In life, there are fewer things more perfect than a delicious steak dinner. A delicious steak cooked medium rare, perhaps served with delicious buttery vegetables, crispy fries or potatoes, and a wonderful complimentary sauce is enough to make any keen foodie’s mouths water, yet cooking a delicious steak is not as simple as you may have thought. Sure, anybody can throw a steak under the grill or in the pan, but that does not guarantee that you will do the meat the justice it deserves. Cooking the perfect steak is an art, but once you have mastered it, you’ll never look back. For the carnivores amongst you who simply can’t get enough steak in your lives, here’s a look at a few helpful tips for cooking the perfect steak.

Marinate your steak – Steak needn’t be cooked plain, in fact, there are a number of steak marinades out there that work incredibly well. When it comes to marinating your steak however, try to keep things basic. A great marinade is simply olive oil, black pepper, a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, and a couple of crushed garlic bulbs. Coat the meat in the marinade, and leave for around 6 – 12 hours. Never marinate your steak with salt, as salt draws out the moisture.

Let the steak come up to room temperature before cooking – Before cooking your steak, you should take it out of the fridge and leave it to come up to room temperature. This generally takes an hour, depending on the temperature in the kitchen. By doing this you can help ensure that the steak cooks evenly, as cooking it directly from the fridge would take it longer to cut, and could result in the meat going tough.

Cook on a very high heat – One common mistake that people make when cooking steak, is not cooking the meat on a high enough heat. When you cook a steak, you want your pan scorching hot so that it sears and caramelizes the meat as soon as it touches the pan. This will cause a lot of smoke, so make sure you switch on your extractor fan and perhaps crack a window. Cooking the steak on a low heat would cause it to lose moisture and to stew and go tough, whereas the high heats sears the meat and locks in moisture and flavour.

Only flip the steak once – When you cook a steak, you only need to flip it once, so stop flipping the meat when there really is no need! Cook on a high heat on one side, and when you’re happy that side is cooked to your liking, flip the steak and cook it on the other side.

Oil the steak and not the pan – Another top tip for cooking steak is to oil both sides of the steak, rather than the pan. Oiling the pan would cause the steak to become too oily and greasy when cooking, whereas oiling the steak helps lock in moisture, and prevent it from sticking.

Season the steak – Just before cooking your steak, make sure you use plenty of salt and pepper. Use plenty, and when you think you’ve added enough, add a little more. Season both sides, as this will help the meat to caramelize and take on that delicious crust we all know and love.

Baste with butter and consider other flavours – Another top tip when cooking the ultimate steak, is to throw in a generous knob of butter towards the end of the cooking process. Throw the butter into the pan and baste the steak on both sides in the delicious liquid gold. You can also think about throwing in some crushed garlic and fresh rosemary, for a garlic and herb infused butter baste.

Rest the steak – When you take the steak out of the pan, place it onto a plate or board, and leave it to rest for five minutes. By resting the meat you allow the muscle fibres to relax and to soften. Eating the steak straight away would result in the meat being tough because the muscle fibres will have been contracted and tense. By resting the meat, these fibres relax, leaving you soft and juicy steak meat that melts in the mouth.