80 Beef and Barbara Kafka From:   drwo@woteki.com Subject: another roasting tale: beef and Barbara Kafka Date: December 14, 2004 8:13:53 PM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Security: Signed Over the years I have learned a lot from and returned often to James Beard’s “Theory and Practice of Good Cooking”. The book is organized around basic cooking techniques: there is a chapter on boiling and even one on entitled “Noncooking”. And there is a chapter on roasting. In the chapter on roasting he offers 2 approaches to roasting standing rib of beef: low temperature and high temperature. The low temperature method delivers a roast with a uniform color to the meat, rosy red of course, but the fat doesn’t melt (and what’s so bad about that?). The high temperature method delivers.... well I never tried it. Not long ago a good friend gave me a copy of Barbara Kafka’s book “Roasting”. She’s all about high temperature. She has a very precise, 3 stage roasting method for standing rib roast. She recommends roasting to 135 finished temperature. I followed her instructions meticulously using a reliable thermometer. I think her roasting times for this item are too short and, worse, her finished temperature too high. In other words, to get to her temperature I had to roast much longer and I didn’t get rare meat, I got medium. I have had much better, more reliable experience with the low temperature approach. So, my question: anyone out there a Kafka fan? Have you ever tried her recipe for standing rib roast? FYI: Mine was a 7 rib, 22 pound monster. T From:   leslie.borden@comcast.net Subject: Re: another roasting tale: beef and Barbara Kafka Date: December 15, 2004 11:45:25 AM EST To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Reply-To:   aroundthekitchen@aroundthekitchen.info Tom, The roast was delicious, since you can’t go wrong with Roy’s meats, but I understand your frustration.  I think Kafka is way overrated and haven’t had any use for her since her microwave cookbook in the 80’s, I think it was. Leaving aside the silly notion that you can actually cook in a microwave (as opposed to making things hot, for which the contraption has its uses), she had a couple of real howlers:  she asserted that you can actually make stew in a microwave, and faster than by cooking it long and slow on the stovetop or in the oven.  The ignorance represented by this assertion is breathtaking, demonstrating that she doesn’t fundamentally understand the chemistry and physics of cooking.  All you end up with is meat that has been made hot but not allowed to change its proteins, relax, and meld with the other ingredients (check out Harold McGee).  Then, to compound this foolishness, she presented a recipe for making risotto in the microwave. Oy. ‘nuff said.  Throw the book away. We also prefer the low-temp route and have been doing beef roasts as described in Cook’s Illustrated some years ago - CI is stodgy but they do the homework and break the code on a lot of dishes.  The method is, first, to dry-age the beef in the refrigerator, uncovered, for several days (I believe Roy dry-ages his meat, unlike almost every other meat-seller, I won’t call them butchers, in the area).  Then sear it in a hot skillet on the stove top to brown and render some of the fat.  Then roast at a low temperature for a fairly long time. This results in a uniformly rare/medium rare, depending on your taste, piece of meat.  The only problem we’ve ever had is with the occasional person who purports to like meat well-done.  Now there’s a use for the microwave. . . . See you around the (holiday) kitchen, lb