Seven tips for perfect steak

June 28th, 2012

Appliance Talk BBQs Cooktops Ovens & Cooking

The perfect steak is a bit like the Holy Grail – lots of people are searching for it, but everyone has a different idea of exactly what it is and how to find it.

With there being as many opinions on what makes a great steak as there are steak aficionados, we’ve collected seven of the most commonly-recommended pieces of advice to help you reach carnivorous nirvana on your cooktop or barbeque.

Choose your steak wisely

As the old saying goes, “You can’t polish a…” well, you know the rest.

The same principle applies when cooking – you can’t turn an inferior piece of meat into a great steak.

When it comes to cuts of meat, those carved from the muscles that cows use the least tend to produce the most tender steaks.  These cuts include scotch fillet, sirloin, porterhouse, eye fillet and tenderloin.

Pick out a nice thick steak with red meat and white fat.  Don’t bother looking in the supermarket – go and make friends with your local butcher.

Defrost

Some steak fans like taking their meat straight from the freezer to the grill, to more easily sear the outside while leaving the middle rare.  However, this can sometimes leave the middle of the meat unpleasantly cool or even frozen.

You’ll usually get more consistent cooking results by defrosting your steak first.  It is often recommended that steaks rest at room temperature prior to cooking to ensure soft and tender results, though the hygiene of this practice has been questioned.

If you have an oven with a defrost function (such as this Bosch Electric Wall Oven), this can get your steak from frozen to room temperature quickly and safely, minimising the risk of germs and creating ideal cooking conditions.  There are also a few other methods you can use.

Prepare your meat

It is said that a really, REALY good piece of meat will be delicious when cooked in its own quality juices, without the need for any additional preparation.  But some people find that a bit boring, and add extra flavour with marinades or seasonings, which can also spruce up a lower-quality cut.

Good marinades require plenty of time to properly infuse the meat with their flavours.  Just dropping the steak in the marinade a hour before cooking (I’m guilty of this) doesn’t work as well.  Once you’ve marinated your steak, drain the excess liquid from the meat before cooking to avoid stewing the meat and making it tough.

If you plan to season your meat with salt, don’t start adding it until just before you start cooking, as the salt will draw moisture out of the meat.  Some steak fans even reckon you shouldn’t salt your steak until after it’s cooked, to keep the maximum amount of flavour in the meat.

Heat the pan, oil the steak

Whether you’re cooking steak on a gas, electric, or induction cooktop, or on a barbeque, you should get your cooking surface nice and hot before you drop the steak onto it.  The steak should sizzle when it hits the surface.

If you’re planning on a medium or well-done steak, you can leave your surface at a slightly lower temperature and cook the steak for longer.  If your goal is a rare steak, crank the heat up to supernova and get ready to take the steak off quickly.

To keep the steak from sticking to the pan, you’ll need some oil.  An oil with a high smoking point should result in less spitting and smoking.  Many steak fans recommend brushing the steak with oil rather than covering the pan with an oil layer – after all, you’re just stopping the steak from sticking, not deep-frying it.

On flipping

Traditional wisdom states that a steak only needs to be flipped once during the cooking process, especially when cooking rare steak.  Extra, unnecessary flips are said to toughen the meat.  Depending on the thickness of the meat and how you want your steak done, you may leave each side cooking for a little as a minute, or as long as three minutes.

An opposing point of view can be found in the camp of award-winning and distinctly non-traditional chef, Heston Blumenthal.  Heston’s perfect steaks are flipped every 15 seconds until they’re done.

“By flipping the meat every 15–20 seconds, the steak will develop a crisp flavoursome exterior without being overcooked in the centre.” – Heston Blumenthal

Of course, the other option from Heston would be to vacuum-seal your steak and then cook it at an ultra-low temperature for 24 hours.  May be a bit too experimental for some of us, Hestie…

How to know when it’s done

If you’re of the “flip once” school, you can tell when to turn your steak based on when red juices start to appear on the uncooked side of the meat.  A rare steak should be turned before these juices start to appear; a medium-rare steak when the first drops start to arrive; and a medium-well done steak when the juice starts to run together.

The other way to judge the status of your steak is by touch – give it a gentle prod with the flat of your tongs.  Generally, a rare steak feels soft to the touch, while a well done steak is tougher.  A medium steak should be slightly springy.

One method that turns up quite often is to compare the springiness of the steak to that of the fleshy part of your thumb when touching different fingers.

Let your steak rest

An often-undervalued part of the steak-cooking experience is resting the steak once it’s done.  This allows the juices in the steak to spread out and be absorbed back into the the meat, producing the maximum amount of flavour.

Most guides recommend wrapping the steaks in foil or placing them under a covered dish to preserve their warmth as they rest.  A warming drawer can also be useful for keeping resting steak at an even temperature.

One interesting technique we heard about was to rest steaks standing up vertically in a toast rack, which prevents any leaking juices from pooling around the meat, keeping its crust crispy.

What are your personal favourite tips and tricks for preparing perfect steak?  Please share!