Thanks guys. The fat was not rancid (I'm extremely sensitive to rancidity, I would have detected it). Like I said in my original post, I use the fat from the steak I'm cooking, and I render it myself. I place it in a cold pan and turn the heat to low, and take my time. No high heat used to render the fat.

In any case, my question is: does anyone here do that? If no, why not? Thanks!


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## chefedb (Apr 3, 2010)

No  I spray a bit of Pam then let fat from steak melt into pan and use that. I do not want to add any additional fats if possible. (why should I add to cholesterole count ?


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## koukouvagia (Apr 3, 2008)

French Fries said:


> Thanks guys. The fat was not rancid (I'm extremely sensitive to rancidity, I would have detected it). Like I said in my original post, I use the fat from the steak I'm cooking, and I render it myself. I place it in a cold pan and turn the heat to low, and take my time. No high heat used to render the fat.
> 
> In any case, my question is: does anyone here do that? If no, why not? Thanks!


No I do not do that with beef fat, don't know why but the idea is not appealing. I render duck fat and freeze it and on occasion I render bacon fat. But beef fat I do away with.


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