The Art of Cooking the Perfect Steak

To start cooking the perfect steak, one needs to understand the basics of temperature and timing. The first sign that it's time to flip the steak is when it starts to turn deep golden brown, and you might even see it stick to the pan a little bit before lifting off. This is a good indicator that it's time to flip the steak, but if you go too early, like this, it means you're not ready yet, and putting it back down won't cause any harm.

When flipping the steak, make sure to lift it gently and check what you're working with. In this case, it's flip time, and now we need to let it sear for a moment before starting butter basting. This will help create a nice crust on both sides of the steak. Once the crust is formed, you can either finish cooking it in a low oven or reduce the heat to medium-low to achieve the same effect.

One option is to kill the heat and place the steak in a 225°F oven for the remaining cooking time. This method ensures that the steak is cooked through without overcooking it. Another option is to turn down the heat to medium-low, ensuring that it's still hot enough to cook but not so hot that the butter burns. In this case, the key is to use a sufficient amount of butter to create a rich and creamy sauce.

To make the butter basting process more effective, lay down a generous amount of butter on the steak, along with some herbs like thyme, Rosemary, and Sage. The shallot and four cloves of garlic add an extra layer of flavor to the dish. After applying the butter, tilt the pan to keep the heat under the steak, as this will help prevent the butter from burning.

As we continue cooking the steak, it's essential to check its internal temperature without overcooking it. The ideal temperature is around 125°F, but since the steak is thick and has a lot of fat, it may take some time for the fat to render and reach that perfect temperature. In this case, we'll aim for a medium doneness, as it provides more time for the fat to melt and become edible.

To add a touch of elegance to our dish, let's bathe the steak in hot butter after it has rested for 10 minutes. This will help infuse the meat with even more flavor and richness. By sprinkling some extra garlic over the top of the steak, we can enhance its overall aroma and presentation.

Finally, as we present the finished steak on a plate, garnished with some fresh herbs and a sprinkle of timer to add a touch of class, it's clear that this is a dish worth savoring. The key to cooking the perfect steak lies in understanding the balance between temperature, timing, and technique. With practice and patience, anyone can master the art of cooking a delicious and memorable ribeye.

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The Importance of Financial Literacy

As we've seen throughout this article, having a basic understanding of cooking techniques and saving strategies is essential for living a fulfilling life. However, there's another crucial aspect to consider: financial literacy.

Financial literacy refers to the knowledge and skills needed to manage one's finances effectively, make informed decisions about money, and achieve long-term financial goals. In today's economy, having a solid grasp of personal finance can be the difference between financial stability and financial stress.

By educating yourself on topics such as budgeting, saving, investing, and credit management, you can take control of your financial future and make smart decisions about your money. This article has provided a foundation for understanding how to cook the perfect steak, but it's essential to remember that financial literacy is equally important for achieving long-term financial success.

Conclusion

Cooking the perfect steak requires patience, attention to detail, and a deep understanding of temperature and timing. By following the steps outlined in this article, you can create a delicious and memorable ribeye that will impress even the most discerning palates.

However, it's equally important to remember that cooking is just one aspect of life. Building strong financial habits requires education, discipline, and a willingness to learn. By understanding the basics of personal finance and taking control of your financial future, you can achieve long-term success and build a brighter financial future for yourself and your loved ones.

