Steak is good!

Beef steak is absolutely delicious. Unless you were raised by sasquatches (What is plural for sasquatch anyway?), you’re probaby a ravenous carnivore like me. You don’t have to be a guy to be a carnivore, either. Put a slab of tenderloin down in front of my girlfriend and she’ll rip into it faster than an eye blinks. Learn how to cook one well like I do, and you’ll both be licking your plates and begging for more. They’re tender. They’re yummy. They’re filling and you can totally feel a sense of caveman bravado for mastering the king of meats: Beef steak.

First, you need to learn how to properly pick out a piece of cow flesh for cooking. Various cuts of meat are suitable for pan fried steak, and some aren’t. Here are some I recommend: Porterhouse, T-Bone, Sirloin, Strip Steak, Tenderloin and Chuck. Look for steaks that are marbled with small veins of fat running through them (rather than big globs of fat). These steaks are usually slightly pinker than red in color. A well cut piece of meat for pan fried steak are trimmed to about 3/4″ to 1″ thick.

How do you like your steak? Rare? Medium Rare? There’s a real art to being able to tell when your steak is cooked to your liking. The best tip I know for new cooks in the kitchen on how to tell when the meat is to your liking is to do it this way: First, hold your index finger and thumb together on your left hand in the classic “OK” sign. Take your finger on your right hand and press it to the pad of your left hand near the base of your left thumb. That’s the way a rare steak should feel when you press into it, just like the pad on your hand. Now, switch fingers and make the “OK” sign by touching the tip of your middle finger to your thumb, and re-feel. That’s how a medium-rare steak should feel when pressed. Ring finger for medium well, and finally pinky finger for well done. Got it? Good. If not, practice makes perfecto.

What you’ll need to cook: A pan, a spatula, two tablespoons of butter, a little table salt, some black pepper. Turn the eye of the stove on to medium high heat and add the butter. Let it melt and then once melted and sizzling away, add the steak to the pan. Let the steak sear in the butter on each side for about 30-45 seconds, then reduce the temperature to medium on the stove eye. Press into the flesh of the steak to test it’s level of done-ness. Another trick, if you like your steak medium rare like I do, when you first start to see the steak “sweat” a little blood, its cooked to medium-rare. Test with a knife if you’re not sure by cutting into the steak. Once it’s done, salt and pepper each side of the steak with a small pinch of each to taste and put on a plate.

Side items: You can use the remaining butter over medium heat to also sautee (fancy French term for “cooked in butter”) some vidalia onions, peppers or even your favorite kinds of mushrooms for a wonderful steak topping. Pan fry them turning often to prevent them from burning.

Drinks: Steak takes well to a good stout beer, a strong red wine like Cabranet or Merlot, or even a coke Zero.

Bon-burp-itite.