Cooking beef steak. Steak

Steak. Steak - meat dish, which is prepared from certain parts of the carcass of young bulls of certain breeds (Hereford, Angus, etc.).

Most people mistakenly believe that a steak is a single piece of any fried meat. This is far from true. In fact, steaks are prepared from best parts animal. At the same time, no more than 10% of the entire carcass is suitable for cooking. Therefore, the first step for the correct and delicious steak- choice suitable meat.

To prepare steaks, take the subscapular part of the carcass (where there are many fatty veins), the lumbar part of the back in the area of ​​​​the thick edge, the head part of the tenderloin, the thick edge of the middle part of the tenderloin and some others. Depending on the part used, steaks receive additional names. For example, roundramb steak is prepared from the upper piece of the thigh, filet mignon is prepared from a cut of the central part of the fillet, etc.

Steak meat should be red or dark red. It is worth checking the meat with your finger by pressing on a piece. If after pressing a hole is formed, which then returns to its original position, the meat can be taken. If you press hard enough, the steak will come out tough; if the hole does not straighten out, the meat is most likely stale and also unsuitable.

Despite the fact that it is considered a classic beef steak, the dish can be prepared from other types of meat (for example, veal, pork, etc.), as well as fish.

Before cooking, you should decide on the degree of doneness - whether you like raw meat or rare steak, medium-rare, deep-roasted meat or completely cooked.

It is important to properly prepare steak meat: remove films and tendons. Next, you should cut a piece of medium thickness at least 7 centimeters in length. The piece is cut in the central part of the side where the longitudinal fibers are located (to the middle of the thickness). Finally, the meat is opened “butterfly” - the transverse fibers of the cut should appear at the top. This allows the meat to cook better.

The steak is marinated for 12 to 48 hours. A traditional marinade is a mixture of wine vinegar, vegetable oil, soy sauce, seasonings and salt. Fry steaks in frying pans and electric grills.

The meat is placed on a hot surface, fried on both sides for a minute, and then cooked to the desired degree of doneness.

It is strictly not recommended to test readiness with a fork - the juice will leak out and the meat will turn out dry. If such a check is necessary, it is better to cut the piece in the middle (just a little). Allowing the meat to sit under the lid, turning off the heat, allows the juices to be distributed as evenly as possible throughout the piece.

This is the most important requirement for a proper and tasty steak. If in kebabs we can correct the poor choice of product with marinade, and in cutlets we can add spices and other ingredients, then in this case no tricks will work. Steak is just a piece good meat. The maximum you will need besides this is a little vegetable oil, salt and pepper. That's all. So now you should understand why steak meat, like this dish in restaurants, is so expensive. This is a product of elite livestock breeding. For steaks, only meat from bulls aged 1-1.5 years and only certain breeds is suitable, the best of which are Angus and Hereford. They are raised very carefully and fed with selected wheat or corn. Only a few parts of the carcass are suitable for steaks - ribeye, fillet and rack. This type of beef is also called “marbled” due to the thin layers of fat inside the muscle fibers. Also keep in mind that steaks are never made from fresh beef. The meat is aged in special cabinets for 2-3 weeks to become more tender.

The ideal option is to immediately choose already matured and cut steaks in the store. Their thickness must be at least 3 cm.

2. Before frying

You bought good expensive steaks in the store, brought them home, hid them in the refrigerator until X o'clock. And then it came. Take your time! The meat should not be cold. Steaks are rarely cooked all the way through - it's not the same meat. To prevent the middle from appearing cold to those who eat it, the steak must be warm before cooking. So take it out of the refrigerator and leave it in room temperature for 1.5-2 hours.

