OK, so people want to know how to cook a steak. We can help!
I am not a chef. I am not a cook. I can do a few things in the kitchen, I can usually follow directions without setting the house on fire. But I, like most men, invariably use too much heat.
The key to cooking a steak is not in the hotness of the cast iron pan, but is in the preparation of the steak and the controlling of the heat.
Step 1. Steak Buying
If you’re not slaughtering the cow yourself, hie thee to a real butcher. Any steak wrapped in plastic is No-Go; go to the counter and talk to The Man Himself. We’re not going to go into a lecture on steak-cuts and such, but The Man will present you with a lovely and flavorful meal. A ribeye is great, a NY strip is too. Don’t get the t-bone; you’re paying for bone, duh.
Step 2. Steak Prep.
Take the steak out of the white paper fifteen minutes before you’re ready to cook it. Keep the thing on the paper, though; don’t put it on a plate, (you’ll just contaminate a plate for no reason).
Pour some olive oil into a small bowl. Use a barbeque basting brush to slather the steak with olive oil. Can you overdo the olive oil? Yes, but you’d really have to work hard to do so. Paint like you’re a three year old. Oil-up the sides too.
Salt and pepper that thing! You’re not trying to make a crust of these spices, but don’t use them sparingly. This is a Steak, people. This is one of the greatest pleasures in life, and measuring the salt just ruins the experience. Rub the salt and pepper into the steak. You want those spices and the olive oil to get inside the meat’s surface. All areas get olive oil and the spice rub.
Step 3. Oven Prep.
Five minutes before you’re ready to cook, and while the steak is marinating in olive oil, salt, and pepper, get your cast iron pan on the stove. Do not put olive oil in the pan. Do not put anything in the pan! No Pam, no butter, nothing. Turn the burner on medium-high. You’re not trying to melt the pan so don’t put the electric stovetop on “10”. A nice “8” will suffice. For the lucky gas-oven people, if the flames are reaching the cabinets, that’s too high. Hot, but not surface-of-the-sun Hot.
Step 4. Searing the B@stard
The steak and pan are ready, so drop that thing right in the center of the pan. Sizzle fo’shizzle! You are searing the meat, not cooking. You’re now closing all the gaps in the surface of the meat in order to prevent the natural juices from evaporating during cooking. You’re not going to sear for more than sixty seconds per side; this is a quick process. Check the color by lifting the steak. If it’s a healthy, dark brown, you’re finished with one side. Flip it over and sear that side too.
Step 5. Cooking the B@stard
Both sides are seared, now turn the heat way down to medium-low. Make the knob read “3”, perhaps “4” if it’s a really thick steak. The steak is seared, so now our heat is going to cook the inside of the steak, and we don’t want a hunk of brown leather in the pan. Flip the steak onto the first side you seared and cook for no more than five minutes.
Flip the steak at five minutes and cook for three to four more minutes. The center of the steak was mostly done with the first side, now we’re just cooking the other side. Do not cook “evenly” with five minutes on one side and five minutes on the other or you’ll over-cook the center.
We want hot pink, a medium-rare in the dead-center of the thing. Those people who like it a little more done can eat the parts closer to the edge of the steak and get their medium. Those of us who are closer to God and love more moo-ing from our steak get the center cut.
Step 6. Presentation
Server on a hot plate. Put the plates in the microwave for thirty seconds so that the steak doesn’t cool off immediately after you serve it.
Step 7. Lock the refrigerator
No ketchup. No steak sauce. No A1. No crap. The beauty of a steak is its inherent flavor. If you’re itching to put ketchup on a $6 ribeye, go eat somewhere else. Buy some ground beef and make a meatloaf. Do anything but ruin my steak with your foul and odious chemical concoctions.
Step 8. Eating, foshizzle
Do not gulp or shovel. Chew slowly. Admire the colors. Inhale the aroma. You’ve worked all week to afford this. You’ve accepted crap-under-plastic meals and things-cooked-in-a-microwave all week. Give yourself ten minutes to truly appreciate this gift of steak.
