How To Cook A Perfect Steak At Home _ Bon Appétit

You see , you get that deeply caramelized crust all over the stick and then that perfect medium American Center .

I'm gonna show you how to make my version of the perfect stick .

My perfect steak happens on the stovetop in a really hot pan .

No kind of fancy gadgets , no cry , no seasoning and days in advance .

It's something that you all can do at home after you see this .

So the key to this uh method is choosing the right cut of meat .

There's something about the New York strip where it's well marbled , but it doesn't have a tremendous amount of fat like the rib eye .

Uh It also it's better portion size and I like the texture of it more .

So first thing I just want to pat the steak dry because water really is the enemy when it comes to getting a good caramelization .

Not only will it not get that kind of sear that we want , but mixing that water with the oil , it's gonna likely splatter .

Now I'm gonna let it rain with salt .

I prefer to use diamond crystal kosher salt just so I can see how much salt it really sits on the surface .

That gives you a good sense .

I want that salt so you can actually taste everything .

Salt is really the only thing that a cut of meat will absorb spices and pepper .

It's always gonna sit on the surface salt .

On the other hand , will actually properly absorb .

I'm going to do something that most people don't do .

And I'm just gonna lightly score this very lightly piercing the fat just allows it to quickly render a little bit faster .

I'm gonna let this chill in the fridge .

You wanna at least let it sit until you don't see any more salt on top .

You can see how it's already starting to dissolve .

I keep it uncovered so that the steak can dry out , preferably even on a wire rack , which I see right there , which now I'm thinking of using .

We're going in here .

Mhm .

My reason for going with a cast iron , it just reacts to eat so quickly and it gets hot faster than most other pans .

A black still also will do that .

You also have the entire surface of the meat having direct contact to the surface of the pan unlike a grill where it's only touching the grates .

I would not uh go with a non stick because I'm just never gonna get that kind of bark like deep crust that I'm going for .

We have our steak ready .

I'm going on medium high heat .

It's quite hot .

You see how it's smoking .

That's great .

I wanna rub a little bit of oil on the steak directly .

Not in the pan .

The reason why I'm using neutral oil versus , let's say an olive oil or a butter , butter has , um , the milk solids which will burn , uh , olive oil .

Uh , you don't really need that flavor in here in the steak .

Uh , also I wanna get a hard sear and I think it's better to do that with a neutral oil .

I'm just gonna put this steak away from me and I'm gonna press it down so you can use tons at this point .

You , it needs to hit a certain temperature in order for it to have the my reaction .

And that my reaction is that kind of dec caramelization of the meat hitting the pan .

That's why I go on medium high heat , high heat will tend to burn too quickly .

You'll notice that I'm just gonna be occasionally pressing on the meat so that it does have direct contact to the pan .

I could see around the edges that it's starting to brown .

What I tend to do is press on the steak occasionally and move the pan around just so that it is getting an even amount of heat .

So I try not to peak until I'm pretty sure I usually will go about 3 to 4 minutes .

Uh , on one side before I flip .

When I see a deep kind of caramelization , it's ready to flip .

So you'll see around the edges .

It's starting to brown this at the very bottom .

That's a good indicator .

I'm going to flip it now , I'm gonna throw some things into the pan .

I'm just adding a head of garlic and maybe a sprig of rosemary .

You could add any kind of hard or bay leaf thyme sage .

I'm gonna flip this and just start searing the edges .

That's kind of the forgotten part .

People just think to sear the kind of two sides , but you really want it to caramelize all over .

So what I'll do is about a minute per side .

You could see like compared to the grill , you're developing a fond the brown bits on the bottom and you can drain the fat out after the steak is done and make a pan sauce .

I'm gonna add my aromatics , my garlic head .

Let that sizzle a bit , my sprig of rosemary and then probably only need about three tablespoons of butter .

I'm gonna be using this fat to base and I want the flavor of the butter rather than the flavor of the oil .

Now , I'm gonna scoop my steak further away from me .

Let that butter melt .

You can see .

I'm just scooping up using a coon spoon , scraping up the fat that is rendered and pouring it over like that .

You're basically doing this infused almost brown butter , garlicky rosemary flavor from the steak .

I'm gonna remove the steak .

Now I'm gonna let the steak rest for at least 10 , 15 minutes .

Just so the juice is gonna redistribute if I were to slice it right now , so much of the juice is gonna release and not actually stay within the steak .

Done this indicators .

I use a thermo pen .

I'm looking for around 100 and 15 to 100 and 20 you just kind of go insert on the side of the steak and you just , it instantly gives you that 1 15 part .

If you just want a steak , uh , that's well seasoned and that's it , then you're good .

Just let it rest and slice it up .

I kind of want a little bit more than that .

Something her and acidic to go along with the fatty steak .

This is a very , very simple sauce .

It's kind of my go to .

So I have my chives all chopped up parsley just giving it a rough chop .

I just like the kind of texture you get .

I'm also gonna get some of the stems of the parsley .

It has a more concentrated grassy flavor that I like .

Dump that .

I'm gonna add a few squirts of oil , some salt .

I'm gonna give it a splash of the sherry vinegar and then add some very coarse pepper .

Lots of pepper .

I want pepper forward .

It's only gonna get better as it sits .

I could even add everything besides the vinegar an hour and ahead and then add the vinegar towards the end .

You don't wanna add the acid too early .

Otherwise the greens will start to darken and oxidize very bright .

Lots of texture , peppery herbie .

I don't want to press on it too much to extract the juices .

But you can see the grains , the lines of the steak , they're going across like this .

So I'm gonna be going against the grain .

If you went with the grain , you're gonna create a mouth feel that ends up becoming more chewy and less tender , right ?

So I'm just gonna start at the kind of lower end and I do this kind of little piece for myself here and then I go about half an inch and then I'm gonna season it with salt just for that added crunch and texture .

Sometimes I want a little bit more pepper .

That's how you make my steak , excuse the fussy plate .

And I don't think it's fussy .

You get that medium rare , beautiful kind of center really crunchy on the surface .

A really vinegary herbie sauce to go along with it .

Lots of black pepper and Alton on the stovetop .

All happens so quickly super tender .

The fat cap is still attached , but so much of it has rendered and it's become soft .

Now , if it was seared really hard and you didn't kind of score it at all , then it would have caught it harden a little bit and become more chewy , but it's come , it's almost creamy inside , perfectly seasoned , I think even again , just because this wasn't too big of a steak season .

It , even if it's just 20 minutes ahead , does a big difference until the steak fully absorbs the salt .

And I think also a thing to remember is that you don't want your steak to be , uh , sitting at room temp for a while before it hits the hot pan .

You want that really hot pan to get that sear and that crust on the outside .

But if your steak is sitting at room temp , it's gonna be kind of soft and like it's not retaining its shape , it's a little bit loose .

And so , uh , it's likely to overcook quickly .

I think I made my perfect steak .

Please .

Please don't be kind of going rogue on this .

There's not a lot of ingredients .

There's not a lot of steps .

So just try to like stick with it .

Don't be , send me photos if you're working on a non sick pack because that's not gonna work .

Please try this at home .

I promise you'll love it .

I just do that and I take , I started a fire alarm .

It's hot in here .