How to Cook the Perfect Steak & Make Compound Butter – The Steak Guide, Part III

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There’s no denying that great steak is a treat – juicy, tender and rosy meat surrounded by a well-seasoned crust is a simple-yet-impressive main course that’s often on the menu for celebrations and special occasions. Considering the cost of dining out at a steakhouse, learning how to cook the perfect steak at home is a skill that every (meat-eating) man should master.

You’d think that cooking a steak – which aside from choosing the cut is merely a matter of adding seasoning and heat – would be fairly straightforward, but it is a polarizing subject. Like BBQ, there are many schools of thought. For one thing, the ideal cooking method may differ based upon the cut of the steak in question; for more information on steak cuts, you can jump back to the first part of this guide.

Part I – Best Steak Cuts

Part II – How To Buy Steak

Part III – How To Cook The Perfect Steak

As an example, bone-in steaks like the T-bone and rib steak often achieve their best donenesses on the grill, as the bones in these cuts could interfere with surface contact when being pan-seared. Before we get into specific techniques, however, let’s take a look at a basic overview of the range of donenesses that can be achieved, the different methods and materials available to the home cook, and what tools and are required.

A beautiful bone in ribeye
A beautiful bone-in ribeye. [Image Credit: Lifestyle Asia]

Choose Your Desired Doneness Before You Begin

The amount of time that your steak cooks is always based on personal preference. Knowing this, there are still some general rules; shorter cook times result in a juicier, more flavorful steak, whereas longer cook times result in a drier, tougher meat (but with less concern for bacteria). While steaks can be cooked to almost any doneness level, there is a standard system of terminology used by most professional chefs, which is as follows:

  • Raw – Completely uncooked; usually bathed in a light dressing or used for dishes such as carpaccio or steak tartare.
  • Blue Rare – Seared very quickly; the outside usually has a nice sear to it, with the inside being cool and bright red, basically raw. In Germany, this is known as English Style, since it’s common for English chefs to place the steak in the oven at a low temperature to warm before cooking.
  • Rare – Cooked to 126°F or 52°C, it has a cooked or seared outside with a bright red center that is slightly warmed.
  • Medium Rare – Cooked to 131°F or 55°C, it features a reddish-pink center. This is the standard degree to which most steaks are cooked by restaurant chefs, unless otherwise specified.
Steak Doneness Chart
Steak Doneness Chart [Image Credit: Fan Share]
  • Medium – Cooked to 145°F or 63 °C, the middle of the steak is fully pink and hot, with a grayish-brown crust.
  • Medium Well – Cooked to 154°F or 68°C, with a light-pink center and a browned crust.
  • Well Done – Cooked to 163°F or 73°C; greyish-brown throughout, with the outside slightly charred.
  • Over Done – Cooked as hot as 194°F or 90°C, the meat is blackened and charred throughout, resulting in a tough and dry piece of meat with little to no juice and any fat being rendered down.

As we recommend that your steak-eating experience be one of strong flavor, we would suggest that you try a doneness level anywhere from blue rare to medium rare, depending on how comfortable you are with the bacterial risks of eating raw and under-cooked meat.

Steak Cooking Methods

There are pros and cons to each cooking method for a steak, and many stubborn opinions about which is best. What follows is an objective summary of the pros and cons of each method, so that you can decide for yourself which method you’d like to try first.

