The Absolute Best Way to Cook Steak, According to So Many Tests

In Absolute Best Tests, our writer Ella Quittner destroys the sanctity of her home kitchen in the name of the truth. She's boiled dozens of eggs, mashed more potatoes than she cares to recall, and tasted enough types of bacon to concern a cardiologist. Today, she tackles steak.

In 1988, my parents bought their first meat thermometer.

They were in a butcher shop in Huntington, Long Island, and the white jacket–clad man with whom they were speaking was floored to hear that they didn't already own one. They'd just selected a New York Strip, a rare treat for young journalists paying off student loans, and they were afraid to ruin it. So they'd asked him: What's the best way to cook this steak?

"Sear it on the grill, to medium-rare," he'd said, volunteering some degrees-Fahrenheit benchmark they should use. And then, upon seeing their faces: "Don't tell me you don't own a meat thermometer. You don't own a meat thermometer?!" He rustled around in his meat surgeon uniform pockets for a Taylor model, and that was that.

His advice was, it turns out, just one of many answers. A quick Google search on "how to cook steak" reveals nearly 300 million suggestions. You could grill your meat. Or, you could cook it in a blistering skillet on the stovetop. You could start it on the stovetop, before transferring it to the oven. You could make like Bobby Flay and sear it on the stovetop, slice it, and then broil the other side. There's the reverse sear, and there's sous vide, and the list goes on.

Which makes steak a perfect candidate for our Absolute Best Tests series, in which I spend far too much time with one specific ingredient or recipe, in an effort to coax out perfection. (Afterwards, my home almost always smells terrible for days.) Shall we begin?

As always, I identified a few constants to maintain across all of the different methods I tested for cooking a steak. I chose to cook a Porterhouse steak that was roughly 1½-inches thick, but you can use your favorite cut, whether it's a filet, strip steak, or hanger. Before cooking a steak on a pan in the oven, stovetop skillet, or sous vide, pat it dry and season with ample amounts of kosher salt and black pepper—with the exception of the grilled steak, which I brushed lightly with oil before receiving its salt and pepper. I also let the steak come to room temperature for 45 minutes before its test method (this enables steak to cook more evenly because its muscles are more relaxed. This is a great rule of thumb for most proteins, albeit 45 minutes may not be necessary for smaller cuts of fish and you may need more time for whole chickens or turkeys). The steak was also consistently cooked in high heat–friendly vegetable oil anywhere oil is mentioned, and unsalted room temperature butter anywhere butter is mentioned.

I prefer a steak cooked to medium-rare (130°F), as I know most chefs do. To test the internal temperature, I used a meat thermometer. Once it reached the right temperature, I removed the steak from the heat and allowed it to rest for 10 minutes before slicing (though apparently, this is unnecessary for steak that's been cooked via sous vide or reverse sear).

Note that, in lieu of a meat thermometer, there's a common touch test employed to ascertain whether steak is medium-rare: Use a pointer finger to test whether your meat is as firm as your inner thumb pad when you're touching your thumb to your middle finger's tip. However, food safety experts advise against this method because the only way to guarantee if your meat has reached the right temperature is by using a meat thermometer.

Overall Ease & Efficiency of Method:

The stovetop-only method was by far the easiest and most efficient, requiring no special equipment or hot–skillet transfers.

Tenderness of Meat:

Sixth most tender (last place). The meat was chewier in its center than the resulting meat from the other tests—but, that's on a relative basis. It was still thoroughly delicious and pleasant to eat.

Char:

Fifth best char, meaning it was decent—better than that of the sous vide steak (in last place), but not as deep as I would have liked, because the meat came to 130°F before it had developed a fully browned crust. This also meant I had a limited time to try to render the fat from its sides, which heated the meat several degrees more as I attempted it. (It's possible I could have better controlled for this by adjusting the flame temperature down, but I was worried that decrease would diminish the char as well.)

Tenderness of Meat:

Fourth most tender. The meat was chewier than that of the reverse sear, stovetop-to-broiler, and sous vide steaks, a bit more tender than the stovetop-only steak, and tied with the grilled steak.

Char:

Third best char. This test yielded a better char than the stovetop-only, reverse sear, and sous vide steaks, but a lighter char than the grilled and stovetop-to-broiler steak.

Tenderness of Meat:

Second most tender, after the sous vide steak. (Somehow, more tender than the stovetop-to-oven steak.)

Char:

Second best char, after the grilled steak.

Tenderness of Meat:

Third most tender, after the sous vide and the stovetop-to-broiler steaks.

Char:

Fourth best sear, after the grilled, stovetop-to-broiler, and stovetop-to-oven steaks. As with the stovetop-only and the sous vide steaks, I wasn't able to get as intense a char as I would've liked before it came to temperature.

Tenderness of Meat:

The sous vide method, true to lore, delivered the most tender steak. That said—and it's hard to know why—the flavor of the meat was somehow flatter than that of the stovetop-to-broiler steak.

Char:

Sixth best char (last place). I wasn't able to achieve a deep enough char, because the meat came to 130°F well before the crust was fully browned.

Tenderness of Meat:

Fourth most tender (tied with stovetop-to-oven steak). That said, the grilled steak tasted heads and shoulders above the other steaks, despite being slightly less tender.

Char:

Easily the most charred (first place).

Maybe your friends are coming over in less than an hour, or maybe it’s the first time you’re preparing a home-cooked meal for your new partner. You need to know the best way to cook a steak and you need to know now! Long story short, if you have a grill and you can get it really hot, what are you waiting for? The best way to cook a steak is on a grill. There, I said it. Do that. It just tastes better. Cooking steak on a grill yielded the most charred meat with the absolute best flavor, thanks to the smoky coals. While the meat was not as tender as other methods like sous vide steak and the stovetop-to-broiler method, I believe the flavor and crackly charred exterior makes up for a little chewiness.

If, like me, you're a sad city dweller most of the year and don’t have access to a grill, go for the stovetop-to-broiler for the most efficient method with the charriest char and the most tender meat. It also requires no pricey kitchen equipment (looking at you sous vide). If you have a good cast iron skillet (please tell me you do), that’s as good as gold.

What method do you swear by to cook the perfect steak? Let us know in the comments.

This post was updated in December 2021 to include additional cooking tips from our editors.