"Baking" A Steak

40 - 45 mins in the oven, wrapped in foil, at 160C.

That's not well done - it's ruined.

You could consider 40-45 minutes at about 65°C. That might give you a medium steak. It's also wasted electricity as it will be OK to eat much sooner.
 
Okay the verdict is... qualified success.

40 - 45 minutes at 160C was a bit too long and although the steaks were nicely cooked through and tender, they had dried out a tad. Very tasty though and, most important of all, no burnt meat, no smell of burnt flesh during the cooking etc.

If I do that way again I will reduce the oven time by about a third and drop the temperature by 10 - 15C.

Also don't forget this is Tesco "rump" steak, so could well be braising steak that's been whacked a couple of times with a mallet.

However, served with some lightly fried onions/mushrooms, new potatoes and fresh broccoli, followed by strawberries and blueberries with fresh yoghurt, not bad for a birthday dinner. (Though those fried onions will have consequences later :o ).
 
Well without a meat themometer (best way to do steaks is with one but you can do it by feel, almost as good).

Salt the steak the morning before cooking and leave on the counter top all day - you want it to

A. Come up to room temp

B. Draw out moisture and then reabsorb it (known as dry brining)

Next you heat up a griddle pan or heavy frying pan as hot as possible - 10 minutes on full whack should be enough. Give the steaks a a minute and a half to two minutes on each side for that thickness. Don't flip more than once - you want to develop the nice caramelized lines on the outside.

Then baste with melted butter, melted butter for days, coat them in in for 30 seconds spooning it over and transfer to a baking tray.

Put them in the oven for about 5 minutes or so at 60 degrees. What you're looking for is just a bit of give in the steak when pressed, like it shouldn't spring back straight away. Or if you have a meat thermometer and internal temp of 51 degrees (it will rise to 56 over the next few minutes while it is resting).

Bring the steaks out of the oven and allow them to rest for a minute before plating.



that is how I do it, although sometimes don't have time to salt all day.
 
Okay the verdict is... qualified success.

40 - 45 minutes at 160C was a bit too long and although the steaks were nicely cooked through and tender, they had dried out a tad. Very tasty though and, most important of all, no burnt meat, no smell of burnt flesh during the cooking etc.

If I do that way again I will reduce the oven time by about a third and drop the temperature by 10 - 15C.

Also don't forget this is Tesco "rump" steak, so could well be braising steak that's been whacked a couple of times with a mallet.

However, served with some lightly fried onions/mushrooms, new potatoes and fresh broccoli, followed by strawberries and blueberries with fresh yoghurt, not bad for a birthday dinner. (Though those fried onions will have consequences later :o ).

I cooked a couple of sirloins this evening. I gave them 2 and a half minutes each side in pan, then oven for 5 minutes.

The steaks were quite nice but they were overdone. They were medium-well at best; more on the slightly well done side. I don't understand how your steak wasn't absolutely terrible after having 45 minutes in the oven.
If you were in a restaurant, how would you ask for your steak?

Either way, each to their own and I'm glad you enjoyed it. :)
 
Sounds more like an unqualified failure than a qualified success vern :p.

I was putting a brave face on it...

Next time I will revert to using the fan grill in the oven. In fact SWMBO is demanding a "proper" steak, ASAP.

The onions and mushrooms were bloomin' good though (and surprisingly not too many after effects).
 
Next time you could try boiling them for 25 minutes, should keep them moist and zero burnt taste or flavour :p
 
I cooked a thick 900g porterhouse in my combi oven last night - I was quite impressed with the results. Went over it with a blowtorch to get a bit more browning. Think it was in the oven for around 15mins at 175C on the fan-grill mode. 160C for 45mins sounds a crazy length of time given this steak would have been at least double the size!
 
I cooked a couple of sirloins this evening. I gave them 2 and a half minutes each side in pan, then oven for 5 minutes.

For a standard 1 cm thick supermarket steak, 2.5 mins each side is all you need before putting them to rest.
 
I was putting a brave face on it...

Next time I will revert to using the fan grill in the oven. In fact SWMBO is demanding a "proper" steak, ASAP.

So how long was it before SWMBO let you know what she really thought of the steak?

Actually - you'd do well cooking for my mum or sister. They keep complementing each others' cooking of meat saying it was 'tasty' - by which they seem to mean tender but bland.
 
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All the South African hate in this thread makes me sad. I'm South African and for whatever reason monkeyspank jumped on me in the BBQ thread for even mentioning a braai. It is no different to a BBQ but is just the SA term and what we're used to. I think I've made some fairly decent contributions to the BBQ thread on here and I've never said to anyone that just because I'm South African means I know best. I've followed advice and tips from many in the BBQ thread already.

Anyway, I normally cook my steak in a frying pan, about 2 - 4 minutes per side in butter, and then I finish it off in a hot oven for about 5 - 8 minutes depending on how I want the end result. Give that a try sometime. Also, some of the other suggestions in this thread are pretty good as well. I don't really know if I'd like to bake my steak for over an hour in the oven though. To me it sounds like a way to ruin a lovely piece of meat that ideally should be cooked very little and fairly quickly.
 
There isn't a hate. Other than the lets spam every thread with brain nonsense and only S.Africans know how to cook etc. It's pathetic and spam tastic and no one cares.
 
All the South African hate in this thread makes me sad. I'm South African and for whatever reason monkeyspank jumped on me in the BBQ thread for even mentioning a braai. It is no different to a BBQ but is just the SA term and what we're used to. I think I've made some fairly decent contributions to the BBQ thread on here and I've never said to anyone that just because I'm South African means I know best. I've followed advice and tips from many in the BBQ thread already.

Anyway, I normally cook my steak in a frying pan, about 2 - 4 minutes per side in butter, and then I finish it off in a hot oven for about 5 - 8 minutes depending on how I want the end result. Give that a try sometime. Also, some of the other suggestions in this thread are pretty good as well. I don't really know if I'd like to bake my steak for over an hour in the oven though. To me it sounds like a way to ruin a lovely piece of meat that ideally should be cooked very little and fairly quickly.

There's not South African hate (in this thread) - there's hate for someone that has come across as extremely obnoxious and completely up themselves about certain aspects of cooking (not you, I would like to add). There's nothing wrong with talking about your heritage and tbh I find the whole Braai stuff quite interesting.
 
there's hate for someone that has come across as extremely obnoxious and completely up themselves about certain aspects of cooking
Other than the lets spam every thread with brain nonsense and only S.Africans know how to cook etc. It's pathetic and spam tastic and no one cares.
Oh, DO get stuffed the pair of you!! :rolleyes:

You clearly missed the point of the post and the humour in it - Not my problem - and as for spamming EVERY thread, I guess you need to read more than just the one or two I actually did post in...!!
 
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