This one was requested by some friends and is something I’ve been thinking about putting together anyway. It occurs to me that I have way too much to say so I’m going to split it into several chapters.

Abstract

This is a guide on how to cook (beef) steak. I will define steak, or at least the class of beef cuts I feel this advice is relevant to, and then outline the main considerations in choosing and cooking steaks and how they influence the finished product. In theory this will be more or less sufficient to work out methods for cooking delicious steak from first principles, but in future posts I will also present a number of methods I’ve found particularly helpful and some common gotchas. Likewise aromatics, sides and sauces will be addressed at a later date.

What is a Steak

A steak is in essence a large cut of beef mostly consisting of muscle fibers and fat. The muscle fibers should be on the softer side, your typical steak cuts will come from parts of the cow which do less work and are less developed (with respect to musculature) as a result. Muscles from the rib or the upper hind do very little work and yield crowd pleasers like ribeye and fillet mignon. Muscles that do slightly more work tend to have a stronger ‘beefy’ flavour at the expense of being a little tougher, rump is the classic example. Meat that is high in collagen does not make for good steak, but is often good for braising (if you’re into that sort of thing).

What makes a good cut

This is a little subjective, but generally the qualities that control the experience are; softness of the muscles fibers, length of the muscle fibers, flavour of the meat, quantity of distributed fat (marbling), the presence of a fat cap and to a small degree, the quantity of sinew within the cut. Unless you go searching for especially cheap or adventurous cuts this is unlikely to matter. A quick word on each of these.

Softness of the muscle fibers

The softer the fibers the more tender. Fillet Mignon is the softest, eye round is probably the least? Don’t buy eye round. The firmer the fibers the more gamey the bite.

Length of the muscle fibers

The muscle fibers are long bundles of protein (shocker). The mental picture is a bunch of parallel straws. Here I am not 100% convinced of the explanations I’ve read but the conclusion is indisputable. If the meat is sliced perpendicular to the fibers, the bite is much more tender. Critically, you want the length of the fibers in each piece to be as short as possible. Many prime cuts (ribeye, fillet mignon, strip loin etc…) are sold sliced perpendicular, so you don’t need to worry. If not, just slice the meat perpendicular to the grain (the direction of the fibers) before serving. The fibers are visible to the naked eye.

Flavour of the meat

Guessing at the flavour of a particular piece of meat is tricky, there are many factors at play. First of all, the softness of the fibers seems to correlate negatively with the strength of the ‘beef’ flavour. In my humble opinion, the beautifully tender filet mignon is nearly bland. I like the flavour of rump most. Otherwise, the diet of the cow is a huge factor (so is the age, but you are unlikely to have fine grained control over it). Broadly speaking there is grass fed beef and grain fed beef. The former is much leaner and has a purple hue. Nutty tones. Grain fed beef tends to have more intramuscular fat but a less nuanced taste profile. More on this next. Otherwise, the manner in which the meat is aged/hung will play a significant role in the taste profile. Butchery appears to be less of a craft now than it once was, but a good butcher will still approach this process thoughtfully. Not really much to control here other than identifying a butcher whose product you enjoy, try some older style butchers if possible. Dry aged beef for a number of reasons also tends to have a stronger beefy flavour, some nuttiness and a deep savoury flavour (curtesy of msg produced by bacteria).

Marbling

This is the sexy part of steak content. Intra muscular fat, usually referred to as marbling, refers to the fat dispersed throughout a steak (hence the name). Beef fat is delicious and coats your mouth in a way that is really quite special. It’s also a key source of moisture. There are 3 widely known schemes for grading the quality and quantity of intra muscular fat. The simplest is the USDA scheme which designates 3 categories, ‘select’, ‘choice’ and ‘prime’. I wouldn’t touch select. For premium cuts of steak choice can be fine, but you really want prime. Australia and Japan have numerical grading schemes (MS and BMS respectively). Generally I like a 6 on both scales, maybe a 5 on the MS, although for tougher cuts I prefer more and for more tender steaks less. If you’re buying from a meat case with no indication of grade, it’s safe to assume that even the most marbled piece on display isn’t at risk of being too fatty, so you should ask for it!

