The cooking secret that helps chefs prepare steak to perfection

You don’t have to go to your favorite steakhouse or use a kitchen thermometer to enjoy you favorite steak cut. Even cutting into the steak is not necessary if you know this one thing. Professional chefs swear by this genius cooking hack when checking the status of beef, because it works under the broiler or on a hot grill. grilling, skillet or baking tray.

“Doneness is such a preference and everyone has their own preference,” says Joe Flamm, chef partner and culinary director of Chicago’s BLVD Steakhouse. “For something as simple as steak, cooked with just salt and fire, you want it exactly the way you want it.”

We love a good meat probe for checking the temperature of larger cuts of meat, chicken and other foods, but this no-gadgets method works on steaks and burgers and eliminates the need to pull out the thermometer. Here we unpack a simple trick for testing steak doneness – no equipment required – to do it every time.

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Practice makes perfect

The doneness of steak is often associated with color, as the steak goes from bright red when it is rare, through various stages of pink, until it is thoroughly cooked and the pink is completely cooked out. (RIP, ribeye.) It’s hard to tell the color without cutting into the steak, which you don’t want to do until it comes off the heat and has a chance to rest. Otherwise, the juices will spill out, making for a drier and more difficult result, especially when you put it back on the stove to continue cooking. It is even more important not to do this too early if your preference is medium well or well done; you want as much juice to remain in the meat as possible.

Doneness is also associated with temperature, with the internal temperature of the inside of the meat typically varying between 120 degrees Fahrenheit and 160 degrees Fahrenheit as you move between rare and well done. This can be achieved with a meat thermometerbut there is another method widely used by chefs that does not require any gadgets.

With larger cuts of meat, such as a whole prime rib roast that is sliced ​​after cooking, “a thermometer is super helpful for consistency and accuracy,” says Flamm, but “for smaller cuts of meat and for speed, a lot can chefs check this by feel,” he says. “If you cook a hundred fillets every night, things start to fall into place.”

Understanding steak doneness and why overcooking is bad

What’s a home chef to do who isn’t in the habit of cooking dozens of steaks dozens of times a week? Before we get into the quick trick to help you learn this, it’s important to understand the transformation your steak undergoes as it cooks at increasingly higher temperatures.

Basically, the longer a steak cooks, the firmer the meat becomes, which has to do with the scientific process the meat undergoes. “Anytime you cook a steak for an extended period of time, there’s a breaking point at which fat and muscle are broken down,” Flamm explains, “and you’re just drying out the steak and losing moisture, giving the steak a tougher texture.” This increasingly firm or harder texture is the key to being able to check steak doneness without having to rely on a thermometer.

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Technique for testing doneness

Learning to check doneness by feel doesn’t necessarily require hundreds of dollars of raw materials to get the practice required. It is also not dependent on any particular gadget. It is not exactly a one-handed method, but the method involves using only your hands.

Whether or not you have the resources and/or mentality to quit your job and go to culinary school, here’s a culinary school trick to understanding meat doneness that involves using the meaty base of your thumb as a guide. point of comparison for the resistance of the steak when poked.

Here it is: With one hand, gently touch your thumb and index finger, while keeping the rest of your fingers relaxed, in a half-hearted “A-OK” signal. You don’t want to press your thumb and index finger together; just make light contact between the two. With the index finger of your other hand, gently poke the fleshy base of your thumb.

You don’t press down here, you just give it a quick jab. This is approximately the level of resistance you should feel on a medium rare steak when you pierce it in the center of the meat in the same manner. (Quick aside here about clean and/or gloved hands. Also, the steak will be hot on the outside, yes, but again, a quick poke is all that’s needed.)

Then, as you move your thumb to lightly touch your middle finger, the tension in the base of your thumb increases, indicating what a medium-cooked steak should feel like. As you extend your thumb to reach the ring finger, you now have medium well, and the tension in the thumb when touching the little finger shows that it is well done.

Regardless of how you prefer to prepare your steak and how you personally define it, you now have a consistent point of comparison at your disposal to practice with, whether you cook steak once a week or once a year. .

What is the best way to prepare steak?

So, what’s the best way to cook a steak? There are many opinions about direct heat versus indirect heat, hard searing versus reverse searing, and even cooking steak in an air fryer. Flamm recommends a tried-and-true method: “For me, it’s searing the steak hard, then using indirect heat to slowly let it cure and get to the temperature where you want it,” he says, as he guides you finished the seared dish. steak in the oven.

With the indirect heat method, you can refer to various recipes for time and temperature recommendations. Keep in mind that your steak will continue to cook while you rest, so take your steak out and give it a good poke every now and then.

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