How to cook a homemade steak as good as a restaurant one

When you want to cook a good steak at home, doubts arise: will it be possible to fry the meat correctly and tasty and not spoil it? Together with Dmitry Dudin, the chef of the El Camino restaurant in Barcelona and the creator of the gastronomic telegram channel, we understand what the degrees of roasting are and how to achieve the perfect result. 

What is roasting?

According to the official classification, there are 7 degrees of roasting. Traditionally, they have English names, which are also used in Russia.

extra rare - completely underdone, almost completely raw, but warm meat with a thin crust;

rare - steak with "blood". Unroasted meat, fried on the outside, raw on the inside. There is red juice;

medium rare - medium rare meat. Red center, pink meat juice, crust;

medium - medium cooked steak. Golden mean. Light pink juice is still preserved in the meat, but the roast is already felt inside.

medium well - almost fried meat, slightly pink in the middle;

well done - fried steak, brown inside, almost without juice;

too well done, overcooked - meat without juice, overcooked.

It is not necessary to strictly follow this list in the home kitchen. Moreover, it is difficult to exactly achieve a certain gradation. For example, a steak can be 1.5 centimeters, or maybe 5 - there is no universal roasting for both options. And don't forget about thermal inertia: when a steak is out of the pan, it's still cooking and gaining degrees. Are you hire a private chef?

It is better not to focus on the degrees of roasting, but to learn how to achieve the result you need. A kitchen thermometer with a probe will help with this. The most accurate and fastest is electronic. The probe must be inserted into the thickest part of the steak to the middle, and the display will show the internal temperature of the meat.

blue rare - 49–55 ° C;

medium rare - 55–60 ° C;

medium - 60–65 ° C;

medium well - 65–69 ° C;

well done - 71-100 ° C;

too well done - over 100 ° C.

To get the desired temperature of the finished steak, remove it 2-3 degrees before readiness. For example, if you want the final medium roast from 63 ° C, then wait for 60 ° C and then let it rest for 5-7 minutes.

To let the meat rest is to preserve the juiciness. The meat consists of about 70 percent water, and when the temperature on the surface reaches 100 degrees, all the liquid begins to boil and boil. If you immediately cut the steak, then hot juices will flow out abundantly, and 10-15 percent will go away. If you let it lie down, only 2-3 percent will flow out.

How to cook a steak in a pan

For a steak, you definitely need a pan with thick walls and a bottom - for example, cast iron. In such dishes, heat is evenly distributed and transferred to the meat. It can also be heated up to about 170 degrees without consequences. At this temperature, the Maillard reaction begins - a delicious crispy crust is obtained.

Pour a little olive or sunflower unrefined oil into a hot frying pan. Put the meat and wait for a thin crust. Do not try to scrape the steak, turn it over when it starts to succumb easily. Fry is on the other side as well.

If you chose a thin and lean piece, it is better to cook it for a short time - it is easy enough to fry once on both sides. If you have a thick piece that has a lot of fat (for example, marbled meat), then it should be fried longer and turned over more often after the first time. The steak will heat evenly and will not burn.

How to cook a steak in the oven

Bring the meat to the desired result in the oven. If the steak is thin, this is optional. But, suppose you have a thick piece of striploin, a thin edge for cutting - 3 centimeters. You are in a hurry: just got it out of the refrigerator, and fry it for five minutes already. He got a delicious crust, but soon he will burn on the outside, and you understand that inside his temperature has risen from 4 degrees to 10, at best, to 15 degrees. It’s not very tasty to eat this - and even if you like a weak steak, you still want it to be warm inside. And in this case, it must be brought to readiness in the oven.

Your oven must be preheated to 180-200 degrees. Put the steak in the oven and wait for the thermometer to show you, for example, 52-53 degrees, and if you want the final roast, 55. Take it out, let the meat rest and start eating.

If the steak is not very thick, then you can simply fry it in a pan and then let it rest.