How to cook the perfect steak

Cooking the perfect steak is not as easy as you might think and can take a little experience to create time after time whether you like your steak rare, medium or well-done.

There are however tips to this art form that should ensure you are on the right path, after all there is nothing worse than spending £6+ on a large matured steak garnished with a side salad and making your first cut and thinking “oh no, its over done”…. its too late!

Preparation:

Steaks vary hugely in flavours and texture and the old saying “you get what you pay for” is most prevalent in this instance. So choose your steak wisely, where possible purchase your steak from a butcher and if not your local butcher steaks should be purchased from the fresh counters in supermarkets.

Tip:

Look for faint lines of white running through the steak, (marbling gives the steak more flavour).

Darker meets are tastier, avoid the bright red cuts you find in packets, despite looking good there will be a lack of flavour.

Ask your butcher to trim the fat, steaks are not cheap but there must be some fat for flavours, 0.5cm is ample.

Grilling or Frying??

Frying tends to cook the outside of the steak and takes time for the temperature to cook through the whole steak where as grilling heats through quicker but does not seer the outside as much. Both methods can create the perfect steak but the general rule is grill marinated meats and fry ‘plain’ steaks.

Rump- Entry level approx £9 / kilo

Rump is a perfect steak for BBQ’s, dicing to put in dishes such as Stroganoff or simply grilling or frying. Rump is the most flavoursome of the steak family but lacks the soft texture of others.

Tip- rump can be tougher than other cuts, to tenderise beat with a mallet or even a clinched fist, this tenderises the meat and gives it the texture of more expensive cuts.

Rib-Eye- Approx £11 / kilo

Generally the least famous of cuts but combines the flavours of the rump steak with the texture of Sirloin. The delicious eye of the steak is on a par with fillet.

Sirloin- Approx £14 / kilo

Has this King of cuts been knighted…? It is rumoured that Henry VIII knighted this cut of meat but in reality Surloin became Sirloin in the 18th century.

Sirloin is a versatile cut that when compared to rib eye is softer in texture but not as flavoursome. A truly delicious cut cooking this perfectly is a must.

Fillet- Approx £19/ kilo

Fillet is the true king of Beef cuts. Fillet steak is extremely soft in texture and can be cut with a butter knife. There are two ends to the fillet, the tail reserved for steak cuts and the head, ideally seared and placed in the oven, Château Briand style.

Fillet needs no tampering, marinades, tenderising and other previous tips are withdrawn for this cut.

Fillet is best shallow fried and can be thick due to the narrow nature of the tail cut, cut open a fillet to find no red middle is a waste of this fine cut.

Cooking:

Stage 1

Leave the meat to reach room temperature, (this will ensure at least the middle is heated through rather than seared on the outside and fridge cold in the middle!

Stage 2

Either the Grill of the frying pan must be red hot, don’t be shy to put the stove or oven on full blast.

When frying use a small cube of butter adding with it Virgin olive oil, this will stop the butter from burning.

Stage 3

Season the steak with a little salt and plenty of pepper and place in the pan away from you avoiding splash back.

Rare: 1 or 2 minutes each side, rest for 5 minutes

Medium rare:2- 2 ½ minutes each side, rest for 4 ½ minutes

Medium: 3 minutes each side, rest for 3 ½ minutes

Well done: 4 ½ minutes each side, rest for 1 ½ minutes

Experienced cooks will simply press the steak lightly to feel how it is progressing. To better understand this try the following method.

Touch the end of your thumb to your index finger and the meaty part of the base of your thumb feels like rare steak should.

Touch the end of your thumb to your small finger the meaty part of the base of your thumb feels like well done steak. The fingers in between represent Medium Rare/Medium/Medium Well acting as a guide to how well cooked the steak is when you carefully press a finger down on the meat. Once cooked to your own version of perfection why not serve with chunky chips and a glass of red wine… Perfect!

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View our recipes section or if you would prefer to eat the perfect steak without the washing up try Shaws restaurant in Nottingham who serve Char-grilled Local 28 day hung Sirloin Steak with Pink peppercorn butter with thick cut chips.