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"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: ensteak you buy one you you heat it and then you you slather it in steak sauce and you eat it easy right steak is nothing if not divisive in that people like different kinds of steaks they like them cooked different ways they like them slathered in all different kinds of sauces to make them taste less like steak which pisses me if you can't tell already that I have severe bias against steak sauce but um I must be wrong A1 steak sace sells outpaced gasoline last year it's not true it's not only a steak divisive it's extremely expensive it's got to be one of the more expensive Foods per pound that you can buy besides I don't know saffron and um like really artisanal honey and if you don't do it right you end up wasting a whole lot of money and God knows I've done it wrong in fact I'm going to tell you my story about the worst steak I ever made thank you to Sofi for sponsoring this portion of today's episode you're going to want to stick around to find out how you can have a chance to win $10,000 if you don't already know Sofi is the ultimate finance app to help you Bank borrow and invest all in one place with sofi's high yield savings account the money in your savings account earns more money in 5 weeks with direct deposit than you would in one year with a big Bank savings account this fall the whole babish team is headed to Japan Jaan and it's been important to stay on top of our finances sign up for Sofi is checking in savings to stay on top of yours plus Sofi is giving away $10,000 to enter sign up for a Sofi checking and savings account using my link click the link in the description or scan the QR code to enter the year was 2009 I had just graduated from college I had sold my car and used the profits to uh put down uh $700 on my first sublet room in Brooklyn I was trying to make it in the big city and I had very very little money to feed myself however I fancied myself something of a foodie so I went to the local seat town which if you're not familiar if you haven't been in New York City it is the single worst grocery store on the planet there I procured a steak that was deeply on sale a day old London Broil fatless thick and slightly gray around the edges I proceeded to season that steak with the only things that my roommates had in our tiny sweltering apartment expired olive oil balsamic vinegar and Jarred garlic and this being a barely legal sublet where at least six people were living where no more than three should live not only did the AC not work but also the oven was garbage and it just pissed heat into the room so I didn't turn on the I couldn't turn on the oven I didn't have any proper cookware so I couldn't sear it that left me with one option can you guess what it is that that's right the toaster oven I'd seen the boxes that toaster ovens can come in you can cook anything in this there's always a steak picture of steak on the box of a toaster alen so I figured well surely I can do this with my years of of thinking that I'm a good cook so I set it to broil I activated the fire alarm more times than I'd care to count and I ended up with a gray slab of what could only charitably be called beef that's covered in bits of of burnt Jarred garlic and boiling in its own excretions and not only because I was too broke to go out and just buy other food and because I felt like I should punish myself I ate the entire thing and I'm still digesting it to this day I have to go to the bathroom steaks are seasoned My Pan is well lubricated so in goes the steak oh it's probably not going to make a difference right yeah it'll come up the temperature later yeah it'll give it time oh I hear something now see yeah no it's everything's going to be fine time to flip did I boil it or or fry it I can't even tell this hilarious demonstration was was just that a demonstration to show you how important heat is one of the things that's hardest to get over when you're just starting out in the kitchen is losing your fear of heat sizzling popping spattering spittering it's scary I get it smoke as well it's very you're setting off your smoke alarms but the only way to get a really good crust on the steak is to preheat your pan thoroughly not only so that it gets blasted with heat but that so the pan is retaining enough heat that it can continue blasting it with heat so make sure your pan is Thoroughly preheated little wisps of smoke coming off the oil before you add the steak so if this happens it's not ideal but it's also not the end of the world especially if you have a thicker steak just crank up the heat get a good crust on one side before flipping it over and now this steak for all intents and purposes is going to be the same as it would have been otherwise so don't do that but if you do that then do that so it doesn't matter nothing matters BR everything matters relatively nothing matters absolutely not that that's what you said we were we were messing up this steak on purpose and then I tried to fix it and I did so by letting it sit far too long on one side and look what happened you end up with it's more medium rare or medium towards the bottom here and it's grayer toward the top because it's sat on this side for so very darn long one of the most important aspects of steak cookery is myard that is the caramelization of sugars or something proteins it's caramelization okay myard is the thing from which everything derives their flavor and if you don't expose the steak to enough Heat consistently enough it's not going to Brown very well I wish there were a way I could show that to you or demonstration of how or why that might occur why are you flipping this so much oh yeah cuz I wanted to demonstrate what happens if you flip too much you don't get a good crust so put it down in the pan let it sit this thing's got to spend some time in here so don't be afraid to let it sit 2 3 minutes on one side so you get a deep golden brown crisp crust there we go see look at what look at what difference a few minutes makes are they done yet no stupid look at them they're not done the recipe said to cook these for two to 12 minutes per side or until done to my liking so that's pretty unambiguous right are they done yet don't make me turn this steak around like this feels done this one needs more time according to my finger my finger never steered me wrong so the steaks are done I cooked them until they looked done felt done uh you know time uh you know the three things you want to judge a steak by let's see what we got here this is my thinner one so it might be a little over Co oh boy that's um that's not what I was going for I was hoping for a nice Rosy medium let's see if I have any other better luck with this guy oh boy okay I think that's what they refer to as black and blue it's undercooked the so we have overcooked undercooked even though they look virtually the same on the outside so this is a demonstration of why you can't at least when you're starting out rely on your senses to tell when your steak is done no matter how done or perfect it might look on the outside a disaster might be waiting within the only one way to know what's happening inside that meat is by probing it so yeah the old poke test this guy this is wildly unreliable both because different Stakes are going to have different consistencies they're going to feel different when they're at different levels of dness a hanger steak not going to feel the same as a flaming yon when they're at medium rare what's happening inside the meat is a party and you're not invited until you get yourself a highquality fast read temperature gr then whatever money you spend on this is going to be saved 10 times over in what would otherwise be ruined sticks okay I brought my steak to room temperature I pre-seasoned it I put it in a well lubricated preheated pan I took it off and let it rest for 10 minutes should be perfect right oh boy that is medium well so I was shooting for medium but I got medium well how'd this happen well medium well I I pulled the steak at 130° F at its thickest point after it came off I rested it for 10 minutes during which time the carry overheat caused the temperature to come up another 10° bringing it up into medium well territory so what you want to do is pull your Stak 5 to 10° F lower than where you want it to end up while it rests it will come up to the proper temperature and you won't uh be super depressed about it like I am right now actually this doesn't look that b could be better look I know three things in this world I like my coffee black I like my romantic Partners rotund and I like my steaks cooked medium rare if it's not bleeding I'm leaving if it's not red I'm dead if it's pink you better rethink