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.
One other suggestion, is to put a pat of butter on the steak while its resting. That added fat will really bring out the flavor of the beef.
Hehe…my significant other orders his steak “as rare as I can legally get it” when we go out to eat. He is also of the opinion that most vegetables are not food…they are what food eats.
Good job, Mister.
Thank you so much for Step 7. Lock the refrigerator, it pisses me off to no end when people slather their steak with A1 or other ‘steak sauces’. The steak is meant to taste like STEAK, not A1, not Ketchup, not anything else you can frickin’ put on it.
I get a little worked up about steak, it’s my favorite food. ^^
Haha.
Porterhouse = win. Period.
Now this is a hunter guide I can sink my teeth into, “How to cook your prey!”
no sauce? c’mon. go one step more and make a pan sauce. i agree bottled stuff is out of the question, but a simple thing made in the pan while the steak is resting is perfectly acceptable. throw in some finely chopped shallots, deglaze with some wine, take off head and stir in a little cream. there are lots of variations.
note: if making a pan sauce, you might want to use a stainless steel pan. but whatever you do, don’t go nonstick.
Whoa, wait just a minute, little grasshopper. You may have been my master in hunting, but steak? I have no master! Now listen up.
Ever hear the expression “Closer to the bone, sweeter is the meat”? And where I shop bone in is always $1/lb cheaper.
Pan? Eww, never. Grill, baby, grill. And forget gas grills unless your time is too important to do it right. Charcoal for best flavor.
So speaketh Maranthren. So let it be done. Medium rare, of course.
Omg that’s made me so freakin’ hungry… Hope your happy Daniel, I’m gonna have to go and buy me some steak now, to try out your ‘Daniel’s Steak Cooking Guide…post. lol
It’s Easter Friday here. All the shops are closed.
Where’m I gonna get steak?!
“No ketchup. No steak sauce. No A1. No crap.”
You’re my hero.
And cheers for the ribeye comment. The meat may be good, but you can get the same from a beautiful inch-thick, boneless, succulent Strip.
Now I’m hungry, darnit.
OMG! You cook it in a pan! What’s wrong with you, Daniel? Don’t they have gas grills in Florida? Is it just to cold outside to be grilling?
The olive oil and spire rub are indeed excellent advice, although there are much more interesting spices to use than just salt and pepper.
The searing both sides for < 1 min, then lowering the heat is also excellent advice; as is the un-even cooking time to prevent the middle from being overdone.
For the best flavor, grill over charcoal and use the grill hight to control the heat; but if you like your life just a little less flavorful in exchange for much easier, use a gas grill so you can control the flame (and the heat) that way. But for god sake, don’t cook a stake in a pan! That’s just barbaric!
Steve
Alton Brown’s ribeye method, from the very first Good Eats episode (which had me hooked from day one)
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/pan-seared-rib-eye-recipe/index.html
Enjoy.
Funny how there’s just as many opinions on how to enjoy as steak as there are on how to spec a hunter ‘the right way’.
@Ryan, just let people enjoy things the way they enjoy them. You enjoy things the way you enjoy them. It’s food. As long as it doesn’t make you sick or kill you, it’s all done right.
My hubby likes steak sauce on any and every steak. I’m with BRK that they’re unecessary. But yanno what? It’s how he enjoys them. That’s all that counts in the end.
Kinda like people playing whatever hunter spec they want without being jumped on for their choice. Funny how cooking choices can be related back to WoW. =) *lol*
Daniel, it’s good to see you’re still blogging. I look forward to more Airman Howell stories.
not a red meat eater myself but i approve of you cooking method and desired doneness. oddly, while i consider it disgusting, it makes me sad to see a good hunk of meat cooked anything beyond barely medium rare.
as for sauce, you’re right teh steak should stand for itself but my brother made a good point one night at a fairly high end restaurant when he asked for ketchup for his steak. the waiter actually said “the chef would prefer if you didn’t use ketchup on your steak.” to which my bro replied “the chef isn’t eating this steak, i am, and i like ketchup.” “touché” said the waiter and got him some ketchup.
I take offense to your slamming of the all-mighty T-bone.
While you are certainly buying partly bone, you’re also buying one of the most flavorful cuts of meat. *shrug* To each his own though; we country boys have to qualms about getting every bite off of the bone.
Other than that, I agree. Good stuff.
450 cooking. Sounds delicious. will try it.
I agree with the prescribed cooking method, especially the no sauce!
However, pan wise, it has to be a cast iron griddle pan. The ridges make for the perfectly cooked steak.
http://www.lecreuset.co.uk/Product-Range-uk/Cast-Iron/Grills–Grillits/Square-Grillit-26cm/
Hi Daniel,
I loved your BRK blog, so here I am too..