3. What to cook with

Most the best option – grill. However, even if you have a grill and coals at hand, cooking a steak over a live fire the first time is not an easy task and requires experience. Chefs prepare it using a strictly defined technology: first, they fry it very quickly, for about 20 seconds, on both sides on a surface heated to 250 degrees, and then bring it to the desired degree of frying on a surface at a temperature of 200 degrees. Agree, understanding how to do this on a grill grate is quite problematic. Steak lovers who want to master the art of cooking them at home should take a closer look at electric grill. The beauty of this gadget is that the heating temperature is very easy to adjust. Plus, if you don't skimp and invest in a double-sided electric grill, you won't even have to flip the pieces of meat. We adjusted the distance between the heating surfaces to suit your piece, set required temperature, put the meat, covered it– and in a couple of minutes you have a real steak with characteristic dark grill stripes.

If you are cooking on electric grill, then you don’t even need to use fats, unless you want to get an extra crust on top, then lightly grease the meat with vegetable oil.

4. How cooked should it be?

This is purely a matter of your taste. There are several classic and already familiar degrees. By the way, we advise you to remember your favorite option so that in a restaurant you can give instructions to the waiter. So, there are seven degrees of doneness in total:

1. Blue Rare(or extra rare or simply blue) - an almost raw piece of meat, but hot. The steak is heated on the grill so that it only slightly “grabs” on both sides. The temperature inside should be 46-49 degrees.
2. Rare- so-called rare steak. The meat is fried on top, leaving the inside raw to such an extent that the steak continues to release red juice. Frying time will take 2-3 minutes at 200 degrees. The temperature inside the steak should be 49-55 degrees.
3. Medium Rare– the most popular degree of roasting all over the world. The steak is fried from above to a crust, and weakly inside, but it is no longer blood that is released, but pink juice. This will take approximately 4-5 minutes at 200 degrees. The temperature inside a piece of meat should be between 55-60 degrees.
4. Medium– medium-fried steak, almost no pink juice is released, and the temperature inside the meat is from 60 to 65 degrees. Frying time will be approximately 6-7 minutes.
5. Medium Well– instead of pink juice, clear juice comes out, and when cut, the middle of the steak is almost the same color as the edges. Cook for 8-9 minutes at 200 degrees, and the temperature of the meat inside is 65-70 degrees.
6. Well Done- a piece of meat that is well and completely fried inside without any juice, you will need to first fry for 8-9 minutes on the grill or electric grill, and then bring the steak to readiness in the oven so that the middle is cooked well. The temperature inside the steak is above 70 degrees.
7. Too well done or overcooked– very deep fried meat, internal temperature above 100 degrees.

And it’s not for nothing that we indicated the temperature inside a piece of meat for each degree. Determining by eye how well your steak is cooked is not a task for beginners. However, modern gadgets make it possible to cook meat correctly even for people without much culinary experience. Just stock up meat probe. It is enough to stick it into your steak so that the tip is in the middle, and you will immediately know the temperature inside and, accordingly, the degree of frying.

5) When should I salt and pepper my steak?

Just remember - you can pepper and sprinkle various dry spices to taste on the steak before frying. Only meat that has already been fried should be salted!

6) After frying

Don't rush into your steak with a knife and fork, no matter how delicious it looks. He must first “rest.” Transfer the finished steak to a plate heated in the microwave (so that it is warm and does not cool the meat), and cover the top with a sheet of foil or a dome of it. Leave for 5-7 minutes, and then serve your steak to the table.

What is steak?

Steak is whole piece meat of sufficient quality that it can be quickly fried on a grill or frying pan until cooked. Steak can be made from any meat: beef, pork, lamb, game and others, but most often steak is beef. Often this meat is from the premium part of the carcass - the back or loin, and these parts are called premium because the meat in them is softer and rich in fatty layers. With the advent of high-quality meat from beef bulls, it has become possible to prepare steaks from the so-called alternative parts: shoulder blade, shoulder, leg or flank.

Across the grain

You've probably often heard that steaks are cut across the grain. What does this even mean? The fact is that muscles consist of fibers parallel to each other. One muscle fiber is no thicker than a human hair, but the fibers are collected in bundles that are already clearly visible to the naked eye. Muscles are designed in such a way that it is very difficult to tear fibers lengthwise, but it is easy to separate individual bundles of fibers or fibers from each other. So it turns out that if you cut the meat in such a way that the length of the fibers in the piece is minimal, then it will be easier to chew.