how you're cooking it right wrong sir you got to cook steak to certain dness sees for your preferences and for the kind of steak that you're eating so here I have a filet minion this steak's been cooked to a medium you want to do that with filet Minon because there's so little intramuscular fat it's just meat pretty much so you need to keep it between medium rare and medium so it's that it's juicy and tender otherwise it's going to dry out or on the other end of the spectrum and rare it's going to be slippery and the meat fibers aren't going to have been able to break down and it's just going to be like slippery and tough and it's no good on the other hand different steaks like this one this is a skirt steak cooking this to medium rare makes it rather tough and chewy this steak much more prefers to be cooked up to medium this is a great steak for your relatives or anybody that you're cooking for that doesn't like super pink meat because even if you push it up to medium well territory I cook I pushed this guy up to about 140 I think even though it's just barely pink in the center look at how freaking juicy that is can you see that it's so super juicy so inmation what works for a fet Monon medium rare does not work necessarily for every other steak medium rare on a hanger skirt or flank is going to be tougher than more like a medium to even medium well so if you like your steaks more medium well if you don't like pink this is your best option hanger skirt flank if you like medium rare for your snob like me go Fon go New York strip staks that have leaner sort of less intramuscular fat that needs to be cooked to a lower temperature does any of this make sense all right finished searing my steaks and now I have this lovely fondom at the bottom of the pot be an awful shame to waste it I grew up in the '90s and I know that there's nothing more luxurious in this world than a red wine reduction yeah you add the wine you scrape up the good stuff off the bottom pot you reduce it that's what reduction means okay my my red wine has reduced it is now a much more syrupy consistency and I think it's just about ready to put on my steak I'm not even exaggerating those they're so gross red wine reductions if you don't cut them with a lot of delicious stuff are really really nasty and this is one of my more regrettable decisions in a very early episode of Basics I think it was episode three steak the steak the first steak episode of Basics I showed how to make a pan sauce I'm pretty sure I added butter but it was pretty gnarly it was broken it was harsh it was acidic and it was just a little buttery which is just not enough so if you're going to make a red wine reduction sauce make sure you're using half red wine half chicken or beef stock you want to cut it with 50/50 stock and then once it's reduc down to a syrupy consistency add a whole bunch of this crap I don't know what it's called but it's delicious make sure the heat is off whisk constantly and emulsify there we go you can see it's getting thicker it's getting glossier it's getting lighter and if I had done this with chicken stock beef stock shallots garlic it would be all the more flavorful all the more delicious see now at least it coats the back spoon all right still harsh but not as bad definitely definitely make sure you're adding chicken stock or beef stock or vegetable stock if you're a vegetarian and you're having steak for the first time for some reason and shallots and garlic so you have a really well-rounded pan sace all right if there's one thing I know about meat it's that you marinate it always right using my context clues of this show I'm going to assume no this is a show about mistakes so I must be making a mistake that's like I just learned I'm in a video game I'm an NPC God do I have any control do any of us have any agency all right look there one thing I know about meat one thing it's that you marinate it you want it juicy you want it tender you want it full of flavor any flavor you marinate it and what do I love to marinate in what's the worst looking one that I can destroy right now now destroy I mean uh uh make better by putting it in a bag with Uncle babby's secret ingredient Italian dressing yeah there we go this this was very popular when I was growing up marinating most anything in Italian dressing but I have I have seen this done and on more than one occasion let's see what happens all right steak has marinated overnight oh it looks delicious I'm going to do it the service of at least patting it dry you know so it's not disgusting oh yeah look at that it's so slippery it's the slipperiest object I can just look at that okay over to the stove top going to hold this in my hand until the Pan's hot I got some height on that one woohoo all right we're cooking kind of already looks cooked it's almost like it is like Ceviche bread literally Italian salad dressing has a lot of vinegar in it has a lot of acids so it did indeed cook the outside which is why it's so beautifully gray all right so I'm calling this there's just no way I'm going to be able to cook it to completion on the stove top because it's just burning way too quick and that's because of all the oil and sugar in that Italian dressing as you can see Brad it's still quite red on the inside that looks looks like tuna looks like AI tuna uh what I am going to do is eat a tiny little bit of a corner that is cooked kind of never thought I'd have two sour steaks in one day nasty and it's tastes burned too like it was barely on the stove top and it tastes burned so normally marinating a steak not a good idea uh um putting it in any kind of water is going to prevent it from being able to form a really good crust putting it in Sugar vinegar water is going to make it burn before you can even develop a crust hitting it with acid it's far too strong a flavor and as long as steak is cooked to medium medium rare it needs no tenderization there are instances in which marinating steak is okay I would do it with flank steak skirt and hanger those take well to marinades very simp marinades because they're a little tough and because they're generally thinner than some steaks making them Brown more quickly can be an advantage but if you're going to marinate those steaks keep it super simple lime juice oil salt pepper that's it other than that keep the marinades away from the Saks that's for your auntie to do I assume if you have an aunt that isn't like the best cook not my aana I'm not saying that about you aana you're a great cook all right I got my lovely little hanger steak here time to carve and serve I'm going to cut right with the grain just like that whoops that was a mistake there are several steaks that have a definite grain hanger skirt flank if you look at a piece of hanger steak you can see it has a really visible very obvious direction that the muscle fibers are moving in you need to cut across those muscle fibers okay because I have here two pieces of hanger stick one that has been cut across the grain one that has been cut with the grain this one if I try to tug on it you can see I'm working against all those muscle fibers full length muscle fibers it's extremely tough when you cut across the grain as you can see it's way easier to pull apart it's super tender you can see it just ort of comes apart you're cutting across the muscle fibers and this is saving work that would otherwise be being done by your mouth okay my steak is seared and cooked to my desired level of dness now it needs to rest that's all right wrong especially with a nice lean cut of beef it would be a mistake kind of to not add a nice hit of extra fat and flavor in the form of some room temperature butter this especially again if you're dealing with a lean cut of meat is going to add a whole new dimension of enjoyment to your mouth experience then once you're ready to serve you can also hit it with an extra pinch of salt and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper that is going to take a good steak and make it into a really good steak nothing else to say I was like do I say better really good or great and I went with really good actually it just said all three okay Stakes out the pan nicely seared cooked to my desired temperature and I'm hungry why stand on ceremony you know let's dig right in and I'm going to slice her right up and it's ready for display but wait there's a problem one that we're not going to see right away so just why you why don't you cut and we'll come back in like like two minutes so our steak was properly cooked seared and sliced but as you can see it's lost a tremendous amount of juices that's because we did not allow it to rest here we have a steak that was allowed to rest for 10 minutes I'm now going to slice it in the same fashion and