Steak does not tolerate compromise. Therefore, in order to properly prepare it (fragrant, soft and moderately fried), you should follow the basic rules. Let's talk about this and talk about it in this article.
In the photo there is a ready-made steak of medium rare (Medium rare)
Nowadays, many people mistakenly call a steak a whole fried piece of meat. In fact, a real steak is a whole algorithm of actions that allows you to truly enjoy the original meat dish. This is a piece of meat that is cut across the grain and roasted on a grill or pan. Steak meat is suitable for those areas of the carcass where the muscles have not been actively used to move the animal. Of the whole carcass of an animal, no more than 10% is suitable for cooking steaks, and this is the main reason for the high cost of the dish.
It should be noted that the most accurate determination of the degree of roasting of meat can be done with a thermometer, which will allow you to achieve the ideal consistency and taste of the steak. An electronic thermometer will pierce the surface a little and indicate the temperature of meat readiness.
And now that we are familiar with all the cooking rules, let's cook a delicious steak at home.
Ingredients:
Preparation:
Ingredients:
Ingredients:
For the past few months, I have been exploring the art and science of steak cooking. The perfect steak.
In the process, I collected a lot of notes - from websites, cookbooks, interviews with chefs, and my own personal experiences - to then lay out a set of simple tips to help you cook the perfect steak.
So, let's begin.
The key to preparing any delicious meal is a selection of quality ingredients. When it comes to buying meat, it's best to skip the supermarkets and head straight to the butcher's shop. There you will find the best quality meat, without harmful artificial additives.
Most people choose lean cuts of beef for their steak, which makes it quite dry and tasteless. On the other hand, chunks with a slightly higher fat content add flavor even with relatively short cooking times.
Nutritionally, saturated fat like beef is normal. Of course, you should not eat a lot of them, so cut off the excess during cooking. Plus, instead of eating a large, but lean piece, you can get by with a small but richer one.
For me personally, ribeye seems to be ideal for steak cooking.
The addition of fresh garlic makes the steak even more delicious! Cut the garlic clove in half and rub the steak on all sides with it.
(Bonus tip: To get rid of the garlic odor on your hands, wash and rub on the inside of your stainless steel kitchen sink.)
If you don't already have salt and pepper shakers, buy them and fill them with sea salt and pepper.
Grind the sea salt and fresh pepper and add the mixture to the steak on each side, forming a "light crust".
A great steak is a steak with a nice brown crust, usually grilled or broiled in a steak house where the temperature is much higher than in regular home ovens.
However, with a little trick, you can get a very close result! Place the freshly salted and uncovered steak in the freezer for 45 minutes just before cooking. The freezer medium is incredibly dry, so the steak will dry out very quickly too. Do not leave the steak in the refrigerator for more than an hour to prevent it from freezing.
After 45 minutes, take it out and start frying.
(Most chefs also advise against starting to fry a steak until it is at room temperature, as frying cold meat can easily burn the edges without getting the tenderness you want. to avoid).
You should not use extra virgin olive oil to cook your steak, as its smoke threshold is too low. If your goal is not to disinfect the kitchen with fumigation or send smoke signals to distant relatives, it is better to use something more appropriate. For example, organic butter is a good choice - it has a higher smoke point, but tastes as good as olive oil.
Steakhouses spend a lot of time preparing steaks to the desired degree of roast, since overcooked or, on the contrary, undercooked steaks are the number 1 complaint in such establishments. Cook your steak the way you want it to be, and you're 90% close to perfect steak.
A digital meat thermometer makes this process much easier. Place the appliance over the edge of the steak in the middle and make sure it does not touch the fat or baking sheet.
Each level of doneness corresponds approximately to the internal temperature of the steak being cooked. For example, a semi-cooked steak has a temperature of about 55 ° C.
Since the internal temperature of the steak will rise even after you remove it from the baking sheet, it is best to finish frying when the temperature is a few degrees below the cooking temperature. For example, for a medium-rare steak, stop at 52 ° C - after 5 minutes, it will reach the desired 55 ° C.
Below is a table showing the degree of doneness and temperature:
Personally, I prefer to buy large cuts of meat and roast them until medium and crispy. But to each his own.
You can grill the steak in the usual way, or you can use the restaurant method, which will be useful for cooking at home and all year round.
