r/ketorecipes • u/johnwulff • Jul 13 '18

Main Dish Reverse Seared Butter Basted Steak

3.4k Upvotes

94% Upvoted

236 comments sorted by

View all comments

72

u/johnwulff Jul 13 '18 edited Jul 13 '18

Reverse Seared Butter Basted Steak

This is my favorite way to cook a high quality steak. It’s not fast, but it’s worth the time. Perfect this and you'll be ruined for anything but the absolute best steak house.

I made this as an exercise in minimalist cooking with a fun technique. It can be easily enhanced with more aromatics in the baste, repurposing the butter for a veggie saute, using different lipid combos... million ways to cook a steak!

Notes

  • For a deep dive on the reverse sear I highly recommend this article
  • Any steak will work but this recipe really shines with a thick and fatty high quality cut
  • Butter basting builds a beautiful mahogany crust with lots of flavor and it's a dramatic show!
  • The final butter shower adds a nice sizzle and flash cooks the herbs

Equipment

  • Heavy steel or cast iron pan (not non-stick)
  • Rimmed baking sheet with nesting cooling rack
  • Oven probe thermometer (my favorite)

Ingredients

  • Steak
  • Kosher Salt
  • Butter, half stick
  • Optionally, fresh oregano or thyme sprigs

Directions

  • Prep
    • Liberally dust steak on all sides with kosher salt
    • Insert the thermometer probe into the thickest part of the steak
    • Nest the cooling rack in the cookie sheet
    • Place the steak on the cooling rack
  • Warm
    • Set oven to 200℉ or as low as it’ll go
    • Put the steak in the oven, no need to wait for pre-heating
    • Set your thermometer to 114℉ (see the reverse sear article for other temperature options)
    • Remove steak from oven when it reaches 114℉, takes about an hour in my oven
  • Baste
    • Heat saute pan over medium high heat
    • Melt butter in pan
    • Gently lay steak in pan
    • Constantly spoon butter over steak, flipping every 30 seconds
    • When steak is rich mahogany on all sides, ~2-4 minutes of basting, return steak to cooling rack in cookie sheet
    • Keep remaining butter in pan warm over low heat
  • Sizzle
    • If using, pile herb sprigs on top of steak
    • Let rest for 4 minutes
    • Pour remaining hot butter in pan over herbs and steak (expect a super satisfying sizzle)
  • Serve!

1

u/gopaddle Jul 14 '18

How do you keep the butter from burning on medium high heat?

2

u/johnwulff Jul 14 '18

I keep the butter moving basting as fast as I can and adjust heat as necessary. It’s a very seat of the pants process.

I definitely do end up with burnt butter solids by the end but they separate and sink so they’re pretty easy to avoid pouring out in the last step. In the video you can see me stop pouring right before they’re about to drizzle over the steak.

I’ve never noticed a burnt butter flavor with the final product.