you'll see it is not going to lose nearly as much a juice let's wait another 2 minutes and see what happens all right 2 minutes have elapsed and as you can see look at that minimal very very little juice was lost in the slicing process this steak is going to be juicier than this steak even though these were cooked exactly the same way the only difference is a 10-minute rest and what that does is prevents these juices from ending up on the table and keeps them in your kisser for my next mistake I want to try an experiment I've been told many times over the years often with somebody's hand wrapped around my neck pressed up against the wall that if you season a steak with pepper before searing it you'll burn the pepper and it will add an unpleasant flavor to the steak that's not been my experience I tend to like seasoning my steaks with pepper before I see them uh so what I want to do is season one of these guys with just plain old salt and the other one of these guys with salt and pepper I've got a salt and pepper blend happening over here hit them on both sides I'm going to sear them the exact same way in the exact same pan and then I'm going to taste test them a blind style I can see plainly that this is the peppered steak I can see plainly that this is the not peppered steak I'm going to apply very small amount of pepper to this one just so the there's still a pepper flavor so I'm not like this one doesn't have pepper on it so clearly okay so here's what I'm going to do going to cut a bite of each of these you see Nico can you help me out for a second thank you for coming so speedily you got it um I'm doing blind taste test and what we have here is on the left this is a steak that was seasoned with pepper after it was cooked this one was seasoned with pepper before it was cooked because people say that you burn the pepper if you see it I want to see if I can taste the difference so I'm going to close my eyes I need you to hand me a random one you're going to know which one's which and I'm going to tell you what I something okay so my eyes are closed I swear I'm not looking I have no horse in this race just hand me a fork oh you were going to feed me okay just stick do you want a palette cleansing yeah stick your hand thank you wait actually don't turn it okay there you go okay number two I think number two was the fresh pepper number two was pepper before then that's it folks you can season your steak with pepper beforeand thank you so much wait but I'm biased Nico come here son close the eyes a there's a guy all right that's steak number one want a pallet cleanser some olive oil sure olive oil okay just a drop okay here's steak number two I think the pepper flavor was a little bit more pronounced on the first one that's two for two folks I thought that the the second steak was peppier and that's because it was the pepper before and I think it's because it was toasted in the skillet brings out the flavor more is that the same one that I picked for more peppery correct wow so I think that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt there's absolutely no ambiguity in this in these findings and uh thank you again for coming out here I promise I won't call you a third time my pleasure I mean I might not actually but a lot of people have asked me can you make a steak in any Pan and the answer to that is yes with reservations uh the best pan for making steak is cast iron you can get it super hot you can abuse it and you can really blast the steak with heat consistently over a long period of time if you use stainless this is going to happen we end up with a whole bunch of burnt oil and burnt steak matter on the bottom of the pan this is not going to ruin your steak and you can successfully cook a steak this way but it's going to give you hell of a cleanup job so if you're going to make steak in a pan I suggest sticking with cast iron or even nonstick if you with modern nonstick with my nonstick that you can get at Walmart right now there those modern nonstick as long as it's not Teflon it's safer to higher temperatures you don't want to get it up to this hot but you can still get it to searing temperatures and you can effectively make a good steak Pan's nice and hot in goes mistake oh no there's no fat in the pan this is obviously a cartoonish exaggeration of the problem but if you throw a steak into a pan with no fat not only is it not going to Brown that great it's going to stick like a sticky thing and you don't want that so be sure to use plenty of fat when lub lubricating your steak like my favorite butter uh-oh that's not working so great either it's turning brown and the speckled with black specks that's because butter is not a good medium for searing steak it's got too many proteins in it that burn almost immediately butter is great for finishing not good for searing we need to get things really really high heat you need to use a neutral oil like vegetable Canoa or light olive oil or if you really want to get butter flavor use ghee just use ghee you just got to use ghee just use ghee use what ghee right then we've screwed up State St States Every Which Way how do we make a make a good one mean I I can't really do New Zealand well we might we've noted a bunch of awful stes and we might a good one there's a lot of ways to make a good steak so I'm just going to show you a really standard cast iron butter based ribeye way to make a good steak in a pan on the stove possibly in the oven depend on how you feel first things first you need a very good steak it's important to invest in a high quality piece of meat for several reasons it's going to taste better the cow is going to have lived a better life and you are going to have a better experience as a result what we have here is a boneless ribeye ribeye is a great well-balanced allaround steak you have several elements to enjoy first up the eye the center of the ribeye this is just sort of like classic steak territory every time you close your eyes and imagine steak this is what this is then you have the cap this is like way fattier it's almost like it's almost like the dark meat of steak like you know chicken has dark meat this is almost like beef dark meat it's just so fatty and Rich it's beef butter and then you have a lot of fat and if you're a fat person not a fat if you like fat is what I'm trying to say if you like eating fat this is this is this is the destination right here because not only is there t T of it but also if you cook it properly all of it's going to render and turn into this butter smooth beef butter experience butter and then and then you're going to be a fat person because it's it's not good for you but you know it's good for the soul what were we talking about steak so now you've got your piece of meat how do you cook it well I'm going to start by salt and peppering it after that little experiment I'm convinced that you can pepper your steak before cooking it make sure you hit the sides if it's really thick like this you also want to hit the sides you want every bite to be as well seasoned as possible so this steak has been salted and peppered now we're going to do one of two things a for short on time let it sit out at room temperature at least for 30 minutes ideally like hour hour and a half uh this is going to let the salt penetrate into the meat these juices are going to come out to the surface and then be reabsorbed I don't know the full science of it if you want to know the science of it go check out Jay Kenji Lopez Al he has incredible breakdowns of this but long story short it helps the meat Brown better it helps it retain moisture and it deeply Seasons it and it helps it make it tender four things so I'll see you in at least 30 minutes ideally an hour so cast iron pan lots and lots of Heat lots and lots of fat you don't want to deep fry the steak but you almost do you both want to prevent the steak from sticking and you want to put a really good crust on there and the way to do that is with a lot of fat using what kind of fat vegetable oil canola oil another neutral flavored oil you don't want to use butter you don't want to use olive oil anything that's going to smoke this stuff can take a lot of heat and even when it smokes it doesn't taste that bad so we're going to bring this right up almost to its smoke point little wisps of smoke are going to be coming off that's our signal for putting the steak in there little whisps of smoke that's our cue grab the steak dry it off that pre-s salting causes the steak to exude a little bit of moisture and the less moisture you have on the surface of the steak better chance you're going to create a great crust here we go lay it away from you so any sputters and stuff go that way not towards your precious human skin press it down keep the