  • Grilling Steaks
    • There are two primary types of grill available to the home cook, those being the charcoal grill and the gas grill. Other types, such as the wood-fired grill, are often less predictable in their temperature consistency, and are thus not as well-suited to grilling steaks.
    • Charcoal grill
      • Pros: Smoky flavor; beautiful hashmarks on the surface of the meat
      • Cons: Time-consuming process; practice and familiarity needed to master the equipment; can be somewhat messy
        • Additionally, as the grates of the grill allow any juices to run off from the meat, grilled steaks are harder to baste (which adds other flavors and moisture).
        • Not as much crust created vs. pan searing
        • Easier to burn or infuse burned flavor into the meat
    • Gas grill
      • Pros: clean flavor; easier to manipulate and control heat than a charcoal grill; beautiful hashmarks
      • Cons: lacks the smoky flavor of a charcoal grill; difficult to baste; not as much crust created vs. pan searing
Grilled Steak
Steak on the grill. [Image Credit: Wallpaper Cave]
  • Pan-seared Steaks
    • Pros: simple process; inexpensive tools; works in nearly every kitchen
      • Can baste to add flavor and moisture
    • Cons: If the pan isn’t suitably hot – that is, hot enough to quickly form a nice crust while leaving the remainder of the meat mostly pink- the meat will cook through more completely while the pan’s temperature rises, resulting in less tenderness. As such, the pan-only method may not be ideal for very thick cuts of meat.
  • Pan & Oven Combinations
    • Pan-to-oven Method: start by pan-searing the steak, then bring to temperature in the oven.
      • Pros: a more even internal temp at the beginning of searing (in this case, cool) results in less overdone meat around the edges.
      • Cons: time-consuming and fiddly
    • Reverse Sear: bake the steak in the oven first, then sear.
      • Pros: a more even internal temp at the beginning of searing (in this case, warm) results in less overdone meat around the edges
      • Cons: time consuming and fiddly; the internal temperature of the steak may drop considerably while being transferred from oven to pan, so a desired doneness may be harder to achieve.
Butter basting adds flavor and nuttyness as well as keeps the steak juicy and tender
Basting a pan-seared steak in a cast-iron skillet. [Image Credit; Cullys Kitchen]
  • A Tip for Pan Searing
    • Go with a heavy stainless-steel or cast-iron pan, as these materials provide good heat capacity and distribution, especially as compared to aluminum or teflon pans. With that said, cast iron is a bit harder to maintain, especially if you live in a humid climate, and may rust if not seasoned or stored properly. Alternatively, a dutch oven (enameled cast iron) provides the temperature control of regular cast iron with fewer maintenance concerns, and so may be a good choice for you.
  • Sous Vide & Sear
    • This method is very similar to the the reverse sear, but it requires specialized equipment (namely, a sous vide machine).
    • Pros: Awesome if you have the equipment; this cooking method allows you to hold meat at a desired temperature for a relatively long time prior to searing, allowing for complete control over doneness and edge-to-edge color.
    • Cons: Sous vide is expensive and much fussier than other methods; the texture of the finished steak may be more rubbery than with other methods.
Tribest Sousvant Sous Vide Machine
Tribest Sousvant Sous Vide Machine [Image Credit: Geek Wire]

Based on the best possible result with the fewest variables, our three recommended methods are simple pan-searing, grilling, and the pan-to-oven method. Still, we welcome you to try out each of the methods discussed here, to get a feel for them and to decide which you prefer.

Seasoning Your Steak

If you bought a great steak, you want to taste what you paid for. As such, the flavor of the meat shouldn’t be hidden under copious amounts of bold, multi-flavored seasonings; rather, a small amount of seasoning goes a long way to giving the natural flavors of the meat a subtle and pleasing accent. With that in mind, here are some simple seasonings that we recommend in reasonable amounts:

  • Salt: standard kosher has the simplest flavor, though you can experiment with flavorings; we recommend mesquite smoked salt, for example.
  • Freshly ground black pepper (not pre-ground in a store-bought container!)
  • Steak seasonings; we like a brand local to the Midwest called Penzeys
    • Rub it on with a bit of olive oil 4h before grilling
  • Fresh herbs and garlic (after most of the cooking is done)
    • Choose from thyme, sage, oregano, rosemary, chive, parsley, etc.
    • Dry herbs are not flavorful enough, and frozen ones have too much residual water
  • Other recommended seasonings include garlic and a bit of Hungarian paprika
  • Butter
    • Use a European, high-fat-content butter
    • We’re also big fans of so-called “compound butter;” it requires its own process to make at home, which we’ll outline here.
 