The restaurant method is very simple:
Detailed instructions on how to do this:
A little trick from James Oliver - use a sprig of fresh rosemary to collect the liquid in a saucepan. Then brush the steak on all sides with it. This is an incredibly easy way to add flavor to your steak.
Very simple advice, but few people follow it. Once each side of the steak is cooked to the desired finish, use your tongs and brown the edges.
This is one of the simplest rules to follow when it comes to maintaining the flavor of any hot food.
Remember how the waiter at your favorite restaurant always warns that the plate is hot?
For warm meals, the restaurant also serves warm plates. Restaurant people understand that food temperature is one of the most important factors in determining whether a customer is satisfied with the quality of a meal or not. Placing hot food on a plate at room temperature will negate all the effort you put into preparing the dish.
An easy solution to the problem? Place the plates in the oven for a few minutes. If you are using the restaurant method described above, then your oven is already heated to 177 ° C - in this case, a minute will be enough.
(Note: If your plates are microwave-safe, they can be reheated there too).
Place steaks on heated plates, cover with foil and let sit for 5 minutes before serving. Why is this done?
Another trick by James Oliver is to pour some olive oil onto a wooden cutting board. Place fresh basil on top of the butter and cut into small pieces. Then use a fork to rub the oil into the basil.
Apply this mixture to each side of the steak. You can also cut the steak into chunks and add a fresh salad dressed with vinaigrette sauce.
Remember that cooking is not an exact science; results will vary depending on the temperature of the ingredients, the equipment you use, and even the weather in your area. The more you practice, the more it becomes clear to you how the products respond to the specific circumstances to which you expose them.
The only way to make the perfect meal is to practice over and over again. Buy the same beef from the same butcher shop and try again. With due diligence and attention, you will achieve amazing results.
One of my favorite foods that I love to cook for myself is fried steak. Cooking the right steak is not an easy process. But I have refined my recipe over and over again. This step-by-step guide will explain in detail how to cook a beef steak at home in a frying pan.
This guide is intended for people with cooking experience. For those who do not feel comfortable in the kitchen, it is better not to take this dish. Cooking the perfect steak is a very precise and time-sensitive process. But you can easily cope with this if you prepare everything correctly and follow my instructions.
Here is a list of what you need to make your steak.
The first thing to do is find the right steak to cook. To do this, it is better to go to a place with a large selection of quality meat. In such places, meat is usually a little more expensive, but in my opinion it is worth it.
I took a 250 gram perfect steak. It is small enough for one person and relatively inexpensive. Choose meat that looks delicious to you! If funds allow, then you can choose a steak even better, but this miniature piece will do for the lesson.
When you're at the store, make sure you have the rest of the ingredients, such as olive oil, butter, salt, pepper, and garlic. There is a great opportunity to buy some fresh garlic heads if you don't want to use garlic powder.
When you get home you should let the meat warm up. In the store, it was in the refrigerator, it is very cold there. Cooking a cold steak is not a good idea.
First, unpack the meat and let it sit on a plate. While it is sitting, use salt and pepper to season the steak. Sprinkle on all sides, do not spare the seasoning.
Usually it takes 20 minutes for the meat to warm up, it all depends on the size of the piece and how much it was frozen. It is important to warm up the meat well so that it does not end up with a cold middle when cooking in the pan.
While the steak is heating, do not waste time and make sure all other cutlery and ingredients are ready. Place the skillet over high heat. Before it gets hot, add just enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. You will need a lot more oil later in the process.
The next step is very important and can be dangerous. At this point, the pan should be very hot. You will use tongs to place the steak in the hot oil. There will be a lot of splashing at these high temperatures so be careful when turning the steak over.
After placing the steak in the pan, start the countdown, it should sit for 1 minute. After one minute has passed, turn it over and let it sit for another 1 minute.
After a minute has passed, turn the steak sideways to brown the edge. Hold this until the edge is colored just like the rest of the meat. Do this on both sides. Tilt the pan so that the oil collects on one side of the pan, this will make it easier to fry the edges of the steak. As in the photo above.
You should continually turn the steak at 1 minute intervals until you feel it is well done. The total length of this step depends on your preference and the thickness of your steak.
You are now ready for the next step.
By this stage, the steak has already been fried on all sides and the meat juice is sealed inside. Saddle down on a quieter, medium heat.