oil moving but I want to make sure that every part of the steak is getting hit with oil and you're going to know when it's time to flip by looking at the outside edge of the steak you're going to start seeing it turn deep golden brown you might even see it stick to the pan a little bit and then lift off and that's a good indicator that it's time to flip if you go too early like this oh not ready put it back down no big deal so pick it up check okay let's see what we're working with here yeah it's flip time ready here we go oh yeah look at that now I'm going to let it sear for a moment before I start butter basting keep things hot make sure that I get a good crust formed on the other side of the steak all right so we got a pretty nice crust started on both sides of the steak now you can do one of two things you can kill the heat take it off the heat put it in a low oven 225° F to finish it cooking the rest of the way through or if you're feeling like a fancy little boy like me you can turn down the heat I'm turning it down to like medium medium low still hot enough to do some damage but not hot enough to burn butter that's the key and then I have oh I have just about half a stick of butter here which I'm going to lay down lot of it right there let it pull down there at the bottom I've got some herbs here some thyme some Rosemary and some Sage you can do one or all of those I have a shallot and I have four cloves of garlic all those are optional but all those Rock and now we got that butter and stuff in there we're going to pull the steak back here tilt the pan down here keep the heat under the steak because we don't want the butter to be getting actively blasted or it'll burn and we're going to start butter basting this is the beautiful and selfless Act of both continuing to cook the steak deeping deepening its crust and amplifying its flavor to dangerous levels so after a little bit of butter basting I'm going to start checking temp I don't think it's going to be anywhere close but I really don't want to overcook this it was expensive I've put a lot of time and effort into it and I'm smoking out my kitchen Flor so 83 what all right this has ways to go I'm going to turn down the heat and we're just going to base it till the cows come home what am I shooting for 125 that's probably my ideal temperature because it's going to come up 10° in post if you will 127 time to pull let's evacuate this guy onto a plate just like this and of course might as well bathe this in hot butter beautiful while it's resting I'm going to hit it with some flavors I'm going to take one of these nice uh fried garlic cloves and I'm going to use the surface of the steak almost like a cheese grater just rub it on there there we go all right 10 minutes time has passed let's see what awaits us back onto the plate and there we have it right where I wanted it a nice medium I personally like ribeye at a medium because it's so thick and because there's so much fat it gives more time more temperature for the fat to render so the fat becomes more edible now just to spru things up a little bit just going to throw some timer on the outside just it looks classy you know keep you classy and there you have it ribi cooked to one's desired dness super tender super flavorful extremely rich and buttery and ready for human consumption perfect so there you have it just one of the many ways to make the perfect steak I hope that you guys give it a try for yourselves I hope that these screw-ups have shown you how to avoid some screw-ups of your own and let me know what you want to see me screw up next in the comments below until then keep screwing up I most certainly will even if you don't thanks again to Sofi for sponsoring this portion of today's episode if you're new to high yield savings accounts it's an account that makes your money work harder for you by giving you something back in interest typical savings accounts with direct deposit at your local bank can earn you just 46% in interest Sofi checking in savings allows you to earn up to 4.5% apy on your savings with direct deposit which is 10 times the national average savings rate with Sofi checking and savings you get paid up to 2 days early pay no account fees and can earn up to $300 when you sign up with direct deposit here's the kicker Sofi is giving away $10,000 to enter a sign up for a Sofi checking and savings account right now using the link in my description or the QR code thank you Sofisteak you buy one you you heat it and then you you slather it in steak sauce and you eat it easy right steak is nothing if not divisive in that people like different kinds of steaks they like them cooked different ways they like them slathered in all different kinds of sauces to make them taste less like steak which pisses me if you can't tell already that I have severe bias against steak sauce but um I must be wrong A1 steak sace sells outpaced gasoline last year it's not true it's not only a steak divisive it's extremely expensive it's got to be one of the more expensive Foods per pound that you can buy besides I don't know saffron and um like really artisanal honey and if you don't do it right you end up wasting a whole lot of money and God knows I've done it wrong in fact I'm going to tell you my story about the worst steak I ever made thank you to Sofi for sponsoring this portion of today's episode you're going to want to stick around to find out how you can have a chance to win $10,000 if you don't already know Sofi is the ultimate finance app to help you Bank borrow and invest all in one place with sofi's high yield savings account the money in your savings account earns more money in 5 weeks with direct deposit than you would in one year with a big Bank savings account this fall the whole babish team is headed to Japan Jaan and it's been important to stay on top of our finances sign up for Sofi is checking in savings to stay on top of yours plus Sofi is giving away $10,000 to enter sign up for a Sofi checking and savings account using my link click the link in the description or scan the QR code to enter the year was 2009 I had just graduated from college I had sold my car and used the profits to uh put down uh $700 on my first sublet room in Brooklyn I was trying to make it in the big city and I had very very little money to feed myself however I fancied myself something of a foodie so I went to the local seat town which if you're not familiar if you haven't been in New York City it is the single worst grocery store on the planet there I procured a steak that was deeply on sale a day old London Broil fatless thick and slightly gray around the edges I proceeded to season that steak with the only things that my roommates had in our tiny sweltering apartment expired olive oil balsamic vinegar and Jarred garlic and this being a barely legal sublet where at least six people were living where no more than three should live not only did the AC not work but also the oven was garbage and it just pissed heat into the room so I didn't turn on the I couldn't turn on the oven I didn't have any proper cookware so I couldn't sear it that left me with one option can you guess what it is that that's right the toaster oven I'd seen the boxes that toaster ovens can come in you can cook anything in this there's always a steak picture of steak on the box of a toaster alen so I figured well surely I can do this with my years of of thinking that I'm a good cook so I set it to broil I activated the fire alarm more times than I'd care to count and I ended up with a gray slab of what could only charitably be called beef that's covered in bits of of burnt Jarred garlic and boiling in its own excretions and not only because I was too broke to go out and just buy other food and because I felt like I should punish myself I ate the entire thing and I'm still digesting it to this day I have to go to the bathroom steaks are seasoned My Pan is well lubricated so in goes the steak oh it's probably not going to make a difference right yeah it'll come up the temperature later yeah it'll give it time oh I hear something now see yeah no it's everything's going to be fine time to flip did I boil it or or fry it I can't even tell this hilarious demonstration was was just that a demonstration to show you how important heat is one of the things that's hardest to get over when you're just starting out in the kitchen is losing your fear of heat sizzling popping spattering spittering it's scary I get it smoke as well it's very you're setting off your smoke alarms but the only way to get a really good crust on the steak is to preheat your pan thoroughly not only so that it gets blasted with heat but that so the pan is retaining enough heat that it can continue blasting it with heat so make sure your pan