For example, the longissimus dorsi and spinalis dorsi, which form the backbone of the ribeye, are cut across the spine because these muscles have fibers that run along the spine.

Excerpt

So, we cut out a piece of meat or bought it pre-cut. What's next? Now is the time to talk about endurance. No, it’s not about perseverance and self-control in the face of the temptation to eat meat, but about the fact that meat benefits significantly from keeping it at a certain humidity and temperature for quite a long time. Dry aging, that is, aging meat uncovered in the refrigerator, noticeably changes the taste of beef (to a lesser extent, pork or lamb), I’ve already talked about this. But it is difficult to do proper dry aging at home: a regular household refrigerator does not allow you to control the humidity.

Still endure steak at home you can: to do this you need to sprinkle it on all sides with regular table salt and leave on a wire rack in the refrigerator for 2-3 days. What this will do: the salt will draw some moisture out of the meat, and its surface will become dry, and therefore ready for frying; fermentation will slightly change the taste of the meat, not as dramatically as in 2 weeks, but still. Salt will suppress the activity of bacteria on the surface of the piece, and the meat will not spoil in 2-3 days, but it is not worth keeping the steak longer in this way.

© villagemoon / iStock

Fire

As I said before, steak is a quickly cooked piece of meat. Depending on the thickness, size and quality of the piece, steak can be cooked from 5 minutes to almost an hour. But one way or another, the main condition when cooking a steak is strong fire, be it hot coals on the grill or a well-heated frying pan. High heat is needed to create a crust - a crispy fried layer, the aroma and crunch of which we associate with the taste of fried meat. Here, as with all other food: we like contrasts in taste - in in this case the contrast between the steak's undercooked interior and crisp, flavorful exterior.

In order for a crust to form, the so-called Maillard reaction must begin, a chemical reaction between proteins and sugars that causes the meat to brown and develop the characteristic aroma of fried meat. This reaction begins at a temperature of at least 120 degrees, and for this reason the steak must be dry when it ends up on the grill or pan, because evaporation of moisture takes up too much energy, the pan will cool down, and the outside of the wet steak will cook rather than fry .

If you took my advice and kept the steak in the refrigerator, you can immediately put it on a heated grill or frying pan, after greasing it a little with vegetable oil. If the steak has just come from a store or a vacuum bag, you need to first dry it with a napkin.

Grill steak on high fire it is necessary until a crust forms over the entire surface, but the meat does not begin to burn. If at this stage the steak is already cooked, great, you can remove it from the heat. If the steak is large and thick, it needs to be cooked by wrapping it in foil and moving it to the cooler side of the grill, or by placing the frying pan with the steak in an oven preheated to 180 degrees.

Temperature and doneness

You need to check the temperature inside the steak using a kitchen thermometer, preferably an electronic one (it is more accurate). Well known trick with fingers bent is biased and in general does not work: not only are different steaks not the same to the touch, but also everyone’s hands are different, and so is their tactile sensitivity. Chefs are lying when they say that they can accurately determine the readiness of a steak in this way, or only if they cook dozens of identical steaks every day.

Despite the fact that the meat looks like a rather rough substance, from a cooking point of view it is a delicate substance. In the range of 50 to 70 degrees, that is, only 20 degrees, it goes through many changes from almost raw to completely shriveled and dried out. The ideal internal temperature for most steaks is 54–56 degrees.

Approximate temperatures for different degrees of doneness of beef steaks

Bleu - 50 (raw)

Medium rare - 54

Medium well - 60

Well done - 64 (completely ready)

What does this mean, internal temperature? When a steak is grilled, the outer layer is exposed to extreme heat and the meat on the outside is likely to be overcooked. The laws of physics were created at least in order to comply with them - meat has a certain thermal conductivity, and heat penetrates into the thickness of the meat gradually, from the edge to the center. When we talk about internal temperature, we are talking about the coldest part inside the piece, that is, the furthest away from the surface. But there are also subtleties here: if there is a layer of fat on the side of the steak lying on the grill, then on this side the heat will penetrate inside more slowly: the thermal conductivity of fat is lower than that of meat.

