For a very long time I’ve tried to create the perfect steak. I’ve served it overcooked and no one ate it. I’ve served it undercooked and everyone was best friends with the microwave. This to. E I served it perfectly and this is how I did it.

The perfect steak, regardless of the cut needs to be as close to room temperature as possible. I’ve learned that if you cook it from a little bit frozen it will turn out burnt on the outside and raw on the inside.

The next thing you have to look at it is the thickness of the steak. The thinner the steak the less time you need to cook it.

Now let’s look at the cut. Generally, the more expensive the meat. The better the cut. This time, I used a sirloin which is not the most expensive but has a good fat to meat ratio. Cuts like a fillet need no fat, they’re perfect! If you can’t see any sinew, run your finger down the steak to see if you can feel any “hard lines”. If your steak has that, you bought meat from a butcher that doesn’t know what they’re doing.

Here comes the taste part. Whether your basting, marinading or just spicing the meat, it has to be done well in advance. Not only so the flavour can penerate the surface but most of the spices, sauces, marinades we use are full of tenderising properties. That basically means that you don’t have to soften it. I’ve used coke/cola as a meat tenderiser before and it works wonders!!

For any steak to have that amazing charr and caramelised fat, you need to have the stove on the highest you can handle. Throw in some oil on a pan and sear that baby. This is where the tricky part comes in: if you have a thin steak, you might just need to sear it and it’ll be ready. For the thicker steaks, it can be 2 up to 4 minutes on each side to get the perfect medium rare. I’m sure you’ve seen this image circulating on social media and it actually is a good guide to test hone ‘done’ the meat is

The most important part of cooking the perfect steak is this final one: let its rest before serving.

Have you ever had some e serve you steak and salad, and you start eating the salad, only to find that you salad is swimming in pool of partially cooked blood!? Whoever cooked that, never let it rest on the side before serving it.

Creating the perfect steak takes practice and concentration. You will probably not get it right the first time you try, but just focus and trace your steps.