is Thoroughly preheated little wisps of smoke coming off the oil before you add the steak so if this happens it's not ideal but it's also not the end of the world especially if you have a thicker steak just crank up the heat get a good crust on one side before flipping it over and now this steak for all intents and purposes is going to be the same as it would have been otherwise so don't do that but if you do that then do that so it doesn't matter nothing matters BR everything matters relatively nothing matters absolutely not that that's what you said we were we were messing up this steak on purpose and then I tried to fix it and I did so by letting it sit far too long on one side and look what happened you end up with it's more medium rare or medium towards the bottom here and it's grayer toward the top because it's sat on this side for so very darn long one of the most important aspects of steak cookery is myard that is the caramelization of sugars or something proteins it's caramelization okay myard is the thing from which everything derives their flavor and if you don't expose the steak to enough Heat consistently enough it's not going to Brown very well I wish there were a way I could show that to you or demonstration of how or why that might occur why are you flipping this so much oh yeah cuz I wanted to demonstrate what happens if you flip too much you don't get a good crust so put it down in the pan let it sit this thing's got to spend some time in here so don't be afraid to let it sit 2 3 minutes on one side so you get a deep golden brown crisp crust there we go see look at what look at what difference a few minutes makes are they done yet no stupid look at them they're not done the recipe said to cook these for two to 12 minutes per side or until done to my liking so that's pretty unambiguous right are they done yet don't make me turn this steak around like this feels done this one needs more time according to my finger my finger never steered me wrong so the steaks are done I cooked them until they looked done felt done uh you know time uh you know the three things you want to judge a steak by let's see what we got here this is my thinner one so it might be a little over Co oh boy that's um that's not what I was going for I was hoping for a nice Rosy medium let's see if I have any other better luck with this guy oh boy okay I think that's what they refer to as black and blue it's undercooked the so we have overcooked undercooked even though they look virtually the same on the outside so this is a demonstration of why you can't at least when you're starting out rely on your senses to tell when your steak is done no matter how done or perfect it might look on the outside a disaster might be waiting within the only one way to know what's happening inside that meat is by probing it so yeah the old poke test this guy this is wildly unreliable both because different Stakes are going to have different consistencies they're going to feel different when they're at different levels of dness a hanger steak not going to feel the same as a flaming yon when they're at medium rare what's happening inside the meat is a party and you're not invited until you get yourself a highquality fast read temperature gr then whatever money you spend on this is going to be saved 10 times over in what would otherwise be ruined sticks okay I brought my steak to room temperature I pre-seasoned it I put it in a well lubricated preheated pan I took it off and let it rest for 10 minutes should be perfect right oh boy that is medium well so I was shooting for medium but I got medium well how'd this happen well medium well I I pulled the steak at 130° F at its thickest point after it came off I rested it for 10 minutes during which time the carry overheat caused the temperature to come up another 10° bringing it up into medium well territory so what you want to do is pull your Stak 5 to 10° F lower than where you want it to end up while it rests it will come up to the proper temperature and you won't uh be super depressed about it like I am right now actually this doesn't look that b could be better look I know three things in this world I like my coffee black I like my romantic Partners rotund and I like my steaks cooked medium rare if it's not bleeding I'm leaving if it's not red I'm dead if it's pink you better rethink how you're cooking it right wrong sir you got to cook steak to certain dness sees for your preferences and for the kind of steak that you're eating so here I have a filet minion this steak's been cooked to a medium you want to do that with filet Minon because there's so little intramuscular fat it's just meat pretty much so you need to keep it between medium rare and medium so it's that it's juicy and tender otherwise it's going to dry out or on the other end of the spectrum and rare it's going to be slippery and the meat fibers aren't going to have been able to break down and it's just going to be like slippery and tough and it's no good on the other hand different steaks like this one this is a skirt steak cooking this to medium rare makes it rather tough and chewy this steak much more prefers to be cooked up to medium this is a great steak for your relatives or anybody that you're cooking for that doesn't like super pink meat because even if you push it up to medium well territory I cook I pushed this guy up to about 140 I think even though it's just barely pink in the center look at how freaking juicy that is can you see that it's so super juicy so inmation what works for a fet Monon medium rare does not work necessarily for every other steak medium rare on a hanger skirt or flank is going to be tougher than more like a medium to even medium well so if you like your steaks more medium well if you don't like pink this is your best option hanger skirt flank if you like medium rare for your snob like me go Fon go New York strip staks that have leaner sort of less intramuscular fat that needs to be cooked to a lower temperature does any of this make sense all right finished searing my steaks and now I have this lovely fondom at the bottom of the pot be an awful shame to waste it I grew up in the '90s and I know that there's nothing more luxurious in this world than a red wine reduction yeah you add the wine you scrape up the good stuff off the bottom pot you reduce it that's what reduction means okay my my red wine has reduced it is now a much more syrupy consistency and I think it's just about ready to put on my steak I'm not even exaggerating those they're so gross red wine reductions if you don't cut them with a lot of delicious stuff are really really nasty and this is one of my more regrettable decisions in a very early episode of Basics I think it was episode three steak the steak the first steak episode of Basics I showed how to make a pan sauce I'm pretty sure I added butter but it was pretty gnarly it was broken it was harsh it was acidic and it was just a little buttery which is just not enough so if you're going to make a red wine reduction sauce make sure you're using half red wine half chicken or beef stock you want to cut it with 50/50 stock and then once it's reduc down to a syrupy consistency add a whole bunch of this crap I don't know what it's called but it's delicious make sure the heat is off whisk constantly and emulsify there we go you can see it's getting thicker it's getting glossier it's getting lighter and if I had done this with chicken stock beef stock shallots garlic it would be all the more flavorful all the more delicious see now at least it coats the back spoon all right still harsh but not as bad definitely definitely make sure you're adding chicken stock or beef stock or vegetable stock if you're a vegetarian and you're having steak for the first time for some reason and shallots and garlic so you have a really well-rounded pan sace all right if there's one thing I know about meat it's that you marinate it always right using my context clues of this show I'm going to assume no this is a show about mistakes so I must be making a mistake that's like I just learned I'm in a video game I'm an NPC God do I have any control do any of us have any agency all right look there one thing I know about meat one thing it's that you marinate it you want it juicy you want it tender you want it full of flavor any flavor you marinate it and what do I love to marinate in what's the worst looking one that I can destroy right now now destroy I mean uh uh make better by putting it in a bag with Uncle babby's secret ingredient Italian dressing yeah there we go this this was very popular when I was growing up marinating most anything in Italian dressing but I have I have seen this done and on more than one occasion let's see what happens all right steak has