You can ensure that the meat is perfectly cooked not only in the center of the steak, but throughout its entire thickness. Unfortunately, you cannot do this without special equipment - for this you need an immersion thermostat, colloquially known as sous vide, a device that allows you to cook at a constant low temperature.

© graffvision / iStock

How often to turn?

You can hear debate about how often you should turn a steak while frying: there is an opinion that the less frequently, the better. And here physics comes to our aid: the more often you turn the steak, the faster and more evenly it will cook. Faster because the side farthest from the grill will not have time to cool down much, and more evenly because the side lying on the grill will not overheat too much.

Rest before serving

When the temperature in the center of the steak remains a couple of degrees below the desired temperature, you need to remove it from the heat (take it out of the foil or out of the oven) and leave it alone on a plate for a few minutes. This is usually called rest, but in fact, at this time the steak will reach readiness by inertia, and the fibers, contracted from the extreme heat, will relax and will not actively squeeze out the juices as soon as the steak is cut.

To salt or not to salt - that is the question

Another reason for debate among steak lovers: when should a steak be salted - before or after cooking? You can do it just before frying, you can do it after, you can do it during the process. The main thing is not in advance, because the salted piece raw meat in just a minute or two it will become soggy and not ready to brown. If the steak was kept in the refrigerator, as described above, then during cooking it does not need to be salted at all.

If that's not enough

It's best to grill steak open fire, on coals, the temperature is higher there, and among other things, the steak will be more flavorful - smoke, that's all. In a frying pan, you can use this trick: after the initial frying, throw a heavy piece into the frying pan from all sides butter, melt it until it sizzles, tilt the pan slightly and, scooping up the boiling oil with a spoon, pour it over the top of the steak. Not only will the steak brown faster, but it will also be enriched with the aroma of fried butter. This should be done when the steak is almost ready so as not to burn the oil until it turns black and bitter. Instead of butter, rendered beef fat is also suitable.

Conclusion

Cooking steak properly at home is not only not difficult, but even simple. But you still have to buy a thermometer.

In the summer of 2014, on the instructions of the chef and co-owner of the Delicatessen and Yunost restaurants, Ivan Shishkin, Petya Pavlovich went to study at the American Butcher School in New York. Since then, in the kitchen of the Yunost cafe, he cuts meat, prepares ribs and steaks, and from the rest he prepares pastrami, roast beef, sausages, smoked ham and jerky. Since March 2016, Petya has been running a funny and smart blog

- This is a dish that does not require accompaniment. Juicy marbled meat, properly cooked, seasoned with salt and pepper, delicious in itself. But, if you want to make a side dish or sauce for it, T-Bone has some ideas for you, what to serve steak with.

What to serve steak with?

To figure out what to serve steak with, the first step is to determine which category the meat belongs to. If you choose a lean cut (eg. fillet steak mignon), then the side dish and sauce can be quite fatty and rich. And if you decide to cook, for example, Ribeye, then it is better to prepare a side dish from vegetables, serving the dish with light sauce. Fatty meat for steaks is served with sauces in which sourness or pepper predominates - they make the taste more harmonious. Second important nuance- This preliminary preparation meat. If you marinate the cut in aromatic herbs, you should add the same herbs to the sauce. If you use berries, the sauce for the meat should be berry. If you use any special ingredient for marinating, for example, soy or soy, add it to the side dish. This will help make the taste of the dish more complete.
Well, the last nuance, on which it depends, what to serve steak with, is a method of cooking meat. Meat cooked in the oven is best combined with creamy textures - puree or dip sauce. Steak cooked in a frying pan can be served with “crispy” ingredients - fresh salad or asparagus. And grilled beef goes well with slightly poached vegetables that are soft and crunchy at the same time. for every taste you can by placing an order on the T-Bone website.

