As far as I was concerned as a child, steak was for grown-ups. It was what you
graduated to from burgers.
This was partly due to economics: meat was very expensive in Britain in the
1970s, and the top-quality cut you need for steak became the province of the
restaurant business — part of a big night out.
My first memories of steak are of the event, rather than the food. We’d go as
a family to a Berni Inn, with its plush maroon banquettes and flock
wallpaper. Everybody would feel awkward in their best clothes, and the food,
too, had a slightly self-conscious formality that didn’t encourage a relaxed
evening: steak daintily garnished with a grilled tomato and duck à l’orange
served on oval, willow-pattern plates. Though I can laugh at it now as “mock
posh”, at the time, it seemed the height of sophistication.
Things changed in my teens. I had a Portuguese friend, Carlos, whose mum
cooked for a family in Hyde Park Gardens in London. Whenever I visited him,
the delicious savoury smell of fried steak would be wafting its way out of
the kitchen — like in the Bisto ads, only better. Even now, that smell is
what gets me going; it’s what makes steak special.
Later, my dad took us on holidays to South Africa, where meat was cheaper and
a big steak culture existed. I began to appreciate how sublime a good steak
could be: the dark, chargrilled surface, with its butch, browned flavours
giving way to the red, velvety centre; the rich, meaty juices providing the
perfect sauce. It was more primal than posh — and all the better for it.
THE SECRET OF SUCCESSFUL STEAK
So what makes a great steak? It’s a combination of breed (the Americans favour
Hereford or Aberdeen Angus, but this alone is no guarantee of consistent
quality. In my test of various breeds, longhorn came out the clear winner);
how the cattle are fed (grass or grain — I think grain-fed animals produce
meat that is probably too rich for British tastes); the age of the animal
(younger carcasses are more tender, older ones have a more complex flavour);
the cut you choose; the colour of the meat (look for a rosy pink, rather
than dark purple); its fat content (steak should be well marbled all the way
through — it keeps the meat juicy and gives it lots of flavour); how the
meat is aged (dry-ageing gives the beef a wonderful buttery, nutty taste,
like allowing a fine wine to mature); the length of the drying time
(Robert’s Steakhouse in New York ages its meat for up to 18 weeks — this can
change its whole character); and, last but not least, the way the steak is
cooked (temperature, length of time and if it is rested before serving).
Before you start
Blue-cheese butter captures something of the spectacularly nutty, cheesy
character of aged beef. A marvellous mushroom ketchup, adapted from an
18th-century recipe, boosts all the meaty notes, and smoked sea salt
accentuates the char-grilled flavours.
But, if you’ve sourced a good breed that has been handled properly, the star
of the show will be the meat — blowtorched until browned on the outside,
then cooked long and slow for a truly tender inside. By the way, browning
doesn’t seal in the juices of the steak, it kick-starts a complicated
process known as the Maillard reaction, which adds depth and complexity to
the flavours of meat. To get those flavours without drying out the steak,
you need to brown the surface quickly and then take the heat right down. At
the lower temperature, muscle proteins contract and squeeze out water more
slowly, which is crucial to keeping the meat moist. But the steak also needs
to be tenderised, which, at this temperature, is done by enzymes that weaken
or break down collagen and other proteins. Heating the meat slowly means
these enzymes can perform their magic for several hours, effectively ageing
the meat during cooking. The result is the tenderest, tastiest steak
imaginable.
Special equipment
Food processor (optional), oven thermometer, blowtorch (the heavy-duty kind
from a DIY store: a crème brûlée special won’t do
the job quickly enough), digital probe.
Timing
On the day, a meal for four will take less than half an hour. The background
prep needs to be staggered over a couple of days: at least 48 hours ahead of
time, the cheese and butter should be sliced and left in the fridge to
infuse. About 30 hours in advance, the meat has to go in the oven for a
long, slow cook on its own. The mushrooms for the ketchup have to sit in the
fridge for 24 hours and then cook for about half an hour. Since the mushroom
ketchup will keep for a month in the fridge, you can easily prepare this
ahead of time — it’s a versatile condiment that goes with lots of other
dishes.
THE RECIPES
BLUE-CHEESE-INFUSED BUTTER
250g unsalted butter
250g stilton
1 Slice the butter and the cheese lengthways into slabs about
cm thick.
2 Tear off a large sheet of parchment paper. Place a slice of
the butter in the centre and top with a slice of the cheese. Continue
stacking alternate slices of butter and blue cheese until all have been
used. Wrap tightly, and place in the fridge for at least two days. The
flavour improves the longer you leave it.
THE STEAK
Serves 2-4, depending on how hungry you are
1 well-aged, two-bone fore rib of beef (on the bone — ask your butcher) Black
peppercorns
Sea salt
Smoked sea salt
Groundnut (peanut) oil
1 Using an oven thermometer, preheat the oven to 50C/120F/Gas
Mark .
