What's the best method to cook a steak indoors?

[Bolas De Fraile]

I use a blow torch,

I tried the souse vide method of steak cooking a few weeks ago, its a bit of a faff but the result is fantastic.

[Greg Who Cooks]

I have one of them brulee tourches (from BB&B). It's a bit underpowered. IMO the best bet is to just go to a home improvement store and buy a torch tip for disposable propane bottles.

[cvanhorn]

Thank you all for the advice, I will be experimenting later this week and will let you know how it goes!

[Rob Babcock]

If you live in an apartment and don't have a gas or charcoal grill then a hot skillet (or better still, two) is your best bet. Ideally both would be cast iron. Definitely avoid teflon which will burn. This method does generate quite a bit of smoke, so it's probably not practical unless you have a decent exhaust hood. Place one pan on each burner until they're very hot. Pour a small amount of oil into one and add the then, then apply pan spray to the bottom of the other and set it onto the steak like a panini grill. After a minute or two flip the steak. This works well if you like your steak rare/medium rare and if you let the steak come to room temp for an hour or so before cooking.

Short of this, just cooking the steak in one heavy skillet over high heat works reasonably well.

Otherwise I'd suggest you try your oven broiler. You can get pretty high direct heat this way.

If you're the adventurous sort sous vide cooking is your best bet. High quality home sous vide units are available around $300, and there inexpensive crock pot "hacks" that are cheaper still. But there's a useful method that will let you approximate a real sous vide unit that's very cheap- cooking in a cooler! All you need is an isulated cooler, the type used for soft drinks or camping food, plus a thermometer.

First place your steak in a zip-loc bag and squeeze out all the air you can, and seal it. Next, determine the temperature or degree of doneness you want in your finished steak. 130 is generally the temp that's considered medium rare. Next, fill your cooler with water of that temp. With my current settings my tap water maxes out at about 136 F. If yours won't get as hot as you like your steak done then heat it a smidge on the stove.

Then you simply drop your steak into the cooler of water and shut the lid. Within about 45 minutes to an hour your steak will be the temp of the water consistently from edge to edge. Obviously if you preheat the cooler and use a large one that holds a lot of water it will hold the heat better, as will be a better insulated one. Coleman Xtreme coolers are claimed to be able to hold ice for 5 days in 90 temps, so that would be a good option.

At any rate, once you take the steak out of the cooler you unbag it and pat it dry. Then you can sear it for 30 seconds per side in a hot pan or use a blow torch to get some crust on the outside.

The sous vide method, even the "ghetto" version outlined above, will give you a very good steak with minimal mess and smoke. I prefer using my Sous Vide Supreme at home to the products offered at most steakhouses.

[Cerise]

Originally Posted by jennyema

Searing doesn't seal in juices, though. That's a "kitchen myth"

But you need to start with a dry, preferably room temp piece of meat.


Sear and Blast method works well.

Liberally salt your steak.

Get a cast iron skillet very hot.

Turn your oven to 450.

Open a window.

Dry any moisture off the meat.

Plop it in the skillet.

Turn after about 3-4 min and put it into the oven for another 5 or until cooked to your liking.

That's pretty much how I cook my steak. Let the meat come to room temp for about 20 minutes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Try not to poke, or pierce the meat. I let it rest a few minutes after removing it from the oven, & sometimes add a pat of compound butter.

I've cooked steak (and asparagus) on the Foreman Evolve grill, & it turned out pretty well.

Evolve