How does Outback cook their steaks?!
How does Outback cook their steaks?
I rarely have a poorly cooked steak there and I want to know how they do it? Broiler, sear, grill, what? What about Ruth's Chris?
Answers:
McMahon said Outback’s founders used foresight when they re-thought steak in the 1980s.
“Outback wanted to give steak another chance,” he said. “In the late ’70s red meat was getting a bad reputation, but our founders took a quality steak and made it taste great. The system used to cook our steaks is revolutionary. Because of the way we cook them, the juices just burst out of our steaks.”
McMahon could not reveal Outback’s exact cooking secret, but said 17 flavorings are used. And natural gas heats the flat top grill, sauté station, and broiler―essential equipment for preparing key items on the Outback menu. The heat can be controlled with gas and that’s important when preparing a steak to the exact doneness the customer requests. When the server tells a customer his steak will be pink in the center, he or she can make good on that promise thanks to the control a chef has over a gas-fired grill.
“Outback couldn’t do it with electricity. You don’t get the flavors. You don’t have the romance that goes into your food,” McMahon said. “Food has to have a flare―a passion―in order to get it to taste the way it does. The passion we put into our food really comes out by cooking with gas.”
The standard Outback Steakhouse kitchen was designed and equipped by Outback Senior Vice President of Operations, Tim Gannon. Gannon also created the menu and recipes.
“All the equipment was chosen based upon its ability to cook at the level of his expectation,” McMahon said. “We get the results we need to assure quality on a customer-by-customer basis.”
A typical Outback Steakhouse seats 240 people and employs 80 to 90 people. An Outback kitchen has a staff of around 25 including a kitchen manager and two or three assistant kitchen managers, all of whom McMahon calls “passionate about their culinary careers.”
“People can’t believe they can eat at an Outback anywhere and the food is always the same, and always perfect,” McMahon said. “I attribute that to Tim’s insistence that everybody use the same equipment.”
As the name implies, they take it "out back" and put the flame to it!
The overwhelming reason steakhouse steaks taste like they do is the steakhouse's equipment: typically a gas-fired broiling oven that can hit 1500 degrees. These are very hard to come by for home use. (Even if you could afford one, installing them is dangerous for most homes.) Just about every place that charges more than $12 for a steak will use some variant of this oven. The heat instantaneously vaporizes a thin layer of meat, giving that delicious "char" we know and love while leaving the meat's interior deliciously rare and juicy.
You can make up for this a little by using top-grade meat (Prime grade, if you can find it and afford it) and by using seasoning rubs, which places like Outback and Longhorn and other chains use to great effect. Make your own with a few teaspoons each of kosher salt, red chili powder, sweet paprika, ground black pepper, powdered sage, garlic powder, and a half-teaspoon of cumin to give it some kick. Mix well, cover the steak with it liberally, cook as normal.
I cook a lot of steak. When I don't grill it over charcoal, I broil it in a gas oven (electric broilers are not as satisfactory). 500 + degrees, turn once, usually. I broil for about 10-12 minutes, and I use my watch. The watch is secret number 1, even if you've been doing this for decades. Secret number 2 is to have the meat at room temperature: take it out of the fridge and put it in a Baggie and put that on the counter for about an hour before you cook. Secret number 3 is to make sure the broiler is at full heat, which may take fifteen minutes.
Some people also recommend pan-broiling in an iron skillet on the stove as the best home option. It's worth trying. The meat should definitely be room-temperature first for that method.
To add to the other comments, Outback never freezes their steaks, so they're always fresh. In fact, everything (fish, etc.) is fresh and never frozen.