- [Amiel] Hi, I'm Amiel Stanek,
editor at large at bon appetit,
and this is almost every
way to cook a steak!
All right, we're looking
at a whole bunch of steaks,
what makes a steak a steak?
Well, typically a steak is
a cut of beef that is tender
enough and contains
enough intramuscular fat
or marbling to be cooked quickly,
as opposed to tougher cuts that
are used for braising or slow cooking.
There are a whole bunch
of steaks on the cow
but today, what we're working with
is the boneless ribeye steak.
We love this cut because
it has plenty of marbling,
these thick ribbons of fat
that keep things nice and juicy
and a tidy, compact shape
and we're gonna cook it
every way we can think of.
Let's look at some ways of
not cooking a steak, shall we?
First up, steak tartare!
We're simply gonna dice our
steak into nice little pieces,
people like to put all
kinds of things in tartare
but here we're just
gonna use some egg yolk,
olive oil, black pepper, and salt, boom!
Steak tartare!
It's really pretty, it's
nice and kind of glossy
with the olive oil and the egg yolk.
Mmm, really delicious, you
can really taste the beef
in its purest form here
and the bitterness of the olive
oil backs up the grassiness
of the meat this is an
amazing way to eat raw steak
if that kinda thing doesn't
make you squeamish that is.
Carpaccio!
We're gonna cut out a nice
center piece from our steak,
we're gonna butterfly it
and then we're gonna sandwich
it between two pieces of
plastic wrap and pound
it out until it's about
a quarter of an inch to an
eighth of an inch thick.
A little salt and olive oil
and vuala, beef carpaccio!
This looks great, however,
you can see that there's some
kind of gnarly shmears of fat
in there which isn't ideal,
carpaccio is usually made with
a leaner cut like tenderloin,
not a fatty one like ribeye.
Mmm, it's still really tasty though.
Beefy and clean, I'd love
a little spicy arugala
and shaved parm on top.
Raw steak smoothie.
We're gonna cut our steak,
toss it in this high powered
blender pinch of salt, little bit of water
and we'll let her rip!
Oh that looks truly foul.
Okay, there it is, folks.
Steak smoothie.
Honestly, it smells horrible,
I don't know why, it's
just water and steak
but something about the processing
did something truly evil.
Looks like a cross between pink slime
and a strawberry milkshake.
It's so thick.
It's horrible.
This is truly disgusting, do
not try this at home folks.
Seared steak.
First, we're gonna hit
both sides of the steak
with plenty of kosher salt.
It might look like a lot
but steak really needs it.
Then, we're just gonna give
it a straight forward sear
on both sides in this
smoking hot cast iron pan.
All right, nice coloring around the edges
but not so much in these
center parts that did not
make contact with the pan.
The interior looks really nice
but there's a bit more of
this over cooked gray ring
than I'd like, mmm I am not mad about it.
It's still tender, but
would've been even more juicy
if that fat had time to soften.
Not bad, but not perfect.
Seared and basted steak!
We're gonna salt it and
get the steak into that
smoking hot pan, now that
we've got color on both sides
I'm gonna turn the heat down,
slip some butter in there
and baste it a bit until
it finishes cooking.
Wow, this smells amazing!
We've got a little bit
more browning because
we didn't have to rush
the meat out of the pan,
we've still got a bit of that gray layer,
the fat is really nicely rendered.
Wow, so juicy and delicious,
the nutty brown butter
mixing with the beef fat
is really something, this
is definitely the tastiest
stovetop only method but
it's probably best for
a slightly thicker steak.
You know, it's getting
a little smokey in here,
let's take this steak party
to the backyard for a bit.
Grilled steak four ways.
We've got a whole steak
that we've oiled and salted,
we've got cubes of steak that
we've threaded onto skewers.
We've got some thinly
sliced strips of steak
that we've woven back
and forth onto skewers
and then we have some thinly sliced beef.
