Getting a steak ‘wrong’ was an offence punishable by death in the restaurant I worked in many years ago.

OK…….so when I say death what I mean actually mean is not exactly death…but the kitchen equivalent – a serious kick in the arse, the cold shoulder for the remainder of the shift and your kitchen mates ‘dumping you in the sh*t’  for the entire service (this means drowning you in dockets and lending zero help). Unless you’ve worked a professional kitchen this  ‘death’ will be hard to fully appreciate – but believe me I watched grown men crack and burn and run screaming like 12 year old school girls from that kitchen (no slur intended on 12 year old school girls)…………………..

This attitude was burned into me then and burns fiercely to this day…maybe even more so. I stopped opting for steak a long time ago because of the litany of disappointments,  a lot of places just could not get it right and I have been on the brink of murder on more than one occasion. So, I decided it  would be best if I left chance of the menu and steered away from steak as an option- rolling the dice for a 50/50 on  delight or a 25 to life stretch is not a viable dining experience for me.

So I thought I would share this method with you as I stand by it with blood on my hands………..this is the single greatest way to prepare steak and that’s a big dam claim…..

What you need:

Steak preference – Rib eye

Hang time – no more that 35 days max or 21 days minimum (sweet spot is 28)

Marinade for 2 fat ribs eyes:

75 mls Olive oil

4 tbs  light Soy sauce

1 tbs fresh cracked black pepper

Salt flakes

Real butter

How you do it:

Mix up the marinade ingredients (olive oil, soy sauce and cracked pepper) which the steaks will sit in for a good few hours before cooking – do not add any salt at this stage. Eagle eyes will argue that the soy is in fact sodium and will have the same affect as salt….well not quite. Soy has no where near the same moisture sapping qualities as salt nor will it Asian-afy your steak – even if that sounds counter-intuitive. Basically…trust me on this.

Add the steaks to the marinade and coat well, cling and leave in the fridge over night or for a good 4-5 hours.

Cooking:

Get your widest frying pan on the heat and get it screaming hot – do not add any oil this, pan should be dry as a bone.

Get the steaks out of the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking and make sure the hit room temperature. Remove the steaks from the marinade, let excess marinade drain off a little and season well with salt flakes and lay them flat on the screaming hot pan – do not touch them.  As the steaks fry on one side add in a big knob of butter  – it will froth, spit and turn brown – this is what will give you steaks a deep dark mahogany colour.

After about 2 minutes flip the steaks and make sure the browned butter gets all over them, cook out on the other side.

Cooking  times:

This is impossible to teach on a blog post- -thickness of steak, heat etc all are variables so my advice is this:

1. Watch the steak change colour on its sides

2. Cut a nick into the steak and just look at it

3. Use the thumb and finger method

RARE:

 

MEDIUM

 

MEDIUM WELL

 

FORGET ABOUT IT

Cooking a steak past medium should see you locked up – but hey, each to their own if you do cook to well then make sure you do it with Supermarket meat…..

I don’t subscribe to letting ‘steak’ rest – it’s not big enough to need it (unless you are working with a  cut like Cote De Boeuf- just get it on the plate and carve into it.