Rachael Ray's Simple Trick For Cooking Thick Steak To Perfection
Between pressures from inflation and advice from the medical community, the message is clear: Eat less red meat. A study published by the National Institutes of Health found that regularly consuming red meat can increase your chances of developing "diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and certain cancers." To further yuck your yum, eating a daily serving of unprocessed red meat can increase your mortality risk by 13% — or 20% if you throw in some bacon or a hot dog.
If we are expected to limit the amount of beef we consume, shouldn't the few steaks we have be the best they can be? To help take some of the guesswork out of your next celebratory steak dinner, celebrity chef Rachael Ray has a simple trick for cooking thick juicy steaks to perfection every time. In a recent TikTok post, Ray shared her rule for timing steaks (plus a great dad joke: "A steak that isn't done properly...is a misteak.").
@rachaelray A steak that isn't done properly...is a misteak. Sharing my go-tip for grilling up the PERFECT steak every 👏time👏! Click the link in my bio or use code 'RRTT16' to get 16 free meals on @realhomechef!
According to Ray, steaks should cook for seven to eight minutes for every inch of meat. Since the meat should be flipped halfway through the cooking process to ensure that both sides benefit from the Maillard reaction, be sure to cook each side for between three and four minutes. While Ray doesn't mention what degree of doneness this calculation will deliver, the steak should likely be cooked to medium-rare, providing a juicy red center with an internal temperature between 130 and 135 degrees.
Other tips for a perfectly cooked steak
Since steak is a matter of preference, you can always decrease Ray's recommended cook time to two minutes per side if you prefer a rare steak. Or, increase it to four to six minutes per side for a medium steak with a light pink interior that's up to 145 degrees. Once the steaks are done, set them on a plate to rest before serving. Ray adds that meat needs time to redistribute its juices, and failing to let it do so risks all the moisture running out once you make your first cut, resulting in the antithesis of a steakhouse-caliber meal: a dry steak. Remember that the steak will continue to cook once it's off the heat thanks to carryover cooking, so remove the meat a few degrees shy of your desired temperature.
Regardless of which cut of steak they prefer or their intended cooking method, home cooks can produce restaurant-worthy dishes at home if they learn to cook them to their desired doneness, from rare to well-done and everything in between. Other factors you'll want to keep in mind when calculating your cook time are the ratio of fat running through the meat, as well as whether or not it's bone-in. Steaks are available with varying amounts of marbling, with more fat meaning more flavor and a longer cook time. When cooking steaks with a bone, like an impressive tomahawk, cooks will notice that the meat closest to the bone takes longer to finish.