Cooking the perfect steak is an enviable culinary skill. For the best finish, Food Republic reached out to expert Erica Blaire Roby, award-winning pitmaster and Food Network “Master of Cue” Champion. She recommended cooking your steak in a butter bath. In fact, something like a café de Paris butter makes steak extra delicious, and bathing your steak is easier than it may first appear. It sounds a little silly (imagining a steak in a little bathtub of melted butter), but cooking a steak in a butter bath means you literally “bathe” it as it cooks, consistently spooning melted butter over the meat at the end.
Why go to the trouble? Roby put it simply: “The fat in the butter gives steak a smoother mouth feel, mimicking tenderness.” This way, you’re left with a tender, melt-in-your-mouth bite of steak. Use around 3 tablespoons of butter per large steak (think T-bone or ribeye steaks that are 1.5 inches thick). Roby also pointed out that you should “always do the infused butter as a last step in the cooking process, so nothing burns.” Butter has a relatively low smoke point, so it’s something you want to cook only as much as necessary — and not a moment longer. With that in mind, start with some oil in the frying pan, then move on to butter. Additionally, Roby explained that butter won’t just make your steak tender, but it “has the ability to soak up flavors from seasonings and herbs and impart them into the steak during butter bath time,” so using it provides more flavor and a better texture.
Put a spin on the butter bath for your next steak
While using plain butter to baste the steak is delicious as is, Roby said, “I always infuse my butter with some type of aromatic because it adds complexity.” After all, if you can dress up homemade steak with a slab of compound butter, why not learn how to make a compound butter to impart different spices and aromatics into the steak while it’s cooking? This way, the chosen aromatics seep into the steak, giving it ample flavor rather than just putting it on top post-searing.
When it comes to options, think of pairing strong flavors with heavy meats that can hold up to them, and softer herbs for more delicate cuts. For example, spicy cowboy butter is the perfect foil for barbecue brisket, but rosemary makes a great rub for rib-eye — and you can kick things up a notch with a garlicky rosemary butter bath. Another delicious take — try combining butter with finely chopped shallots with lemon zest. This butter version amps up a renewed zestiness with the fragrant umami flair of the shallots, complementing the meat’s richness. For a spicy take, incorporate some horseradish, or a slightly sweet, tangy take, try some sun-dried sliced tomatoes.
