The Perfect Steak

How to cook the perfect steak

(including our chef-friend Cristian’s top tips!)

Ingredients

Steak

Salt

Pepper

Oil

Keep it simple!

Method

1. Let your steaks at room temperature.
2. Season your steaks with salt up to 2 hours before and pepper just before cooking.
3. Take orders for blue, rare, medium or well-done.
4. Heat heavy-based frying pan or BBQ until hot but not smoking.
5. Drizzle a little oil and leave for a moment.
6. Put on the well done steaks first, later the medium steaks and finally the rare Don’t be tempted to cook too many steaks at a time. They like room on the pan.
7. Sear the steak on both sides, turning every minute, for a caramelised crust.
8. Leave to rest for 5 minutes.

Cooking Times 

Fillet steak cooking times

We recommend the following cooking times for a 3.5cm thick fillet steak:

• Blue: 1½ mins each side
• Rare: 2¼ mins each side
• Medium-rare: 3¼ mins each side
• Well-Done: 4½ mins each side

Sirloin steak cooking times

We also recommend the following for a 2cm thick sirloin steak:

• Blue: 1 min each side
• Rare: 1½ mins per side
• Medium rare: 2 mins per side
• Medium: About 2¼ mins per side
• Well-done steak: Cook for about 4-5 mins each side, depending on thickness.

*Timing varies on size, thickness and type of steak.

We advise using the ‘touch-test’ instead! See below for more details!

Chef Cristian’s top tip: The steak touch test guide:

Rare: gently pinch your thumb and pointing finger together. Feel the pad part of your thumb, near your palm. A rare steak will feel soft and pudgy to touch, similar to your pad.

Medium: gently pinch your thumb and middle finger together. Now feel the pad part of your thumb, near your palm. A medium steak will feel slightly more firm but still moveable.

Well-done: gently pinch your thumb and ring finger together. Again, feel the pad part of your thumb, near your palm. A Well-done steak will feel very turgid with little give, similar to your pad.