How to cook a steak

Choosing a cut

Ribeye

The most marbled and the most forgiving. Fat renders and bastes it. Best cooked a little further than rare.

Sirloin

Good balance of flavour and tenderness, with a fat cap worth rendering. The all-rounder.

Fillet

Very tender, very lean, mild. Expensive, and easy to overcook because there is no fat to protect it.

Rump

More flavour than fillet and considerably cheaper. Chewier. Slice across the grain.

Bavette, onglet, skirt

Enormous flavour, cheap, and must be cooked rare to medium-rare and sliced thinly across the grain.

Thickness

Matters more than cut. Anything under 2cm is hard to get a crust on without overcooking. Buy one thick steak for two rather than two thin ones.

The method

1. Take it out of the fridge at least 30 minutes ahead, and up to an hour for a thick steak. A cold centre means the outside overcooks before the middle warms.
2. Dry the surface thoroughly with kitchen paper. Surface moisture must boil off before browning can start, and that is where grey steak comes from.
3. Salt it generously — either right before it goes in the pan, or at least 40 minutes ahead. The window in between is the worst time, because the surface is at its wettest.
4. Get a heavy pan genuinely hot — cast iron or heavy stainless, not non-stick. Add a high-smoke-point oil, not butter.
5. Lay the steak in and leave it alone. Do not move it for at least 90 seconds. Moving it interrupts the crust.
6. Turn it and repeat. For a thick steak, turning every minute after the initial sear actually cooks it more evenly.
7. In the last minute, add butter, garlic and thyme, tilt the pan and spoon the foaming butter over repeatedly.
8. Rest it on a rack for five to ten minutes. Not optional — see resting and redistribution.

Judging doneness by feel

Press the middle of the steak with a finger and compare with the base of your thumb.

Blue

Very soft, almost raw feel. Cool red centre.

Rare

Soft with slight resistance. Red, warm centre.

Medium rare

Springy with clear resistance. Pink throughout with a red core. Where most steaks are best.

Medium

Firm and springy. Pink centre, no red.

Well done

Firm and unyielding. No pink. Choose a fattier cut if this is how you like it.

A thermometer

More reliable than any of the above, and worth using on an expensive steak.

What goes wrong

• Grey, no crust — wet surface, pan not hot enough, or too many steaks in the pan at once.
• Burnt outside, raw inside — steak too thick for a straight sear, or the pan far too hot. Finish it in the oven, or use the reverse sear.
• Tough — the wrong cut cooked the wrong way, or sliced with the grain rather than across it.
• Everything ran out onto the board — not rested.
• Dry — overcooked. A lean cut has no margin at all.
• Butter burnt — added too early. Butter goes in at the end, not the start.

Common questions