Hello friends! Today I’m going to share with you an ancient knowledge imparted to me by the internets. How to make the perfect steak. If you are anything like I was, then you make terrible steak. It’s grey and bland and if you cooked it on a Foreman Grill, disturbingly flat. No more! Let me show you:

You’ll need:

- steaks of your choice
- kosher salt
- olive oil

Seriously. That’s it.

Step 1:

Salt! Take those steaks and place them on a cutting board, plate, loved one; the surface of your choice. Next, pour kosher salt all over them. Both sides. I’m talking coated. Like this:

I know, it seems questionable. Trust me on this. The salt de-natures any connective tissue in the meat, making it tender and awesome. This method can turn crap steaks very tasty. The crappier the steak, the longer amount of time the salt should be left on. These are filet mignons, cause I’m fancy like that, so I only salted them for about 15 minutes. For lower quality steaks, increase the salting time up to 1 hour. No more than that though, or bad and scary things will happen.

Also, use only kosher salt please! Iodized table salt will only make your steak taste like iodine. I’m sure sea salt would be fine, but kosher is cheaper.

Now that your steaks are all nice and salty, wash all of that salt off. Thoroughly. Or your steak will not be tasty. Don’t you want a tasty steak? I thought you did. There will be enough salt absorbed by the steak to season it. And bonus! It also creates a sexy crust on the outside when you sear it. Which brings us to.

Step 2:

Searing! Get an oven safe pan hot over medium heat. Not stupidly hot, but water should evaporate almost immediately when sprinkled on it. Also, turn your oven on to 400 degrees. Take your rinsed steaks and coat the outside lightly with olive oil. Regular stuff is preferable, the extra virgin stuff will just burn. Now, sear the crap out of those mofos! Both sides please!

I can’t give you a specific time on this, cause all stoves and cookware will vary, but you want a nice, brown crust to form. Like this!

Don’t worry if they’re not super caramelized, the next step will take care of that.

Step 3:

Oven time! Stick them in! I use a probe thermometer, cause I don’t mind a hole in my steaks, but use your preferred method to test doneness. Leave them in until they are done. I prefer my steaks Medium Rare, so I set the alarm on the thermometer to go off at 125 degrees. My hub likes his Medium Well, so his stays in until internal temperature is 145 degrees. Medium, 135 degrees! These numbers probably aren’t exact since quite a bit of the probe is exposed to the oven temperature, but these numbers get me really close. That’s all! Again, I can’t give you time on this, but normally it takes between 10 and 15 minutes in my oven.

Step 4:

Rest! Once you remove the steaks from the oven, allow them to rest for at least 10 minutes. If you skip this, the lovely steak juices will run out and this will make you sad. Cover them up with some tin foil while you finish cooking the rest of your meal.

Step 5:

Devour!!! Serve with some sauteed green beans and mashed potatoes, like I did tonight, or some sweet potato fries. But that’s another post.

beef, filet, kosher salt, technique