How to Make a Perfect Steak (pan-fried)

If you can make a perfect steak at home, it is a huge intangible asset. But, not many own the recipe. But, now that we have learned how to develop flavors in our previous blog (http://happycookingwithkumi.blogspot.kr/2015/09/how-to-be-good-cook-overnight.html), we can make a perfect steak.

Keys to making a perfect steak involve:

1) the surface of beef has to be seared at 120-180 degrees. The browner the surface gets, the more flavors the steak will have. However, it shouldn't be cooked over 200 degrees, at which undesirable tastes and health risks will start to develop. This requires your pan to be hot but not too hot.

2) the inside of beef should be tender and moist. The center of the meat should exceed a certain temperature (e.g. 50 degrees for raw).

It looks complicated? Not at all. Just follow instructions below.

1. Bring out a NON non-stick pan. If you don't have one, use your stainless steel pot.

This is more than half a recipe. You can NEVER make a good steak on a non-stick pan.

• First, there is a non-stick material coated on the pan and this makes the ingredients float on a pan - of course, this is a whole point of not-sticking to a pan. As there is no direct contact with a metal, the browning doesn't take place immediately.

• Second, you need to preheat the pan before placing meat, right? However, manufacturers specifically tell you not to. Non-stick pans are originally designed to fry eggs and etc, not meant to be heated to a high temperature. The non-stick material (PTFE) starts to generate gas at a high temperature. Don't have a bird around you when using a non-stick pan. It will die. Birds are reported to die even at 205 degrees. In other words, you kitchen is now as dangerous as a mine.

Do not use a pan with grill marks. Most likely, the areas with grill marks will get browned and the rest doesn't get browning and eventually flavors are left undeveloped.

2. Season beef with salt and pepper. Be generous about salt. Some chefs recommend not to use pepper at this stage as pepper flakes tend to get burned on the pan, which I find very sensible recommendation. But, I still like pepper flakes at this.


2. Preheat the pan at medium heat (it depends on your gas stove) for 2.5 minutes. Add oil on the pan. Wait until oil starts to smoke. This is 250 degrees (I use grapeseed oil) - the total preheating time will be around 3 minutes. If you preheat the pan more than 3 minutes, the steak might turn black.

3. Place meat on the pan.

4. Flip the meat after 30 seconds.

5. Brown the each side after 30 seconds.

6. Flip the meat every 30 seconds.

A long time ago, we had to flip meat only once during the cooking. Otherwise, someone would yell. But, not any more.

Let's say you want your steak medium, you will get only the center of the meat medium with the rest being well-done, if you flip it only once. By flipping every 30 seconds, we can get most of the inside medium, with only the surface well-done.


7. Use your watch to determine the doneness.

In this case, the traditional way of using your fingers to determine whether it is raw, medium or well-done doesn't work. It keeps giving you a raw signal until it gets completely well-done.

• Raw:             6.5 minutes
• Medium:       8.5 minutes
• Well-done:    9.5 minutes

 Based on a steak with a 1.5 inch thickness.

8. You don't need butter to add flavors if you follow the instructions above. Some TV chefs recommend to add butter. In fact, they do this at their restaurants as they use non-stick pans and their steaks lack flavors. But, we don't have to as we develop most of flavors. In case you want your steak well-done, you may want some butter.

9. Rest the steak for 5 minutes.