Steak, Cooked in Cast Iron - A Tutorial

Last evening, I did a side-by-side taste test between a grilled steak, and a steak cooked in a cast iron skillet. The steak cooked in cast iron was 99% as good as the grilled steak...and when it is the middle of winter, that makes the cast iron technique a very good option. Besides, this method is the way many restaurants do it. Ready? Are you in?


First, gather your ingredients. In this case, there are very few~




a cast iron skillet, your steaks (I prefer ribeye, but in this case NY strip is what I decided to pan sear) coarse salt, cracked pepper, grapeseed oil, and a glass of whatever you like to drink when you are cooking. You will not - I repeat - will not be using dish soap in this recipe. Please disregard the dish soap.

The grapeseed oil is really important here, because grapeseed oil has a very high smoking point, whereas olive oil has a low smoking point. You are going to be getting your cast iron skillet screaming hot. Do not use olive oil. You could use plain vegetable oil.

Set your oven to "broil". When it is ready, put your empty cast iron skillet in your oven....for fifteen minutes. That is not a typographical error. Fifteen.

While your skillet is under the broiler, rub a little grapeseed oil into your steaks, both sides, and season both sides of your steaks with more coarse salt and cracked pepper than seems necessary. About 1/3 of it will come off on the plate and in the skillet.


Turn your stove eye onto its highest setting...

Then, I recommend that you double up on your oven mitt protection...

Grab that hot skillet out of the oven, and immediately set it on that hothothot stove eye. Then, you sear each side of your steak(s) for 30 seconds...

Then put the whole skillet back under the broiler. Broil steaks for 2 minutes on each side. For a one inch steak, this will hopefully give you a medium to medium rare steak. Test it for doneness, but no less than two minutes per side, unless you like your steaks to moo.

When you pull them out, they will look something like this:



I promise, your husband will murmur, "Come to daddy..."

At this point, do not eat. It is imperative that any steak, grilled or pan seared, be allowed to rest. Wrap these in foil. Besides, you have a few more minutes of work to do...

...asparagus. Drizzled in olive oil, sprinkled with coarse salt and cracked pepper, under the broiler for 8 minutes...

Someone else will have prepared your mashed potatoes, or you will have prepared them ahead of time, for a quick reheat. Then, voila ! A supper fit for the gods!

This is the strip steak, removed from its foil tent...then you have your asparagus...potatoes...and by the way - those Red Wine Mushrooms? They take eight hours to simmer. That was not a typographical error. Eight hours. Make sure you are feeling extravagant on the day you make them with me, because they will require about four glasses of your best red wine. And a whole stick of butter. Because they will absorb every drop of your red wine, they go from white to nearly black. I will show you how to make them in a future blog post. These red wine mushrooms are absolutely decadent, and will spoil you forever and ever and ever.

Just for comparison, here is the grilled steak. (Justin and Hannah had the cast iron, pan seared strip, and gave it two thumbs up. I tasted it too. Realllly good.) Tim and I had ribeye off the grill. Here is my plate.

(With those sinful, decadent, eight hour red wine mushrooms, which I will show you how to make later.)



I've had fun making pan seared steak with you. Let's do it again soon!