Step 9. Leftovers
After the first night, you may make steak-sandwiches and put any condiment you like on it. A microwaved steak is a well-done steak. Don’t try to eat a microwaved 2nd meal and expect the same experience as a just-off-the-pan steak; you’ll just be disappointed.
Step 10. Repeat
Don’t be satisfied with one attempt. You’ll drop seven to ten dollars at a fast-food place, so take one night per week to visit the butcher and get yourself something truly savory. You can experiment with onions and mushrooms and whatever, but always come back to olive oil, salt, and pepper when the moment counts.
The more you practice cooking, the better you’ll get, and the happier you’ll be.
“Those of us who are closer to God and love more moo-ing from our steak get the center cut.”
Amen to that! Will have to try this myself.
Hey Daniel, just wanted to give you kudos on your steak procedure. I’ve always ended up with a piece of leather when I made steaks, but like a man does, I never ask for assistance or look up a decent strategy! My wife will be amazed tonight when I serve her up one of your steaks!
I just recently had my first rare steak ever, and it was the most delicious thing ever. I can’t wait to try cooking my own!
…oh god, now I’m hungry and it’s only breakfast. x.x
Good thing for me, my dad has more steaks than he knows what to do with them all.
I get to practice! A lot!
… to the dismay of my fami-Guinea pigs. Yes…
…
You can experiment with onions and mushrooms and whatever, but always come back to olive oil, salt, and pepper when the moment counts.
…
Damn skippy, and well said. This is EXACTLY how I do my steaks when I do ‘em inside. Sometimes I use Cavendar’s Greek Seasoning instead of salt and pepper, and you GOTTA use good olive oil, but it’s just an amazing steak. I bought a cast iron skillet just for this application.
Do you have any suggestions for BBQ steak?
I’m gonna pretend that you live at the north pole and thus don’t have the proper weather for a BBQ… it’s the only way I can resist the need to slap you for *shudder* pan-frying a perfectly good piece of meat.
Other than that, its a good guide, olive oil/salt/pepper is everything you need, and never melt-the-BBQ-into-slag heat.
And taurens beware, I like mine with more moo-moo than most… med-rare is way over cooked for me
Most people don’t grill/BBQ for some odd reason. I think it really is the best way to cook
. Nothing wrong with cooking a steak in a skillet. Another way i have seen this method done, is to sear the steak, THEN cook the steak in the oven! At about 375ish for maybe 15 min. I have seen people do it, haven’t tried that method personally. But Mr. Howell’s method works great, I usually add Rosemary/thyme and some garlic with the salt/pepper rub, not too much because you want them to enhance the steakiness.
Dinner? Yes please
BTW Daniel, glad to be reading a blog from you again!
I’m sure you already know this, but a lot of us are going to demand a video entry of this, or atleast some narration over the searing from the fryingpan. You have too much charisma to be confined to text only.
Thumbs up! This is how I cook my steak when I have no propane or charcoal (fire is good).
Here’s another tip…
How can you tell how done the steak is without cutting it open? Cutting open a steak before a rest time is a no-no.
1. do a total /facepalm
2. Now hold out your hand in front of your face
3. Take your index finger and touch it to the tip of your thumb (if you turned your hand a bit it would look like you were smoking a finely rolled cigarette or whatever)
4. Now with your other hand’s index finger poke the meaty part of your thumb right above your wrist
5. This is what a rare steak would feel like if you poked it right in the center
6. Now try it with each of your other fingers, touch your middle finger to your thumb then your ring finger and finally your little pinky and test each
7. At each finger the steak gets more well done ending with you pinky which is just shy of shoe leather
I like mine just between my index and middle finger…not quite mooing
~serf
I hate to nitpick, but searing doesn’t prevent the loss of juices from the meat. Searing is important, though, for flavor and texture.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing
One thing that can add just the right amount of flavor without overwhelming the meat is a flavored butter. I like blue cheese butter, but pretty much anything can be mixed with the butter for flavoring.
And pan-frying is a perfectly acceptable way of cooking meat.
Sounds good, and just how I do steak, except:
1. no pepper
2. cheaper steak, mostly because I am poor, but I actually like chuck steak
3. less salt
4. I go perhaps slightly less cooked than you
5. I say a prayer for the critter before I eat
Tauren steak is the best! ;D
BRK…
HERE WE GO AGAIN!
