Tricks to cook the perfect steak
Rubs and garnishes, butters and oils aside; every steak master you know has something they think is a secret but is actually common in most of their arsenals. It doesn’t come bottled or packaged – if it did, it’d fly off the shelves because it’s a multipurpose gift and in short supply. In today’s article, Papa Earth is giving you the hottest tip in steak grilling and maybe just for life in general to achieve inner peace – it’s some good old-fashioned patience.
Practice and Patience
Yes – a searing hot flame or skillet or grill will cook your steaks to near perfection in just a matter of minutes…that’s one of our favourite things about steaks, right? It’s a mealtime all-star that we can have ready quickly allowing us to worry about the sides while they sear to our liking. It seems counterintuitive to wait long on a steak. We get it, and don’t mean to add any extra tedious steps to your dinner routine but we promise that practicing patience when it comes to steaks, is a lot easier than managing your road rage. Plus, it’s fitting for a star to show up fashionably late to their own dinner party.
Let it rest
What you can do is set the table nicely and grab the perfect wine pairing once you’re done cooking your steak while you let it sit. Don’t go hungry for too long, however. It only takes a few minutes to unlock this steak hack. The trick is not to eat your meat right after you’ve finished cooking it. As tempting as it might be, the juices actually seem to come back to life if you leave it covered on a plate for up to ten minutes post heat. What happens when you let your steak rest is that the inside continues to warm up while the outside slightly cools to meet the inner temperature. Though the outside might still be warmer than the inside, your steak will have a much more even temperature overall and you avoid any cooler bites that don’t seem to capture the flavouring of your top secret rubs as nicely as the outer layers. You’ll also notice that well-rested steaks won’t have as much leakage of the juices on to your plate as those fresh off the fire. All that goodness seals itself in and makes every bite that much more delicious. If you’re a fan of a rarer steak, don’t worry that your meat will be overcooked using this method – your meal will still be rare, just warmer than it would have been without the rest.
Let it get to room temperature first
Another time when it’s great to give your steak some space is before you cook it. If you’ve really mastered how you get your steaks just the way you like them straight from the fridge, then have at it (and email us those hacks as we’re sure there’s someone out there who’d benefit). But, if your sizzling could use some magic or you’re just looking for the best way to cook your steaks you should let your meat warm up to room temperature before putting it to heat.
Why? If you cook a steak from too cold, you’re likely to end up with an outside that looks great to the eye but the inside will run cold. If you’re like many people who slice in to a steak while it cooks to check the inside pinkness, you might not be happy with the inner colour until the outside is overdone. This is a sure-fire way to end up with a tough and chewy steak. The recommendation is to take your thoroughly defrosted meat out twenty minutes before you plan on cooking it. While it waits, that would be an excellent time to let it soak up your marinades and sauces for better impact.
Never use the microwave
Whether you heed our advice or not, one thing you shouldn’t do is defrost your beautiful steaks in the microwave or cook them from frozen. Microwaving can lead to a bit of a pre-cook of your steak and isn’t the best practice health wise for defrosting meat. While we might have an expert or two in our midst that can conjure steak magic from frozen, the drastic changes in the meats temperature from ice cold to scorching hot could cause steak fibers to rip, cook unevenly and not taste nearly as delicious as it could.
Pick and Order the best steaks
Another important factor to cook the perfect steak is to pick the steak you prefer. Striploin, Ribeye, T-Bone, Flat Iron, Prime Rib, just to name a few. It’s also important to know if you prefer marbled AAA Beef or grass-fed and grass-finished beef which tends to be leaner.
If you’re looking for the best steaks in a steak delivery box from Papa Earth, we recommend to try them all. Papa Earth is one of the best rated meat delivery options in Toronto, Ottawa, London and all of Ontario and Quebec. Depending on your taste buds you might discover a steak which you had never even heard of. An example of an underrated steak is the flat iron steak. It’s well marbled, tender and easy to grill or pan fry. A must try for every steak lover.