Six tweaks to cook restaurant-quality steak at home

Steaks are a treat, often one with a price tag to match. So when you do put them on the menu, make sure they have everything those commercials promise: the sizzle and sear, the dark brown crust, the fat and brawn. Start with these six small tweaks, then experiment as you like until your favourite steakhouse is, well, your house.

1. Skip the marinade

Most marinade ingredients, besides sugar and salt, don’t work their way to the meat’s interior and instead just sit on the surface. When the meat hits a hot skillet, the marinade on the exterior splatters, while any remaining in the bowl ends up down the drain. Is a marinade worth the ingredients, time and extra steps? Not typically. Simply pat your meat dry and cover all sides with salt.

2. Coat it with lots of black pepper

There’s a reason beef and black pepper pair up in many classic dishes (pastrami, pepper steak, steak au poivre, Texas brisket). As the steak cooks, the peppercorns toast, growing darker and more intense, so they can cut through any richness and enhance the meat’s natural essence.

When you season your steak with salt, add a few (or more than a few) generous grinds of black pepper. Opt for coarsely ground peppercorns (finely ground will burn more quickly), and massage them into the meat to help them stick.

3. Dot with compound butter

If you want to believe in the magic of cooking, swipe plain, softened butter on a just-cooked steak and watch a silky sauce form in real time. But mash other seasonings – garlic, herbs, citrus zest, green curry paste, blue cheese – into the butter and it’ll be so much better, as the butter’s fat and the steak’s heat amplify their flavours.

Dot the steak with the compound butter as it rests on a cutting board, so the juices and butter mingle and turn into a low-effort, high-impact sauce. Serve more butter at the table.

4. Serve with a herb sauce

A bright, fresh, green herb sauce is everything a steak isn’t. So pair them. Any sauce made with olive oil, soft herbs (such as parsley, coriander, dill or mint), acid (like lemon or vinegar) and maybe another punch like chilli, capers or spring onions would be excellent — whether that’s chimichurri or salsa verde.

5. Eat with tomatoes

That wheel of tomato on your burger or the pico de gallo on your steak taco isn’t just there for a pop of colour. Like herb sauces, tomatoes step in where steak falls short, offering bursts of fresh, sweet juiciness and accentuating steak’s savouriness without any additional richness.

6. Use a thermometer

The easiest way to an excellent steak isn’t something you do, but rather something you don’t: not overcooking it. While there are many ways to tell if a steak is done – cutting into it, pressing its exterior – the soundest guarantee comes from using a meat thermometer.

For the most accurate reading, hold the steak upright using tongs and insert an instant-read thermometer through the side of the steak into the centre. As it rests, the steak will continue cooking, so aim for 49 to 52 degrees for medium-rare or 54 to 57 degrees for medium before transferring it to a cutting board.

New York Times