You can’t cook steak like that man! Are you crazy!?!?!? The math just don’t add up.
Over at the EC (Elite Cooks) forums they have all the right math for teaching “Teh n00b c00ks 2 L2 c00k”.
GAWD! Get one blog right in ur lyfe!!!
LOL – all joking aside, I already miss you man, looking forward to reading all the new stories.
Take care,
Guy
i am going to keep going to brk.com to make sure it always gets hits and use its link to come here, and read up on everything you decide to per.
i knew u couldent stay out of the spotlight, wow or not you make awsome posts.
Awwww….please please please, let us hear something like “Welcome to another Daniel Howell Cooking Guide Movie!” sometime
Anyway…maybe now my dad will stop complaining over my steaks^^
per should be post sorry watching news and not my typing
The only thing I would add is a couple dashes of Paprika to the spice rub (hungarian paprika is smokier and yum).
We use the cheek, nose, forehead gauge instead of the fingers for rarish, medium, well done.
Poke your cheek. rare should feel like this.
nose = medium
forehead = leather.
SO glad to be reading your site, funny and insiteful whether WoW or not… I need me some steak now… never tried the Olive oil trick, probably explains the S&P falling off… mmmm.
Damn myself for reading this before lunch. Now my stomach is demanding something I cannot get for at least another 7 hours. This sucks…
I actually do my ribeyes very similarly, except instead of doing to slow cook on the eye, I put it in the oven at 350 for 2-3 minutes on each side.
You forgot one important step Daniel – One that is important pariticularly if there are other people in the house at the time of the steak cooking:
Disable the smoke alarm!!
Or alternativly:
The easiest way to tell when your steak is ready is when the smoke alarm goes off for the third time (for medium rare)
Awesome work here BRK. Just want to add one more step to your process.
You want to lest the meat rest for at least 5 minutes before you serve it. This allows the flavorful juices that have probably been pushed to the center to redistribute themselves throughout the whole steak. A prime example of not letting the meat rest is when you cut your steak and there is a pool of juices. This means the meat did not rest enough and now your steak is going to be at least a little more dry than it should be.
Hope that helps and keep up the great work!!
Robr
I prefer searing my steak on a cast iron grate over a 700F charcoal fire. Sear about 30 seconds a side. Close off your air vents to lower the heat on the fire, and cook about 3 minutes a side.
Also, don’t shy away from your T-Bones and your Porterhouse steaks. Cooking bone-in steaks adds flavor. The Porterhouse is my favorite cut. You get a filet mignon on one side and a ny strip on the other.
Great tips. Salt and Pepper only, searing on both sides, and the cast iron pan.
This is the way I used to cook them, and they were very good. Might I suggest that you check out Alton Brown’s method though? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiQ0VOJmCbg Pure heaven. The thing is, especially for a ribeye, uber heat is actually the best. You want to slam it with heat, that way you get the whole thing to medium rare perfection, not just the center part.
I realize it’s taboo to mess with one’s steak cooking technique, but maybe try it once.
I was with you until step 3.
I don’t care if it’s -40 with 3 feet of snow. Unless you own a commercial oven that can get up to 900 degress (seriously) you are throwing away a beautiful steak. Toddle yer but out of doors, fire the up the grill until you can’t stand next to it. 2 minutes on each side and you will have a well seared, rare steak.
Take that to the bank.
Yay!! One of my favorite parts of BRK was the personal blogs, so I am SO excited that this is site is here.
As for the steak, aren’t you from FL? Don’t they have grills down there? Any true meatlover knows that the only way to have a steak is to have it cooked over the open flame of charcoal!!
I would love to hear “Daniel and the Fire Brigade” or “What do mean the grill isn’t supposed to be that close tot he house” someday. I’ll bet there’s a story.
Great post about preparing a steak, BRK….err….Daniel.
If I may, I would like to add one more dimension to the enjoyment of preparing and consuming steaks, and that is the art of making a pan sauce.
