How much a steak should be cooked is a decision you have to make. While I won’t try to convince you that medium rare is the only way, I can help you achieve the perfect doneness like a pro with nothing more than your two hands. This genius trick takes any guesswork out of cooking your favorite steak cut . “Doneness is such a preference and everyone has their own,” said Joe Flamm, chef-partner and culinary director of Chicago’s BLVD Steakhouse. “For something as simple as steak, prepared with just salt and fire, you want it exactly how you want it.”
Everyone might have different parameters in mind when it comes to rare, medium rare, medium, medium well or (please order the chicken) well done. In a restaurant setting, you can often send a steak back to have it taken a step further if undercooked, or to start over if it’s been negligently overcooked, but you can’t do that as easily when preparing steak at home. Read more: Experts Share the Best Ways to Save Money When Grilling We love a good meat probe for checking the temp on larger cuts of meat, chicken and other foods, but this gadget-free method works on steaks and burgers and saves you from having to pull out the thermometer.
Here we unpack a simple trick for testing steak doneness — no equipment required — to nail it every time. Fancy meat thermometers do a nice job at reading internal temps, but you can save some money and learn to test doneness like the pros do. Doneness in steak is frequently associated with color, as the steak goes from bright red when rare, through various stages of pink, until it becomes well done and has the pink cooked completely out of it. (RIP, ribeye.) It’s difficult to gauge color without cutting into the steak, which you don’t want to do until it comes off of the heat and has a moment to rest. Otherwise, the juices spill out of it, making for a drier, tougher outcome, especially if you’re going to put it back on the fire for additional cooking.