The Unforgiving Minute

There’s been no foodblogging in far too long. It’s time I did something about that.

So here’s TD’s recipe for the One True Steak. You won’t find any revolutionary new insights in the paragraphs ahead; instead it’s a synthesis of tips and techniques picked up from a variety of sources. It’s what I’ve found to WORK, more reliably and deliciously than any other method. Not only is it a sure-fire way of making an astonishingly good steak, it’s also cheap, easy and simple. Yes, really.

Let me start off by saying that in my world, steaks are filets. I have nothing against a good Porterhouse (which is about 1/3 tenderloin anyway) or strip steak, but when you can eat the very choicest cut with very little fuss and without breaking the bank, why eat anything else? Also, steaks are rare or blue rare, full stop. There are times when compromise and moderation are virtues, but this is not one of them. If you disagree, the “back” button is up at the top left of your browser window.

Now that the heretics and mental defectives are gone, here’s the whole process, from meat market to plate.

First, you want to buy a whole tenderloin and learn to trim it yourself. Buying “filet mignon” from the supermarket is a sucker’s game. Around here it goes for $18/lb, and about $12 of that is paying for the name. I get whole tenderloins for $5.50/lb and trim them up myself. If you don’t know how, watch Alton Brown’s “Good Eats” episode on tenderloin; it did a great job of explaining where and how to trim. Aside from the silverskin, there’s basically no waste; I use the chain meat and trimmings for stir-fry. Whatever won’t be eaten in a few days gets wrapped and frozen.

I like my steaks about 1 1/2″ thick, though there’s nothing wrong with 2″. Go thinner and heat management becomes a little trickier, and why would you want a thin steak anyway?

When you’re ready to cook, let the steak warm up to room temperature. A cold steak will need more time in the pan, and you’ll overshoot and end up with a medium or medium-well abomination. A wrap of prosciutto around the perimeter is optional, but a really nice touch.

Grab a 12″ cast-iron skillet, properly seasoned, and park it on top of your large burner at full heat for at least 5 minutes. You want that pan HOT, as hot as you can get it.

Thoroughly, and I mean thoroughly, pat down the steak. Get all the juice off of the surface. Water becomes steam when it hits the pan, and you want that steak seared, not steamed. Grey steak is not good steak. When you’ve got it as dry as you can, brush a very, very light coat of olive oil on the top and bottom.

The oiled steak goes down in the middle of the pan, still on full heat. Crack a window or turn on the exhaust fan, there’s gonna be a little smoke. Don’t worry about it. The magic number, on my stove with my skillet and my steaks, is 2 minutes and 15 seconds. YMMV. Flip it and cook for another 2:15 on the other side.

When the second side is done, the steak goes onto a plate and gets loosely covered with aluminum foil for 5 minutes to rest.

The finished product will look like this:

And when you cut it open you’ll see something like this:

That’s about $4 and 15 minutes of prep time. I really don’t think it’s possible to eat better for such a small investment of money, time and effort.