When do you flip steak

I can feel your bated breath through this series of tubes, so lets go ahead and take a look:. Can you tell which one is which? I knew it. I could tell exactly which steak was which. Why is it so difficult to tell them apart? Because the crusts developed on these two steaks are virtually identical.

So much for the theory that a single flip results in a better sear. But what about the cook itself? What can we learn from examining the internal doneness? Oliva oversees the kitchen at one of Wall Street's favorite steakhouses, Delmonico's 56 Beaver Street , established in Here he lists nine common mistakes that keep home-cooked steaks from reaching their full flavor potential.

Oliva says this is the No. If it's too cold, the outside will char and the inside will be a little bit rarer than it should be. If you don't let the pan heat up, you'll lose out on caramelization and you'll end up steaming your steak. The juice and blood will escape, and you'll be left with what Oliva describes as "that gray piece of meat.

According to Oliva, people either don't season the steak enough or they season only one side. When grilling a steak, sear it fast and move it to the side — unless you want a charred piece of meat. You want to cook around the open flame. And this can be true , but only in certain, very easily avoidable cases. The main culprit of reduced browning is a lack of heat and an overabundance of moisture—that is, the surface moisture on a steak needs to evaporate before it can begin browning in earnest.

When you flip a steak multiple times, the surface being cooked will cool every time it faces upwards, inhibiting browning. This effect is mitigated by the fact that repeated flipping allows for a more efficient evaporation of surface moisture. Dryness alone is not sufficient to counter the effect of a cooling surface, so when cooking relatively thin steaks with not-very-dry surfaces in not-too-hot skillets or grills, it's possible that your steak will begin to overcook in the center before they've browned sufficiently on their surfaces.

There's a simple solution to this problem: Just don't cook thin, wet steaks on low-powered grills or skillets. But it's even better to salt them at least 40 minutes in advance and let them sit on a rack until the salt gets re-absorbed into their surfaces more on that here. Your very best option is to salt them and let them air-dry overnight or longer on a rack set in a rimmed baking sheet in the fridge.

You'll be amazed at how efficiently they brown the next day. In the image above, the steak on the left was cooked with a single flip, while the steak on the right was flipped every thirty seconds. Do you see much difference in browning? I sure don't. And here they are below, after browning on all surfaces. Again, the steak on the left was flipped just once, while the steak on the right was flipped multiple times.

And again, pretty much indistinguishable browning levels. So that's all well and good—all we've proven is that you can brown a steak well whether you flip it multiple times or not. We've still yet to answer the question of why you'd want to flip it multiple times. I mean, isn't it easier to just let it sit? Well, to be honest, yes. It is a bit easier unless you, like me, are the fidgety type who likes poking and prodding at all times , and if you are manning a grill station at a busy restaurant, or perhaps cooking a dozen steaks at a time on the backyard grill, then you won't do too much harm by only flipping once.

But provided you have the inclination and opportunity, multiple flips offer two distinct advantages:. The idea is that with repeated flips, each surface of the meat is exposed to heat relatively evenly, with very little time for it to cool down as it faces upwards. The faster you flip, the closer your setup comes to approximating a cooking device that would sear the meat from both sides simultaneously.

And herein lies the true advantage to the mutiple-flip technique: your meat comes out more evenly cooked from edge to edge. You also want a cooler, medium heat area of the grill to move the steaks to once they're seared and crispy on the outside.

If you have enough burners and space on your grill, set them to a lower heat; if you don't have enough room, simply turn off the burner. If you are using a charcoal grill, one side should have a hot fire while the other a smaller, cooler flame.

If you are cooking very thin steaks, they will only need a short time over high heat. Chefs and the cooks who know their way around a kitchen or a grill know how meat feels when it's raw and when it's cooked.

The only way to learn this is to basically poke the steaks at different stages of cooking. Raw meat is almost squishy, rare meat is quite soft, medium rare meat resists your poking a bit, and medium meat springs back. Once meat feels firm, it's at least well done, if not completely overdone. Gently press a finger onto your steaks—being careful not to burn yourself—to teach yourself the difference. Yes, you should touch the steaks to test for doneness, but that doesn't mean that you should be flipping and moving and poking a lot.

Steaks should only be flipped once, and only moved once from a higher to a lower heat. And don't poke them with anything but your finger! Put the meat on a hot grill—they should sizzle immediately—and leave them there until they release on their own accord.

If you're pulling or struggling with them, they are not seared and not ready to flip. Once ready, flip them once and cook until they feel done. Do not stab them with a fork, which will release their flavorful juices into the flames below. Do not press down on them with a spatula.