- Salisbury.
Salisbury Steak.
Today, we are going to make a recreation
of the classic Stouffer's Salisbury Steak TV Dinner.
We're going to cook it, freeze it, heat it, and then eat it.
(upbeat music)
The first thing I'm going to do today is dice my beef.
Chuck has a really great texture and flavor for grinding.
Short rib is amazing.
I mean it has a ton of marbling
and that lots of flavor that comes off.
Just wanna trim some of this excess.
You wanna look for essentially a silver skin.
That we want to remove from short rib.
Filet tends to be a little pricey
so if you're going to your local butcher,
they always are trimming those filets down in the back.
So it eats exactly the same as buying a whole filet.
You wouldn't wanna obviously take a whole filet
and grind it.
I have here one pound of cubed chuck,
a 1/2 pound of cubed filet trim,
and a 1/2 pound of cubed short rib.
So we're going to set up our meat grinder.
And meanwhile,
I'm going to place this in the refrigerator to cool.
When grinding meat, you want everything extremely cold.
Let's grind some meat.
So I have my meat grinder here.
I also have a bowl of ice and water here
to keep my beef really cold.
We're gonna start to grind this beef up.
(beef grinder humming)
I'm actually gonna alternate which beef I'm grinding
so that it mixes naturally.
Awesome.
So this is our coarse grind,
and I'm going to grind one more time on a smaller die.
(beef grinder humming)
Oh yeah.
Meat's fairly mixed already.
Now at this point, what I wanna do
is essentially add all of our flavorings,
our spices, our delicious sweat onions,
and then we'll form some patties.
So I had a pretty intense run in with an onion.
How red do my eyes look?
So today I've come prepared.
Real deal serious business here people.
Leave it to the pros.
Today I'm going to brunoise said onion
to add to our patty mixture.
Unlike a small dice, a brunoise is tiny, right?
So the reason for that is the onions will actually melt
into the patty mixture without being too pronounced.
So we'll get all the onion flavor
but not the big chunks of onion.
Here I have one small brunoise onion about a cup.
Sweating onions, super simple, about a tablespoon of butter.
You don't want the heat too high.
The ultimate goal here
is actually just to cook the onions through
so we take that raw flavor off of the onion,
and they really essentially end up melting
into that beautiful ground beef.
Season your onions in the beginning,
because what happens is the salt
will help draw that moisture out.
And now you just stare as you're just entertaining yourself.
It's like, go onions, go onions.
So these onions are done
and what I wanna do is actually cool them
and set them aside.
You never wanna add any hot ingredients
into the raw beef.
Here I have some fresh Italian parsley
as well as fresh thyme.
When chopping herbs
it's extremely important to use a sharp knife,
because if you don't, the herbs actually tend to bruise.
So I'm gonna do what I call here is a cisele chop.
So it's almost like a chiffonade, right?
So you sort of stack your parsley together
or whatever herb you have.
And it's just a beautiful way to chop parsley
without bruising the parsley.
Anyone in the comments that can spell cisele,
it's a French term,
definitely a bonus points for you.
So I have one teaspoon of chopped thyme
and one tablespoon of fresh chopped parsley
which will go into my patty mixture.
I like to actually create a well
when I'm seasoning a bulk ingredient like this.
So all of the ingredients really get well incorporated.
So here I have some mustard powder and some dried garlic.
So I'll simply just start to sort of sift that
over the beef,
some black pepper,
about a tablespoon of salt
and our beautiful onions that have been sweat out.
Now for my liquid ingredients.
Two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce,
1/4 cup of ketchup.
And I know it's weird.
Ketchup, it's like, you generally are thinking
about a fries condiment.
But think about it.
Ketchup has molasses, it has spices, it has tomato,
it has salt, right?
So we're just kind of using the ketchup
for its caramelization notes
that it's going to add to our beef.
Add in my egg,
our beautiful cisele of parsley and chopped fresh thyme.
And really just start to combine this mixture.
