Your Cheat Sheet to Cooking Steak Perfectly Every Time

Grab a steak, and you’ll turn any ordinary day into a special one. Granted, cooking steak can seem like a thing of the pros, but when you learn to diligently follow these steak rules (while also listening to your intuition!), you’ll be dishing out perfect steaks every time.

When you take a look at it, cooking steak is actually really simple. Bring your steak to room temp, season, and cook. No frills or fuss. But when you’re actually in the kitchen cooking it, it suddenly becomes the opposite.

The biggest enemy of many cooks is time. How will you know if the steak inside has achieved that perfectly pink hue? How will you know if the steak is cooked properly all the way through? Only time will tell (and an instant read thermometer, which you should probably invest in).

If you’re standing at the starting line of cooking perfect steak, make sure to remember these steak rules:

Steak Rules

Now that you know your steak rules by heart, choose one of the five ways to cook your steak. There is no best method, it’s all up to preference. Each method will yield different results, but every result will be absolutely delicious.

Pan Fried

1. Use a cast iron or stainless steel pan. Put the pan over high heat.
2. Once it’s hot, add your neutral oil. Continue to heat until you see signs of smoke. Add the steak.
3. For a 1-inch steak, cook one side for three minutes, then the other side for two. You can either leave it to cook on each side, or flip every minute or so, until steak is cooked.
4. During the last minute of cooking, add a tablespoon of butter, a clove of garlic, and a few sprigs of fresh rosemary or thyme. Baste the steak with the melted butter.
5. Remove from pan and let it rest on the board for at least 5 minutes.

Sous Vide

Sous Vide is usually done in an immersion circulator, but most home cooks don’t have that. Instead, we’ll make a DIY sous vide using a pot and a resealable bag.

1. Place steak in a resealable bag along with a tablespoon of butter and a clove of garlic.
2. Remove as much air as possible from the bag before sealing.
3. Prepare a pot of water and heat until it reaches 50C.
4. Place the bag in the pot and let it cook for 1 hour, making sure the temperature is constantly at 50C.
5. Heat up a pan and quickly sear the steak on both sides.

Oven

For thicker cuts of steak, the oven is the best way to go. This helps you cook the inside perfectly without burning the outside.

1. Sear both sides for 2 minutes each.
2. Place it in the oven at 220C until the internal temperature reaches 55C.

Grilled

The grill will bring out flavors no other method can. Prepare a dry rub and coat the steak in the rub before grilling.

Dry rub (Good for 2 steaks):

• 1 tbsp dried rosemary
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tbsp zataar
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1/2 tsp sugar

1. Divide your grill into two zones: direct and indirect heat.
2. Make sure to keep an eye on your steak, and immediately remove if flareups occur to prevent burning.

Standing Rib Roast

Ingredients:

• 2 x 2kg slabs
• 4 cloves of minced garlic
• 1/4 cup of minced: rosemary, sage, thyme
• 1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/2 stick of butter
• 1 tbsp kosher salt

1. The day before, salt your rib roast and leave in the fridge for at least 12 hours.
2. Bring it up to room temperature before cooking.
3. Mix together garlic, rosemary, sage, thyme, olive oil, butter, and salt. Coat the mixture on the ribs. Place in a roasting pan and roast in the oven at 120C. Let the ribs reach 50C and remove from the oven. Let it rest for 30 minutes.
4. Bring your oven up to the highest setting possible, place the ribs back in the oven and leave it for 10 minutes until it browns. Remove and let it rest for another 10 minutes before slicing.

Sauces

You can either have your steak simple, or have some sauce to go along with it. Here are my go-to sauces for steaks: