A juicy, dry-aged steak is one of the most popular dinners enjoyed today – and yet cooking steak at home still makes a lot of people nervous. If you’re in the market for a few steak cooking tips, or perhaps want to recreate your favourite steakhouse dinner at home, this guide will help you cook the most popular cuts of steak, from butter-soft fillet to a beautifully marbled sirloin.
Wanting to cook a really thick steak, like a porterhouse, tomahawk or dictionary-thick prime rib? Click here for our Thick Steak Cooking Tips.
Or, looking for help picking from our more unusual cuts like onglet, bavette or flat iron? Click here for our tips on Choosing The Right Steak Cut For You.
Give the grill a miss unless you have a professional level salamander.
Unless you’re cooking a thin steak. Twenty minutes for 250-350g steaks, at least an hour for 1kg prime ribs or tomahawks.
You want to minimise moisture on the surface of the meat so that it sizzles rather than steams.
For the same reason as above, season just before it goes into the pan – if you season in advance, it’ll draw moisture to the surface.
Chef’s note: if you’re cooking a thick steak, you can choose to salt it 1-2 days in advance and then pat it dry before cooking – this is a process called dry brining. Salt the steak on all sides, place it onto a wire rack over a plate or tray, and refrigerate uncovered for 24 to 48 hours. This will make for a particularly fantastic crust and helps season such a large steak throughout.
If you want to get really nerdy, consider getting some kosher salt for cooking steak, for example Diamond Crystal brand. Its light structure means it can be crumbled finely, which means the meat gets great contact with the pan while being evenly seasoned. If you have flakey sea salt, consider grinding it briefly in a pestle and mortar before using – those flakes are ideal for seasoning after something is cooked, but can actually hold the meat away from the pan in small areas. Give the table salt a miss – it contains additives that can taint the flavour of your steak.
It’s a spice and means you won’t fully taste the lovely dry-aged meat, and if your pan is hot enough to cook a steak properly, it’s hot enough to burn the pepper and make it bitter.
Beef dripping/tallow is fantastic, but neutral, high smoke point oils such as rapeseed or avocado work well.
To use butter in steak cooking, you want to add it towards the end of cooking rather than at the beginning. It will give your steak a nutty flavour and ensure it is browned all over. Throw a generous knob of butter into the pan after the initial sear and when it foams, continually spoon the butter over the meat to baste.
At least five minutes for individual steaks, up to 15 minutes for thick prime ribs and tomahawks.
Just a tiny bit, to ensure everything is well seasoned.
If you use a meat thermometer, here are the temperatures to aim for – your steak will continue to cook while it rests so you may find these a couple of degrees lower than some guidelines.
To use a temperature probe, remove the steak from the pan briefly and pop it on a plate or tray, so that you’re taking the temperature of the meat and not the pan. Always insert the temperature probe into the centre of the thickest part of the meat so that you can the centre, not the edge.
One of the best tips for learning to cook steak is knowing that you can take it out of the pan every couple of minutes to check how ‘done’ it is – without harming the quality of the finished dish. This allows you to build up a sense of what the levels of ‘doneness’ feel like (what texture the meat is at different temperatures). The act of removing the steak from the pan can actually improve the final cook, as it stops the meat from overcooking while the pan returns to being very hot, meaning you get a beautiful, even cook and a brilliant dark crust. Just make sure that when it is in the pan, you leave it alone and let it cook rather than constantly moving it.
Rib eye has exploded in popularity over the last 10 years, overtaking sirloin to become our best selling steak cut. Composed of two muscles, a round ‘eye’ and a well-marbled ‘cap’, rib eye is famous for its rich, succulent texture and nugget of buttery fat in the centre. It is perhaps the most forgiving steak cut to cook at home, as the fat will ensure it remains tender and delicious even if you’ve (slightly) overcooked it.
Although some people will enjoy a very rare rib eye, its fat content means that it is at its best when cooked medium-rare, as this gives the fat a chance to render and caramelise ensuring a supremely succulent steak.
Get your pan extremely hot and add 1-2 tsp of oil or beef dripping. Season one side of your rib eye steaks, then place them seasoned side down in the pan and press them down with a spatula. Cook for two minutes, season the second side, flip the steaks over and cook for another two minutes. Remove the steaks from the pan and let the pan heat up again – temperature probe your steak at this point to see how much more cooking you need. Return the steak to the hot pan, cook for 1-2 more minutes either side and then check the temperature again. When the steak is cooked to your liking, place it on a warm plate to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
While ribeye has a marbled cap and a nugget of fat, sirloin typically has some marbling throughout the eye of meat. It is a single muscle with a covering of fat along one side, and tends to have a more pronounced ‘beefy’ flavour than rib eye.
Sirloin is a fantastic crowd pleaser that will delight most steak eaters whether they prefer fattier cuts or not; the marbling across the meat will render in the pan to become juicy and succulent, and those who don’t like the fat along the edge can simply leave it on the plate.
Sirloin can be enjoyed at almost any cuisson from blue to medium-well. The one thing we’d recommend is spending a bit of time rendering the fat along the side, as this makes it more enjoyable for those who like to eat it.
Get your pan medium-hot. Carefully, using tongs, hold your sirloin steaks fat side down on the surface of the pan to render and slightly caramelise the fat. Remove the steaks from the pan and let the pan get really hot – add 1-2 tsp beef dripping/tallow or oil if more fat is needed to lightly coat the bottom of the pan
Season one side of the sirloins then place them seasoned side down in the hot pan and let them cook for 1-2 minutes. Season the second side, flip and cook again. Remove the steaks from the pan and let the pan heat up again; temperature probe your steak at this point to see how much more cooking you need. Return the steak to the hot pan – with a generous knob of butter if you like – and cook for 1-2 more minutes either side, and then check the temperature again. If using butter, let it foam and then keep spooning it over the steaks. When cooked to your liking, place the steaks on a warm plate to rest for 5-10 minutes before serving.
While other steaks may have a deeper, beefier flavour, fillet is loved for its silky, butter-soft texture, neat shape and lean composition. Its delicate flavour makes it perfect for rare carpaccio dishes, steak tartare or drizzled in a Japanese-style soy and ginger dressing, but it can hold its own in a steak dinner too – especially if paired with a dollop of roast bone marrow.
To enjoy it at its refined best, we’d recommend a fast sear while leaving the centre beautifully pink – and a butter basting technique is particularly welcome to give it a nutty taste.
Get your pan very hot and add 1-2 tsp of beef tallow or neutral, high smoked point oil. Have ready a few cubes of chilled butter, 2 sprigs of thyme and 1-2 cloves of garlic, cut in half. Season the fillet steak just before it goes into the pan and then sear it on one side for a minute. Turn the steak over and add the butter and aromatics. When the butter is foaming, spoon it over the steak to create a lovely brown crust – you’ll need to turn the steak over occasionally to get an even cook throughout the meat. The total cook time is around 4-5 minutes – take the meat out of the pan to check the temperature.
Once cooked, let the steak rest for 5 minutes before serving with a sprinkle of sea salt and a drizzle of browned butter pan juices.
