Cooking can be a difficult skill to master, but it’s a vital one at that. Having the right techniques under your belt will make prepping meals so much more enjoyable, especially when it comes to meat-based dishes.
After years of plant-based diets dominating the food world, there seems to be a growing resurgence in traditional, hands-on cookery. Learning how to cook meat properly with precision and care isn’t always easy, especially when it comes to achieving that perfectly juicy and flavoursome steak. However, expert butchers at Campbells Meat say there’s an easy five-minute trick that can massively enhance how it tastes.
“We’re seeing a new wave of meat eaters who aren’t just buying meat, they want to understand it,” said the experts at Campbells Meat.
“They’re asking how to break down a whole chicken, how to cook each cut of beef to perfection, and how to minimise waste. It’s part of a ‘back to basics’ mindset, where people want to handle food properly and cook it with respect.”
Key steps for cooking the perfect steak
If you want your steak to have the best flavour and juiciest texture ever, then there’s one key thing you need to be doing – and that’s letting it rest.
Before cooking, allow the meat to come to room temperature: at least 30 minutes for steaks, but longer for larger roasting joints.
This will help it to cook more evenly, resulting in a better texture.
Then, after cooking, rest the steak to let juices redistribute. You only need to do this for around five minutes for steaks, but it makes such a difference to the overall taste.
As well as prepping your steaks for a better taste, handling meat correctly is also essential for food safety and it’s something that every budding chef should know.
The experts recommend storing raw meat on the bottom shelf of the fridge to avoid cross-contamination, keep prep areas clean, and always wash hands and utensils thoroughly.
And using the proper utensils doesn’t just help you cut better – it could also save you from getting injured.
A dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one, so you should regularly hone your knives with a steel or sharpen with a whetstone to keep them safe.
Use the right grip, cut on a stable surface, and store blades securely in a block or on a magnetic rack