What to serve steak with: option No. 1

Don't know what to serve your steak with? Feel free to cook the potatoes and hot cheese sauce. This side dish and sauce are perfect for both baked meat and grilled steaks. This is a universal addition that goes well with both lean and fairly fatty meats.
Small tubers new potatoes should be thoroughly washed and placed on foil squares. Sprinkle with salt, ground pepper, thyme leaves and drizzle with olive oil. Wrap each potato in foil and bake at 180°C until soft, or bake in coals. For spicy cheese sauce Remove the seeds from the chili pepper and finely chop it, chop the cilantro, and pass the garlic through a press. Mash the feta cheese with a fork, add olive oil, salt, ground pepper and prepared ingredients. The sauce should sit for at least 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

What to serve steak with: option No. 2

What to serve with grilled steak? If you're a fan of the combination of rich beef flavor and fruit, be sure to check out this recipe from T-Bone. Peaches should be pitted and cut into slices. Pat the fruit dry, drizzle lightly with olive oil, and grill until streaky, about 1 to 1.5 minutes per side. For the sauce, mix honey, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, ground pepper, garlic passed through a press and a whole sprig of rosemary. Before this, rosemary should be rubbed between your palms to intensify the aroma. Let the sauce sit for at least 2 hours and serve after removing the rosemary.

What to serve steak with: option No. 3

What to serve steak with so as not to spend a lot of time cooking? The simplest and most versatile option is vegetables. We suggest adding a little spice to them in the form of orange juice and mustard seeds. This addition goes great with any steak cooked in a pan. New potatoes should be cut into halves without peeling and boiled together with broccoli in salted boiling water for 6-8 minutes. After this, dry the vegetables, and pour freshly squeezed orange juice into the saucepan along with orange zest. Add honey, pressed garlic, mustard seeds and cook over low heat for 2 minutes. Then add the yellow bell peppers, seeded and cut into strips, and cook for another 5 minutes, stirring. Serve steak with vegetables, baste spicy sauce. Bon appetit!

1. Take only beef

Just in case, we remind you: only beef has the right to be called a steak. No pork, lamb or especially chicken! This is the fundamental point.

2. Decide in advance what kind of steak you want.

If you think that “a steak is a steak”, you are wrong. There are about a dozen types of this fried meat. In principle, they can be divided into three groups:

• Marbled steaks. Prepared from the so-called marbled meat: tender, soft, streaked with fat parts of the back and fillet (thin and thick edge). This type of steak includes the popular ribeye and striploin.

• Lean steaks. Prepared from tenderloin. They are also distinguished by their tenderness, but due to the smaller amount of fat they are slightly less caloric. These include, for example, filet mignon and chateaubriand.
• Alternative steaks. Prepared from other parts beef carcass: shoulder blades, flanks and so on. These steaks are less fatty and tender, rarely have the correct shape and may contain tendons. They are more suitable for lovers of “real” meat that you can tear with your teeth... This type of steak includes flank, scart, top blade, and so on.

Only after deciding which flavors and nutritional characteristics you need it, go get some meat.

3. Don't just buy beef pulp.

Let us partially repeat the previous point. The rules are strict: to get exactly the steak you want, you need to choose meat from very specific ones. Skirt steak is always flank steak. Top blade - spatula. Ribeye and striploin - back and sirloin. Filet mignon is prepared only from the most tender tenderloin- and from nothing else!

4. Don't be clever

If you are not an expert in choosing and preparing meat, it is better to limit yourself to the classic, most popular and easiest to prepare types of steaks - marbled (ribeye) and lean (filet mignon). The premium parts of the carcass from which they are prepared will be quite edible, including inexpensive meat.

But alternative steaks will only be tasty if they are prepared from truly good, aged meat from a grain-fed beef bull.

