There are fewer eating joys than ravishing a tender and flavorful piece of beef that is charred on the outside and red and bloody on the inside, and so it was to my delight when I came across a hunk of cow in the supermarket. It was my intention to purchase fish and try and eat healthier after a few too many drinks the previous evening. Perhaps unfortunately, the wandering eye of a male-primate is easily overcome with instinct when passing the beef section of the supermarket, with no other choice other than to suspend all previous rational thoughts and pounce on the best looking piece of cow possible.

When it comes to ingesting the perfect steak many variables are outside the control of the home-cook. Living on a small island in the middle of the Caribbean also limits the quality of beef available for selection. There are a few critical elements to the perfect steak that the home cook has control over, they are as follows:

1. The steak must have a decent crust on the outside, while the inside is cooked to medium-rare;
2. There should be an even color inside, indicating that the steak has an even temperature throughout the meat;
3. The steak should be well salt and peppered;
4. There flavor of the steak could be enhanced through a very simple butter sauce; and
5. We are not savages, consider a non-meat side such as a potato dish.

The first two elements require some care. I have lost count of how many cookbooks, youtube videos and blogposts I have entertained to understand how to get this part right. I am not going to go through literally hundreds of methods, instead I will jump to what I have settled on. First, unpack your piece of meat and allow the surface to get as dry as possible, either do this in the fridge or under a fan. In this instance I left the steak on cake rack under the AC and ceiling fan for about an hour. Water is the enemy of the meat browning – this is a critical step.

Secondly, To ensure a good crust on the outside heat a cast-iron pan until it is glowing hot. I do not salt or pepper the meat at this point, I find it makes no difference at all to the overall result. I simply brush on some high smoke point oil on the steak and line the hot pan with a bit more oil. I then employ Heston Blumenthal’s technique of flipping the steak every 15-20 seconds to ensure the no side of the steak gets too hot. This allows a crust to form, without overcooking the center

The steak is still red raw inside. I employ Sous Vide cooking to finish it off. At this point I salt and pepper the steak, and I add some thyme to the sous vide bag. The steak is cooked at exactly 54 degrees Celsius for 2 hours.

To add some intensely amazing flavor to the steak I create a thyme/herb infused brown butter to shower over the final steak. I crush some fresh thyme, bay leaf and juniper berry and add them to the butter to slowly infuse. Water is also added to slow down the cooking process. What is left is the most intense thyme flavored butter that is out of this world.

The steak is removed from the sous vide bath, and completely dried with paper towels. The browned butter is brushed on, and salt and pepper are added. For an extra crust on the steak I sear it on very high heat for 20 seconds a side and finish it off with another dash of browned butter.

The steak does not need resting as it was cooked sous vide. It is served with saffron-infused roast potatoes (next post) with the thyme-butter on the side for good measure.

The steak achieves all the elements discussed earlier. It is as close to perfect as it can get.