And we're gonna pull each of these off
the grill as they're ready!
Grilled steak!
One advantage of grilling over pan cooking
is the heat is so much more
intense so we're seeing
much better caramelization!
Wow, the interior looks awesome,
we've got an almost wall
to wall medium rare.
Mmm, super juicy, a little
bit of smoke flavor,
plenty of char, this is
one of my all time favorite
ways to cook a steak.
Cubed and skewered steak.
We're looking at way
more surface area here
than on a whole steak so
we've got more beautiful char
all around each piece!
Wow, look at that perfect interior.
Mmm, really tender,
tons of browned flavor,
still impressively juicy, this
can be tricky to get right
but when it's right,
it's really really right.
Sliced and skewered steak.
Here we have even more surface
area than our cubed steak
so we've got even more
char which is awesome!
Mmm there's still a big of
pink but it's definitely
way more cooked, mmm even
though it's not medium rare,
we've traded that perfect
interior for tons of crispy
crackly charred bits, this is really tasty
but would be even better with
some kind of soy sugar glaze.
Thinly sliced steak.
So here we've completely
maximized surface area.
These took on a ton of color
but they're all gonna be
well done no matter what.
Mmm, not bad, a smidge on
the drier side compared to
the other grilled steaks we've tried,
but they've got a ton of good smoke flavor
and plenty of char.
All right, let's head
back inside, shall we?
Toaster steak!
Okay, first things first,
we're gonna have to cut
our steak in half just
to get the pieces to fit
in the damn thing!
We're gonna pop it in and see what
comes out on the other side.
Pop goes the weasel, it's done!
Okay, the exterior leaves
something to be desired,
this fact cap actually
browned pretty nicely,
kind of expecting the inside to be amess.
Wow, more gray than I want but
not too shabby temperature-wise.
Pretty nice actually!
Definitely wish there
was more caramelization
but shockingly not bad.
Easy-bake steak.
This may be the first time
anyone has ever cooked
a steak in an easy-bake oven
in the history of the world.
It's not gonna fit so
we're gonna have to trim it
to fit this teenie tiny tray.
We're gonna slide it in here to bake
and flip it half way through!
Vuala, easy-baked steak!
I mean, honestly, it's completely
gray but it's hard to tell
it seems to be neither raw nor cooked.
Oh there's something wrong
with the way it tastes,
honestly it's kind of pretty juicy
but it tastes like plastic fumes,
I gotta spit this out.
Laser steak.
I gotta put some safety goggles on
because this is apparently
the most powerful laser
that a consumer can buy!
Behold, the Thanos 5,000
MegaWatt laser pointer,
gonna put the batteries in,
screw it together, and
then use this key to unlock
the safety, yeah there is a safety and uh,
now we're good to go I guess,
let's let 'er rip!
Yeah, no it actually looks this crazy,
it's not photoshopped, I promise.
Okay I guess it's done?
So here we have our laser-cooked,
mostly not cooked steak,
this is pretty much a raw steak
with this little patch
here that does seem to be
kind of cooked, so I'm gonna
try to kind of excise that.
I feel like I'm performing a biopsy.
Okay.
No, something is horribly wrong here,
it tastes like burnt hair!
No more lasers, not ever, no more lasers.
Stir-fried steak.
We're gonna slice our
steak into nice thin pieces
because the idea here is
that we wanna throw them in
and cook them as briefly as possible.
Little bit of oil, meat goes in.
Toss toss toss so nothing
sticks, and we're done!
Stir-fried steak!
Right off the bat I'm
gonna say that we could've
left these in the wok for
another minute probably.
We've got some nice char
around the edges here
but a lot of bits that are
still a bit medium, medium-rare.
Mmm, there's a distinct
wok flavor going on here.
It's a specific, irresistible smokiness
that I associate with
this kind of cooking.
Shaved and griddled steak.
