Rami's Recipe Book

Pan-Fried Steak

—

by

panda
in

Ingredients

Steak

  • A 1-2″ thick appropriate cut of steak
  • Coarse sea salt, about 1tsp / pound

For the Sauce

  • Chicken broth
  • A few tablespoons of wine or vinegar
  • Small bunch of fresh thyme, rosemary, or sage.  Or all three.
  • Several garlic cloves, crushed.
  • 2tbsp butter
  • Sliced mushrooms (optional)

Instructions

  1. Blot the steak with a paper towel, and pre-season with coarse salt just before cooking.
    1. I virtually never remember to do this, but ideally you would salt the steak an hour or more beforehand.  Moisture beads on the surface, then is reabsorbed with the salt, which helps break down the proteins in the meat, tenderizing and seasoning at the same time. (See myths below.) Blot to dry just before cooking.
  2. Get a cast iron pan nice and hot.  Place the steak in the pan.  It will sear nicely, and release when it’s ready. Flip.
    1. For medium rare, cook each side for around 5 minutes for a 1″ steak, adding 1 minute per half inch above that.
    2. Temperature is the best way to know when a steak is done.  Remove steaks about 5 degrees below target temp. (I remove mine at 125 for a perfect medium rare.)
      1. Rare is around 115 – 125.
      2. Medium Rare 125 – 135.
      3. Medium 135 – 145.
  3. About halfway through cooking the second side, pour the chicken broth in the pan, and add the wine.
  4. Toss in the herbs and the garlic.  Toss in some sliced mushrooms at this point too, if you like.
  5. Tilt the pan to pool the liquid and spoon over the cooking steaks.  Repeat often for the remaining cook time.
  6. When you hit the correct temperature, remove the steaks from the pan, cover with foil, and let rest for 10 minutes.
  7. While steaks are resting, deglaze any remaining bits in the pan, and reduce to desired thickness.
  8. Just before removing from the heat, toss in the butter, and cook for about 30s until melted and combined.  Serve with the steak.

Steak Myths:

  • Salting steak draws out moisture.  It does, but then it gets pulled back in.  You want the outside of the steak to be dry because then the heat energy from the pan can be used to sear the steak.  It takes a massive amount of energy to evaporate moisture, which wastes a lot of heat energy.
  • Steak needs to be brought out of the fridge and warmed to room temperature before cooking.  It would take a steak a significantly longer time to reach room temperature than the 30-60m usually recommended.  It will only raise a couple degrees, and it isn’t necessary anyway.
  • Poking (with a thermometer or fork) or cutting a steak will drain out its juices.  A steak is not a water balloon.  Some of the moisture in the direct area will be lost, but only a very small amount in the context of the entire steak.  A better comparison would be thousands of tiny balloons – breaking 10 or 20 isn’t going to make a big difference.
  • Searing seals in the moisture.  Nope.  Water passes through the surface proteins whether they’re folded (uncooked) or relaxed (cooked).  Just makes it taste good.  (Maillard reaction.)

 

 

TRY  THIS NEXT TIME:

https://www.brunoskitchen.net/blog/post/grilled-bone-in-rib-eye-steaks