I accidentally overcooked some steak the other day.
Yes, yes, I know. A capital crime. In some places, I'd have already received the noose. See, the issue arose with my memory; I misremembered both the cook temperature (which I set high) and the cook time (which I undershot by about 10 minutes). I realized my folly whilst still in the limbo space those error's created, meaning there was still a point there at which I could have finished processing the steak and served it at a delicious medium rare. But I misguessed that point and served a medium well steak instead.
It was crushing. The kind of misstep that'll startle me awake in the middle of the night six years from now, a cold sweat dripping dramatically from my nose as the camera dolly-zooms in on my over-dilated pupil. But I'll let you in on a little secret; those steaks were still tastier than the vast majority of steaks I've been served at even very competent restaurants. Medium well, yes, so not as good as they could have been. But still juicy, with a satisfying crust, and packed with subtle flavors that elevated the meat without covering it up.
I'm not here to give you my recipe. Instead, I'm here to teach you how this is done so you can experiment with your own recipe and then show off to your friends later. Are you ready? Good. Here's how you make the best steaks ever.
Go check out America's Test Kitchen.
Ha ha! Good jokes. But seriously, if you learn nothing else from this blog post, it's that if you're looking for cooking techniques or advice on any site other than America's Test Kitchen, you're looking in the wrong place. What I know, and what I will be presenting here, comes from them. But if you don't want to bother faffing around with the pay wall or account creation, then read on I suppose.
The first thing you need to know is this; a good steak is cooked under two heat sources. If all you're aiming for is a brown charred sear on top of essentially uncooked meat, I suppose just searing the thing on a grill will do that for you. But it's worth noting that the meat does actually need to be heated in order for the flavor to move. Those 'super rare' blue steaks will taste worse than a good rare or medium-rare version 100% of the time.
Also, food born pathogens are a thing.
The second thing to know; whatever rub it is you're using to season the exterior of the steak, make sure that the salt is chonky. Whether this is coarsely-ground table salt, kosher salt, or something else similar doesn't matter (I don't think). I'm not exactly sure of the chemistry behind why this makes a difference. My gut tells me it's down to needing something that just packs more salt into a given area than you think you would ever need, but my gut is brainless and easily distracted by food ("mmmm, salt" -my gut, probably), so maybe don't trust it. All I know is that regular table salt just doesn't cut the mustard for me.
Also, adding mustard to the rub; not a thing I've tried, but it could be delicious.
Those are the two keystones that make this work. Now let's talk nuance of the preparation. The first thing to do is to go grab yourself a cheap wire rack from the dollar store or someplace like that. See, you're going to be cooking this meat in the oven first, but you don't want it cooking in contact with hot metal like a cookie sheet. Suspending a cooling rack over a cookie sheet lets the meat get a nice hot air bath without dripping rendered fat onto the floor of your oven.
Now heat your oven up to 250 degrees (we're in Fahrenheit here, because in case my previous posts haven't made this clear, I'm a 'murican). While that's pre-heating, take your thawed steaks, pat the exterior dry with some paper towels, and put them on the rack. That's right, we're going into the oven first and searing last. That way you get a nice crust on the steak and then you don't accidentally bake it into sogginess afterwards. For you non-professional chefs, this is the forgiving easy way to do it that will let you accidentally make a medium well steak and still have it juicy and delicious anyway.
Now you season both sides of your steak. Whether you're going for some kind of fancy rub or just basic salt and paper (my preference), just remember you want chonky salt. You should be able to see that crap even after the meat juices have permeated it. Then toss them in the oven. If you're shooting for medium-rare and you've got cuts at least an inch thick, you'll be pulling these out in the 18-20 minute range. Less time = more rare, etc. It's worth noting that if your cut of meat is more like half and inch thick, what you've bought is less a traditional "steak" and more carne asada. You can still cook it this way, just make sure that your rub includes some Mexican spices and then cut it into thin strips after the rest period at the end. Serve it with some cheese and guac and small corn tortillas and look at that, delicious street tacos.
While the steak is baking you'll want to prep your searing surface. This can be a pan (nice and easy, uses exactly the same cooking apparatus that's already doing work), a cast iron grill plate (if you're fancy and have one of those), an actual-pants grill, etc. Anything that'll deliver high, localized heat to the outside of the steak (yes, a blow torch would probably work, just make sure in that case you apply some additional fat to the outside of the steak before you sear it). You'll want to prep the surface with some kind of fat. Heat some oil to shimmering in a pan, wipe down your grill grates with oil, whatever. If you're only working with a couple of steaks here my recommendation would be to whip up some garlic butter and melt about half of that into a skillet (the rest you can melt over the top of the steaks just before you serve them).
After your bake time is up pull the steaks out and transfer them directly onto your searing surface heated to "medium" heat. That's obviously going to look different depending on whether you're using an electric cook surface or a propane grill or whatever else you've got. Just use your best judgement and try not to burn anything down. If you've got good, thick steaks you'll want to go 3 minutes per side and then take a minute or so to sear all the way around the edges. If they're thinner, about an inch or so, it's the same basic process, just maybe don't do more than 2 minutes per side. If they're thinner than an inch, well, we talked about that. 3 minutes per side, and you're making street tacos after this.
Once the steaks are seared and topped with whatever you've got to add (sauteed mushrooms, anyone?), let them rest for 5 minutes. According to the Test Kitchen, the meat will re-absorb some of the internal juices as it cools, and this rest period ensures the juciest possible steaks. After that you're ready to eat.
If by this point you're frustrated by how vague all of my instructions are, congratulations. You've grasped the point, but you're in the wrong place. I'm not interested in telling you exactly how long to cook the steaks because your preference is probably different than mine. I'm not going to tell you exactly how to season them for the same reason. But if you've picked up a few pointers on how to put together a delicious steak that you can apply to your own efforts, then my work here has been a success.
This process is forgiving of errors and unlocks incredible flavor and texture from even the most average cuts of meat. No kidding, it also produces the best carne asada I've ever tasted. So give it a try and feel free to experiment with the specifics a little. I hope you'll be pleasantly surprised.
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