STEAK

OUR IDEAL STEAK IS ONE COOKED IN SUCH A way that the entire surface caramelizes and forms a rich, thick crust—in other words, it is grilled. The intense heat of the grill makes it easy to obtain such a crust. But what about when the weather makes grilling impractical? We wanted to get the same result from sautéing.

This task turned out to be harder than we imagined. Sometimes we did get the great crust we were looking for, but sometimes we didn't. We needed to figure out which cuts of steak and what cooking technique were best suited to sautéing.

It quickly became clear that boneless steaks are a must when sautéing. The bone in a T-bone or porterhouse steak protrudes slightly above the meat. When grilling, this slightly thicker bone makes no difference in cooking because the meat can sag slightly between the open wrungs on the rack. When sautéing, this does not happen. The bone remains in contact with the pan but the meat remains slightly elevated above the solid pan surface. The result is poor browning.

A boneless steak comes into direct contact with the pan and browns much more easily. We found that our favorite steaks on the grill—the strip and the rib (see figure 14)—worked equally well in a hot skillet as long as we chose boneless versions. We wondered, though, if any cheaper cuts would work. On the grill, we like to cook shoulder steak cut for London broil and flank steak. However, these long pieces of meat are not suited to sautéing—they don't fit in a round skillet. We needed smaller, individual steaks that looked like the strip or rib steak.

We tested top and bottom round, the cuts many sources suggest for cooks on a budget. The top round was tough and bland. The bottom round had a better flavor, but the texture was equally tough. Our butcher recommended top sirloin as well as boneless top butt, or rump, steaks. Although these steaks cost about as much as the round, we found them to be more flavorful and less chewy. At half the price of rib-eye and strip steak, the top sirloin offers an excellent value (see figure 15).

With our cuts of meat chosen, we started to refine our technique. It was obvious to us from the beginning that the key to browning the steaks was going to be preheating the pan, so that when the steaks hit, the surface it would be hot enough to sear the meat before it had a chance to overcook. (We also found out the hard way that the steak may stick if the pan isn't well heated, leaving the delicious seared flavor in the pan, not the steak.)

We sautéed steaks in two tablespoons, one tablespoon, two teaspoons, and one teaspoon of oil. Since all of our preferred cuts of steaks give off some fat as they cook, we found that one teaspoon was adequate and kept the splattering to a minimum.

We wondered if a combination of high and medium heat would deliver the best results—browning the exterior and then allowing the interior to cook through. We found that constant high heat delivers the best-looking and best-tasting crust. Although the interior is a bit underdone when the steak comes out of the pan, a five-minute rest lets the interior finish cooking and allows the juices to be redistributed evenly throughout the meat.