Simulate Different Methods Of Cooking Steak In Your Browser With 'Cook My Meat'

Just like there's more than one way to peel a banana, there's more than one way to cook a steak. Want to go for an old-fashioned grilling? Prefer a pan-sear?​ Like feeling fancy and French with a sous vide method? Sites like The Food Lab have comprehensive guides to all three methods and more. But what if you're curious about what is actually going on inside your cut of beef?

If what you really want is to know more about the science behind cooking a steak — or a head-start on a blissful VR simulation — then "Cook My Meat" is the website for you.

Created in 2013 by three MIT students (Kate Roe, Laura Breiman, and Marissa Stephens), "Cook My Meat" lets you visualize the doneness or temperature of a steak over time — giving you preview of how rare or well done it is in any given minute. You can dial in your preferred recipe with the controls on the left or pick a preloaded standby.

You also have the option to compare the end results of two different cooking methods — if you swear by the pan and your neighbor gets up in your grill about their grill, maybe this site will help settle the dispute. For chemically-curious foodies, the color key below the graph fills you in on what reactions have occurred in the meat.

"Cook My Meat" will let you get real silly with your custom recipes, but within limits. You can only select up to a 30-centimeter cut, and the longer you cook for the longer the calculation will take (oh, and you can't enter a temperature below absolute zero). 

If you're not into red meat, you can also select Tuna or Turkey from a dropdown menu. Just take the developers' advice: the site's not a perfect simulation, so cook with its insight at your own risk.

[via DONG on YouTube]

All done with virtual steak? Why not try playing with a virtual voicebox?