Pan-fried steak! A meat professional's guide to cooking a delicious steak

last update date 2023-09-19 | release date 2018-08-02

It’s all about Preparation! This is the Method We Absolutely Recommend

If you bought high-quality steak meat, it would be ideal to cook and eat it like the ones they serve at steakhouses. But, when you actually try to cook it yourself, the meat is tough, the meat juice is running all over the place and the flavorful taste is getting away…Any disastrous experiences like that? To cook a delicious steak, it’s all about the preparation.

Preparing to Cook a Delicious Steak

1. Remove the steak meat from the fridge and let it sit for 30 minutes to 1 hour before cooking. Allow it to come up to room temperature. By doing this, the temperature gap between the outside and the inside of the meat is smaller which ensures an equal cooking process. Also, gently absorb the moisture when thawed from the meat with a paper towel.
2. To prevent the meat from shrinking when cooking, put several cuts in the meat muscle (between the red meat and the lean) with the tip of a kitchen knife.
3. Also, to prevent the meat from hardening when cooked, lightly pound the meat with a meat tenderizer mallet to soften the fibers. Be careful not to pound too much since the meat can become thinner, lose texture, and the flavorful meat juice can run out.

How to Cook a Delicious Steak Using a Frying pan

After the preparation is taken care of, let’s cook the meat with a frying pan. First, let's try with simple seasoning.

“Simple Seasoned Beef Steak" Recipe

Season the steak meat with our "Steak Spice Mix" or simply with salt and pepper. The simple seasoning allows you to taste the delicious juiciness of the meat itself.

Ingredients (for one person)

steak meat (sirloin, ribeye, etc)⋯⋯about 200g
Olive oil⋯⋯1-2 teaspoon
Meat Guy’s “Steak Spice Mix” (or salt and black pepper)⋯⋯good amount

Preparation

1. After preparation, rub the steak with olive oil and steak spice mix (or salt and pepper) just before cooking.
2. Add olive oil to a frying pan and heat the pan to a low to medium temperature. Place the seasoned beef into the frying pan and thoroughly cook each side. (Cook all sides if the meat is thick) After cooking to your preferred doneness, heat the frying pan to high and again grill both sides of meat for 10 seconds for the final touch.
3. After plating with a preheated plate, rest the steak for 5 minutes so that the left-over heat will finish cooking the meat. (If you have a meat thermometer, check to see if the center of meat is 63℃ when resting)

How to Upgrade your Pan-Fried Steak!

If you enjoyed the pure taste of the meat with the simple steak cooking method, then you’ll love this! Let's add extra ingredients to enhance the flavor.

Additional Ingredients

【Beef Tallow】⋯⋯ A good amount, (Sometimes you can get it free at the meat section. When tallow is added to red meat, the fat’s sweetness and umami work together well making less costly cuts a great cookout.
【Garlic】⋯⋯ A good amount, (Cooking the meat and garlic together will remove the smell of the meat and will add an appetizing aroma and richness.)
【Hard Liquor】⋯⋯about 10-20ml (After cooking the meat and flambé as a final touch, the flavor of alcohol is added and the smell of the meat is removed, bringing out the rich meat flavor. Also, when the alcohol has evaporated, the meat is steamed for a moment, making the meat more plump.)

Cooking the Steak

Heat the frying pan to a very high heat and add beef tallow. After it melts, add sliced garlic. When you smell the delicious garlic, add in your favorite cut of meat and then pour a splash of hard liquor (brandy, red wine, etc). Then tilt the frying pan a little, to allow the alcohol to evaporate.

Determining Your Favorite Doneness

One charm of beef steak is that you can choose your doneness. In western countries, it’s said that there are 10 different ways of doneness such as "blue rare" which is almost raw, but the following three doneness are the mainstream in Japan. Let's take a look at each characteristic.