marinated overnight oh it looks delicious I'm going to do it the service of at least patting it dry you know so it's not disgusting oh yeah look at that it's so slippery it's the slipperiest object I can just look at that okay over to the stove top going to hold this in my hand until the Pan's hot I got some height on that one woohoo all right we're cooking kind of already looks cooked it's almost like it is like Ceviche bread literally Italian salad dressing has a lot of vinegar in it has a lot of acids so it did indeed cook the outside which is why it's so beautifully gray all right so I'm calling this there's just no way I'm going to be able to cook it to completion on the stove top because it's just burning way too quick and that's because of all the oil and sugar in that Italian dressing as you can see Brad it's still quite red on the inside that looks looks like tuna looks like AI tuna uh what I am going to do is eat a tiny little bit of a corner that is cooked kind of never thought I'd have two sour steaks in one day nasty and it's tastes burned too like it was barely on the stove top and it tastes burned so normally marinating a steak not a good idea uh um putting it in any kind of water is going to prevent it from being able to form a really good crust putting it in Sugar vinegar water is going to make it burn before you can even develop a crust hitting it with acid it's far too strong a flavor and as long as steak is cooked to medium medium rare it needs no tenderization there are instances in which marinating steak is okay I would do it with flank steak skirt and hanger those take well to marinades very simp marinades because they're a little tough and because they're generally thinner than some steaks making them Brown more quickly can be an advantage but if you're going to marinate those steaks keep it super simple lime juice oil salt pepper that's it other than that keep the marinades away from the Saks that's for your auntie to do I assume if you have an aunt that isn't like the best cook not my aana I'm not saying that about you aana you're a great cook all right I got my lovely little hanger steak here time to carve and serve I'm going to cut right with the grain just like that whoops that was a mistake there are several steaks that have a definite grain hanger skirt flank if you look at a piece of hanger steak you can see it has a really visible very obvious direction that the muscle fibers are moving in you need to cut across those muscle fibers okay because I have here two pieces of hanger stick one that has been cut across the grain one that has been cut with the grain this one if I try to tug on it you can see I'm working against all those muscle fibers full length muscle fibers it's extremely tough when you cut across the grain as you can see it's way easier to pull apart it's super tender you can see it just ort of comes apart you're cutting across the muscle fibers and this is saving work that would otherwise be being done by your mouth okay my steak is seared and cooked to my desired level of dness now it needs to rest that's all right wrong especially with a nice lean cut of beef it would be a mistake kind of to not add a nice hit of extra fat and flavor in the form of some room temperature butter this especially again if you're dealing with a lean cut of meat is going to add a whole new dimension of enjoyment to your mouth experience then once you're ready to serve you can also hit it with an extra pinch of salt and a few twists of freshly ground black pepper that is going to take a good steak and make it into a really good steak nothing else to say I was like do I say better really good or great and I went with really good actually it just said all three okay Stakes out the pan nicely seared cooked to my desired temperature and I'm hungry why stand on ceremony you know let's dig right in and I'm going to slice her right up and it's ready for display but wait there's a problem one that we're not going to see right away so just why you why don't you cut and we'll come back in like like two minutes so our steak was properly cooked seared and sliced but as you can see it's lost a tremendous amount of juices that's because we did not allow it to rest here we have a steak that was allowed to rest for 10 minutes I'm now going to slice it in the same fashion and you'll see it is not going to lose nearly as much a juice let's wait another 2 minutes and see what happens all right 2 minutes have elapsed and as you can see look at that minimal very very little juice was lost in the slicing process this steak is going to be juicier than this steak even though these were cooked exactly the same way the only difference is a 10-minute rest and what that does is prevents these juices from ending up on the table and keeps them in your kisser for my next mistake I want to try an experiment I've been told many times over the years often with somebody's hand wrapped around my neck pressed up against the wall that if you season a steak with pepper before searing it you'll burn the pepper and it will add an unpleasant flavor to the steak that's not been my experience I tend to like seasoning my steaks with pepper before I see them uh so what I want to do is season one of these guys with just plain old salt and the other one of these guys with salt and pepper I've got a salt and pepper blend happening over here hit them on both sides I'm going to sear them the exact same way in the exact same pan and then I'm going to taste test them a blind style I can see plainly that this is the peppered steak I can see plainly that this is the not peppered steak I'm going to apply very small amount of pepper to this one just so the there's still a pepper flavor so I'm not like this one doesn't have pepper on it so clearly okay so here's what I'm going to do going to cut a bite of each of these you see Nico can you help me out for a second thank you for coming so speedily you got it um I'm doing blind taste test and what we have here is on the left this is a steak that was seasoned with pepper after it was cooked this one was seasoned with pepper before it was cooked because people say that you burn the pepper if you see it I want to see if I can taste the difference so I'm going to close my eyes I need you to hand me a random one you're going to know which one's which and I'm going to tell you what I something okay so my eyes are closed I swear I'm not looking I have no horse in this race just hand me a fork oh you were going to feed me okay just stick do you want a palette cleansing yeah stick your hand thank you wait actually don't turn it okay there you go okay number two I think number two was the fresh pepper number two was pepper before then that's it folks you can season your steak with pepper beforeand thank you so much wait but I'm biased Nico come here son close the eyes a there's a guy all right that's steak number one want a pallet cleanser some olive oil sure olive oil okay just a drop okay here's steak number two I think the pepper flavor was a little bit more pronounced on the first one that's two for two folks I thought that the the second steak was peppier and that's because it was the pepper before and I think it's because it was toasted in the skillet brings out the flavor more is that the same one that I picked for more peppery correct wow so I think that proves it beyond a shadow of a doubt there's absolutely no ambiguity in this in these findings and uh thank you again for coming out here I promise I won't call you a third time my pleasure I mean I might not actually but a lot of people have asked me can you make a steak in any Pan and the answer to that is yes with reservations uh the best pan for making steak is cast iron you can get it super hot you can abuse it and you can really blast the steak with heat consistently over a long period of time if you use stainless this is going to happen we end up with a whole bunch of burnt oil and burnt steak matter on the bottom of the pan this is not going to ruin your steak and you can successfully cook a steak this way but it's going to give you hell of a cleanup job so if you're going to make steak in a pan I suggest sticking with cast iron or even nonstick if you with modern nonstick with my nonstick that you can get at Walmart right now there those modern nonstick as long as it's not Teflon it's safer to higher temperatures you don't want to get it up to this hot but you can still get it to searing temperatures and you can effectively make a good steak Pan's nice and hot in goes mistake oh no there's no fat in the pan this is obviously a cartoonish exaggeration of the problem but if you throw a steak into a pan with no fat not only is it not going to Brown that great it's going to stick like a sticky thing