You talked about not adding any ketchup or commercial steak sauce to the meat, which I completely agree. However, if you look closely at the pan after you remove the steak, you will notice that a lot of the very essence of steak goodness is still left on the pan, waiting and ready to enhance the masterpiece that you have just created for you and your family. I am talking about the caramelized brown bits (or as the French calls it, “fond”).
To make sure the fond does not go to waste and to make a mouth watering pan sauce out of it, you simply just need one cup of chicken broth, half cup of red wine (or about 2 tablespoons of brandy), a good pinch of sugar, some butter and extra 10 minutes (which is perfect while your steak is resting).
After you lift your steak and let it rest on a hot plate under an aluminum foil cover (very important), pour the red wine (or brandy) to the pan and return the pan back to the stove over medium high heat. Don’t pour the alcohol in the pan while the pan is over the stove to prevent a flare up or a visit from the local fire department. Stir the liquid and scrape the brown bits off the pan with a wooden spatula. This process is commonly known as “deglazing” the pan. Once the alcohol is cooked away from the liquid, pour the chicken broth to the pan, add the pinch of sugar and continue to scrape the brown bits off the pan. Cook until all liquid is reduced down to half or less of the original volume. Turn off the heat and add a tablespoon of butter (gotta be real butter, folks), swish the pan around until the butter is fully incorporated to the hot liquid, pour over the now rested steak and serve immediately. Your taste buds and your family will all thank you for it.
Happy Cooking!
I love this article, except now I’m starving for a steak
Great article, I’ve been grilling steak but I’ll try the pan method. Should come in handy on those cold Colorado days.
Step 7 is the most important. Sauces don’t enhance the flavor of steak, they rob it.
Daniel,
First off, I miss your words of wisdom for Warcraft, but conversely I’m happy you stopped playing to find time for your family. <3 As guess as long as you keep blogging, it’s not so bad.
I actually had steak last night. My family and I own a farm, and we occasionally buy a calf to slaughter. Nothing beats farm-fresh steak, I tell ya. Your mouth sings with pleasure. Your nerves tingle. Your skin goosebumps! Try it sometime. Anyways, I made butter steaks with it instead of your olive oil concoction, which by the way, sounds delicious. Instead of olive oil, I put quite a bit of butter in a skillet and melted it while I was rubbing the steaks with garlic and parsley salt and crushed black pepper (fresh ground). Then you slowly sautee the steaks in butter under medium heat, flipping only once, until its to the wellness you (and your wife) prefer. Then serve it with a vegetable (I like lightly seared kolrabi) and perhaps some garlic bread and a bottle of Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon or California Merlot, and you have a dinner fit for an in-home date. =)
Don’t forget the babysitter!
You blog is the first blog that I have read apart from BRK, I love your writing style, your humor, and your ideas!
I hope to one day have more important things to do besides WoW, until then, I’ll keep reading your blog, WoW related or not!
I like your new home, Airman Howell. Just don’t let it become the substitute for your recently-kicked WoW addiction. Now if only I could cook worth a damn.
I actually don’t usually buy steak, I save it for restaurants. Since what I do just usually isn’t comparable… but that sounds awesome.
*puts steak on the shopping list*
I forgot to mention, it was fillet mingion. =X
Excellent! I’ve been telling my wife for a while I’d like to learn to cook. Though, I’ll admit, a grill is where I feel meat should be cooked.
If I’m cooking inside I follow something similar to what you have… but if I’m cooking steak I much MUCH rather cook it outside on the grill. I let the grill heat up with the lid closed then put the steak and and close it to get the initial searing done then I’ll leave the top open and cook it for a nice 10-15 minutes. If you keep an eye on it you can add a little oil to the steak if it seems like it is getting dried out.
Yum, man reading your blog made me so hungry! I’m going out soon to buy some steaks for tonight!
Anyhow, for the most part, I make my steaks following your procedure, Daniel. However, I will typically make the following modifications:
1) I will sometimes (rarely) substitute Olive oil for real butter.
2) I only cook on my stove if I absolutely can NOT get to my grill (I live in Michigan, so it happens a little too often).
