How to fry a steak in a pan: a recipe with photos, tips and types of frying

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

If you ask people a question about their favorite dish, many will say steak. Fragrant, aged and well-cooked meat is a whole ritual. For amateur home cooks, cooking the perfect steak is truly the pinnacle of achievement. Some people find this to be a very difficult process - yes, basic knowledge is required to cook a "correct" steak. So how do you pan fry a steak?

Which piece to choose?

Whether you are grilling a steak for a casual dinner or a special occasion, the cooking process should start with choosing the right cut of meat.

The most popular parts of the carcass for this are flank, ribs, back, fillet and brisket. Make sure that the cut of meat you buy is at least 2.5-3 cm thick, contains some white fat around the edges and a lot of fat in the middle.inner part. This is the only way to successfully fry a beef steak in a pan.

Spice up with s alt

Dry steak cooks better than juicy steak. The s alt crystals absorb the extra moisture from the beef and create a smooth surface. The s alt also denatures the protein in the meat and makes the meat more tender. What does this mean? How delicious to fry a steak in a pan, adding s alt to it?

Immediately after adding the s alt remains undissolved on the surface of the meat. All the juices in a steak are inside the muscle fibers. Cooking the dish at this stage results in well-done but tough meat.

If you leave the s alt for 3-4 minutes, it will begin to draw out the liquid from the beef, which is released on the surface of the meat. If you start frying the steak at this stage, you will lose valuable juiciness by simply evaporating it in the pan. The temperature of the oil drops, the crust becomes soft, and the inside of the piece of meat becomes dry.

Starting at about 10 to 15 minutes, the brine formed by the s alt dissolving in the juices of the meat will begin to break down the muscle structure of the beef, causing it to become much more tender. The brine at the same time begins to slowly return back to the meat. After 40 minutes, most of the liquid will be absorbed by the meat back. If you leave the s alt on the steak longer, it will gradually penetrate deeper and deeper into the structure of the muscles, softening them and adding flavor.

This suggests that s alting the meat is required in advance, preferably a few hours beforeintended preparation. This is one of the professional rules for pan frying a steak.

Bring the steak to room temperature

Have you ever tasted fried meat that is hot and crispy on the outside but cold on the inside? What a score! Failure to comply with the rules of storage before cooking leads to sad consequences. The rule of thumb is to bring the meat to room temperature before putting it in the hot pan.

How can spices be used?

Before cooking the steak, rub your favorite seasoning mix onto the steak. This will allow the herbs and spices to penetrate deep into the meat during frying and saturate it with aroma through and through. How to fry a steak in a pan so that it is fragrant? The best seasonings for tender beef would be:

• Basil. It will give the steak a pleasant "Italian" taste. Use it alone or with oregano, rosemary and thyme for even more flavor.
• Black pepper. You can never go wrong with adding a mixture of s alt and black pepper. Use this seasoning as a staple when you cook beef.
• Cayenne pepper. If you like a little spicy, then the spice can be used instead of black pepper.
• Chili powder. This is another great way to spice up meat.
• Garlic. Suitable for absolutely everything. You can never go wrong with roasted or minced raw garlic or garlic powder.
• Mustard. If you like a light scent, mustard or dry mustard powder is the way to go.

Choose the best pan

If you prefer pan frying, choose a heavy-duty, heavy-bottomed cast iron non-stick skillet. Roasting will not burn the outside of the meat, leaving a slightly sweet and roasty aftertaste. Cook steaks in batches if the pan is small.

How to fry?

How to fry a steak in a pan? Do not pierce the tender meat with a fork or knife while turning. Instead, use grill tongs to keep the juices in the meat.

Furthermore, sautéing quickly over high heat does not so much affect the juiciness of the meat as it serves as a means of adding color, flavor and texture.

The best way to sear the meat is to turn it frequently so that it cooks evenly on both sides and cooks faster. This will help to avoid the grey, undercooked areas on the steak that result from long cooking on one side - this is one of the basic rules for how to pan fry a juicy steak.

For cooking, it is better to take such types of vegetable oil that do not give an extraneous odor. Refined rapeseed, sunflower or corn oil is ideal. The pan should be as hot as possible before adding the meat.

Remember types of doneness

Before frying a steak in a pan, you should remember the main degrees of roasting meat:

• Blue Rare: Cook 1 minute per side. The meat will be browned on the outside and red all over.
• Rare: Cook for 1.5 minutes on each side. The finished steak will be 75% brown on the outside and 75% red on the inside (center).
• Medium Rare: Cook 2 minutes per side. The piece of meat will be well browned on the outside, and will be half red in the middle.
• Medium: Grill for 3 minutes on each side. It will be very well done around the edges and only 25% of the meat in the middle will be red.
• Medium Well: 4 minutes per side. The steak is slightly pink inside at this stage.
• Well Done: Fry for 5 minutes on each side. The piece of meat will be 100% brown, well done.

Feel a cooked steak with your fingers to check how well cooked it is. It will be very soft in the case of light, slightly elastic in medium and quite dense in deep.

Leave the meat to rest

Let the steak "rest" for 10 minutes and then cut into pieces to get a juicy and tender dish. If the meat is too tough, cut it into very thin slices to make it easier to chew.

Add sauce for more juice

If you want to add more juiciness to the cooked meat, just mix the ketchup and any sauces and pour the mixture over the finished dish. Serve hot steak with any side dish, french fries, salad,fresh or baked vegetables or light bruschetta.

Can pork be cooked like this?

Many people wonder if it is possible to fry a pork steak in a pan? Theoretically, this can be done in exactly the same way as with beef. The only difference is that it must be deep-fried, since pork is dangerous to eat raw, even with pink juice, but this dish can no longer be called a steak, from a classical point of view.