How to Cook Like Heston: Beef Trivia Quiz

Answer: It creates a toxic mold on the steak that makes it inedible.

For the perfect steak, use a thick cut of beef like ribeye so that it won't dry out too much when cooking. Heston then removes the steak from the packaging and leaves it on a wire rack over a drip tray in the fridge for two days. As the air circulates around the beef, it loses moisture over time, thus concentrating the beefy flavour.

This is a technique done by butchers to enhance the flavour of all beef cuts. Also ensure that before you cook the steak, you leave it out of the fridge till its room temperature, otherwise your steak will cook unevenly.

Answer: Flip the steak every 15 seconds.

By flipping every 15 seconds, the steak is continually in contact of the heat of the pan without cooling down too much on one side. This will develop the crust that makes a steak so amazing. This is called the Maillard Reaction, the browning of proteins that develops the flavour of beef when cooking. To check how done you want your steak, use an instant read thermometer to check the internal temperature without piercing or slicing into the steak while cooking.

Answer: Resting the steak.

Resting will help settle the proteins and juices in the steak. In the show, Heston and his fellow chef Otto demonstrate the importance of resting the steak by conducting a simple experiment using two similarly cooked steaks and Otto's heavy foot squelching poor pieces of meat.

After their pressing, the steak that didn't rest released a near shot glass worth of juice, whilst the other rested steak barely dripped any into its glass. After 15 minutes of resting, that steak can be topped with a simple rocket salad and a sprinkling of black pepper, but I like mine with a nice bit of herb butter and watercress.

Answer: False

Heston does not recommend you use an egg in your mince. When trying burgers made by a local rugby team, Heston noted that they used additional ingredients to help with binding the meat into patties. Using an egg, breadcrumbs, or brute force to bind your mince can be detrimental to the finished product. Eggs and the brute force method can make mince meat tough to eat, whilst breadcrumbs can make it too dry.

Answer: Salt

Just add salt to your meat before mincing, that's all he does. After mincing, he doesn't beat or mix the mince, but line it up straight horizontally like a sausage and wrapped in cling film to set. As it sets, the proteins combine without the need to mash it or roll it, and with a knife, you get to slice out your patties. How hard can it be?

Answer: Pressure Cooker

Using a pressure cooker will help break down the connective tissues in a tough cut like oxtail in half the time. Pressure cookers work by locking in the steam under internal temperature, which increases the temperature beyond the boiling point of water, up to 121°C or 250°F.

Answer: Star Anise

Star anise is often seen in Chinese braised dishes like duck or pork trotters in a dark sauce, or in Indian biryani and garam masala. Star anise is not related to the herb anise, but does contain anethole, which gives both ingredients a similar flavour.

For the oxtail and kidney pudding, sweat the onions with a star anise in butter. The star anise and onions together will help boost the meaty qualities of the beef.

Answer: Syringe

With the sauce naturally thick from stewing the oxtail, it is perfect with the rich meaty pudding after it is steamed. But this is a Heston dish, and he wants that extra spunk. So with a syringe, he injects the sauce into the pudding to make the meat soaking in that luscious gravy without making the outside layer of the suet pastry too soggy.

Answer: Vine

Using a pressure cooker, Heston cooks cherry tomatoes with a vine chucked in for a boost in tomato flavour. Vines have a certain essence to them that many would associate with fresh tomatoes being grown in a garden.

For this recipe, Heston cooks down the sauce, removes the vine and adds in kidney beans to cook under pressure once more. Afterwards, he adds in browned mince beef and a flavoured butter.

Answer: Serving it on a bonfire of wood chips.

To pack an extra layer of flavour to the dish, Heston takes a bowl of wood chips and uses a blowtorch to set them ablaze. With the chili in a mini cauldron, he places them on the charred chips and let the smoke envelope your senses as you enjoy this marvelous chili. Beef goes very well with the smoke of a barbecue, so this is Heston's interpretation of a campfire feast.