Fresh parsley, a great choice for seasoning steak.
Fresh parsley, a great choice for seasoning steak.

How To Make Compound Butter For Steaks

Compound butter (literally) rolls your butter and herbs into one pleasing little package, and is therefore a great complement to any steak.

  • As outlined above, we recommend that you use a European-style butter and fresh herbs.
  • Add a pinch of smoked salt, paprika, and a dash of fish sauce for that nice umami flavor.
  • Place all of your ingredients into a bowl, and blend with a spoon until they reach a uniform consistency.
  • Place the mixture (which should still be semisolid) onto parchment paper, and roll into a log.
  • Store the log in the refrigerator, taking it out when the steaks are ready to be served.
  • Cut small discs from the log, placing atop each finished steak. Enjoy!

Required Tools for Cooking Steaks

Fortunately, you won’t need many tools to cook a great steak, other than your desired cooking implement (be that stovetop and pan, oven, or grill), a good pair of sturdy tongs, and an instant-read thermometer. Regarding the last of these, it’s important that you find a modern-style thermometer with a digital display; old-school meat thermometers with a dial readout are simply too inaccurate to ensure a proper doneness. One other note: skip the “hand pushing” method of measuring doneness (that is, comparing the firmness of the meat to that of your hand when pushed while holding certain fingers together), as this technique is much too subjective and unreliable.

Thermapen Mk4 Thermometer
An example of a digital-display meat thermometer. [Image Credit: Amazon]

Regarding the setup of your kitchen, make sure that you have proper ventilation, as you may encounter some smoke, particularly when pan-searing. The ideal kitchen should have a strong fan, ensuring controlled air flow. Even if you don’t have a restaurant style setup (with such features as an indoor charcoal grill with adjustable grates), you can still cook a great steak. With this information established, let’s get to cooking!


Cooking Your Steak

  • Allow steaks to come to room temperature; this can depend on the temperature of your refrigerator, but we recommend letting your steaks rest on the kitchen counter for anywhere from 30 minutes to two hours.
  • Pat steaks dry with paper towels, as extra moisture inhibits browning.
  • Trim your steaks as desired; some people prefer to leave on any large caps of fat, while others remove them. While the choice is yours, keep in mind that steaks cooked to any doneness below medium will likely not get hot enough to melt the majority of this fat.
New York Strip aka Kansas City Strip Steak cuts with different degree of marbling - From Right to Left - Akaushi, Prime, Select, Grass Fed
New York Strip aka Kansas City Strip Steak cuts with different degrees of fat marbling – From right to left: Akaushi, Prime, Select, Grass Fed.
  • Season the dry surface with your preferred seasonings.
    • When pan-searing, there are two schools of thought regarding seasoning; some cooks argue that pan-seared steaks should not be seasoned before cooking, as the seasonings (especially the salt) will draw moisture to the surface of the meat, which will inhibit browning.
    • In our own tests for the creation of this guide, we did find the sear to be marginally better on non-pre-seasoned steaks. However, these steaks had fewer complementary flavors, as the seasoning was only added at the end of the cooking process.
    • The decision is yours to make, but if you’d like to taste some seasoning along with the natural flavor of the meat, we do recommend seasoning prior to cooking, up to four hours in advance. Just make sure your pan is quite hot, and you’ll still get a great sear.
    • When grilling a steak, feel free to season beforehand; your grill marks should come out nicely either way, as long as your grates are at the proper temperature.
Butcher Cut Pepper is best for steaks
Cracked black peppercorns. [Image Credit: Spices etc.]
  • If pan-searing, add oil to the pan; don’t oil the steak directly, because you’ll need more oil than just what the surface of the meat can hold.
    • Be sure to use an oil with a high smoke point; rather than something like olive oil, we suggest grapeseed or peanut oil.
  • Bring your cooking surface (pan or grill grates) up to temperature.
    • Restaurants can cook with temperatures up to 1000 degrees Fahrenheit, though this is hard to replicate in the home. Simply get your surface as hot as you can to ensure the best crust formation.
  • Using your tongs, place your steak on the cooking surface, laying it away from you to avoid any splattering of fat or oil. The heat of the surface will drive the juices to the center of the steak.
cast iron skillet steak
Seasoned steak cooking in a cast-iron skillet. [Image Credit: Saucricket]
  • Cook to the proper doneness.
    • Check your cooking time based on the size and thickness of your meat.
    • Turn your steak during cooking; some chefs recommend only one turn, but you can turn more often, so long as you keep a close eye on temperature.
    • When pan-searing, some cooks add butter, herbs, garlic, or other seasonings to the pan at this stage. We found, however, that this won’t add a lot of flavor to the finished steak, and instead recommend pre-seasoning and/or finishing with compound butter (see above).
    • When grilling, start with all burners on high heat (preheating for 15-20 minutes), grilling each side twice, forming a diamond pattern with your grill-marks. Following this, turn off the center burner (placing the steak there), and reduce the others to low, aiming for an internal temperature of 250 to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. When grilling a bone-in steak, stand it up on the bone. Remove the steak when it’s 5-10 degrees cooler than your desired temperature.
Sous Vide Cook with Cast Iron Finish
Sous-vide-cooked steak, with a cast-iron finish. [Image Credit: Chef Steps]
  • Rest the steaks for 5-10 minutes (wrapped in aluminum foil) after cooking.
    • During cooking, the meat contracts and the juices move toward the center of the steak. Therefore, if you don’t let your steaks rest, the juices will pour out, resulting in dry meat. Resting allows or the the juices to evenly redistribute and be retained after slicing, for optimal juiciness.
  • Serve your steaks on heated plates.
    • Heated plates ensure that your steaks will be kept warm throughout the meal. Most plates can be preheated in the oven; using oven mitts when inserting and removing them, keep them in for just a few minutes, so that they’re warm without being dangerously hot to the touch.
  • Enjoy!
Pan seared Top Sirloin Steak topped with compound herb butter - stay tuned for our how to cook a steak and make compound butter video
Pan-seared top sirloin steak topped with compound herb butter.