We're gonna lock out steak
into this deli slicer
and shave it really thin,
the way you would for
a cheesesteak, we're gonna
oil up our smoking hot griddle
and slap the sliced meat down.
We're going for maximum
caramelization here,
not a medium-rare.
Now we're gonna flip it using out spatula
to shred it up a bit.
Nice, so this is really
all about the contrast
between the fully cooked
but still juicy steak
and these very browned bits.
Mmm, super succulent,
those crispy bits are almost like bacon
so so good, get me some cheeze whiz!
Steak burger!
We're gonna take our very
cold steak, cut it into chunks
and feed it through the meat grinder.
Now, we're gonna form it
gently into a fat patty,
season it with salt and
sear it in a hot cast iron.
Mmm, burger time, look at that crust!
We've got a ton of nice
browning around the edges
and it's very tender since
we've packed it so loosely.
We basically deconstructed
and reorganized steak.
Mmm, yum, I don't even want a bun.
The contrast is killer but
you can get a similar result
with a cheaper cut of beef honestly.
You know, I'm ready
for a little fresh air,
let's head back outside.
Campfire steak, three ways.
This first steak we're gonna
slap onto this preheated rock,
this one we're gonna put
directly onto these hot coals
and this one has been mummified.
We covered it with salt and
wrapped it in a wet cloth
for some reason, now we're
gonna flip these over,
and they should be done!
Hot rock steak!
Yeah, you know I'm pretty
disappointed with the crust
here yeah it's a hair overcooked
and pretty underbrowned.
Mmm, honestly, it's fine,
a little extra smoke flavor
but I can't see why I
would bother with the rock.
Coal-cooked steak.
Wow, we've got some really
impressive color going on here.
But, I can tell it's a bit
overcooked and there's quite
a bit of graying here.
A lot of smokey flavor though
and still pretty juicy.
On the whole, I love this method but it's
a bit of a wild one.
Good, but tough to control.
Mummified steak?
Okay, this is clearly a hot mess,
it looks like a burnt diaper.
Oh, still on fire, hold on.
Okay, it's really unevenly
cooked and the outside
is really disappointingly pale.
Oh, horrible!
It's inedibly salty and
tastes like a burned t-shirt.
Feel like I have to go
inside and take a shower now,
I feel filthy.
Boiled steak.
Who would boil a ribeye steak?
We would.
We're gonna season our water with salt
and just slip our steak right in there
and we're gonna pull it out
when we've got an iternal
temperature of 125 degrees, yummy!
All right, so no browning at all,
no myart reaction is happening
in such a wet environment.
Really looks gross, just
gray all over and that fat
look especially nasty.
It's pretty perfect inside.
It's tender, but it seems to
have lost some of its juiciness
medium-rare with no browning at all
just tastes kinda flabby and gross.
Hot pot steak.
We've got our pot of hot broth bubbling,
we are gonna slice our
steak as thinly as possible,
now we're just gonna lower
our meat right in there
and let it cook for no
more than 15 seconds or so
and then we're gonna pluck it right out.
Ta-da!
So if we were really eating a hot pot,
we'd be putting pieces in individually,
pulling them out and
eating them immediately
with rice, maybe a dipping sauce,
instead of cooking it all at once
with plain old chicken stock.
There's no browning at
all, that's to be expected,
it's not bad, it's very tender,
but typically this would be made
with a much more flavorful broth.
Steamed steak.
You know, for some reason,
this seems even grosser
than boiling a steak to me.
We're gonna season our steak,
plop it right in our steamer basket,
close the lid and set a timer.
I guess it's done.
Steamed steak.
This looks pretty identical
to the boiled steak,
it's maybe a little less soggy looking.
It's pretty rare, but I really don't like
the looks of all that
unrendered, unsoftened fat there.
I mean, it actually tastes
a bit better seasoned
than our boiled steak which is a plus
but the flavor is pretty indefensible.
Braised steak.
