You Should Know

Alternately, if you dry your meat with a duck it will promote the Mallard Reaction.

And if it's steak especially, leave it out for a half hour to get closer to room temp before cooking.

I'm not sure if it is covered in the article but you can achieve extra maillard reaction with a more deeply seasoned, juicer, tender steak with a dry brine.

It's super simple, it just takes time. Salt your steak all over and stick it in the fridge on a wire rack overnight.

If you check the steak within about 3 minutes you'll see the salt drawing out moisture into little beads on the surface. This would be a bad time to cook, you'd lose that moisture and waste energy boiling the surface liquid off your meat, resulting in a grey bland steak. Over the next hour the juices dissolve the salt, making the brine. Leave it for several hours and the salt will diffuse into the meat and... Do science to the protein (read the dry brine article on serious eats, it explains all!). This will make the interior of the steak extra juicy and the exterior extra dry for a great crust. If you put the steak on the rack the circulating air also dries out the surface.

If you're buying a decent steak it's well worth the near zero effort that this takes.

Understood: I will freeze dry all meat before cooking it to remove all moisture.

Wrapped in cheese cloth in the fridge for a week will REALLY bring the flavor from beef. I've done this technique with various cuts of roast and the results are always outstanding. Also don't forget to make the Yorkshire Pudding.... BTW, Better Than Bullion is a good substitute if you don't get enough drippings.

Finally, an actual and legit YSK. Thank you very much my good sir.

There are people who cook wet meat? I mean there are people who do not know that baking soda is a wonderful tenderizer.

That is true. I like using a propane torch. The water will evaporate quickly and you get that extra crunch very easily without cooking the inside too much. Especially with with first slow cooked meat and then finish with the torch. Water will evaporate from surface quickly.

Does this apply to ground beef? Cuz I'm curious how I would effectively dry that without just making a mess. Is it just the same as a steak and patting it with a paper towel would be enough?

thats interesting, now im curious if it would help for mine, i usually put a lite coating of oil on my steaks then cook at 700 degrees, i found the oil helps with the charring but still gets good marks on the meat.

Adding some detail. Evaporating water takes way more energy than just heating it up.
When you put energy (heat) into water that's below 100c it gets hotter. When you add 4,184 to a liter of water the temperature goes up by 1c. If the water is already at 100c it takes 2,260,000 to turn that into 100c steam. The energy that goes into turning water into steam isn't going into the steak.
So if you put a wet steak on the grill it will create an insulating layer of steam that keeps the steak at around 100c (even if the pan is above 100c).
That's also why you only salt your steak right before or after heating it. If you let salt sit on the steak it will draw out moisture, reducing the Maillard reaction and drying out the steak.

For a great practical way to grill the steak perfectly, check out videos on "cold searing".

The glass of water should be saved for last, and poured over the steak just before devouring.

Mmmm... Sloppy steaks. The waiters hate em!

How do I know if the beef is dry?
How do I dry beef?

I tried googling, but I only get results about aged steak. Is that the same thing? I hope not

Leave your steak/chops in the fridge either uncovered or loosely with paper towel, and the meat surface should be dried enough to get a good browning.

Does this apply to hamburger too?

When we cook food a chemical reaction called the "Maillard reaction" occurs. It has both positive and negative effects. Some products of this reaction act as antioxidants, which are good for our health.. but there is one product called acrylamide that is likely to cause cancer in humans. acrylamide forms from a substance called asparagine found in certain starchy foods like fried snacks, breakfast cereals, baked goods, and roasted coffee beans. The amount of acrylamide produced depends on how long you cook the thing, temperature, and other factors, making it hard to determine exactly how much acrylamide we eat from these foods.