Steak cooking advice

[Hairybudda]

Imma just come hop in now.
I've done many things to a a beautiful piece of meat to become a steak.

I don't season the steak at all until near the end or at the very end, pinch of salt and pepper to finish it, flat pan frying it with a few tsp of oil (olive oil isn't in my great favor since it adds an additional taste).

a steak will take longer to cook with more blood right? so if i had a big chunka meat, i slap it in a bowl of water for the night in the fridge and take it out, pat it dry and proceed the usual. I found this sometimes able to make it softer too! (less blood = less cooking time = less leather like)

but hey, that's my verdict

Personally I'd avoid oiling your pan with olive oil (extra virgin especially), you need to have a fierce hot pan to sear a steak properly so you get a good crust and olive oil has quite a low smoking point which means the oil is burning and going to taste all nasty and bitter. Your best bet is probably canola or sunflower oil for a steak.

You won't have blood in your steak unless you're buying it right after its been cut off the animal, a good steak will have been hung for at least 21 days and will have next to no blood in the inside of the steak, the hanging process gets rid of moisture inside the steak too (something like in the region of 15% of the weight of the meat will go over the hanging process).

On the contrary one day in the fridge uncovered will be much better for your steak ('ghetto' dry cure, removes a bit more moisture from the steak) than soaking it water, which will only serve to draw out nutritional value from the steak as well as waterlogging it which will hamper your ability to cook it properly (harder to bring it to internal temp which will break down fat, protein and connective tissue within the steak, which is pure flavour).

 

[Davepen]

The salting method is more to turn a mediocre piece of meat into a tastier steak, as mentioned if using quality meat its not required.

To prep my steak I just use abit of crushed garlic, little butter and whack in a very hot pan

 

[Liquid_Entity]

just give it to me straight out the packet, sod all this cooking malarky !!

 

[Participant]

The salting method is more to turn a mediocre piece of meat into a tastier steak, as mentioned if using quality meat its not required.

To prep my steak I just use abit of crushed garlic, little butter and whack in a very hot pan

Clarified butter (ghee if you want it ready made from Tesco) is good for this, as the milk solids in normal butter burn and cause the pan to start smoking very quickly. I've started cooking with clarified butter a lot...not healthy but good flavours!

 

[oli collett]

The salting method is more to turn a mediocre piece of meat into a tastier steak, as mentioned if using quality meat its not required.

To prep my steak I just use abit of crushed garlic, little butter and whack in a very hot pan

It's not required either way, but even a top notch steak will benefit from the way it seasons the meat