5. Check the quality of meat before purchasing

Meat for a rib-eye steak should be soft and marbled, that is, with visible streaks of fat.

The quality of meat for filet mignon can be checked as follows. Press the tenderloin firmly with your finger: it should give in easily, but as soon as you remove your finger, it will quickly return to its previous shape.

We won’t talk about the quality of meat for other types of steaks now: it’s difficult for a non-professional to determine the necessary characteristics, so it’s better to stick to the classics.

6. Frozen meat is allowed

But it is important to take it only from trusted sellers, so as not to run into a “second-fresh product” or the wrong part of the carcass.

Please note that this option will require proper defrosting. Never defrost meat in the microwave or in the sun: a jump in temperature will lead to the loss of precious juice, and this will worsen taste characteristics future steak.

About a day before you plan to fry, remove the beef from freezer into the main compartment of the refrigerator. This way the meat will become soft, but will not lose its juiciness.

In general, you don’t have to defrost the meat at all.

How to prepare meat for frying

5. Dry the meat thoroughly

Before frying, pat the meat dry with a paper towel to remove any excess moisture from the surface. If you don't get rid of the liquid, the steak in the pan will cook rather than fry.

To ensure that moisture is removed, you can sprinkle cornstarch on the raw meat.

And a way for perfectionists. Take a disposable foil pan, pierce it in several places with wooden skewers (so that you get something like a lattice inside the mold) and place the meat wrapped in a paper napkin on this lattice. Let it sit in the refrigerator for about 24 hours. Perfect surface dryness is guaranteed.

However, if you have a wire rack, you can do without skewers.

Let it lie in the air for at least 20–30 minutes. During this time, the meat will weather around the edges and be covered with a light crust, which, when frying, will allow the juice to be retained inside the piece.

7. Do not add salt or pepper!

If you salt the steak while frying, meat juices penetrate outside. As a result, you will end up with a piece that is tougher than it otherwise would be.

Let’s make a remark here: many people neglect this recommendation because they prefer just this, slightly tougher type of meat. Experiment. In this case, you can rely on your own taste sensations.

If we are talking about alternative steaks, then you should either marinate them, or salt and pepper them and brush them with olive oil before frying.

What else should you do before frying the steak?

1. Choose the right pan

The ideal choice is a grill pan or regular frying pan with a thick bottom (cast iron would be nice). The thick bottom of the pan ensures that after heating it will maintain the temperature at the same level for a long time.

If the pan has a thin bottom, it cools down quickly. This means that the meat is not fried, but rather boiled in its own juices.

2. Think about your choice of oil

Butter adds fat (softness) and flavor to the meat. Which one would you like? Some recommend frying in olive oil, adding a little butter towards the end.

Others advise Food Tips: How to Cook the Perfect Steak exotic - liquid peanut butter: it has a mild aroma that will give the steak tenderness and originality.

However, if you are preparing a ribeye or other marbled steak, additional fat content is not necessary. It's up to you, but approach this moment consciously.

Another important point- boiling point (smoke point) of the oil Smoke point. If the fat smokes, it will give the steak an unpleasant taste. Therefore, it makes sense to choose for frying vegetable oils, boiling at elevated temperatures.

For example, unrefined sunflower and linseed oil Not suitable for cooking steaks. They begin to smoke already at 107 °C, while the temperature of a well-heated frying pan is 150 °C and higher. Olive oil first pressing (extra virgin) and unrefined peanuts are tolerated up to 160 °C. Creamy, coconut, unrefined sesame do not smoke up to 170 °C.

Excellent options are refined sunflower and avocado oil: they begin to smoke after 200 °C.

3. Get a thermal needle or learn to do without it

The degree of doneness of a steak is determined by the temperature inside the piece of meat. The easiest way to measure it is with a needle thermometer.

Common degrees of doneness look like this:

• 38 °C and above - raw / blue (steak with blood);
• 48 °C and above - rare (very lightly fried);
• 52 °C and above - medium rare (low-roasted);
• 58 °C and above - medium (normally fried);
• 63 °C and above - medium well (well-done);
• from 74 °C - well done (very well fried).