Preferred Methods for Different Cuts

As we outlined above, we find that bone-in steaks achieve best results when grilled. For other cuts, such as the sirloin, strip, tenderloin, and ribeye, we recommend the pan-to-oven method, as pan-searing provides even browning, and the temperature of an oven is somewhat easier to control than that of a grill. Furthermore, grilling is less than ideal in cold winter climates, so perfecting your pan-searing technique is a worthwhile investment of time.

Conclusion

Using the techniques outlined here, you should be able to cook a great steak using a variety of methods. Remember that practice makes perfect, and that you should experiment with different techniques to see which ones you most prefer. As a reminder, you can refer back to the other two parts of this Steak Guide, which cover cuts (in Part I) and considerations for buying (in Part II). Bon appétit!

How to cook the perfect steak
how to cook the perfect steak

Outfit Rundown

 I’m wearing a typical steak grilling outfit consisting of a blue polo shirt with long seersucker pants and Sperry boat shoes in navy and burgundy.

Raphael's outfit he usually wears when grilling steak.
Raphael’s outfit he usually wears when grilling a steak.

This steak guide was written by Preston Schlueter, incorporating previous writings by Sven Raphael Schneider.

 

Reader Comments

  1. This has my mouth watering! Thank you! Just one comment–I have read and been told that you shouldn’t salt a steak until AFTER you’ve cooked it as salt can dry out the juiciness. My method is to go from grill or pan to the plate, salt and then rest. Interested what others think about salting before/after. (On my own tests, I’m not sure it matters too much)

    1. Kitchen salt is sodium chloride. When heated, salt breaks down into chlorine gas and sodium. The chlorine gas acts as what is known as a parting agent, thus the meat does not readily stick to the pan (along with use of a high-heat oil, like canola or olive). So, there is benefit to salting before sauteing in a hot pan. It also means that the “saltiness” taste is greatly diminished during cooking, so salting after cooking will be up to individual tastes.

