- Bring your meat up to room temperature.
- Heat the oil in the pan so it’s really hot and almost smoking.
- Season your meat with salt & pepper on both sides, then add the steak to the pan – if it sizzles, you know the pan is hot enough.
- Prod the steak with your finger to see how soft it is so you can get an idea of how ‘done’ you want it. It will tense up as it cooks. Doing this will help you work out your timings.
- Add thyme sprigs and whole garlic cloves to the pan for flavour (optional)
- Press the cooked side of the steak with your finger again to see how firm/cooked it is. When you’re happy, finish the steak off by rendering the fatty edge, holding the steak on its side between tongs for a couple of minutes. The fat will melt and add flavour.
- Rest your steak for half the cooking time to retain its juices.
How long you cook it for will depend on the size and type of cut. We recommend these timings for a 2.5cm/half inch-thick sirloin steak
Blue: About 1 min each side
Rare: About 1½ mins per side
Medium rare: About 2 mins per side
Medium: About 2¼ mins per side
Well done: About 4-5 minutes each side
Rib-eye - A firm favourite in restaurants. Get the pan very hot and cook the rib-eye to medium. This will give the fat a chance to render without drying the meat out.
Onglet/Hangar - Swiftly becoming a more popular choice, onglet – also known as hangar. Full of flavour. Best served rare, cook onglet over a fierce heat for a short time.
Fillet - The leanest cut of the lot, fillet should not be cooked beyond medium rare. Low fat content in the meat means most people decide to put it over a very hot pan for almost no time at all.
Rump steak - While rump may not be as tender, it’s much more flavourful. To keep as much softness in the meat as possible, cook the meat to medium or medium rare doneness.
Sirloin – A flavourful steak with plenty of external which will keep it moist during cooking, so to let the fat permeate the meat, cook it similarly to Rib-eye, on a high heat, and to medium or medium rare.
Skirt - Like onglet, skirt possesses more flavour than many other cuts, but the trade-off is in its toughness. Best cooked in an intensely hot pan for a few minutes if that. Best served medium rare
T-bone/Tomahawk - Since the T-bone is half sirloin, half fillet, you tend to end up with a steak with a variety of textures and flavours after it’s cooked. And the fact it’s on a bone means you get an intense flavour of the meat. Best served medium rare
Frying steak - Not like other steaks Frying steak is a cheap and cheerful steak which means it can be used for stir-fries/fajita and even be marinaded and you will still get the delightful flavour
Flat iron - A flavourful steak and great for grilling. Cut from the Top Blade. Best served rare, cook Flat iron over a fierce heat for a short time. When cooked correctly it can even compete with Sirloin. Best served rare/medium