We're gonna start by searing
this steak on both sides
in this dutch oven, then we're
gonna add just enough liquid
to almost submerge it, cover it,
and let this slow cook for
about two and a half hours.
Well that is definitely well done.
While some of these outside
pieces are really tender,
this eye of the ribeye is
actually pretty tough feeling.
Mmm, I mean, it's beefy
tasting, it's not bad.
But I feel like the
steak Gods are really mad
at me for this one, this
is one expensive pot roast.
Sous vide steak.
We're gonna season our
steak, we're gonna pop it in
this plastic bag and we're
gonna use a vacuum sealer
to suck out all the air and seal it.
Then, we're gonna put it into this pot
fitted with an emersion circulator
which is gonna keep this
water at a consistent
128 degrees for the next hour and a half.
And now that our steak is a
perfect medium-rare inside,
we're gonna get it out of the
bag and sear it on both sides
just until it's browned.
Boom, done.
We're seeing pretty good
browning here which didn't take
much time to achieve and that inside,
a perfect, almost wall
to wall medium-rare,
and that's the big advantage
of sous vide cooking.
It tastes great, but there's
a slight almost sponginess
that I don't love, it's
perfect technically
but it's a little bit
soulless if you ask me.
Baked steak!
Whose excited about baked steak?
No one!
This is oiled and salted
and we're gonna pop it in
a 350 degree oven for about six minutes.
Now we're gonna flip it
and give it another six
and that is done.
All right, I can already
tell that this steak
wanted way more heat.
No caramelization to speak
of and this fat isn't looking
so good I mean it is nicely
cooked inside though.
It's tender, but I wish
it had been seared first.
350 was definitely not
enough to get the job done
on its own, this feels like
half a way to cook a steak.
Broiled steak.
So, baked didn't work out that well,
let's see if we have better
luck with the broiler.
We're basically gonna do the same thing,
just a little bit less time
and at a higher temperature.
Give it a flip.
Oh, smokey, I think that's done.
Okay, we're looking at a
disappointing lack of color.
The fat got a bit crispy
but that's about it.
We've got a lot of that
kind of gray ring here,
it wasn't quite hot enough I think.
Not terrible, but I'd much rather have
a steak cooked in a pan.
Why don't we take a backyard break while
some of this smoke clears.
Searzall steak.
We've got our steak, we've
got our searzall which is
basically just a modified blow torch
and we're gonna use it to
apply really really direct
high heat to the whole
surface of the steak.
Wow, it's getting really hot,
that's gotta be done, I'm callin' it.
You know, it was a pain in the ass to hold
that hot blow torch for so long,
but we've got some really
good color going on here.
But, cutting it, there is
some parts that look nice,
some that are over, some
that are undercooked,
it's not awful and I really
appreciate the flavor
of that crust but it's too
difficult to cook the steak
evenly this way for me
to want to do it again.
Steak on a stick.
So we've got a steak impaled on a stick
and we're gonna cook it caveman
style right over the flames
turning it every few minutes
or so so it cooks evenly.
[coughs] It's really smokey
and really really hot.
Okay, that's gotta be done now.
So, the exterior is really
more singed than anything else
and it's definitely on the rare side.
Hmm, a lot of smoke flavor, I
mean this isn't a bad method
necessarily but holding
it in front of that fire
was pretty uncomfortable and tedious.
Afterburner steak.
We've got a chimney
full of hot coals here,
we're just gonna put this
steak directly over the chimney
like so, this thing is hot people!
Tryin' to give it a flip and she's done.
Got some impressive browning,
almost verging on charred,
but it's definitely a little uneven.
This definitely would've been
better with a bigger chimney
or a smaller steak, the inside
is actually pretty gorgeous.
Big smoke flavor, really juicy,
but there's some gristly
bits that needed more time
to render, this method
has a ton of potential.
All right, let's take this back inside.
George Foreman steak.
We had to do it, folks.