Fat Caps

Fat caps are large solid sections of fat on the edge of a steak. They affect the dynamic of cooking and also if rendered properly add extra flavour.

How do you cook a good steak

There are really only 2 important qualities that you have a great deal of control over when cooking steak. You want to create a deep, flavourful crust on the surface, and the interior of the steak should be cooked to the desired temperature as evenly as possible (I am folding the rendering of fat into the latter).

Doneness

There is often some confusion as to what it means to cook a steak to a certain temperature. To be precise, by temperature or doneness of a part of the steak I will refer to the maximum temperature it reaches before consumption. If the edge of the steak is 70C, but after resting the temperature of the whole teak stabilises to 57C, the edge of the steak has still been cooked to 70C (and will look and chew as such). Obviously strictly speaking the length of time it remains at the temperature matters (as anyone who has forgotten a steak being cooked sous vide knows), but for most heating methods this is of little concern.

How Done

The popular conception is that people have a static preferred doneness and will generally most enjoy a steak done to this temperature, or perahaps they’ll feel a certain doneness on a certain day. While it’s true that people tend to have inclinations toward more or less cooked beef, in practice the temperature someone will prefer a particular cut of beef is least partially (and arguably more) a function of the cut in question than the person’s innate preferences. People who are otherwise adamant about taking their meat blue or well done invariably seem to prefer a well marbled prime rib most if it’s cooked to a gentle pink medium. Very lean meat gets tough when overcooked, and can’t fall back on marbling for moisture. It’s best enjoyed rare to medium rare. Well marbled cuts have juicy fat to spare. Unrendered fat is inedible and turns otherwise great steaks offputting. Best to be sure the fat is sufficiently cooked, if the meat is cooked a little over the melted fat will make up for it. A partially rendered and crisped fat cap is a beautiful garnish but undercooked may as well be discarded. Cook it medium or just over. It’s never desirable to take a steak past medium well, and even that’s pushing it. Consult any temperature guide online to put numbers to each of the described temperatures.

Fat Caps

Fat eats best when its cooked to temperatures substantially higher than it is ever reasonable to serve steak. It’s not worth compromising the muscle to reach these temperatures. However, many cuts come with layers of fat on one or more sides called fat caps. These being good conductors with non trivial heat capacity can be cooked at very high temperatures to melt some off, adding fat to your cooking environment (which we will see later is desirable) and reach the desired temperatures locally only. Blast them with direct heat till they’re nicely golden and crisp.

Crust

I am no expert on the science, but my understanding of the crust is this. The golden brown crust on the surface of a steak is the result of the ‘maillard’ reaction, which takes place when protein is exposed to very high temperatures. If you’ve ever tried to cook a steak on a weak burner and been disappointed by the colour, this is why. Even steaks cooked on a pan above a sufficiently hot burner are likely to have grey bald spots if they are too dry. This is because the parts that make the most forceful contact will pick up the most heat. Some fat in the pan, usually oil or butter, is often used as a more uniform conductor for the heat than the surface of the the pan. People also often find that steaks with very little marbling crust less evenly than those with rich fat running throughout. As the fat melts, it acts like an oil conducting heat across the surface of the steak. You can actually use rendered beef fat as an alternative cooking fat, it stands up to reasonably high temperatures and naturally complements the flavour of the steak. Crust formation generally takes 1 to 2 minutes at very high temperatures with direct heat to one side of a cut of beef that remains dry (you should not assume that it will! Unprepared beef has a tendency to sweat), but when the crust appears ready, it is. You’re looking for an appealing deep brown. No need to dogmatically adhere to any timing.

Conclusion

For now this is it! If you manage a beautiful crust on a cut of beef cooked evenly to an appropriate temperature you’re looking at a steak that’s already leagues better than what you’ll find outside of specialty restaurants, but then you probably didn’t need this guide. Next time we’ll discuss methods for achieving a sear and an even cook.