Sheldon
Infra-red is radiant heat - forget that loony "penetrating waves" business. Never in more than thirty years of restaurant operations - mine and others - have I ever seen anyone try to heat meat under their heat lamps. It's a heat source like a broiler or any other radiant warmer, but very low level by comparison. Any restaurant that can afford to leave food under a lamp long enough to get warm isn't doing much business; and it's obvious why.
Restaurants reheat rare beef - and I'm buttuming it's thicker than sandwich slices - by any of several methods: 1) "swimming" it - putting it into hot water or beef stock or juices 2) putting it on a hot griddle, but just on one side, so the red still shows on the top side. 3) Putting it on a hot "sizzler" platter and pbutting it briefly under a broiler or salamander (which is like 2, above with a little extra heat on top). 4) draping it with two or three thicknesses of wet paper towel and microwaving it (the towel absorbs the waves while the bottom is exposed to reflected waves and cooks a bit. 5) wrapping in lettuce and miking (the lettuce mitigates the intensity of the waves by absorbing some and creating a bit of steam to gently warm the meat). 6) drop it on a charbroiler and mark the outside while only heating the inside slightly (still rare inside, cooked outside). 7) put it on the cooler end of a griddle and let it warm from the bottom over a longer time.
The degree of doneness of beef is *directly* related to its temperature. The warmer you make it, the more done it is. There's no such thing as hot, rare beef.
And, once again, Sheldon shows how he has no sensitivity of touch in a kitchen. If the meat comes out with a "shoe leather exterior," it's been clumsily cooked - overcooked. (Hey, Shecky, if you want to disagree with me - your note sneering at my earlier comments was posted about 2 hours after mine advocating lettuce - grow some nuts and do it like a mensch.)
Coming down the home stretchIf I tell you the secret ingredient, it won't be a secret, now, will it? I've posted the recipe here a number of times, I believe...
"Overworked" is the important word here. Paying attention to food that's cooking is part of cooking properly.
As long as you use a ceramic lamp base or one specifically designed for heat lamps. Those lamps get hot enough to melt the wiring in the bases, and that can cause you more grief than overdone beef.
Pastorio
