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Tips to make the perfect steak

For many of us, steak is a rare treat. Generally, it’s best to leave it to the experts to ensure it is cooked and flavoured to perfection. However, with the technology available to us today, it’s easier than ever to produce a high end restaurant quality steak in the comfort of our own homes. With the help of google we can easily find tasty steak recipes, cooking utensils and other appliances to help with the cooking process of Steak.

We have put together some of our top tips to make the perfect steak at home. In this article we will be discussing all things steak such as the best cuts of beef, the best ways to cook it and the unique methods you can use to alter the flavour of your Steak.

Top tips:

  • Find a good butcher

Finding a good quality butcher is a key part of ensuring that your steak is nice and tender. The bottom line is that the higher quality the meat, the better it will taste. Often, when it comes to meat, you get what you pay for.

  • Choose the right cut

There are 3 main cuts of steak we like are, the fillet, sirloin and ribeye. The cost of each cut can vary significantly and it really depends on the desired taste you want from your steak. If you are looking for a really flavourful cut, we suggest going for a ribeye. This cut comes with rich marbling which creates a superior taste when cooked. The cut itself as the name suggests comes from the rib section, hence ‘ribeye’. The fillet is the leanest and most tender and lower in fat making it a prized cut. Sirloin on the other hand has a thin layer of fat running across the top of the steak which offers some great flavours. 

  • Choose dry aged meat over wet aged meat

You may or may not know the difference between dry aging and wet aging, but it truly does make a huge difference to the taste and texture of your meat. Wet aging is the process of preserving meat and specifically steaks, often used by supermarkets. During the wet aging process, the meat is packed into a vacuum sealed bag with no oxygen during the aging period. The beef then ages using its natural juices. Dry aging on the other hand is a controlled process that involves aging the steak using the right time, temperature and humidity to produce unique flavours from your meat without spoiling it. Dry aging is usually much more expensive, however the results are amazing and definitely worth it.

Dry aged steaks are only usually found at more high end restaurants and come at a cost due to the fact that they lose a lot of weight through the dry aging process. Fortunately, there are now dry aging fridges available to buy so you can dry age your steak and other produce all from the comfort of your own home for a more cost effective rate. One dry age fridge company that we recommend is Steak Locker who have designed and produced the world’s only SMART dry aging fridge that does all the hard work for you. It uses smart technology to constantly monitor your steak to prevent spoilage, it also comes with its own app so you can keep an eye on the progress yourself. 

  • Less is more

When it comes to flavouring, unlike chicken and pork, steak is brimming with delicious flavours that melt in the mouth. We think that less is more when you want to season your steak. If you are going to add anything to your steak, we recommend only using the following: 

  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Rosemary
  • Garlic
  • Butter

If you are using a dry aged steak you really don’t have to worry about seasoning at all because the dry aging process creates such intense and unique flavours on its own. Some flavours you can expect from dry aged steak include nutty, umami flavours and even funky bold blue cheese notes. Ultimately, the flavour you get from your steak depends on how long you leave it to dry age. The longer you dry age your steak, the more intense the flavour will be. 

  • Know how you want your steak to be cooked

When it comes to cooking steak there really are no second chances. If you leave your steak on the heat for even a minute too long it may be much more overcooked than you might have liked. It’s also important to remember that steaks continue to cook after you’ve removed them from the heat. Fortunately there is a simple way to check how your steak is coming along without a thermometer or without cutting into your steak.

  • To see if your steak is raw, feel the palm of your hand just below your thumb. It should feel a little soft and fleshy. If your steak feels like this then it means it is blue.
  • To see if your steak is rare, now move your thumb to touch your pointer finger, feeling the same area of your palm again, this time it should feel slightly firmer. This is how a rare steak should feel.
  • To identify if your steak is medium rare, touch your thumb to your middle finger. The section of your palm you were touching should feel even tenser. This is what a medium-rare steak should feel like to touch.
  • To find out if your steak is medium. Move your thumb to your ring finger. The pal may now feel flexed. This firmness replicates the firmness of a steak cooked medium.
  • Finally, to see if your steak is well done, touch your thumb to your pinky finger. This is what a well done steak should feel like, very firm. 

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