If you don’t have a needle at hand, you can roughly determine the level of doneness by pressing the meat with your finger.

Blue and rare steaks feel the same as the muscle tissue at the base of the thumb: press it with the index finger of your other hand and feel the softness.

If you squeeze the tips of your thumb and index finger, the muscle will tense and the base of your thumb will resemble a medium rare steak. Large and medium - medium. Large and nameless - medium well.

Well, having connected thumb and little finger, you will feel approximately the same pressure as when pressing a well done steak.

1. Pre-cook the steak in the oven.

This technique How-To Reverse Sear A Steak will allow you to get the most even roasting without gray, overcooked meat around the edges.

Place the steak on a baking sheet and bake at 90–95 °C for 30–60 minutes, depending on how well done you want the steak to be.

If you want a rare steak, then the episode with pre-roasting You can put it in the oven.

By the way, in a similar way you can restore the taste of an already cooked, but cooled and resting steak. Place it in the oven at 120°C for about 30 minutes and then fry it in a frying pan on both sides to bring back the crispiness.

2. Heat the pan

Let it sit on high heat for at least 8-10 minutes. Better - more. The chef of the Alinea restaurant in Chicago, for example, recommends 12 Unexpected (But Totally Legit) Tricks For Making The Best Steak heat cast iron frying pan within half an hour!

Then add the oil, wait a few more minutes until it warms up, and only then add the steak.

3. Grill steak at high temperature

1.5–2 minutes, depending on the desired crust color, on each side. During frying, the protein - primarily on the surface of a piece of meat - curls up and turns into a kind of film that blocks the release of liquid. This means that it is fried on high fire steak will remain juicy inside.

Only then reduce the heat to low, cover the meat with a lid and let stand for another 1–5 minutes, depending on the desired degree of doneness. This recommendation applies to steaks made from fatty and juicy marbled meat.

Check readiness with a thermal needle or your finger. You should not cut or pierce the steak with a knife: juice will leak out of the meat.

If we are talking about leaner sirloin steaks, the technology will have nuances. Fry the steak thoroughly on both sides until golden crust, add a little more oil (for example, butter) to the pan, and also, if desired, your favorite spices (the same garlic) and herbs (rosemary, lavender, thyme, sage...). Reduce the temperature to medium and continue to fry the meat on both sides, basting it with the released juices. This will ensure the steak is cooked properly.

4. Bring to desired degree of doneness in the oven.

In a covered frying pan, steaks are perfectly cooked at a level of doneness up to medium rare. If you want a truly cooked steak, place it in an oven preheated to 180°C immediately after frying it on all sides in oil.

The length of time the meat spends in the oven depends on the desired level of doneness:

• medium rare - 4 minutes is enough;
• medium - 7 minutes;
• medium well - 10 minutes;
• well done - 14 minutes.

How and with what to serve steak

1. Let the steak rest for 3-5 minutes.

At high temperatures, the top layers of meat shrink, locking the juices inside. If you cut the steak right away, the juices will simply run out onto the plate. Wait up to 5 minutes: this is enough for the top layers of meat to expand and also become saturated with juice.

2. Serve hot!

This is one of the basic rules for serving steak. In this case, the meat is independent dish, simple and clear. For its flavor to be fully revealed, the steak must be hot.

3. For fatty, juicy steaks, choose minimal spices.

On the same ribeye, just put a sprig of rosemary or a clove of garlic: the hot meat will quickly absorb the flavor. Also, the taste characteristics of the steak are well emphasized by parsley, thyme, and cilantro.

4. Lean steaks need sauce.

The tenderloin from which filet mignon is prepared is very tender meat that literally melts in your mouth. But at the same time, it is rather tasteless, and therefore this steak is always served with sauce.

5. The best side dish is vegetables

Fresh or grilled. This perfect option side dish for steak from the point of view of proper nutrition.