2 Place the fore rib in a roasting tin. Brown the outside as
quickly as possible using a blowtorch. (If it’s not hot enough, the flame
will start to cook the flesh. If yours isn’t up to the job, use a very hot
pan instead.) Once the meat is browned, place it in the oven. Use a digital
probe to establish when the internal temperature of the meat has reached
50C/ 120F (this takes 4–8 hours, depending on the animal; don’t let it go
any higher — it will ruin the recipe), then let it cook at this temperature
for a minimum of 18 hours. Remove from the oven, cover and leave to rest at
room temperature for 2 hours — 4 would be better — it’s important that the
meat cools down before it is subjected to the fierce heat of the pan.
3 To prepare the steaks, hold the fore rib upright with the
rib bones side on. Run a sharp knife between the meat and the bones, and
free what should be an L-shaped piece of meat. Trim off any overly
charcoaled exterior. Slice the meat in half vertically to give two steaks,
each about 5cm thick.
W of the steak, it kick-starts a complicated process known as the Maillard
reaction, which adds depth and complexity to the flavours of meat. To get
those flavours without drying out the steak, you need to brown the surface
quickly and then take the heat right down. At the lower temperature, muscle
proteins contract and squeeze out water more slowly, which is crucial to
keeping the meat moist. But the steak also needs to be tenderised, which, at
this temperature, is done by enzymes that weaken or break down collagen and
other proteins. Heating the meat slowly means these enzymes can perform
their magic for several hours, effectively ageing the meat during cooking.
The result is the tenderest, tastiest steak imaginable.
4 Place a large cast-iron pan over a high heat for at least
10 minutes. Meanwhile, take the blue-cheese-infused butter out of the fridge
and remove the cheese. Crush the peppercorns using a pestle and mortar, add
a little of the plain sea salt and smoked sea salt, and put this mixture on
a plate. Dip both sides of each steak in the seasoning.
5 Add a film of the groundnut oil to the pan and, when it’s
smoking, add the steaks. (The surface of each steak needs to be in contact
with the pan, otherwise they won’t cook properly. If they overlap, fry one
at a time.) Fry for 4 minutes, flipping every 30 seconds. They should
develop a nice 1mm brown crust, while the interior should be uniformly pink.
6 Let the steaks rest. Allow the frying pan to cool slightly,
then add the flavoured butter and stir to melt it and collect any bits of
meat that remain. Pour into a jug.
7 Cut the steaks into diagonal slices. Add a few grindings of
black pepper, and a sprinkling of sea salt and smoked sea salt, then drizzle
the butter on top. Serve with a dollop of mushroom ketchup and tomato
ketchup.
MUSHROOM KETCHUP
For the mushroom juice
1.5kg button mushrooms
75g table salt
1 Wipe the mushrooms clean with damp kitchen paper, then chop
finely or blitz briefly in a food processor.
2 Tip the mushrooms into a fine sieve placed over a bowl, and
stir in the salt. Store in the fridge for 24 hours, or until the salt has
drawn the juice from the mushrooms.
For the pickled mushrooms
200g baby button mushrooms
100g unrefined caster sugar
300ml red-wine vinegar
1 Wipe the mushrooms clean using damp kitchen paper. Remove
the stalks, cut them into quarters and place in a bowl.
2 Tip the sugar and vinegar into a small pan and boil until
the sugar has dissolved.
3 Pour the hot pickling liquor over the mushrooms, let it
cool, then place in the fridge for 24 hours.
To finish
For each 600ml of mushroom juice, you will need:
120ml red wine
60ml red-wine vinegar
¼ tsp ground mace
½ tsp whole black peppercorns
2 cloves
1 shallot, roughly chopped
Cornflour (to thicken)
1 Measure the mushroom juice that has collected, and
calculate the quantities of wine, vinegar, spices and shallot you will need.
2 Tip the mushroom juice, wine, vinegar, spices and shallot
into a pan and bring to the boil. When the liquid has reduced by half,
remove it from the heat and strain through a sieve, discarding the spices
and shallot.
3 Pour the strained liquid back into the pan. Thicken by
adding some cornflour. (To thicken 300ml liquid, mix 4 tsp cornflour with 3
tbsp cold water. Whisk this into the hot liquid. Return the pan to the heat
and continue whisking until the ketchup thickens.) Remove the thickened
ketchup base from the heat and set aside.
4 Strain the pickled mushrooms through a sieve, discarding
the liquor. To add piquancy to the ketchup, stir pickled mushrooms into the
base, to taste (leftover mushrooms are a great accompaniment to cheese and
cold meats). Spoon the ketchup into a clean jar or container, cover and
store in the fridge.