Steak goes in, close it,
and let the boxing box
do its thing!
We've got grill marks but
we don't have the nice,
even char we like to see.
The inside is fine, not bad, not great.
Waffle iron steak.
Now we're gonna sling this
steak into a hot waffle iron
and see what happens,
we're gonna have to weigh
it down so it stays closed.
Wow, that is something.
We've got some decent color
at those points of contact,
nowhere else, and it's
definitely over cooked.
Yeah, pretty dry,
there's no reason to cook
a steak this way!
Infrared grilled steak.
So his spooky looking
thing is an infrared grill
which apparently is okay to use indoors?
We're gonna slap the steak right on there,
doesn't seem that hot considering
how little its sizzling.
All right, that should do it.
I think this maybe haunted
the steak more than
it cooked it, very limited browning,
and it's not terrible inside
but there's a little more of that gray
than you wanna see.
Mmm, I mean I don't hate
it but I don't see why
you would turn your kitchen
into a haunted house
when you can just heat up a pan, pass.
Pan-To-Oven steak
Gonna try a bit of a hybrid method here.
First, we're gonna sear
our steak on both sides
in a smoking hot cast iron pan,
then we're gonna transfer
it to a 450 degree oven
and let it come up to temperature.
And it's done!
Okay we've definitely got
some pretty good browning
and it picked up some extra
color probably in the oven.
I don't love the inside, a
little bit more of the gray.
Yeah, mmm, I like it, but
it's not nearly as precise
as some of the other
methods we've seen today.
Pan-To-Broiler steak.
Similar but a little bit different,
now we're gonna sear
our steak in a hot pan
and then finish it under the broiler.
Give it a flip.
[light music]
Ta-da!
Impressive color.
The broiler did a lot of good work
and the inside, it's pretty spot on.
Hmmm, this is surprisingly good,
better than the other pan to oven method.
I still think that fat
needed a little bit more time
to render but not too shabby.
Reverse seared steak.
This time, we're gonna put
our steak in a 225 degree oven
for about 25 minutes first,
just until it's medium rare.
Then, we're gonna sear it
in the hot cast iron pan
for about a minute on
each side, just like that,
it's done, reverse seared steak!
Amazing color on this one
and I'm loving the way the interior looks,
great wall to wall color
and the fat looks wobbly
and perfect, mmm, great
balance between that tender
soft meat and that crispy exterior.
This is definitely one of my all time
favorite ways to cook a steak!
Deep-fried steak.
Everything is better fried, right?
We're jut gonna season our
steak and lower it into this pot
of 250 degree vegetable
oil and see what comes out
on the other side!
Let that extra oil drip off
and we've got a deep fried steak.
That hot oil delivered
really really even color
which we like but it's
also kinda greasy looking.
Yeah, it's a bit overcooked.
Mmm, I think this method
could work really well
but deep frying is just kind of annoying.
Country-fried steak.
Normally you'd make a country
fried steak with a cheap
tough cut but we fancy!
First we're gonna use a
meat mallet to pound it thin
and create some texture,
then we're gonna dredge
it in seasoned flour,
then an egg, milk mixture,
then in flour again,
and then deep fry until
it's golden brown all over.
Damn, that looks good!
So we've got this beautiful,
golden, battered exterior
but that's coming at the expense
of any actual caramelization
of the meat itself, yeah the
inside is definitely more
medium to medium well, I mean
this is definitely a great way
to cook a steak but not such a pricey one.
Freeze-fried steak.
We're gonna score and season
our steak and then we're gonna
freeze it completely over night.
Now that it's rock hard,
we're gonna deep fry it
so the outside is crusty
but the outside is still totally frozen,
and then we're gonna
bake it until the inside
comes up to temperature.
And then we're gonna fry it
again so that the outside
gets extra crispy, and
there you have it, folks.
Wow, incredible color
from the deep frying,
some of the best we've seen today.
