Posted on 01/04/2026 4:28:38 AM PST by where's_the_Outrage?
Cooking a steak dinner at home is not for the faint of heart. It can be difficult—requiring a good sear and the insides cooked to the perfect doneness. A lot can go wrong, and it’s easy to feel discouraged after many failed attempts.
Over the years, I’ve learned a thing or two about steak: Pull the meat from the fridge ahead of time so that it comes to room temperature, create a dry brine with coarse salt, and allow the steak to rest after cooking to retain its juices. However, I still feel underprepared every time I make it.
So, I reached out to the steak experts to help bring my steaks to the next level. With countless opinions on the subject available online, it was quite refreshing to get this information directly from experts who cook steak for a living. And to my surprise, they all said the same thing.
The Steak Experts I Spoke To
Joe (AKA Joey Dry-aged) Fraschilla: Co-owner of Porterhouse Party
Matt Moore: Author of A Southern Gentleman's Kitchen
Jimmy Vasquez: Private chef and former sous chef at ZouZous
Nate Molina: Executive Chef of The Genesee Store
The Reverse Sear
According to each expert I spoke with, the reverse sear method guarantees a perfectly cooked steak every time.
For a reverse sear, you cook your steak in the oven at a low temperature before finishing it with a high-heat sear on the stovetop. This method allows you to control the meat's doneness and ensures a more even cook.
After seasoning the steak, Chef Nate recommends placing it on a cold sheet pan and popping it in a 175°F to 195°F oven. (Most home ovens go down to only 200°F—you can use this temperature.) Cook the steaks for 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the doneness you like. The best way to check is to take the internal temperature of the steaks using an instant-read thermometer: 125°F for rare to 130°F for medium-rare.
Just before the steaks come out of the oven, heat a cast-iron skillet on the stovetop with a little oil until smoking hot. Then, sear the steaks for 30 to 40 seconds per side.
According to Matt, if you cook steaks using the reverse sear, they “will not need to be rested, and they will be cooked edge-to-edge to the desired temperature."
Pull the Steaks Out of the Fridge Ahead of Time
Matt says that the worst thing a cook can do is fail to remove the steaks from the fridge before cooking. He says, “Remove any large steaks from the fridge at least 30 minutes and up to a few hours in advance.”
It removes the chill from the steaks. The goal is to get to an internal temperature of 68°F, but even just 30 minutes on the kitchen counter will make a difference.
Chef Jimmy agrees. “You always want to pull your meat from the refrigerator ahead of time ... the closer to room temperature, the more even the cook.”
Joe recommends rubbing the steak with a coarse salt. This will “pull the moisture” and make the meat “even more tender while it reaches room temperature.”
Rub with bacon fat, crust in salt and Weber hamburger seasoning dust, sear all sides in 450F black iron skillet, place in oven at 300F until temp probe interior temperature is 115F (it will end at 120F). Remove to settle juices and deglaze skillet with clarified butter or ghee and a couple of tablespoons of red wine and pour on steak.
I always use cast iron. Olive oil...Screaming hot...at 400+ degrees. Gas grill, lid closed. Steaks seasoned with S+P...two minute sear then flip.. 1 minute sear...then off the heat...out of the pan to rest for 1 minute. Perfect every time. Thinner steaks? Lessen the time.
-——sear the steaks for 30 to 40 seconds per side——
The difference with frying apparently is skillet temperature and time
Damn, and all this time I have been trying to fit the fridge into the frying pan. Now he tells me.
Ditto! I use a gas grill to cook mainly filets. Heat the grill near high for 5 minutes and then back it down to desired cooking temp(75-80%). Then toss the meat on the grill and give it a few sliding motions so it doesn't stick. Cook for about 6 minutes per side for 8-10 oz medium rare filet.
Anyone that can’t cook a steak should stick to Hungry Man frozen dinner.
Your method sounds a bit involved for me, but great choice on the oak. Oak is quite simply the best wood there is.
Yep, 130 degrees for me. 1.5-2 hours.
No nonsense about leaving the steaks out for 2 hrs to come to room temperature (it’s unsafe).
I only cook two steaks these days, so it’s not worth firing up the propane sear station. My smoke detectors protest the Lodge pan at high temp.
I don’t season or salt the meat before sous vide, found that it adds nothing. Do you?
Too much hassle to cook it both on the stovetop and in the oven IMO. You can get a great sear and perfect doneness just on the stovetop. The key is to use lower heat.
The Maillard reaction that creates the flavorful dark brown crust, aka sear, will happen at medium-low heat on the stovetop. It just takes longer, which is actually a plus, since it allows the center to get done.
The lower heat also keeps things from getting smokey.
