Re: Rock hard steak
Steak is all about the quality of the meat you’re using and what you’re going for in a meal; do you want flavorful meat or do you want soft succulent steak? The different cuts of meat also determine the toughness of your steak, cuts of beef from the tenderloin area are the best…you get filet mignon from this part (the tenderest parts also have less flavor). T-Bone steak, porterhouse, and flank steak are really flavorful but also very tough…they’re usually used for outdoor grilling/BBQ’s. Another really important factor if you want a really melt-in-your-mouth steak, look for one’s with a higher fat dispersal throughout the meat, it’s called marbling. There should be even speckling of fat throughout the steak itself.
As for cooking the steak, make sure the pan you’re using to sear is extremely hot before you even think of adding the meat. The steak should be room temperature, not cold (very imp). Let each side sear for 3-4 minutes and what I usually do is preheat my oven beforehand and just throw the pan in the oven to finish off the cooking process. When it’s done, I tent it with foil and add a piece of butter atop each steak (learned that from Ina Garten), it really makes the steak taste AMAZING, super-juicy and just wow. Hope this helped!
Wow great tips on cooking steaks. Would marinating steak longer period of time make a difference as well? What is “Aged Steak”? Any tips on how long it should be marinated for and any method on keeping it wrapped in certain way?
Another question how long are you keeping the steak in the oven and at what temperature?