I want to put the steak onto a hot pan to get that sear on the outside and uh lock in the flavor or something. But butter burns at high heats and oil doesn’t add flavor like butter.
Is there a way I can get the best of both? A nice sear but still cook in butter?
Says it’s a stirlon for example.
Hot pan. Oil the steak. Butter after .
You can use Ghee or any type of clarified butter. The milk solids are the part of the butter that burn, pure butter fat has a pretty high smoke point.
Also, don’t be afraid to add olive oil or butter to the steak after serving.
PS: Not to be TOO pedantic but searing doesn’t lock in flavors/juices, it’s just for the maillard reaction
Oh ghee! Thanks for clarifying!
Would you like Guy (Ghee) to come and help you with that steak‽
Best of both worlds is to sear in a high smoke point oil like avocado or canola and then butter baste at the end until the butter is nicely browned. Add some whole aromatics on the steak (garlic, rosemary, thyme etc.) during the butter baste for some nice flavour too.
Ghee is also an option.
Back to you Ken!
I like to use bacon fat.
Bacon fat is great stuff for steak searing. Plus it is an excuse to cook large amounts of bacon. I guess you can buy it, but then you don’t have bacon.
I like the way you think. I need to try that.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfE5Cz44GlZVyoaYTHJbuZw
Gustavo Tosta - aka Guga Foods - has a channel on YouTube where he does a lot of experiments with cooking steaks. Some of them are crazy $1,000+ steak recipes. Some of them are literal dollar store steaks cooked in a pan. They don’t always work out, but if you REALLY want to know how things change when you cook steaks in different ways, this is a really fun resource to follow.
I used to run a cooking blog, so I’ve watched dozens of world renown chefs prepare steak, and I’ve tested many different methods myself. The most popular and tasty method by far is to brush the steak with olive oil and sear it over high heat, finish cooking at lower heat, and then baste it with butter when it is finished. You can either baste it with butter in the pan, adding aromatics as desired, or just brush it down with butter and let it rest. There’s an internet trendy reverse sear method where you bake it at low heat first, and then finish it over high heat to obtain the sear, but the butter would still be applied after all of that, as the last step before resting.
This has been such a great thread I have so many new tricks to try out. I’m gonna have to buy more steak. I really want to try out the baking then sear. What heat would I bake it and for how long? Could I use an air fryer?
Here’s a reverse sear recipe from America’s Test Kitchen. Their recipes are heavily tested and usually outstanding, although frequently over-complicated. If you don’t want to invest all the time into it, then you can just use their baking instructions and do your own thing for the seasoning. I haven’t heard of using an air fryer for cooking steak, so you’re on your own there. If I had to guess, I’d say it might dry it out a little, so maybe not the best approach.
The simplest is to just lower the heat. Set the steak in there and let it get its crust by letting it… sit there.
Don’t keep flipping it. A good sear comes from good, even heating and the time+temperature. Lower the temperature and increase the time.
The caveat to that is it may come out slightly more well done. Especially particularly thin cuts. To solve that, instead start with canola and add butter after the sear. (Sear one side, reduce temp, add butter and cook the other side without flipping.)
Mix oil and butter to increase the smoke point. Or sear in oil and baste with butter at the end.
When you cook it in butter, you’re gonna wanna actively continue to baste the butter over the meat and just keep it moving so it doesn’t burn, and you would first sear the steak at high heat, then cook the rest of the way at a lower temp while you’re applying the butter and herbs and stuff.
Thanks for all the advice. I wish I posted this before I cooked my steak.
There’s always next tine!
Two shows to watch:
Good Eats
America’s Test Kitchen (especially the old shows, they delve into the how’s and why’s of everything).
For anyone just learning to cook, the ATK show and especially their cookbook are fantastic. You can find the cookbook all over for about $20, and every recipe explains how and why it works.
I think Alton did a remake of the original steak recipe using a reverse sear method. So OP make sure you arent watching the 90s version, for this particular thong anyway. Most of the old advice from good eats holds up though.
Did he? I’ll have to go look.
I pretty much never do reverse sear, or even sear-then-oven as it’s only needed for thick steaks (1" or more), and well, that’s an expensive cut so I rarely have it.
I find for thinner cuts it’ll cook through to medium-rare in the time it takes to sear.
Yeah thinner or cheaper cuts I go with Ramseys method. If I have time, even with the thinner cuts, I’ll salt it and leave it in the fridge for like 8 hours though.
Altons new method for the sear involves leaving an iron pan on the oven for 10 minutes just to heat the pan, 600° if you have an infrared. 45 second sear each side, so that might fix the sear problem if you did want to give it a shot.
You can try garlic infused olive oil
Olive oil burns at low temps and shouldn’t be used for searing.
I would generally agree, though I’ve found extra virgin can work if you keep the temp just high enough to sear.
I pretty much only use olive oil, but I keep a couple others around in case I do need to crank the heat.
The challenge is most oils that tolerate heat also have a very poor Omega 3:Omega 6 ratio, so are not great from an insulin standpoint (nor health in general).
Grape seed oil handles temp well, and is at least better than corn oil or canola if I remember right.
Lol the down voter… Hey buddy, come cook in my house, where there’s 60+ years of combined experience, with over 300 recipes, and we make 2 new recipes every month.
What about a mixture of butter and oil? There seems to be mixed information as to whether this actually yields a higher smoke point, but even if it doesn’t, it will effectively dilute the burnt flavors.
Start with a tablespoon of olive oil, and melt 2tbsp butter into it
I just let the steak’s own fat do the work, no additional fats necessary. Just be sure to allow the meat for rest for at least 5-10 minutes after cooking before you cut into it.
Sear it in oil. Once the crust is formed you can ease off the heat, add the butter (garlic and herbs too, if you want) once it’s safe, and baste. Basting might cause it to carry over cook a bit more, so be conservative with the core temp.