I do agree about the dry brining. Pat on a layer of salt and put the steak in the fridge overnight or longer. And don’t hold back on the salt.
Put a large, very wide pot on the largest eye on your stovetop. Put rings from mason jars on the bottom so the meat doesn't directly touch the bottom but it still will have water (which all will be of the same temperature) circulating on all sides.
They make expensive gizmos that look like a stick blender to convert any pot to a sous vide but I find the water's natural circulation from uneven heating works just as well. Add enough water to completely cover the meat, then turn on the burner, increasing the temperature slowly. Using a candy thermometer, let the water stabilize at 135°F (for medium rare). When the temp is right, put the meat in, still sealed in the vacuum bag. Put more jar rings on top (so there won't be any cold spots) and put a weight on top of that, enough to keep the meat weighed down and completely submerged.
Once you've done it the first time you'll know the proper burner setting, which makes the process go faster.
Leave the meat in at least an hour, longer if you put it in frozen. It won't overcook because it'll never get hotter than the water, and supposedly (I never tested to confirm) the meat won't begin to toughen until about three hours. Which makes the 'cooking' part of this very un-time-critical.
When it's done it still needs finishing over high heat for the Maillard reaction, which is what makes the crust and gives it an extra hit of flavor.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillard_reaction#Foods_and_products
I prefer charcoal but I don't use a grill, I cook the meat on top of one of those charcoal starter "chimney" gizmos. The updraft makes the charcoal burn much hotter (and faster) and with Maillarding, the hotter the better. Ruth's Chris's grills are 1800°F but my contraption only gets to about 1000°F, which is about twice as hot as charcoal in a grill.
It usually flares up but it isn't because the steak is burning. My fire is above the spontaneous ignition temperature of beef fat, so the flaring is rendered fat being ignited as it seeps out, which actually contributes to the Maillard reaction.
The down-side is I can only finish one steak at a time because of the limited space but it only takes 60 seconds on each side, and the meat needs to rest before serving so you can do several before the first is ready to be served.
I also cook pork chops by sous vide, which has the added benefit of the vacuum bag capturing all the juices rendered by the meat, which I use to make gravy, which is an essential accompaniment to the mashed potatoes. Yum!
IMO searing in a bit of tallow is the best.
Skip the dry brine. I did that with my 10 lb prime rib and the gravy was too slaty and the outside crust was too salty.
Sounds like a version of Adele Davis’s slow cooking method. She does a roast at 300 for 1 hr to kill off anything on the surface, then cooks the roast at the temperature you want it to finish at for 2 1/2 hr per pound. The result is a blackened outside, absolutely even color from edge to edge with no gradation, and no juice in the pan. It’s all in the meat.
Problem I learned at 11pm New Year’s eve was that our oven, indeed, only worked at 200 (really 180), not 135. So all our plans for a New Year’s mid day dinner went out the window and we spent New Year’s eve babysitting a remote meat thermometer so the prime rib wouldn’t overcook. Took it out at 113 and let it finish New Year’s day when we were awake.
Room temp first is right on to get that uniform color.
Slow cook works to break down fibers.
Sear before keeps the juices in when you’re cooking normal temperatures. Sear after when you’re cooking low temperatures makes the meat a bit more appealing looking because the juices will have stayed in anyway.
I DID see Adele Davis once at a lecture. Was impressed that she was, at that time, the nastiest person I had ever seen. But loved her recipes.
That’s pretty much the same technique, isn’t it? Low temp to get internal meat to desired doneness and then sear (pan or torch).
What temp do you like to sous vide at? An oven that only goes down to 200 F is too hot.
Yes, steaks beach side are the best!
Souse vide 5o about 125, then take out and sear to desir3d crispness on outside. Perfectly evenly cooked throughout. If you want it more medium done, souse vide to about 138 or so.
The best thing about souse vide is you can cook it for hours and it will s5ill be perfectly done throughout, meaning ypu csn plop the stesk in the water in morning, go to wo4k, come home, and your steak is wziting for you perfectly done.or plop in water at lunch, and forget it till dinner...
No more gu3sswork. Set the souse vide maching to desired temp, 130 for instance, and it will be 130 throughout the steak. No overcooked spots
I haven’t got into that yet. I generally use butter and bacon grease.
Microwave heats really unevenly. You will get leather edges.
Some instant cookers can be used as sous vide cookers to bring it to 125. Reportedly you cannot overcook in the spus vide.
And then you sear.
See my previous post. I use 133 degrees.
Using sous vide, you set the temperature to the desired doneness, and once it comes up to temperature it doesn’t cook any more.
Perfect steaks every time, and you pull them out whenever you’re ready to finish them.
You can also cook them sous vide, freeze them, and bring them up to temp using sous vide again.
A lot of advantages...
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