      1. Sodium chloride can melt at about 800 degrees Celsius. It is quite far from decomposing into its constituents at that point, but that’s neither here nor there since it’s really unlikely you’ve got a cook stove capable of that kind of temperature.

  2. I prefer bone-in steaks. They seem more flavorful. Abandoning my good old grill in favor of a cast iron skillet and rigorous attention to a meat thermometer result
    in better steaks. I remove them from the heat 5-7 degrees below desired temperature as they continue to heat while resting. This assures a perfectly done steak.

  3. Thank you for the article! I opt for the traditional boneless strip loin steak grilled over hot glowing charcoal. The fat dripping on the coals imparts a nice flavor to the steak when it is finished. To further round out that flavor, I use a few lumps of mesquite wood along with the coals. The surreal effect of hardwood smoke tend to make one feel as if they are camping on a vast open plain, when they are really at home on the patio.

  4. I certainly will try these steaks! They look delicious!
    Here in my country we make steaks in charcoal barbecue grills. As for the seasoning, we use coarse salt only. Some times, a little black pepper. It’s really cool to see how they are done outside here!

    1. Pleased to hear that, Octavio. We are always interested to hear how others are cooking their steaks, too!

  5. Check the section on defrosting. I think a sentence didn’t get finished.
    ” If you’re running late, you can quickly defrost a steak in the package in a . Once your steak…”

  6. I have cooked steaks exclusively on the grill for years. Living in a cold climate, this leads to some comical steps to get a perfect steak in winter. I tried the cast iron method on a prime ribeye last Saturday and it was amazing. Next up – duck fat.

  7. Great guide! It’s not to everyone’s taste, but I do like a lean piece of fillet, left to go brown, then cooked very ‘bleu’, served with fois gras and truffles (Tournedos Rossini).

  8. I like the pan sear then oven and I use Montreal Steak Spice with a bit of extra onion powder

  9. Raphael,
    Great information in this video! I prefer definitely prefer the sear in a Cast iron skillet and finish in the oven method. You can avoid ANY rust on the season cast iron pan if you let it cool and then wash with a sponge then put the pan back in the oven for a bit rubbed lightly with oil using a paper towel and heat briefly . This eliminates any moisture on the pan that would cause oxidation and re seasons the pan. Do this after every use and you will have that pan for life:). Cast Iron just sears in a way that other pans cant compare IMOP.

  10. Raphael,
    Great information in this video! I prefer definitely prefer the sear in a Cast iron skillet and finish in the oven method. You can avoid ANY rust on the season cast iron pan if you let it cool and then wash with a sponge then put the pan back in the oven for a bit rubbed lightly with oil using a paper towel and heat briefly . This eliminates any moisture on the pan that would cause oxidation and re seasons the pan. Do this after every use and you will have that pan for life:). Cast Iron just sears in a way that other pans cant compare IMOP. Sear should be about 2 1/2 min a side depending on steak thinkness

  11. I’ve switched to the Blumenthal method of flipping the steak every fifteen seconds until the desired internal temperature is reached. Great results

  12. I’ve cooked a steak all three ways; charcoal, gas, and stovetop with a cast iron pan. I always use some hickory hardwood, dry or soaked, to get that good smoke taste, except in the kitchen. Using the pan, I would smoke up the kitchen so bad, the alarms would go off and my wife would threaten me; but I got a great steak every time. I do this method with tuna steaks also. Once I saw a cooking show where the chef placed a thick steak right on the hot coals rather than the grate. After cooking, you brush the charcoal dust off with a pastry brush. You get a nice crusty steak but trying to brush away the grit and not the salt made for trying experience. The coals give it a nice, dark, crust. I guess that’s the way our ancestors discovered and cooked steaks. With my gas grill, I have inserts where I place the hickory just above the flames. When they start to smoke, I start to cook. I’ve used butter after cooking, but I’ll make a compound butter next time. Thanks for a great article!

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