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| The Perfect Steak |
Beef. It’s what’s for dinner. Well… steak that is. And by steak, I mean a thick cut USDA Prime Bone-In Ribeye. This is Texas, son. We eat beef. We eat good beef. Steak is the national meat of Texas.
I don’t
mess around when it comes to cooking steak. Let’s face it, these things aren’t
cheap. Please, do yourself a favor by cooking it correctly. Don’t be goin’ off
and embarrassing yourself in front of all of your friends and family by ruining $20 chunks of awesomeness.
Don’t be all sizzle and no steak!
Don’t be all sizzle and no steak!
Today
is going to be a guide on how to knock cooking a Fred Flintstone slab o’meat
out of the park in just a few easy but precise steps.
*Warning:
I do
not list cook times for Medium Well or Well Done steaks. If you have to ask
why, then well… maybe this isn’t the site for you.
*Notes:
Today’s
guide is meant for cooking with a stovetop and oven. Firing up the grill is
another baby altogether.
You’re
gonna need at least a 12” cast iron skillet. Steaks are meant to be cooked
using cast iron or over a grill. Anything else just won’t do.
When
buying your meat, 1” is as thin as I’d go (I prefer 1 ½” steaks). Greenhorns can share
a steak if it's too big for them.
Let’s talk about meat
grades. If you’re dropping coin on over an inch of steak, then USDA Prime is
the only way to go. It’s worth every penny of the $5 more per pound than the
cost of USDA Choice. At this level, cutting corners changes
the finished product drastically.
Do
yourself a favor and throw away all of your "iodized" table salt. That’s right… drop it
right on in that trashcan there. That’s it… just walk away. What we’re gonna do
here is switch on over to Kosher Salt. Why? Some salt is fortified with iodine
so as to prevent dietary deficiencies. Well that was a smart move around 1900,
but today’s American diet has plenty of iodine containing foods (dairy,
eggs, yogurt, saltwater fish, and shellfish). Kosher Salt is easier to pinch
and it doesn’t have the funny taste that some say iodized salt has. The little coarse flakes of Kosher Salt allow for a far more even distribution
on steak, mainly because it doesn’t dissolve on contact, which allows you to
see where the salt is falling.
One
word on cooking oils. You’re gonna need an oil that can handle a lot of heat. Personally,
I keep a bottle of “Extra Light Olive Oil” on hand because you can get a
big ol’ bottle of it for pretty cheap at the grocery store. This is not to be
confused with Extra “Virgin” Olive Oil. Extra Light Olive Oil can take a
lot of heat because they have filtered out all of the stuff that makes Extra Virgin Olive Oil yummy. Some other good neutral tasting oils that can handle the heat
are Safflower, and Peanut Oil.
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| High Temp Cooking Oil |
The table lists TOTAL cook time: i.e. all times added together (2 min sear + 1 min sear + 4 min roast + final roast minutes = Total Time).
Steak Cook Times
Recipe
Steak
Ribeye
(1 ½” Thick, Bone-In)
Kosher
Salt
Extra
Light Olive Oil or Safflower Oil
Instructions
- 45 minutes prior to cooking, place a dry cast iron skillet on middle rack of oven.
- Pre-heat oven to 400°.
- Pat steak dry with paper towels.
- Salt steak liberally (1/4 teaspoon or more per side).
- Allow steak to rest at room temperature for 45 minutes while skillet & oven heat.
- 5 minutes prior to cooking, transfer skillet to largest burner at its highest setting.
- Turn on exhaust fan and open some windows.
- While skillet heats on stovetop, pat steak dry again then brush both sides with oil.
- Sear steak for 2 minutes, flip & sear for 1 minute.
- Place skillet in oven WITHOUT flipping steak again.
- Allow steak to roast for 4 minutes before flipping one last time.
- Roast 5 more minutes for rare, 7 for medium rare, or 10 for medium (see Table for total cook time for other steak thicknesses)
- Remove skillet from oven & place steak on a baking rack to rest for 5 minutes.
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| Smokin' Hot Skillet |
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| Resting Peacefully |
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| Steak & Ranch Style Beans |
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| A Perfect Medium Rare |
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