Always make sure your steaks are room temperature before you cook them. You might get a nice sear on the steak's exterior, but inside, the meat will be very, very rare if it's still frozen (or, in my case, very cold). I cooked a batch of steaks for lunch and dinner today, and while they had a beautiful sear on the outside, they were definitely too rare on the inside.
A side problem was that I had bought a strange cut of steak. The meat had some beautiful marbling, but it also had a nasty tendon running up the middle that affected the steak's texture, and I had to cut around that tendon to enjoy the steak.
Despite the stupid fumbles, this was, all in all, a good first venture toward cooking a perfect steak. I'll try again soon, perhaps with a better cut of meat, and I'll allow the steak more time to defrost.
The steaks are high, get it right, damn it! I used to marinate mine for 24 hours or so, avoiding the frozen issue you describe. I've still wound up too rare in the middle though which is probably attributable to my own incompetence. I look forward to learning through your experience!
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