Does Basting Work? | TESTED

A friend recently asked me if basting works, or is it just something chefs do to play with their food? And if it does work, what’s the best technique? Today we’re going to put basting to the test to separate fact from fiction. After a bunch of testing, I might have to change my religion when it comes to basting.

NOTE: Since this wasn't made clear enough in the video: Although it takes about an extra 90 seconds to cook the unbasted steak to a temperature (105°F) where it will end up reaching 128 °F after resting, this doesn't make it slower. The extra cooking time shortens the required resting time compared to the basted steak, and so both steaks end up at ~128 °F within ~47 seconds of each other on average. This is why I argue that basting doesn't appreciably speed cooking.

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TIMESTAMPS:
0:00 Intro
1:40 Faster and More Even?
4:16 Juicier?
4:30 A Surprising Result!
5:00 Flavor?
5:54 Conclusion

CREDITS

[ChrisYoungCooks]

Since this wasn't made clear enough in the video: Although it takes about an extra 90 seconds to cook the unbasted steak to a temperature (105°F) where it will end up reaching 128 °F after resting, this doesn't make it slower. The extra cooking time shortens the required resting time compared to the basted steak, and so both steaks end up at ~128 °F within ~47 seconds of each other on average. This is why I argue that basting doesn't appreciably speed cooking.

[BangTheRocksTogether]

"I didn't want that to be true."
Which is exactly the reason we need you to do tests like this one. Thank you.

[cnucaptjoe]

Thanks for not turning this into a 20 minute video. Straight forward and to the point!

[DoctorMcHerp]

The reason why I enjoy basting is because I can strain out the leftover butter into a container and use it to make fried rice that tastes like a steak.

[NickDiGiovanni]

Great video! Super cool to see a deep dive on this

[bigmike-]

One thing to bear in mind: Almost *all* of the cooking knowledge we commonly employ in our kitchens is from the late 18th and early 19th centuries -- well before electricity. People were still cooking over fires and coals -- often in homes that were heated by the very same fire. Cooking in those conditions, notably, would have had 2 effects:

1) Fire dries out air. Like, *a lot*. Drier air means that things sitting _in_ that air will more readily give up whatever moisture is inside of them - e.g. evaporation;
2) Fire and coals are notoriously difficult to properly gauge the temperature of. Wood coals, when glowing, can be anywhere between about 550F to about 1150F; The hotter coals are, the more brightly (and 'white') they'll glow, but even _that_ is a poor indicator to determine temperature, since ambient light will have an addative effect to coal glow -- so the same coals, at the same temperature, will look "hotter" on a rainy, overcast day than they would on a bright, sunny day, when under natural light.

These two facts together means that it's very likely that people were simply cooking their food for much longer than it needed to be cooked, in a lot of cases -- which isn't necessarily a bad thing, considering that was also the primary means of ensuring you didn't get parasites from what you ate; sometimes overcooking was necessary to ensure that the food you were eating was, in fact, safe to eat. But, with meat, that could lead to dryness, etc. So... there may have _once_ been a much more practical need for basting, when considering that history.

[juliopaveif]

I like the fact you took 6 minutes to make a 6 minutes videos. You tubers nowadays would tell the history of meat just to turn 6 minutes into 25. Great work! 👊👊

[ChefJeanPierre]

I just subscribed, your content is exceptional! YouTube is lucky to have you taking the time to do it right!!! Keep up the great work!

[martman]

I did this experiment a long time ago and it does waste lots of butter. Now I cook dry-brined steaks in a convection oven to everyone's desired doneness, rest the steaks, dry the outside, and then pan seer them with 1-2 tablespoons of butter. You get good crust and all the flavor of the butter, and the steak is still hot when served without getting overcooked inside.

[gregbyrne]

I like that the answers are NO NO NO NO so a final outcome of YES!

Shows that cooking is not just the process of making food better to eat. And eating isn't just about consuming calories.

[davidpaylor]

Nicely done. I stopped basting steaks years ago when I just couldn't afford to use enough butter and just put a teaspoon of good butter (herbed or plain, both good) into the hot pan when I take the steaks out and pour it on top as the steak rests. No-one asked me what I did different so that's what I now do, uses a fraction of the amount of butter and still give that brown butter taste and mouth-feel.

[theloganator]

I love the scientific precision you used in your experiments!
Something to note here: using an induction burner will absolutely have an effect here. You have to at least tilt your pan in order to baste, in which case the burner is no longer heating the pan. I saw that in your trials, you made sure to very minimally tilt.
For those looking to repeat at home, using cast iron or a similar metal that retains heat well is an absolute MUST here.
In most professional kitchens, industrial gas stoves are still used, which means that the pan is still being heated even as the steak is being basted.

[nidhishshivashankar]

I love when people break things down so neatly it adds clarity to a concept and serves as a jumping off point for more experimentation; since you demonstrate everything I don’t have to just take your word for it either. Hope your channel has a nice long life of making experiments like this to come!

[gpzjeffrey]

My absolute favorite: I baste my family's steaks in a large cast iron pan, but my initial searing was with a dollop of beef tallow at higher heat, then heat down to medium, in with some butter, whole garlic cloves, and a tied sprig of thyme. Baste for about a minute, take the steaks out to rest on the cutting board, then into the hot skillet I'll throw a bunch of sliced mushrooms to saute them in the browned butter. Once they're done then I'll take them out, turn the heat up and deglaze the pan with some port wine, scrape and let that reduce a little, then I'll throw in a couple cubes of demiglace that I always keep a supply of in my freezer. After that's nicely stirred in and the pan sauce is thickening to my liking, take it off the heat, take the thyme sprig out, and stir in a couple more pats of butter. One of best pan sauces I've ever made. Sometimes I might go to the trouble of cooking some shallot in with it, but not usually. The steak, mushrooms, and sauce are absolutely fantastic. The whole garlic cloves that were cooked in the baste, mushrooms, and pan sauce I keep for my plate. Am I just playing with my food? Maybe, but I don't care. It takes me ten to twelve minutes to saute the mushrooms and make the pan sauce, which is the perfect resting time for the steaks.

[peterheinzo]

every single one of your videos leaves me with a question answered that i have always had. good stuff. thanks for your insights and scientific approach.

[hurley]

Thanks for making this. I always see chefs doing this using industrial quantities of butter like it's totally normal. When I've basted it adds a nice colour but the flavour difference is so minimal that to me it's simply not worth the waste of ingredients. It's always felt like a 'cheffy' pretension. It's nice to have these suspicions validated to some degree.

I'll probably not bother with it from now on.

[Mrjmjam]

The convergence of science and the esoteric in cooking is always so interesting to see.

[stephane]

As a humble professional chef, I am so grateful to you to have bring this topic on the dining table 👍🏻 My personal taste… no obscene amount of burnt butter of my filets

[strmrdr]

Your content is so succinct and comprehensive, you really respect the viewer's time and deliver exceptional videos. Straight to the top with you!

[Latinomicz]

Thanks for the deep dive on this. Not everyone would put the effort you did to get to the bottom of something as simplistic as basting. Though the reality is, I'm sure a lot of folks (including myself) have wondered if it was worth the butter when the results felt minimal. I'm glad to hear they basically aren't and I can HAPPILY remove it from my thought process whenever I cook a quality steak.