But that inside is, is very impressive
but not 100% perfect.
The seasoning really penetrated though
because it had so much time to sink in
and it's really tender
and really flavorful,
it's a neat party trick
but a little overboard
considering what we were able
to get with the regular old reverse sear.
All right, let's take a smoke break.
Smoked steak.
The smoker is all fired up,
we're gonna pop our steak in there
for 20 to 30 minutes
so it can cook through
and then we're gonna finish
it on a super hot grill.
Ugh, this one smells amazing,
it's almost like pastrami!
And that crust is gorgeous,
exactly what we like to see.
Ugh, that beautiful
color, wall to wall pink
really juicy looking, yum,
this is really special,
tons of smoked flavor, delicious char,
so so succulent, I'll
definitely be doing this again.
You know, that was almost too good
which probably means it's time to make a
microwaved steak.
All right, we're gonna
take our ribeye steak,
salted and put it in the
microwave for a total of four
minutes flipping it halfway through.
Happy?
I'm not!
Ugh, this looks gross.
Honestly it looks like prime rib
that's been regurgitated.
Like it cooked from the
inside out or something.
Uch, this makes me wanna cry honestly.
Promise me you'll never do this, okay?
Instant pot steak.
All right, we're gonna
use the saute function
to brown both sides of the
steak which seems to work
actually pretty well, then
we're gonna add water,
pressurize the pot and cook
it for about 10 minutes.
[light music]
And that is an instant pot ribeye.
We've got these fattier
exterior pieces that are soft
and still rich while the inside
muscle is really dried out.
It doesn't taste bad per
se but this would obviously
be so much better with a chuck roast
or other kind of beef that
begs for long, slow cooking.
Not this beautiful steak!
Slow cooker steak.
Before we slow cook our steak to death,
we're gonna sear it on both sides
then we're gonna put
it into the slow cooker
with just enough water to submerge it
and set it on low for five hours.
Ooof, that does not look good.
So, after all that time
this steak really shrunk up,
I can tell that it's gonna be
a lot drier than our braised
or instant pot steak.
Mmm, this is sad, five
hours was too many hours.
Sorry for doing this to you, steak.
Steak jerky.
We're gonna cut this
ribeye into thin strips,
salt them and then pop them
in the dehydrator to dry out
for 10 hours, all right,
let's pull these out
and take a look, looks
like jerky all right!
You know what's interesting
here is how much color
we got at such a low temperature
at such a long period of time.
Now, if you handed this to me,
I would say it was great beef jerky!
But, knowing that it
could've been a juicy,
medium rare steak, that hurts.
Dehydrated and seared steak.
So, now we're gonna try a
slightly different version of
a reverse sear, we're gonna
use the dehydrator for
the initial cooking instead of the oven.
This is gonna cook at 122
degrees for about four hours.
All right, slide that out,
now that it's up to temp
and the outside looks
kind of jerky like, we're
gonna sear it quickly
in a cast iron pan, wow
that looks good, huh?
Obviously that took some time,
but that outside color is worth it!
This is probably the
best caramelized steak
we've seen all day and that interior,
stunning medium rare, it
looks really rich and glossy,
I can't wait to try this one.
Wow, this tastes incredible.
Really complex brown flavors,
the fat got soft without rendering out
so it's really juicy an the
flavor is super concentrated.
This is an awesome way to cook a steak
if you've got four hours on your hands.
All right, today we cooked
a whole lot of steaks
in a whole lot of different ways.
What did we learn?
All of our favorite
versions were evenly browned
and crusty on the outside
and uniformly pink and juicy
on the inside, there's a
whole lot of different ways
to achieve this result but by
far the most effective methods
combined a low and slow technique
with a hot and fast one.
Also, just say no to microwaves.
Oh, and in case you're wondering,
we used all that leftover steak
to make a killer batch of chili.
Have a favorite way to cook a steak
that you didn't see here?
Drop it in the comments.