So when forming the patties,
I like to put just a little bit of oil
or non-stick spray on my hands
just so the meat doesn't like cake up on my fingers
and it's a great moisturizer.
So from here I'm just going to turn
my beautiful meat mixture out into my cutting board.
I think I can get about five patties here.
So I'll sort of section out these patties.
There is a good amount of air
that gets trapped in when you grind it.
Pull some of that air out
by tossing it on your hand.
And what's gonna happen is it starts to shape itself, right?
So I'm basically pulling all the air out
so that when we get a patty
you're not gonna get big cracks in your Salisbury steak.
I'd love to kind of create this oval.
Just so it sort of mimics a steak.
Get to almost taste that Salisbury steak now.
Finish line's coming.
I'm going to place these patties
into a refrigerator to chill for about 15 minutes
and then we'll sear them.
I'm going to get into my mushrooms
for this delicious mushroom sauce.
Today I'm using shiitakes, maitakes, hon-shimeji
as well as oyster mushrooms.
So I'm going to just basically trim these up.
And I'm looking for about eight ounces.
I want some texture in this gravy.
I don't want the mushrooms to disappear in the sauce.
I'm just gonna 1/4 or 1/6 these mushrooms.
So I'm going to saute these mushrooms.
In order of operation
I want to cook what takes the longest.
And in this case, it's the shiitake mushrooms.
The next step in our mushroom sauce
I'm going to saute these maitake mushrooms.
Another teaspoon of butter.
Butter makes everything better.
It's a great time to add in the next mushroom
which today I'm using the hon-shimeji mushroom.
Last mushroom to join the party,
beloved oyster mushroom going in.
Say hi to your friends.
This is going to get just a touch of salt,
a little bit of butter and just a tiny bit of garlic, right?
This is just really going to add a lot of flavor,
but without the burn.
Now that we have our mushrooms sauteed
I'm going to set them aside.
patties have been chilling
and we are going to sear these babies.
I'm gonna start with some butter,
about a tablespoon of neutral oil.
First patty going down.
Down, down, down.
We definitely want a nice, even, high heat when searing.
So we wanna cook these beef patties
roughly six to eight minutes per side.
You're gonna want to regulate your heat, right?
You're starting your oil and your butter
at a high temperature,
and then bringing it down quarter of the way in
making sure there's even caramelization
and almost deglazing
as that fat starts to render off of the beef.
So we have our hamburger steaks seared off
and we have also all of this amazing fats and flavor
in this pan, which I'm going to reserve for our sauce.
But I am going to just pull
a little bit of the darker pieces out
and actually then add this gorgeous fat right back in.
To create my roux
I'm going to add just a knob of butter, about a tablespoon.
So I like to sift in my flour actually when I make the roux
and it's going to be about three tablespoons for the sauce.
And now we're going to stream in three cups of beef broth
that's been brought to a simmer.
I'm adding one tablespoon of Worcestershire to my sauce.
I'm just going to add a touch of salt
and a little bit of black pepper.
So now that the sauce has reached a beautiful viscosity
I will finish cooking my beef patties in the sauce.
This is super stunning and absolutely flavorful.
I mean, this is definitely an elevated a Salisbury steak
if I do say so myself,
and I do say so.
Remember these guys they're coming back in.
Yummy.
I'm going to set these aside to simmer for about 15 minutes
till all the flavors come together.
You probably thought we were done cooking
but we have to make our side,
the macaroni and cheese.
Fresh cheese is the way to go, hand grated.
I am using a cheddar cheese here.
We're aiming for about two cups of cheddar cheese.
Let's go bicep, do your thing.
I feel like mac and cheese is like one of those topics
that is like a really sensitive subject.
Like people are really passionate
about their mac and cheese.
And some people put egg in it,
some people bake it,
some people put bread crumb.
It's a whole thing.
Not Stouffer's.
They're like it's we're in a whole other lane. (chuckles)
Love it.
For my next trick,
we make the mac and cheese sauce.
