High Steaks Cooking

Steak is incredible, but it can easily be made forgettable through poor cooking. Fear not - we've got you covered! This post will walk you through some guidelines that will ensure your seared steak brings the heat.

First, how do you want your steak? Pick the temperature you want your steak to reach. We went for a medium-rare steak for this recipe, but any cook on a steak can still be flavourful and juicy. The standard guide for steak temperature is:

• Rare: 125°-130°F
• Medium rare: 130°-140°F
• Medium: 140°-150°F
• Medium well: 150°-160°F
• Well done: over 160°F

You may also want to have a crust on the outside, as this will magnify the beef flavor of the steak. Finally, you want it seasoned all the way through, and juicy (dry steak is a drag).

Next, buy a good quality steak from a local butcher who can cut it in front of you. They can cut it thick enough so that the steak will have time to build a good crust without overcooking and drying out in the pan. Great cuts for a steak include:

• Ribeye
• Striploin
• Fillet mignon
• Tri-tip

We are partial to ribeyes because of their flavour, marbling, and tenderness, though they can be pricey. However, ribeyes are typically worth every penny.

Season your steak liberally with salt. It will feel like you are putting too much salt on it, and that's ok. The salt will pull water out of the steak, dissolve into the water, and go back into the center of the steak, seasoning it all the way through and ensuring a uniformly good flavour: this is known as "dry brining". Let it sit in the salt in the fridge for at least an hour.

Before searing, take the steak out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature. The crust we want to develop is caused by dehydrating the outside of the steak in cooking fat, which browns it through a Maillard reaction. If the steak goes into the pan cold, it can take too long to heat the outside of the steak to the point where it can dehydrate, possibly ruining the crust or, worse, drying out your steak. The closer to room temperature your steak is when it hits the pan, the better a crust you will develop.

Use a pan with a thick and heavy bottom: This can be a stainless steel or cast iron pan. Thicker bottoms on a pan help with heat distribution and prevent scorching. This will ensure that your steak has a nice even crust. As well, you want to avoid using a non-stick or Teflon pan for this, as the high heat of searing a steak can cause the non-stick coating to burn or lift from the pan: A heavy stainless steel or cast iron will not have this problem.

The oil you use for searing a steak must have a high smoke point: therefore, you should use seed oils like grapeseed, avocado, or canola. Refined, extra light olive oil works too, but extra virgin or butter will immediately burn at a high temperature. This is why we ask you to baste the steak with butter once the heat is off - it keeps the butter from burning and developing an acrid flavor. You can also use lard or tallow, but they can be harder to come by. Quick note: If you are cooking a ribeye, you don't need much oil. The ribeye has so much fat marbled through it that it will render into the pan like with bacon, and help with searing the steak as well (Yes, this is as delicious as it sounds).

Steaks should be seared at a pretty high temperature, but heads up: high temperature does not mean as high as it goes on the range. High temperature can be a 6 or 7 out of ten, as some electric stoves get way too hot at max. Save your top setting for when you want to heat a pan very quickly, or when you want to boil water, otherwise you risk scorching your steak before you even begin to cook it.

Pat your steak dry before putting it in the hot pan. Any water on the steak will instantly evaporate in the pan and steam your steak. This will prevent your steak from forming a crust, and possibly make it tough.

It's important (although somewhat nerve-wracking) to let the steak simply sit in the hot pan on one side in order to give the crust time to form. Once the crust is formed (it should look golden brown and crispy), flip the steak and build crust there too.

When the crust looks great on both sides, you can turn the heat off, add your butter, garlic, and whole peppercorns, and begin spooning hot butter onto the steak while the steak is still in the pan. The flavored butter will fall through the meat, poaching the steak with butter and slowly bringing it up to your desired temperature. It's useful to have an instant read cooking thermometer here, though there are some analog methods cooks and chefs use to tell if a steak is done. When the steak hits your preferred temperature remove it from the pan.

Finally, the most important part of cooking a steak is letting it rest. Hot water molecules inside the steak vibrate when cooking, and these will continue vibrating even if the steak is out of the pan. They will only stop when the steak has a chance to cool down and "rest". If you cut into a steak too soon, the molecules will vibrate the juice right out of the steak and onto the board, leaving you with a dry piece of meat. After cooking, put the steak on a wire rack (so the juices can fall under into a baking dish and not water-log your steak) and let it sit on the counter for 10 to 15 minutes. After this, cut into the steak, and you will find the juice stays in the meat, flavoring the steak and giving it a heavenly texture.

These are a lot of guidelines, but once they are put into practice, making steaks becomes about doing less instead of more.

How to Make It

Prepare the Steak

Remove your steak from the packaging and pat dry with paper towel.

Season the steak heavily with salt and place in the fridge for at least and hour. You can even do this step the night before and allow the steak to sit in the fridge overnight.

The steak should be bright red and will release a lot of water. This will help tenderize the meat and make it easier to form a crust when cooking. Pat the steak dry again and allow it to sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes. Allowing the steak to come to room temperature before cooking will ensure a more even cook.

Cook the Steak

Over high heat, heat a large stainless steel or cast iron skillet. Add a neutral oil like avocado, grapeseed, or canola to the pan, then add your steak to the pan.

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Cook the steak on high heat until a crust forms (2-3 minutes per side).

Turn off the heat and add the butter and garlic to the pan. The butter will begin to foam and brown. With a spoon, baste the steak with the butter until it reaches an internal temperature of 130°F.

The amount of time this takes will depend on the thickness of the steak. The steak we used was about 1.5 inches thick and this took about 5 minutes of basting. Be sure to check the temperature of your steak as you go.

Rest

Once the steak has reached temperature, remove it from the pan and place it on a wire rack over a baking sheet. Pour the butter from the pan over the steak and allow it to rest 10-15 minutes before slicing. This will ensure the meat stays tender and juicy.

Make the Chimichurri

You can choose to make a chunkier chimichurri or a blended chimichurri. If you would like the chunkier sauce, simply combine the sauce ingredients in a bowl and set aside. If you would like a blended sauce, blend all of the sauce ingredients together with a blender or immersion blender.

Serve the chimichurri sauce over the sliced steak and enjoy! This recipe will more than likely make more sauce than you will need for the steak. The leftover sauce will last for about 2 weeks in the fridge or several months in the freezer, and is a wonderful addition to eggs, salad dressings, tacos, and more.