
Chef Grills Steak, Volcano-Style, with Molten Lava - ryan_j_naughton
http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/08/04/337171867/chef-grills-steak-volcano-style-with-molten-lava
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xb
For those interested in a practical method to cook steak with a perfect char +
medium rare inside (no lava required), check out immersion cooking (aka sous
vide). You can cook a steak edge to edge to exactly your desired doneness,
cool it down, then char the outside with a hot skillet or open flame.

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weeksie
This is the only way to cook meat. (Aside from special purpose stuff.) I
thought I'd end up using my sous vide maybe once per month and I probably use
it three times per week. It's perfect for fish, pork, duck, and of course
steak. The best thing is that you can cook chef cuts (like hangar and such)
that would otherwise be really tricky to get right.

I generally finish in a cast iron skillet, and haven't seen any need to cool
the meat off before the transfer. That's usually a good idea if you aren't
going to sear right away, as it prevents bacteria growth from going into
overdrive, but isn't strictly necessary to cooking if you're doing everything
at once. Then again, I'm not an expert.

I really want to get a good torch though, since skillets are a lousy way to
finish bone-in meat since the meat contracts away from the bone.

~~~
dunham
I'm still using a skillet to finish, and then making a pan sauce. (I did a
hanger last night, with a morel mushroom/cream sauce, crazy good.)

If you want to do the torch thing, you should look into the "searzall"
attachment.

~~~
weeksie
Awesome. Thanks for the tip!

One in return: I've found that vacuum sealing meat when it's somewhat frozen
helps maintain its shape.

------
spikels
Cooking with natural lava in Hawaii

[http://www.dolphinbayhilo.com/cook.html](http://www.dolphinbayhilo.com/cook.html)

~~~
Natsu
Am I crazy for wondering if the SO2 in the lava would make that unhealthy?

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derefr
I'd guess it's not as bad as wood-smoked meat.

~~~
gambiter
Sulphur Dioxide is better for you than Carbon?

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kijin
Isn't "molten lava" redundant? When lava is no longer molten, we just call it
"rock".

Anyway, I wonder how the flavor changes with the type of rock that is molten.
The article mentions 1.1 billion year old basalt. Why that particular type of
rock? Did it just happen to be around? Is basalt easier to melt? Is it easier
or safer to handle once molten, or easier to clean up afterward? What would
happen if you tried to melt a different type of rock such as granite or
marble? Would they produce toxic gases?

~~~
derefr
Re "molten lava": it's an idiom, probably one to do with "lava" being a
surprising word to throw at people in a non-geological context, one they'll
suffer a cache miss on. Leading up with "molten" primes them so that they can
process "lava" in real time; otherwise they might not "hear" you, and will
likely ask you to repeat yourself while their neurons finish firing. (See
also, the end of
[http://lesswrong.com/lw/o1/entropy_and_short_codes/](http://lesswrong.com/lw/o1/entropy_and_short_codes/))

~~~
gamache
This is the best justification for "assless chaps" I have ever seen. I thank
you.

~~~
Sophistifunk
"I was walking down Oxford Street and I saw a fellow wearing chaps" implies
he's just dressed like an idiot, whereas: "I was walking through King's Cross
and I saw somebody wearing assless chaps" implies you're on Oxford St.

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pan69
Filmed by someone who's never used a camera before. Zoom out mate.

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michaelfeathers
I really want to know what it would be like to dip the steak in molten lava,
let it solidify and then crack to serve.

If there's a sweet spot between time to solidify, thickness of steak, and not
burned to a gristle all the way through, it would be a great meal.

~~~
nitrogen
I would be worried about toxic gases released from the rock being absorbed by
the meat.

~~~
michaelfeathers
Surely there's some sort of sous vide thing that could be done.

~~~
jacquesm
Steam explosion.

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guard-of-terra
I'm actually wondering why don't we make things out of liquid stone (aka
lava).

Like 3d printing but with stone. I guess the next years will figure this years
and we'll go all neoclassical with granite statues, pylons and stuff.

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DanBC
Cement?

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jacquesm
More likely: concrete.

And that's exactly what it is: liquid stone that can be poured at room
temperature. And if you add some rebar the compound material can have some
pretty good tensile properties too.

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guard-of-terra
Concrete is ugly, rough and it crumbles. Good stone is beautiful and very
durable.

~~~
jacquesm
Ugly -> taste, Rough -> you can have concrete with arbitrary levels of polish
all the way up to shiny smooth if you finish it right, crumbling is a property
common to all crystalline materials including all the stones found in nature,
with the exception of some precious stones with incredible hardness.

That's why stones tend to be round, erosion gets the better of them over time.
Concrete takes a long time to really set (depending on the thickness of the
pour: up to centuries!) but can be used relatively quickly after the pouring
in a load bearing construction.

And even if you don't particularly like the material, in the end it is what
you can make out of it that is ugly or beautiful (Compare a bunker with say
the CN Tower in Toronto or the Sydney Opera).

For the general use case of 'poured stone' concrete does quite well.

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searine
Who likes heavy metals with their steak?

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murbard2
Could you just throw in some charcoals in the lava to get diamonds and pay for
the whole thing?

~~~
deutronium
I believe making diamonds requires extreme pressure along with heat alas

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murbard2
Oh I thought the pressure came from the contracting lava as it cooled down,
but apparently you're right that's not enough.

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hurin
I feel like for efficiency the lava should be recirculated rather than just
flowing by to turn rock at the bottom - that's a lot of wasted energy.

~~~
jacquesm
It's going to be a major feat of engineering to design a pump for molten lava.
That would have been a much bigger technical achievement than roasting a steak
with an exotic heat source.

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hurin
> It's going to be a major feat of engineering to design a pump for molten
> lava.

I thought you could at least have some kind of primitive rotating water-wheel-
like mechanism and a circular flow with the pot integrated along the way.

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batbomb
tandoor ovens, salamanders, and wood fired ovens, while nowhere near 2000, can
easily surpass 750 degrees.

~~~
jacquesm
And coal can get you up to roughly 2000 celsius.

[http://rebuildingcivilization.com/content/how-hot-can-you-
ge...](http://rebuildingcivilization.com/content/how-hot-can-you-get-coal-
fired-forge)

(apologies for the link source)

That doesn't get you such nice videos though, and you won't have to travel to
exotic places, and 'molten lava' is so much more sexy than an air boosted
forge.

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huhtenberg
Nice. Cleanup is a bitch though :)

