Tips & Tricks: How to Cook the Perfect Steak for you

Before fresh meat finds its way from the butcher’s shop to the refrigerator, you should remove all sinews and silver skin with a sharp knife. Our tip: fillet steaks and other cuts keep longer in the refrigerator if they have been marinated in oil and herbs beforehand. During the ‘waiting time’ the essential oils in herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage also combine with the meat fibres, creating a fine flavour. It is important to remove the meat a few hours prior to frying or grilling it! If cold meat hits the pan, too much meat juice escapes before the pores close up and the steak becomes dry.

Classically, steak and other cuts of meat are firstly fried in a hot pan very briefly and then cooked in the oven on a low heat setting. The oven should therefore be preheated to around 80 degrees. Then the meat is fried in hot oil on each side until it easily comes away from the base of the pan – roughly around two minutes per side, depending on the thickness. It is important that you do not use a fork to turn the meat as this causes the juice to escape. A tip from our expert Christoph Himmel: ‘I want to avoid dominant roasted aromas with very tender meat so that it retains its own flavour, which is why I do not fry it too fiercely!’

The meat is then cooked in the oven until it reaches the ideal core temperature. For a rare steak, this is between 48 and 55 degrees, medium is between 56 and 59 degrees, while well done is between 60 and 62 degrees. Once the desired degree of doneness has been reached, remove the meat from the oven and allow it to rest for a few minutes. Tip: if you want to add salt, pepper and other seasoning, only do so after cooking to allow the meat to develop its full flavour.

Whether raw or cooked, the most important utensil for portioning the meat is a very sharp knife so that the fine fibres are not destroyed. Always cut steaks and fillets against the grain to ensure the meat remains tender. Our tip: fillet steaks are best cooked whole and then sliced just before serving. Coarse sea salt, freshly ground pepper, fresh herbs, freshly baked bread and a good wine turn the best cuts into a feast.