It's time to cook the meat to the degree of doneness you like. There is no exact indication of the cooking time, it depends on the thickness of the steak, the heating of the stove and other factors. You just have to check the meat often enough to make sure it's cooked or needs to be held on the stove. For this tutorial, I cooked my own medium-rare steak, leaving a small pink portion in the middle.
Now that the pan is no longer as hot, you can still turn the steak at 1 minute intervals.
It's time to add the garlic and oil. Cut off a good piece of butter and place it generously with garlic. I used garlic powder as there was no fresh one on hand. As you continue to turn the steak, let the meat soak up all that blissful taste. Keep in mind that I am describing how to make a perfect steak, not a healthy one.
I cooked this steak for just 8 minutes, turning every minute to get a medium cut. Again, I remind you that everything depends on the thickness of the piece and the cooking temperature, so I cannot guarantee you exactly the same result in 8 minutes.
Use tongs to check the meat. When you feel that a piece of meat has begun to thicken, this is probably a medium roast.
After you've cooked the steak in the skillet for enough time, it's time to take it out and place it on a clean plate.
Have you finished cooking your steak and are about to eat it? PATIENCE!
Let the meat rest before slicing it.
To make the steak truly juicy, after cooking the meat must be given a “rest”. If you cook a medium-rare steak and cut it straight away, the juice will flood the entire cutting board. As a result, the meat will turn out to be less juicy, less aromatic and with an insufficiently saturated taste.
Let the meat rest for 5 minutes. If you are so impatient, enjoy a bottle of beer to your liking for now (if age permits!).
You have been patient enough. You have waited 5 minutes. Now you can enjoy the amazing taste of homemade steak with your own hands.
This steak does not require any sauces. The sauce will only destroy the natural flavor you created on your stove.
Stewed vegetables and cold beer will perfectly complement your meat masterpiece. Enjoy!
Do you think that frying a steak is a whole art? Not at all. You just need to know the basic subtleties of steak cooking. Which ones - says Petya Pavlovich, the butcher of the Yunost restaurant and just a cool meat specialist.
Petya Pavlovich worked his way up from a Rambler programmer to a project manager at Rambler-Afisha. But then he decided to radically change his life. Now Petya is the butcher of the Moscow cafe "Yunost", and he knows everything about meat: where it comes from, how to cook it and how to eat it. Petya shared with us the secrets of making the perfect steak.
The choice of meat for the steak plays an important role. The meat must be soft enough, therefore, the dorsal-lumbar part is most often chosen for cooking the steak. The steaks from it will be good even from the beef of not the best quality.
For making a good steak the meat must be aged... With beef it is like this: the longer it is aged, the better. It will be tastier.
Advice: If you want to stand the portioned steaks, sprinkle them with simple table salt (salt on all sides), then put them on the wire rack in the refrigerator (without covering with anything) and keep them there for two to three days. The salt will draw moisture out of the outer layer of the meat, in the refrigerator this layer will dry out a little, which will play into your hands when you cook the steak - it will form a crust faster when frying. The salt will also inhibit the development of bacteria and mold on the surface of the meat. And finally, during these two or three days, fermentation will begin to do its job - the steaks will lose some of their moisture. Aged steaks do not look very appetizing outwardly - the outer layer withers and darkens. But do not worry, they do not lose their juiciness inside. Please note that this express method works with small portioned steaks. Well, when aging meat, you should not store odorous products in the refrigerator - steaks do not need an undesirable aroma.
Before frying be sure to dry the steak with a napkin or cloth. There should be no visible moisture on the surface.
You need to salt the steak just before you put it in the pan or grill or during the frying process.
Fry a steak in a pan or grill. Main condition - fry briefly and over high heat... The pan with oil must be heated in advance, the coals on the grill must be heated, and only after that put the meat. The most common steak myth is that the initial frying "seals" the juices inside the steak, and supposedly then you can fry it as much as you like - the juice will not leak out. In fact, frying does not prevent moisture from draining out of the meat. The hissing sound that accompanies a steak in a pan is nothing more than the sound of instant evaporation of water coming out of the meat. The amount of leaked moisture depends on the temperature to which the steak is brought inside and on the time it spends in this state. Hence the advice - fry the steak quickly and to a medium degree.