and you don't want that so be sure to use plenty of fat when lub lubricating your steak like my favorite butter uh-oh that's not working so great either it's turning brown and the speckled with black specks that's because butter is not a good medium for searing steak it's got too many proteins in it that burn almost immediately butter is great for finishing not good for searing we need to get things really really high heat you need to use a neutral oil like vegetable Canoa or light olive oil or if you really want to get butter flavor use ghee just use ghee you just got to use ghee just use ghee use what ghee right then we've screwed up State St States Every Which Way how do we make a make a good one mean I I can't really do New Zealand well we might we've noted a bunch of awful stes and we might a good one there's a lot of ways to make a good steak so I'm just going to show you a really standard cast iron butter based ribeye way to make a good steak in a pan on the stove possibly in the oven depend on how you feel first things first you need a very good steak it's important to invest in a high quality piece of meat for several reasons it's going to taste better the cow is going to have lived a better life and you are going to have a better experience as a result what we have here is a boneless ribeye ribeye is a great well-balanced allaround steak you have several elements to enjoy first up the eye the center of the ribeye this is just sort of like classic steak territory every time you close your eyes and imagine steak this is what this is then you have the cap this is like way fattier it's almost like it's almost like the dark meat of steak like you know chicken has dark meat this is almost like beef dark meat it's just so fatty and Rich it's beef butter and then you have a lot of fat and if you're a fat person not a fat if you like fat is what I'm trying to say if you like eating fat this is this is this is the destination right here because not only is there t T of it but also if you cook it properly all of it's going to render and turn into this butter smooth beef butter experience butter and then and then you're going to be a fat person because it's it's not good for you but you know it's good for the soul what were we talking about steak so now you've got your piece of meat how do you cook it well I'm going to start by salt and peppering it after that little experiment I'm convinced that you can pepper your steak before cooking it make sure you hit the sides if it's really thick like this you also want to hit the sides you want every bite to be as well seasoned as possible so this steak has been salted and peppered now we're going to do one of two things a for short on time let it sit out at room temperature at least for 30 minutes ideally like hour hour and a half uh this is going to let the salt penetrate into the meat these juices are going to come out to the surface and then be reabsorbed I don't know the full science of it if you want to know the science of it go check out Jay Kenji Lopez Al he has incredible breakdowns of this but long story short it helps the meat Brown better it helps it retain moisture and it deeply Seasons it and it helps it make it tender four things so I'll see you in at least 30 minutes ideally an hour so cast iron pan lots and lots of Heat lots and lots of fat you don't want to deep fry the steak but you almost do you both want to prevent the steak from sticking and you want to put a really good crust on there and the way to do that is with a lot of fat using what kind of fat vegetable oil canola oil another neutral flavored oil you don't want to use butter you don't want to use olive oil anything that's going to smoke this stuff can take a lot of heat and even when it smokes it doesn't taste that bad so we're going to bring this right up almost to its smoke point little wisps of smoke are going to be coming off that's our signal for putting the steak in there little whisps of smoke that's our cue grab the steak dry it off that pre-s salting causes the steak to exude a little bit of moisture and the less moisture you have on the surface of the steak better chance you're going to create a great crust here we go lay it away from you so any sputters and stuff go that way not towards your precious human skin press it down keep the oil moving but I want to make sure that every part of the steak is getting hit with oil and you're going to know when it's time to flip by looking at the outside edge of the steak you're going to start seeing it turn deep golden brown you might even see it stick to the pan a little bit and then lift off and that's a good indicator that it's time to flip if you go too early like this oh not ready put it back down no big deal so pick it up check okay let's see what we're working with here yeah it's flip time ready here we go oh yeah look at that now I'm going to let it sear for a moment before I start butter basting keep things hot make sure that I get a good crust formed on the other side of the steak all right so we got a pretty nice crust started on both sides of the steak now you can do one of two things you can kill the heat take it off the heat put it in a low oven 225° F to finish it cooking the rest of the way through or if you're feeling like a fancy little boy like me you can turn down the heat I'm turning it down to like medium medium low still hot enough to do some damage but not hot enough to burn butter that's the key and then I have oh I have just about half a stick of butter here which I'm going to lay down lot of it right there let it pull down there at the bottom I've got some herbs here some thyme some Rosemary and some Sage you can do one or all of those I have a shallot and I have four cloves of garlic all those are optional but all those Rock and now we got that butter and stuff in there we're going to pull the steak back here tilt the pan down here keep the heat under the steak because we don't want the butter to be getting actively blasted or it'll burn and we're going to start butter basting this is the beautiful and selfless Act of both continuing to cook the steak deeping deepening its crust and amplifying its flavor to dangerous levels so after a little bit of butter basting I'm going to start checking temp I don't think it's going to be anywhere close but I really don't want to overcook this it was expensive I've put a lot of time and effort into it and I'm smoking out my kitchen Flor so 83 what all right this has ways to go I'm going to turn down the heat and we're just going to base it till the cows come home what am I shooting for 125 that's probably my ideal temperature because it's going to come up 10° in post if you will 127 time to pull let's evacuate this guy onto a plate just like this and of course might as well bathe this in hot butter beautiful while it's resting I'm going to hit it with some flavors I'm going to take one of these nice uh fried garlic cloves and I'm going to use the surface of the steak almost like a cheese grater just rub it on there there we go all right 10 minutes time has passed let's see what awaits us back onto the plate and there we have it right where I wanted it a nice medium I personally like ribeye at a medium because it's so thick and because there's so much fat it gives more time more temperature for the fat to render so the fat becomes more edible now just to spru things up a little bit just going to throw some timer on the outside just it looks classy you know keep you classy and there you have it ribi cooked to one's desired dness super tender super flavorful extremely rich and buttery and ready for human consumption perfect so there you have it just one of the many ways to make the perfect steak I hope that you guys give it a try for yourselves I hope that these screw-ups have shown you how to avoid some screw-ups of your own and let me know what you want to see me screw up next in the comments below until then keep screwing up I most certainly will even if you don't thanks again to Sofi for sponsoring this portion of today's episode if you're new to high yield savings accounts it's an account that makes your money work harder for you by giving you something back in interest typical savings accounts with direct deposit at your local bank can earn you just 46% in interest Sofi checking in savings allows you to earn up to 4.5% apy on your savings with direct deposit which is 10 times the national average savings rate with Sofi checking and savings you get paid up to 2 days early pay no account fees and can earn up to $300 when you sign up with direct deposit here's the kicker Sofi is giving away $10,000 to enter a sign up for a Sofi checking and savings account right now using the link in my description or the QR code thank you Sofi\n"