TOMATO KETCHUP
This makes rather a lot, but it will keep for at least a month in a covered
container in the fridge.
5kg ripe, on-the-vine plum tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 large onion, peeled and finely chopped
4 tsp dijon mustard
½ tsp four-spice mix
1½ tsp ground ginger
1½ tsp salt
4 tbsp icing sugar
1 tbsp chardonnay vinegar (if you can’t find any, use another wine vinegar)
1 Core the tomatoes and reserve the stems. Place the tomatoes
in a pressure cooker and add water to a depth of 1cm. Bring the cooker to
full pressure for 20 minutes and then allow to cool. If you don’t have a
pressure cooker, slowly cook the tomatoes over a medium-low heat for about
45 minutes. Pass the tomatoes and liquid through a sieve, discarding the
leftovers.
2 Add all the other ingredients, except the icing sugar, the
vinegar and the stems, to the tomatoes. Place in a pan and simmer slowly
over a low heat until it is reduced by half — this will take about 4 hours.
Pass the mixture through a sieve again. Add the icing sugar, return to the
pan and continue to reduce over a low heat until it reaches a ketchup-like
consistency — this will take just over an hour.
3 Allow to cool, then add the vinegar. Finally, place the
reserved tomato stems into the ketchup mixture for a few hours to infuse it
with the fresh vine odour — it’s important to do this after the mixture has
cooled, as the vine aroma is destroyed by heat. Discard the stems before
serving.
THE SALAD
Iceberg lettuce — all too often overlooked in favour of more fashionable
leaves — provides a crispness that goes perfectly with steak.
1 iceberg lettuce
16 vine-ripened cherry tomatoes
2 tbsp white-wine vinegar
6 tbsp groundnut or light olive oil
Table salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Fill a large bowl with cold water. Remove the outer leaves
from the lettuce and discard. Pull off the remaining leaves, cut into
bite-sized squares (make sure the knife is sharp, otherwise you will bruise
the leaves) and place in the bowl of water for 10–15 minutes to refresh.
2 Drain the lettuce and leave to dry for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, quarter the tomatoes and place in a serving bowl. Add the lettuce
and dress the salad at the last minute — first with the vinegar, then the
oil. Season, toss gently and serve.
Extracted and adapted from In Search of Perfection by Heston Blumenthal
(Bloomsbury £20). To order for £17.99 (inc p&p), call The
Sunday Times Books First on 0870 165 8585
Hunt down the best beef
Nothing beats cultivating a good relationship with your local butcher. They
will be able to tell you where the meat comes from, cut it to your
specification and give advice on how to cook it. In the absence of one,
Heston’s first choice for steak comes from the oldest pure breed in England
— longhorn cattle — and he sources his meat from Huntsham Court Farm in
Herefordshire (01600 890296, www.huntsham.com).
He says: “The longhorn has it all for me — the nutty, grassy, blue-cheese
note I found in the steaks I ate in New York, plus a marvellous moisture and
juiciness, alongside a firm but giving texture.”
Other reputable suppliers include:
Graig Farm Organics, Wales (01597 851655, www.graigfarm.co.uk).
Award- winning beef from organically reared Hereford and Welsh Black
cattle. Affiliated with the Soil Association.
Happy Meats, Worcestershire (01886 812485, www.happymeats.co.uk).
Meat from free-range, rare breeds, from one of Rick Stein’s food
heroes.
Heritage Prime, Dorset (01297 489304, www.heritageprime.co.uk).
Well known for its biodynamically reared Aberdeen Angus and shorthorn cattle.
Rated by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Nigella Lawson.
Pampas Plains, East Sussex (0845 130 6123, www.pampasplains.com).
Aberdeen Angus and Hereford cattle, bred and reared on the grasslands of Argentina.
Pipers Farm, Devon (01392 881380, www.pipersfarm.com).
Family-run, multi-award- winning business. Specialises in local red ruby beef.
Swaddles Organic, Northamptonshire (0845 456 1768, www.swaddles.co.uk).
Well-known farm, producing organic meat. Its beef comes from native British cattle.
Other useful sources:
www.gourmetbritain.com. A fantastic
resource of artisan producers and mail-order suppliers around the country,
both for meat and other elusive ingredients.
www.farmersmarkets.net to find your
nearest farmers’ market — one of the nicest ways of sourcing
meat, as you can talk to the producer direct and find out about the
provenance of your purchases.
A short history of steak
All domestic cattle breeds are descended from aurochs, the large, long-horned beasts
depicted in cave paintings.
Remains of domesticated cattle have been found in Turkey that date back to 6500BC.
By 55BC, Romans had recorded the existence of red cattle in southwest England
— almost certainly the red Devon cattle that are still found in the region.
