help me cook steak on the stove

[jasg]

I recently became a fan of both Sous Vide and Reverse Sear for cooking steaks. Here are links to Serious Eats Food Lab articles for both from J. Kenji López-Alt.

Sous Vide Steak

Why sous vide your steak? Because it’s the most reliable way to get perfectly cooked meat every single time. This guide covers everything you need to know, from temperature guidelines to FAQs to searing and serving tips.

Reverse Sear

…my first project was to come up with a foolproof technique for cooking thick-cut steaks. After testing dozens and dozens of variables, I realized that I already knew the answer: Cook it sous vide. Traditional cooking techniques inevitably form a gray band of overcooked meat around the outer edges of a steak. Sous vide, thanks to the gentle heat it uses, eliminates that gray band, producing a steak that’s cooked just right from edge to edge.

Unfortunately, at that time, sous vide devices were much too expensive for home cooks. Instead, I tried to devise a method that would deliver similar results with no special equipment. The reverse sear is what I came up with, and the recipe was published in the May/June 2007 issue of the magazine (though it didn’t get the name “reverse sear” until some time later).

I picked up an Anova Nano for $70 on sale (avoid the Bluetooth model).

[Snarky_Kong]

@Smid

I’m quite surprised by the length of cooking here for the steaks for what people call medium rare. I’d say medium cooked for me is.

Room temperature steaks. Pre salt. Not pepper (it burns).
Hot pan.
Cook 2.5 minutes each side.
Pepper it, leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Serve with Bearnaise sauce.

That’d have to be a pretty thin steak.

If I’m cooking a 2" filet, 3 minutes a side on a very hot pan, then 5-6 minutes in the oven at 450 is medium rare.

[bump]

@pulykamell

That’s an initial-sear method, though. Or am I not reading far enough? That method says just to freeze the outside of the steak, not the middle, so when you sear it, it doesn’t cook too far down into the meat.

I think I was getting my Modernist Cuisine and Serious Eats/Kenji methods mixed up actually.

Either way, it’s effectively the same process, except that the Serious Eats one will give you a better crust since the oven phase will dehydrate the outside somewhat.

The whole goal of keeping it cold and cooking it low is to prevent the inside from overcooking- that remains the same whether you sear before or after the oven.

As far as salting a steak goes, Serious Eats recommends doing it either somewhere between 40 minutes and overnight, or immediately when you’re cooking it. Anywhere in between immediate and 40 minutes basically disrupts the osmotic balance of the steak, but doesn’t let the moisture rearrange itself in time.

And “Medium” = 135-140 degrees F. As “On Food and Cooking” describes it:

Medium-done meat, whose connective-tissue has shrunk, is more firm- like the thumb-forefinger muscle when the two digits are squeezed together- and squeezes droplets of red juice to steak and chop surfaces, while the interior pales to pink.

[Staggerlee]

I used to order steaks in restaurants, just because I couldn’t cook them well at home. But now I cook them like this, and they’re great every time:

1. Leave them out of the fridge a while to warm up, season and oil them.
2. Sear on a high temperature for 1-2 minutes each side.
3. Transfer pan to a an oven pre-heated to 50 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes.

In effect, the oven time is more resting than cooking, and the results are beautifully succulent. A lot is down to the meat quality to start with though.

[puzzlegal]

@Snarky_Kong

That’d have to be a pretty thin steak.

If I’m cooking a 2" filet, 3 minutes a side on a very hot pan, then 5-6 minutes in the oven at 450 is medium rare.

When I cook steak or chops, I usually start with meat that’s 3/4"-1" thick, maybe a bit more. Two inches starts to be a tiny roast, and naturally does better with time in the oven.

If I do have very thick steaks, I slice my husband’s into two thinner steaks. Then I can cook it to well done on the stove without drying it too much. (And the interior of mine may be cool and essentially raw. But that’s okay, I like raw beef.)

I don’t cook filet, though. It’s pricy and not one of my favorite cuts. Rib eye or sirloin if I’m going for flavor, whatever looks good today if I’m looking for cheaper. Filet is typically cut very thick, I’m not really sure why. I suppose because the muscle is small and otherwise the portion is small.

[crazyjoe]

@jasg

I recently became a fan of both Sous Vide and Reverse Sear for cooking steaks. Here are links to Serious Eats Food Lab articles for both from J. Kenji López-Alt.

Sous Vide Steak
Reverse Sear
I picked up an Anova Nano for $70 on sale (avoid the Bluetooth model).

Yes, I’ll second the sous-vide method. Doesn’t matter what temp the steak starts out at, it will bring it up to the ideal temp and hold it there for you until you’re ready for the final sear. Since I work at home, on the rare occasions I have steak in the fridge I can pull it out mid-morning, season it, drop it in the sous-vide and at lunchtime come up and sear that sucker for maybe a minute or 2 per side and have a great lunch

[puzzlegal]

I keep wanting to try sous vide. It does require forethought, however. And my husband and I prefer different degrees of doneness, so it wouldn’t be as easy as dropping everything in the pot.

[bump]

@puzzlegal

I keep wanting to try sous vide. It does require forethought, however. And my husband and I prefer different degrees of doneness, so it wouldn’t be as easy as dropping everything in the pot.

Try the beer cooler sous-vide method- it works well enough for a steak. I imagine what you could do for different doneness levels is cook the warmer one, then add cold water or ice to cool it down to the next temp, and cook the second one. You can leave the first one in- it’s not going to overcook while it’s in lower-temp water (one of the beauties of sous-vide, BTW).

Cook Your Meat in a Beer Cooler: The World's Best (and Cheapest) Sous Vide Hack

[elfkin477]

@Staggerlee

I used to order steaks in restaurants, just because I couldn’t cook them well at home. But now I cook them like this, and they’re great every time:

1. Leave them out of the fridge a while to warm up, season and oil them.
2. Sear on a high temperature for 1-2 minutes each side.
3. Transfer pan to a an oven pre-heated to 50 degrees centigrade for 20 minutes.

In effect, the oven time is more resting than cooking, and the results are beautifully succulent. A lot is down to the meat quality to start with though.

What are you cooking in that allows you to set the temperature that low? My gas stove doesn’t register temperatures below 93C and I’m almost positive the convection oven doesn’t either. I mean, you mention pre-heating, so I assume you’re not talking about the internal temperature of the steaks…

[Spud]

Step 1) If you don’t already have one build a deck or patio in your back yard.

Step 2) Buy a grill.

[running_coach]

@elfkin477

What are you cooking in that allows you to set the temperature that low? My gas stove doesn’t register temperatures below 93C and I’m almost positive the convection oven doesn’t either. I mean, you mention pre-heating, so I assume you’re not talking about the internal temperature of the steaks…

My current stove goes down to 170F(76C) but the one before could get to 125F(52C). Both gas.