How to cook steak

Cooking steak well or to your liking can feel like a difficult task. Particularly if you’ve had a few attempts not turn out and now you don’t want to even try again because you feel like you’re wasting the expensive cut! Here are my top tips to help you cook steak well at home and to your liking. 

1. The most important thing is cooking steak at room temperature. Or at least taking it out of the fridge well in advance to allow it to increase in temperature. The reason why is simple with this analogy- if you are freezing cold and jump into a very hot shower your body tenses up immediately in response. Your steak does this too but the effect is it makes it tough. Allowing steak to “warm up” before cooking allows the difference in temperature of the steak to the temperature of the pan to not be so big. In summer time steak sitting on the bench warms up quickly, in winter (our house is cold too) it can take hours. Any sort of time out of the fridge before cooking is better than nothing. 
   
   
2. Resting your steak after you cook it is just as important as bringing it up to room temperature beforehand. Typically steak is cooked over a high heat which temporarily makes the steak a bit tougher. Allowing it to sit for even 5 minutes once you’ve taken it out of the pan makes a huge difference in the texture and tenderness. I also find if the steak was pretty cold when going into the fry pan it needs longer resting time afterwards to compensate. 
   
   
3. Picking your equipment- frypan, bbq or griddle. Now this tip does take a bit of trial and error and you may want to try this with some cheaper steak to work it out. The reason is cooking steak in my cast iron fry pan on the gas stove is completely different to my bbq outside. And your equipment will be different again to mine. I find the bbq is the easiest and most consistent. Cooking on the bbq is always faster, when I flip the steak it’s always for 1 minute until I take it off. I always have it on high, it gives a great sear but doesn’t make the outside go too tough. But for my cast iron frypan if the pan is too hot I find the outside gets too charred and almost tough before the inside has had enough chance to cook through. I have to cook it on more of a medium heat and it takes twice as long sometimes longer than on the bbq. The cast into griddle is basically the same but takes longer to heat up. 
   
   
4. Watching for the myoglobin to pool on top of the steak. I know when the steak is ready to flip over when you start to see beads of blood (but it isn’t blood) forming on the top. Myoglobin is denatured protein, a natural product. 
   
   
5. How long do you cook on the second side? This is the magically question that depends on your cooking equipment and how do you like your steak- rare, medium or well done. As mentioned above the bbq is fast and I leave on for 1 minute on the second side as we like our steak rare. For medium rare I’d leave it for 2-3 minutes. For well done at least 5 minutes. The cast iron is typically twice as long as I have the heat on a lower temp. 
   
   

Method 

1.Remove the steak from the cryovac bag and allow to sit on bench to come up to room temperature. This will be quick in summer time and slower in winter (depends on your internal house temp too). 
2. Heat your cooking equipment- bbq or cast iron pan. Have the bbq on high and the cast iron on a medium high heat. Make sure it is hot before adding the steak or it can start to stew. 
3. Sprinkle salt flakes on one side of the steak, add in some cooking fat to the fry pan or bbq if needed and then place the steak salt side down. 
4. If using a bbq I’d suggest you keep the lid open as closing it can make the steak sweat. Keep an eye out for the myoglobin starting to form on top of the steak (It looks like little drops of blood). Once the steak has a few spots spread over the top sprinkle some more salt flakes on top and flip it over. 
5. The time on the second side does vary and it took me trial and error to work out bbq vs cast iron. If you’re cooking in a cast iron fry pan try 2 minutes for rare, 3-4 minutes for medium and 5-6 minutes for well done. For the bbq try 1 minute for rare, 2-3 minutes for medium and 4-5 minutes for well done.
6. When you think it’s ready transfer to a plate or tray and allow to rest ideally for 5 minutes, if cooking well done I’d rest for 8 minutes. You can cover it with a lid or some foil to keep warm.  

Good luck! 

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