How to Cook the Perfect Steak

Knowing how to cook the perfect steak is imperative to becoming animal-based! I love using cast iron pans for all of my kitchen cooking. Of course, nothing beats a steak on the grill, but if you want to cook your steak inside in cast iron, here is how!

Ingredients:

1 lb of steak for each person (ribeye for weight maintenance OR filet/lean sirloin/tenderloin for a protein-sparing day)

Butter for the pan

Sea salt

Optional: sprig of rosemary or sage

Instructions:

Make sure the steak is fully defrosted. It can be cold from the fridge or first brought to room temperature. Salt liberally with a high quality sea salt like Himalayan or Redmond’s Real salt on both sides. Place the cast iron pan on the burner and turn the heat to HIGH. Let the pan get good and hot for 1 minute, but not smoking. Add a small amount of butter to the pan, to just lightly cover the bottom with melted butter. Place the optional herbs in the butter, if using, and then push them off to the side of the pan. Place the salted steak in the hot pan as soon as the butter is melted but hasn’t yet browned. Turn the heat down to medium-high for a thinner steak (less than an inch), or medium for a thick steak (1.5-2 inches thick). Cook for 3-5 minutes until the bottom is nice and brown and a crust is beginning to form. Flip the steak and continue cooking on the second side and spoon some of the butter and juices from the pan back onto the steak as it cooks. You may need to continue flipping the steak every 3-5 minutes until it is done.

Optional: use a kitchen thermometer to check the internal temperature. I like to pull the steak out of the pan when the temperature is 10 degrees lower than the desired doneness because it will continue to rise about 10 more degrees. Rare is a final temp of 120, medium rare is 130, and medium is about 140. So, for medium rare, I like to cook my steak to about 120 degrees and it will continue to heat to 130 as it rests for 5-10 minutes on the cutting board. Resting also allows the juices to absorb so that they don’t run out when you cut into the steak. If you don’t have a kitchen thermometer, make a small incision in the middle of the steak in the pan to check for your desired doneness.