(I know there are likely some good ‘how to cook steaks’ in the history here, but who doesn’t like a fresh discussion about food?)
I got a 1lb ribeye from my local farmer’s market. It’s thawing in the fridge, and I’d like to cook it tomorrow evening. Most of my experience cooking non-ground beef has been as stews and pot roast type preparations, where moderate heat, moisture and time seem like a foolproof combination.
I’m much less confident with a steak. I gather that putting it in the oven somewhere around 400 degrees until the internal temp is right for medium rare is the way to go? Then sear off in a pan?
Do I need to think about this any more than that?
Also, any favorite sauces or pairings folks have would be appreciated!
That’s what is called a “reverse sear” and it’s a perfectly good way to get your steak cooked properly. I prefer the sear-and-roast method myself, as there is less risk of overcooking the meat. I’m assuming you have a meat thermometer.
I like my steak, especially ribeye on the rare side of medium rare, which is why I also don’t use reverse sear. I sear on both sides in a cast iron pan and then turn off the heat and put a lid on it, after a minute or so, I check the temp and flip it and put the lid back on. I take it off when it is about five degrees lower than my desired temp and let it rest a bit.
For seasoning you really don’t need more than salt and fresh ground pepper.
A 1lb ribeye doesn’t sound that big. How thick is it? If it’s only like 1/2” thick you might not need the oven at all, just pan-sear well on both sides, let it rest, and enjoy. But I like my steaks on the medium rare to rare side. If you like them more well done, then yeah, probably your plan.
Best way to cook a ribeye? On a charcoal grill with some hickory for smoke flavor. Just sayin’.
For a steak that size I let it come to room temp about an hour, with a good amount of kosher salt. I get my cast iron skillet scorching on on my grill. Put the steak in, no oil, and go 5-7 minutes per side, depending on how you like it.
ETA: Cooking in a cast iron skillet gives the advantage of even cooking, and a great sear.
Since you’re just starting out, a meat thermometer will be of great help in getting the steak perfect without much skill. Get a meat probe like something like this:
Before coooking, put the probe into the steak from the side so that the tip ends up right in the middle of the steak. Putting it in the side means you won’t have to reposition the probe when you flip the steak. Using an angled probe will be more convenient when the steak is down in a pan. Some probes will be straight, but that can be awkward in a pan since the probe is sticking out so long.
Just guessing, I would say to cook it on one side until the temp is around 90, flip it, and cook on the other side until the temp is 130. Plate it to rest. The temp may rise a bit. Using a thermometer will be an almost fool-proof way to get it to the perfect temp without a lot of experience. If you cook steak a lot, you’ll eventually get a sense for how long to cook it and how soft it should be when it’s at the right temp.
When cooking a steak with marbled fat, the cook time can affect the flavor. A lot of the flavor comes from the fat. If you cook it at a high heat, you’ll get a tasty char but the fat won’t have a lot of time to render and flavor the meat. If you cook it slowly, the fat will render and flavor more of the meat, but you won’t get as much char. That’s why sometimes people will do a hot, quick sear on the outsides to create the char and then roast it on at lower temp to allow more time for fat to render as the center comes up to temp.
Seasoned the steak and let it get to room temp for about an hour.
Put it on a cast iron and tried to follow @filmore ’s temp suggestions. I did not trust my thermometer placement, and ended up overcooking (to my tastes) to a solid medium, but it was still tasty.
It was a bit chewier in places… is that likely a cooking technique issue or just the specific steak I got?
I feel like at a restaurant I never have what I’d call bits of connective tissue that are hard to cut and hard to chew.
I cut around any connective tissue in a steak and discard it. “Low and slow” can dissolve cartilage and other connective tissue into something edible, but at the cost of losing the joy of rare meat. I don’t do a lot of “low and slow” cooking because i prefer rare meat in most cases. I also don’t mind tough meat, so a lot more cuts of meat make acceptable steaks to me than maybe on average.
I like reading r/Butchery on Reddit. People post pictures of steaks (before cooking) that they purchased and the experts discuss the meat. There’s huge variation out there.
Yeah, ribeyes have a fair amount of connective tissue that’s chewy to the point of inedibility. Just the nature of the beast (heh, literally). Different steak cuts are a compromise between flavor and tenderness. What you’re picturing having had in a restaurant may have been a New York strip steak, which doesn’t have as much of that connective tissue to cut and eat around.
The filet mignon cut, from the tenderloin, is the most tender, melt-in-your-mouth steak of all (and the most expensive), but some steakhouse chefs look down on the filet cut because they think it’s not very flavorful, and would take a ribeye over a filet any day.
T-bone cuts have a NY strip cut on one side of the bone and a little of the tenderloin, or filet cut, on the other side. Porterhouse cuts are basically t-bones with a little more of the tenderloin on the one side. I’ve always considered the porterhouse the ‘king of steak cuts’.
To clarify on this point, to do a reverse sear, you want to do it at a MUCH lower temp. I usually do around 225. And you pull it from the oven when it’s about 10 degrees lower than your desired temp, since the sear will cook it the rest of the way.
Could be, but this is a great example of how different people can make a lot of assumptions that lead to using the same language to communicate opposite things.
When I just googled “new york strip vs ribeye”, the first result I got was a blog post from a retailer’s website (markethouse.com) that said:
“The fat marbling in the Ribeye makes it slightly richer and more tender than the New York Strip, which has a tighter texture [which aligns with what I see and understand]. This causes the Strip to have more of the signature steak ‘chew,’ as opposed to the Ribeye, which is smoother [which seems in opposition to what you posted].”
Good follow-up comments. I didn’t even notice the oven temp, as I was focused on the method. Yeah, reverse sear requires more attention so as not to overcook the meat.
I don’t let the meat come to room temperature, unless accidentally. I fire up the barbie on high (it’s propane) and let it warm up while I season the steak. Then I give it a nice sear/char on each side, being careful (usually successfully) not to cook the inside. I like my steaks ‘bloody’ but not cold. Not warming them first keeps the inside nice and raw, while allowing for a nice char on the outside.
Well, ok, I may have misled you a bit there. There’s tough connective tissue, and then there’s the relative toughness of the meat itself. The center, or ‘eye’ of the ribeye is tender, yes, probably more so than a NY strip. The NY strip, on the other hand, is more uniformly meat and less tough connective tissue.
Then there are cuts like flank and skirt steak, which are tougher yet, and need to be sliced thinly against the grain to be able to easily eat.
Ditto. Of the various methods, I find the reverse sear @225 (or sometimes I even go to 200) to produce the most evenly cooked interior and thinnest strip of well done from the sear than the traditional method of sear than finish in the oven. That one, for me, tends to have more of a doneness gradient in it when you cut through. Both produce decent results, though. And, call me crazy, but I prefer a pan sear/blowtorch/salamander sears over grilling, as there’s more of that brown Maillard goodness on the steak, though I guess you lose some of that fat-in-the-fire flavor of grilling.