Turn the steak frequently. After initial frying, once a minute. This will cook it evenly and quickly. But if the task is to make a "grate" from the traces of the grill, then you will have to turn it over only three times.
Objectively you can only assess the readiness of a steak with a kitchen thermometer. High measurement accuracy is important, since the difference between the readiness levels is no more than 5 degrees. The ideal temperature inside a steak is around 55 ° C (regardless of whether you are roasting beef, pork or lamb). If you don't have a thermometer at hand, you can also “cut to check readiness”. True, this method of determining readiness is unreliable - the color of raw and cooked meat can vary greatly depending on what kind of meat you are roasting. Moreover, different muscles, even within the same steak, may differ in color.
If the steak is so thick that it is still soggy inside after it forms a crust, it must be removed from high heat and bring to readiness in more gentle conditions. For example, wrap in foil and move away from coals in the case of grilling, or place the pan in a preheated oven.
When a few degrees remain to the desired temperature inside the steak, it needs remove from fire and let it rest for a few minutes on a plate or on a cutting board - the steak will reach readiness due to the heat already supplied to it. Also, during this time, the steak fibers will relax and stop squeezing the juice abundantly (if you start cutting the steak immediately after removing it from the heat, too much moisture will leak out).
For any meat eater, steak is almost the crown of the culinary art. It seems that there is nothing difficult about frying a simple piece of meat. But gourmets extol the steak! Let's be honest: there are too few meat dishes in the world that can compare to a well-cooked steak.
The beauty of steak lies in its simplicity, minimalism. This dish does not require a lot of seasonings and spices, because the main thing in it is the natural and rich taste of good meat. Therefore, the main secret of a good, correct steak is the correct choice of meat. It is better not to cook a steak at all than to cook it from bad meat.
There is an opinion that it is impossible to cook the right steak in an ordinary kitchen and if you are not a professional. But this is just a myth, because the main thing here is the experience of working with meat and the ability to feel it. This is a really important condition. But it is paradoxical. For the more steaks you fry, the tastier they will be: the third is tastier than the second, and the tenth is tastier than the ninth. How does the very first steak come out? Probably ... worse than the second, but one day you need to start to fry meat competently! So, a good steak starts with the first piece of meat intended for the first steak. The only way.
Different meats are used for this dish: it can be a classic beef steak, pork is the second most popular, sometimes lamb and large fish are used. If we talk about a part of the carcass, then here you should give preference to the tender parts: tenderloin, loin. Sides, rump, thin and thick edges will also work. The thicker the piece of meat you choose, the juicier it will turn out, and therefore ask the seller to cut the meat into pieces 3-4 cm thick, or cut it yourself.
Before cooking, be sure to remove the meat from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for at least an hour. In this case, the meat fibers will not shrink in the pan as sharply as they would if the meat was just from the refrigerator. Accordingly, the steak will be much juicier.
Cooking time: 30-40 minutes. Yield: 5 servings.
So, you have already taken out the meat from the refrigerator and it lay at room temperature, warmed up. Now it's time to spice it up. To do this, grind black pepper and mustard seeds in a mortar or with a coffee grinder. It is necessary that the spices are coarsely ground.
Add ground paprika to the crushed spices. If you don't like certain spices, choose others to your liking. In addition, only salt and pepper can be used.
Sprinkle spices liberally on both sides of the steaks, but do not salt yet. Let the meat sit for another 15 minutes.
Then coat the meat with vegetable oil.
And now you can already steaks and salt. They need to be salted just before frying, since salt has the peculiarity of pulling the juice out. In this case, you need to keep it inside each piece.
Heat the pan very strongly, it should be hot. You do not need to pour vegetable oil - the one with which the steaks are smeared is enough. Without reducing the heat, place the meat in the pan. For medium cooking, cook the meat for 5 minutes on each side. This degree of roast is characterized by the presence of a light juice inside.
If you want to get meat with blood, cook for 2-3 minutes, and if well-done, then for 7-8. Keep in mind that well-done meat has no juice inside and is harsh in texture.
After the meat is done, wrap it in foil and let it rest for 10 minutes. During this time, it will go away after frying and all the juices will be evenly distributed inside. This will give you a real classic steak.
You can supplement such a steak with vegetables and a glass of dry red wine. Bon Appetit!