(mimics martial arts)
Stop having fun, Nyesha,
said no one.
We're gonna start with the roux.
I start with about two tablespoons or so butter.
And I want to just melt this butter down.
We want a sort of blonde roux, right?
We do not want a dark roux.
I do not want to caramelize those milk solids
in the butter too much.
I really just want to melt it.
What I wanna do is start to stream in our hot milk.
We do not want to disrupt a temperature variance
between two pots
and this will allow you to avoid any clumps.
And you want to allow this mixture
really to cook through, right?
We do not want any raw flour flavor.
So now I will add about two cups of grated cheddar cheese.
And now we're just really wanting to melt that cheese in.
Because I really want to drive home
that Stouffer's almost like
I don't wanna talk sh** about it
but it's like almost like an artificial flavor.
I'm actually using a cheddar cheese powder
which is going to give me that really vibrant
sort of like highlighter orange flavor, color
mouthfeel, right?
It's just going to be permeating my mouth
with cheddar flavor.
Add a touch of nutmeg, just a little bit.
Milk and cream or milk based sauces love nutmeg.
Tiny pinch of cayenne.
Cool, we're looking good.
Mac and cheese sauce done.
For the pasta I'm using about eight ounces of pasta.
This elbow macaroni is about 90% cooked, right?
I want to cook this pasta in the actual cheese sauce.
Oh my gosh.
This is coming together so amazing.
Oh my God.
This is like such a guilty pleasure right here,
I have to say.
On the back end I just like to add a cup of milk.
We have the macaroni and cheese.
- [Producer] Awesome.
(humming)
- Now that our mac and cheese is complete
we're gonna start building out our TV dinners.
Here we go.
Oh yeah.
I am doing like the most fancy meal prep ever basically.
I definitely wanna get a lot of that gravy on there.
All about that bass life.
This is a perfect portion.
This is about a six ounce portion of hamburger steak
and those beautiful wild foraged mushrooms
which Stouffer's definitely didn't use,
but I have to chefify it somewhere.
Oh my gosh.
This is really giving me childhood vibes.
A little fresh parsley.
Oh my God. I made a whole ass TV dinner, dude.
Looking at you Stouffer's.
What you got on my TV dinner?
Now it's the sealing time.
You can use whatever you want.
A Ziploc bag, plastic wrap, aluminum foil.
I am going to use a plastic sheet
so it looks really TV dinnery.
So I'm going to place these in the freezer
for about two to three days.
Welcome back.
Oh, you haven't gone anywhere.
I've gone lots of places.
It's been three days.
I'm wearing the same outfit and I'm just kidding.
I throw this in the blast chiller, right?
It's really hard.
I'm actually gonna go
with the box instructions from Stouffer's TV dinner.
(laughs sarcastically)
So (beep) I'm gonna do 3 1/2.
Three, how do you do that?
Two hash 50.
How do you use a microwave?
I forgot how to use a microwave.
(laughs)
(beeps)
So I'm starting with 3 1/2 minutes
just for purely the reason
that I wanna start and see where I'm at, right?
The meat's gonna start to defrost
that cheese is gonna start to warm up.
But from what I imagine
is the center of that Salisbury steak
is gonna be still fairly cold.
So just want to take a look at it at 3 1/2 minutes
and then go in with my additional time
of probably about 2 1/2 minutes.
Voila.
C'est bon?
So gourmand.
Oh yes.
Oh my gosh.
So tender.
The double grind.
It's like such a comforting dish.
And I think it's an awesome way
to really elevate such a simple classic,
almost lowbrow dish, right?
Using hamburger meat, fairly inexpensive
but elevating it by the technique.
I have to say
this is unlike any TV dinner I've ever tasted.
It's like amplified times 1000.
Honestly, I'd be stoked if I got this in a restaurant.
This tastes so good.
This was definitely successful
and I hope you make this.
Let me know, leave some comments
and I'm gonna go enjoy my stories now.
Thank you.
(upbeat music)