Making a really delicious steak often turns out to be a difficult task, not only at home, but also in restaurant conditions. However, if we take into account some important things, this operation will not be as difficult as we thought at first.
Cooking steak
The success of making a steak is already decided by the choice of beef, which may come as a surprise to many. The beef available in average Hungarian grocery stores, be it tenderloin or sirloin, often does not meet the requirements of steak making.
Therefore, if you’ve ever had a poor-quality steak on your table, it wasn’t necessarily the fault of your cooking technique. The first step in making the perfect steak is to get the right quality, aged beef.
This is so important that success largely depends on it. Although you may make some minor mistakes during cooking, if the raw material is unripened meat, the final result will not be suitable. It is not easy to get aged beef in Hungary, but nowadays it can be bought in more and more places.
Preparation
Preparing the perfect steak doesn’t require serious preparation, but one thing you should pay attention to in every steak house restaurant is that you should always work with meat at room temperature.
This means that before you start cooking, take the meat out of the refrigerator 1 hour before and remove the packaging, or soak up the moisture and leave it in the air to warm up to room temperature.
Steak is not usually seasoned in a special way. You only need salt and pepper, but you can use plenty of it on both sides of the meat. If freshly ground pepper is sprinkled on the meat, its flavor will be much more intense.
Cooking
The key to making the perfect steak is using an extremely hot pan. The steak will be good if you seal the meat on both sides with high heat. If the pan is not hot enough, the meat will cool it down.
Before putting the meat in the pan, heat it for at least 3 minutes. Literally, it’s good when it’s already smoking. You can lower the flame during baking, but before you put it in, the main thing is that it is extremely hot.
For an excellent result, we recommend that you do not pour the oil into the pan, but immediately before frying, and after seasoning, rub a little oil on both sides of the meat.
It is advisable to use an oil that can withstand heat well. The common sunflower oil in Hungary is perfect for this purpose. For the correct heat effect, it is important not to overfill the pan. Fry a slice of meat in a normal-sized pan, even a larger one, a maximum of two.
How to make it perfect?
- Make the pan very hot.
- Place the seasoned oil coated meat in the pan and do not move it.
- Bake for four minutes at a high temperature. It’s good when you hear a sizzling sound or the pan smokes and delicious strong aromas spread.
- Once the four minutes are up, flip it over with a quick movement using meat tongs and cook the other side for another four minutes. Do not use a fork as it may damage the crust around the meat.
- Once the meat is cooked, remove it to a plate and let it rest for about five minutes.
- While the meat is resting, a little juice may leak out, there is no problem with that, feel free to add it to the sauce you make for the meat, it will be even tastier.
