Is it a mistake to nuke your steak?
A British scientist has weighed in on the age-old question of how best to prepare beef.
For chefs who are also carnivores, there is no higher aim than to cook the perfect steak.
Everybody who has ever fired up a barbecue reckons they are an expert on the subject. But they all differ when it comes to the details.
Should you sear it first on both sides then turn down the temperature and wait?
Is it a cardinal sin to flip it more than once?
Should you add the salt first or afterwards? Or not at all?
Does it taste better with added beer?
You probably have an answer to all those questions. But how about this one: is the best way to cook a steak to start off by putting it in the microwave?
Well, that’s what one British scientist reckons.
Physicist George Vekinis says on the BBC podcast Instant Genius that if you are cooking a steak directly from the fridge, you should first zap it in the microwave oven for one or two minutes depending on the size of the meat.
“It’s always a good idea to heat the meat first in a microwave. When you cook it directly from the fridge, essentially what you’re doing is not heating up the meat from the inside,” says Dr Venkinis, who wrote the book Physics in the Kitchen.
After that, you transfer the meat to the fry pan and “fry it quickly, a very short time, as short time as possible, just to give it that little bit of reaction on the surface”.
He also warns us not to put salt on the meat before we fry it, because it “has this osmotic ability to drag out as much water as possible from the meat and you’re going to get tough and inedible”.
And, controversially for those people who like their steak well done, Dr Vekinis says medium rare is the ideal way to cook a steak, to the point where it is still lightly red on the outside.
Of course, there are other opinions on this.
Industry group Meat and Livestock Australia says cooking the perfect steak involves three steps:
- Bring steak to room temperature.
Preheat pan or barbecue to hot.
- Drizzle steak with oil and season with salt and pepper.
For rare, cook it for two minutes on both sides and rest for two minutes. For medium rare, it’s two-and-a-half minutes each side and rest for four minutes. For well done, it’s five or six minutes each side and rest for six minutes.
What about the question of how many times a steak should be flipped?
The ABC asked Sydney chefs Elvis Abrahanowicz and Dany Karam.
Abrahanowicz says it’s often better to flip the steak lots to ensure it cooks evenly all the way through.
He also suggests using a meat thermometer to determine the length of cooking. A steak is rare once it reaches 60 degrees and well done at 75 degrees. Unlike Dr Vekinis, Karam adds salt at the cooking stage.
He says, “Using high heat, I sear the steak on both sides to form a good crust using salt. Then I keep flipping the steak on lower heat until it reaches the desired temperature.”
If you want to get a little fancy, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver has some tips on his website. He suggests rubbing on butter, garlic, thyme, and other herbs while cooking your steak.
If that sounds like sacrilege to the purists, then remember the golden rule: the best steak is the one cooked exactly the way you like it.
Related reading: New York Post, Australian Beef, ABC
