minimal. Cut-and-peek too many times, though, and you
run the risk of shredding your steak. In reality, one or two
peeks won’t be detectable in the end product.
But there’s a bigger problem with the cut-and-peek
method: it’s not accurate. Because of the fact that juices get
squeezed out quickly from hot meat, when you cut into the
center of a still-hot steak (like one that’s still sitting in the
pan), it’ll appear to be much rarer than it really is. If you
continue to cook your steak until it appears right by the cut-
and-peek method, it’ll be overcooked by the time you
actually eat it. Remember that thick steaks continue to rise in
temperature even after being removed from the pan.
What does that mean? It means that if you haven’t yet,
you should go out and get yourself a good digital
thermometer, duh!
Unreasonably Large Pan-Seared Steaks
With really big steaks, say 1½ inches thick or greater, you
run into another problem: it’s nearly impossible to cook
them through to the center in a skillet without burning the
outside. Conventional restaurant kitchen technique is that
the best thing to do in this situation is to sear the steaks first
in a hot skillet, then pop them into a hot oven to finish
cooking through to the center. And this method works. But
there are better ways to do it. See, that method is designed
for use in a kitchen where order and expediency are the
immediate goals of the line cook. As soon as an order for a
steak comes in, the easiest course of action is to sear it, then
throw it in the oven and forget about it until it’s done, so
you can focus on other things, say, plating the half dozen