Gently tilting the pan to one side, use a long handled large spoon to baste the foaming butter over the steak. Remember to continue to flip it, otherwise it may overcook on one side.
Adding butter to steak adds extra richness and can also soften the charred exterior, making a steak more tender. What is this? But a good Steak Butter should complement the flavor of a steak, not mask it.
Baste quickly.
Use a metal spoon to rapidly spoon the hot butter and aromatics over the steak, concentrating on areas where the crust is less browned, until the steak registers 120 degrees.
Butter is ideal for continually basting a steak and lends itself perfectly to some cuts and for those who like to be there tenderly managing the cooking. Being there and continually basting means the butter is less likely to burn and mar the flavour.
Instead, it's a classic pan-searing technique called butter-basting that, for my money, often gives me the kinds of steaks, chops, and fish I crave.
Add you butter last to avoid burning.
Second, by the time your steak is ready the butter will have moved past browned and onto burnt, creating undesirable bitter flavors. Instead, start cooking your steak in the bare pan until it's about 20-30 degrees from your desired doneness, THEN add the butter.
Adding butter to steak is completely based on your personal preference but here are a few reasons that professional chefs approve of doing so: It increases flavor and richness. It makes for a glossy finish. It enhances the steak's texture.
If you're working with beef that isn't as richly marbled as you'd like, you can rub or brush your steaks with butter before they go on the grill. Your best option, for several reasons, is to melt your butter and apply it with a brush.
Add 1T butter and 2T olive or canola oil to the pan and watch for the butter starting to brown. Place the steak into the pan and reduce the heat to medium, cooking the first side for 4-6 minutes. Turn the steak gently with tongs, then tilt the pan and baste the cooked side with pan juices.
Butter is a great way to really enhance your steak's flavor. It is simple but effective. Steak butter is used to make the steak succulent and accentuate its delicious taste. Steak butter will give your steak a feeling of luxury.
Arroser is a French verb meaning “to baste”; it is a french term for basting with butter and other fats. Arroser is a finishing technique involving the spooning of melted butter or fat over a piece of protein in the last 1-2 minutes of cooking.
Sear steaks in the hot pan for 2-3 minutes per side. If the steak has a side of fat, turn the steak onto its side and render the fat by searing it for 2-3 minutes as well. Slide the skillet with the seared steaks in it into the oven to finish cooking.
On bringing steak to room temperature:
Allowing the meat to come to room temperature allows for a more even cook all the way through. If your meat is cold when it hits the pan, it can cause the muscle fibres to tense up. Get your steak out ahead of time – about 30-40 minutes is usually ample for a 500g steak.
The perfect steak requires time, and that is the approach that we take with salting. We recommend salting your steak approximately one hour before cooking it per inch of thickness. For example, if you were working with a steak that was 2-inches thick, then you would salt your steak 2 hours before cooking it.
Much to our surprise steak cooked with olive oil brought out the natural flavors of meat and helped maintain a desirable texture much better than butter.
Time to bring in the butter!
Once your steak is at your desired temperature, brush it with a generous amount of melted butter. This is the key to the final crust. Not only will the butter help with the magical char, but it will also taste AMAZING.
But the reality is that flipping a steak repeatedly during cooking—as often as every 30 seconds or so—will produce a crust that is just as good (provided you start with meat with a good, dry surface, as you always should), give you a more evenly cooked interior, and cook in about 30% less time to boot!
Cold butter in a hot pan may cook unevenly, parts of it burning before all the butter melts. It is better to start with a cold pan and butter that is room temperature or cold, then to heat the butter slowly.
The Seasoning
However, every great steakhouse seasons the steaks they cook. Typically a steak is seasoned with coarse ground black pepper, sea or kosher salt, garlic, and some type of signature spice. In addition to the seasoning most steakhouse's use a marinade, butter, or some type of baste or finishing liquid.
Add butter, rosemary, and garlic to skillet, tilt pan toward you so that butter pools on one side, and use a large spoon to continually baste steak with butter. Continue until butter is no longer bubbling and it smells nutty and is beginning to brown, about 1 minute.
Unsalted butter is best for making compound butter because you can control the seasonings and everything that goes in it. If you seasoned the steak with plenty of salt, and also use salted butter, the end result might well be a dish that is too salty.
Even modestly priced olive oil can give flavour to a steak and if you like that flavour, this is definitely the way to go. Whatever you cook your steak in, as long as you get the temperature, the cooking duration and resting period right, you should end up with a very appetising steak at the end of it.
Oil the meat, not the pan
This ensures a nice, even coating, helps the seasoning stick to the steak and means you won't have a pan of hot oil spitting in your face.