One of the best meals is a steak. It is very simple to make a delicious steak, but many people will overcomplicate it. This is a guide to an easy method to cook a perfect steak every time.
Contents
Step 1: Selecting the Cut
This is perhaps the most important step. You must select a good piece of meat in order to cook a delicious steak. You may choose between a filet mignon, New York strip, rib eye, porterhouse, or T-bone. These cuts are all delicious and easy to cook well. Other choices, such as sirloin or flank steak, are less flavorful and much easier to dry out.
Step 2: Preparing the Meat
Take the steak out of the fridge and leave it setting at room temperature for between 30 minutes to an hour. If you try and cook a cold steak, it will cook unevenly and unpredictably. Leaving it sitting for more than an hour is unwise, as it can lead to bacteria multiplication. After the steak has set out for awhile, it is time to oil the meat. Oil the meat and not the pan! After oiling, you should put your marinade or spice rub on the meat. Do not put any salt on at this stage, as it will suck moisture out of the steak and dry it out. Salting should be done after the steak has finished cooking.
Step 3: Cooking the Steak
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. You will be finishing the steak in the oven, so you will need a pan that can go in the oven, preferably a cast iron pan. Next, put the skillet on the stove and heat it to medium-high. Make sure the pan is completely heated to medium-high, because the high heat is necessary to seal in the juices. When you are sure the skillet is hot enough, put your oiled and rubbed steak in it. Cook it for around 45 seconds. Then flip it over, trying to flip it to a different spot on the skillet. You should use tongs to flip the steak. If you use something like a fork that pierces the surface of the steak, valuable juices will leak out of the meat. After you flip the steak over, cook it on the reverse side for 20 seconds. Immediately reduce the heat to medium and cook the steak for another 30 seconds. Then flip the steak back over and put the pan in the oven. Leave it in the oven for 2 minutes, and then flip the steak over. Let it cook in the oven for another 3 minutes and then remove it from the oven.
Step 4: Resting and Enjoying
Immediately after taking the steak out of the oven, take it out of the pan and rest it on a cutting board or cooling platter for 2 minutes. This is a very important step, as it allows the juices that collected in the middle of the steak during cooking to redistribute throughout the steak. Serve immediately after this resting period with a good bottle of beer or wine and enjoy!
Final Notes:
You may need to experiment a little bit on the time or temperature at which you let the steak cook in the oven. Ovens are very diverse appliances, and 450 degrees for a perfect steak in one oven may be more like 425 or 475 degrees in another. After a few experiments, you will nail down the temperature and timing. You will then have a simple and quick method in which to cook a magnificent steak every time.
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