3) I use grinders for my salt and pepper, and typically put very coarse salt on the steak when preparing it.
4) I have two metal steak serving hot plates for my wife and myself. I will get these two hot while my steaks are on the grill, and I end up taking my steaks off just short of being medium rare. I also melt some butter on the plates before I place the steaks on them. I end up with two sizzling hot steaks coming off the grill with the most delicious aroma that I feel really adds to the experience.
After cooking dont forget to let the steak stand for 2-5 minutes. The juices will cool down and when you cut it you wont loose all the yummyness to the plate.
I have a question.
Does it matter the type of Olive Oil?
I assume a more expensive oil would make it taste even better?
You had me at the title!
I substitute a grill and lemon pepper (instead of straight pepper).
@GaryUSC
When outdoor grilling is not available (sometimes dicey here on the Right Coast), I subscribe to the pan sauce you have described with one addition. Given the close proximity of fresh Pennsylvania mushrooms, I add fresh sliced mushrooms to the deglazing process and, voila, instant side dish or garnishment to the steak.
BRK,
The best steak must be dried aged at least 21 days, of course. I like rib-eye myself for the yummy, rich marble that melts in the mouth.
Second, I HIGHLY recommend Penzey’s dry steak seasoning and nothing else. It is a simple compliment to an amazing piece of meat: http://www.penzeys.com/cgi-bin/penzeys/p-penzeyschicago.html
Otherwise there are few methods that beat the seared crust/blazing oven method with a nice cast iron pan. A BBQ simply can not give the amazing crust that separates this method from most others.
Damn BRK now I have to have one…NOW!
When using the grill, it should be noted that one must never be sidetracked by talking to the neighbors. My parents cook tasty steaks. I came home from college one day to find the steak dinner was now spaghetti night. Outside, there was a strange object that looked like a modern art masterpiece. Not only had they managed to turn the medium-rare steak into steak-shaped gray ash, but they (I kid you not) MELTED THE GRILL. Luckily, there is always a hose on hand back there, and the fire dept. didn’t need to be notified
The pan searing and then finishing off in the oven is how the pros do it, but I personally don’t consider anything short of the grill. And please don’t call it BBQ, that is something COMPLETELY different.
Pouring sauce over the meat is doing one of two things; you are either improving a cheap, substandard piece of meat, or you are ruining a more expensive cut.
And as for the Filet Mignon, that is the cut of meat you serve your wife to demonstrate that grilled cow flesh is something awesome to behold. If you want a cut of meat that actually has some flavor to it, skip the filet. Buy the ribeyes and NY strips. Bones do add flavor, but in the case of the t-bone, it’s adding flavor to inferior pieces of meat. The porterhouse? Only if I’m starving. Paying for the bone, and the piece that goes to my wife. What I’m left with is the NY strip, which I could have bought by itself for half the price.
Yup, I’m a snobby purist, but a true fan of the steak should be nothing less!
To all the uncooked (rare) meat eaters:
I grew up on a farm/ranch and I’ve eaten hundreds of steaks so I know steak. If it’s pink or red inside it’s isn’t done yet. Most people (and professional chefs) can’t cook a well done steak correctly, a well done steak isn’t a piece of leather and it’s isn’t ruined, it’s everything you raw purists say a steak is except it’s also cooked. There is a reason it’s called “well done” since it actually done well, meaning correctly. If you want raw, then don’t waste your time cooking it.
Good to see you blogging here!
Your cooking skill has increased to 450!
)
(Okay, sorry for that
Hmmm, sounds great Daniel! Happy dinner all ^^
I’mma go now to the butcher =]
Funny but great directions. You sound like a master, and left my mouth watering. You wouldn’t need to lock your frig if I was at your table!!
A fan
Step #7 is an absolute. DO NOT PUT ANYTHING ON THE STEAK. The steak is cooked to be eaten as is. Enjoy the juices, flavors, and everything the steak has to offer!
Mmm….
Steak……
Funny story, my girlfriends uncle was cooking steaks out on the grill be their garage one day, and used…..a bit to much lighter fluid to start the grill.
It was funny after they put the garage and the nearby tree out, though.