Since I’m Italian, actually I love food posts more than I loved hunter posts..
I totally agree with your cooking method, and love that you use olive oil, but just to be a bit pedantic: the Step 4 contains a wrong mith started from Liebig at the beginning of 20th century: “closing all the gaps in the surface of the meat in order to prevent the natural juices from evaporating during cooking” …!? There are no gaps being closed here, and the juices will continue to flow out of the meat all the time while you cook it, whatever you do..
It’s interesting to know (IMHO) that what makes the meat so delicious in this phase of the cooking is the so-called “Maillard reaction”: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction
/respect
/cheers
nice, ill have to try cooking steaks this way.
Usually i just sprinkle them with olive oil, slat, pepper, and mabye a bit of balsamic vinegar (not the cheap stuff, the good kind you have to order special) and shove into the oven on broil but, this looks like a way ill have to try!
P.S: hobbes wants his bloody rare
Yay, finally a good Steak Cooking Guide! I am not the best of cooks… I’m a fabulous baker, my chocolate chip walnut toffee cookies are to die for, but I don’t cook “real food” that often, and I never trust myself to cook red meat for some reason. Thanks for posting this!!!
Alex66 is right; searing doesn’t help seal in the juices. The best thing you can do to get a nice juicy steak (aside from not overcooking) is to NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER stab it with a fork or puncture it at all, until you’re eating it.
Cooks Illustrated had an article a while back recommending the following.
1. turn the oven on the lowest temperature.
2. place steaks (salted and oiled as described above) in the oven until internal temperature reaches about 110-115F. This activates enzymes in the meat which naturally tenderize it. Takes about 10-15 minutes
3. Remove steaks from oven, sear in a hot pan for about 2-3 minutes per side.
4. DO NOT CUT STEAKS until they have rested for at least 5 minutes. Let the internal juices redistribute, or you’re gonna have a dry steak sitting in a puddle of juice.
The benefit of this method is a steak with a much wider band of light pink, medium rare center, and a much narrower band of gray medium-well done along the edges.
As far as pan sauces go, I like to deglaze with some red wine, add mushrooms, brandy, a pat of butter and some cream, cook it down ’til it thickens a little and will coat the back of a spoon.
For talented amateurs, and I speak as a talented professional, Cook’s Illustrated is _ALWAYS_ right. Even when my slack jawed, knuckle dragging, professional kitchen cronies who can out cook, out drink, and out swear any one, disagree with Cook’s they are invariably wrong. They only reason their stuff comes out as well as it does is repetition, we cook forty to sixty hours a week.
Note on slathering with oil, put it in the pan, putting it on the steak just forms a moisture barrier that prevents the salt penetrating the meat. Ideally you salt liberally, a good rib eye is about 8-12oz and requires a tablespoon to a tablespoon and a half PER SIDE and do it half an hour before you cook so it can actually penetrate the meat. Finally use a coarse salt like Diamond Crystal Kosher, the only kind I use. And for Gods sakes’ don’t ever, under any circumstances, cook past medium. If you like your steak well done, or even medium well, you don’t like steak, you like chewing, you can get the same experience with chicken breast, eat that pointless garbage and save the steak for those of us who can appreciate it.
I made some black angus sirloins last summer when some friends were coming over. I did the salt and pepper about an hour before cooking, then grilled. They were Great! As I was putting the last things on the table one friend asked for A1. My wife shot me a worried look, unsure of my response. I said “sure” and headed for the fridge. As I got back to the table I handed him the bottle of A1, then reached down and pulled the steak off his plate and dropped a couple slices of bologna. He gave me a shocked look. I said “If you want A1, feel free to enjoy it on the meat it deserves. My steak does not get polluted.”
wow bob… thats mean =/
but yeah i do steaks almost the same way i just grill it instead of cook it in a pan. coal FTW!!
Being a single father with a carnivorous five-year-old son, this is definitely going to come in handy! Thanks!!!
[...] So I did some more digging. And it appears BRK’s 3rd post on his new site after he said goodbye to BRK, appears to have been about … yes … steaks [...]
Yo,great post,thanks for your share! and I wonder if i can use this post in my blog in case I put a link back to yours? Waiting for your answer!
I used this technique tonight and it worked absolutely great!
I tried several other sites for how to cook a steak on the stove and since they had conflicting opinions on how to do it. I remembered that you had posted this long ago and decided to get my steak-cooking advice from someone who I could trust. Someone who I know is real man. Someone who is a hunter.
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