To cook the absolute best steak you can, should you salt before, during, or after cooking? Use butter or oil while searing? And what's the deal with poking the steak with a fork during cooking?


The Food Lab at Serious Eats answers these questions so you can master your steak-cooking technique.

Photo by ZagatBuzz

If you look around for advice on how to cook a steak, you'll find many competing points of view on the fine details. To put to rest common points of contention, Serious Eats offers the results of some steak-cooking experiments and a scientific look at the cooking process.


In terms of salting: you need enough time to do it right (at least 40 minutes) and you should definitely salt the meat generously. Regarding searing in butter versus oil: add both, but at different points. And, well, poking doesn't really do anything (except maybe give you a false impression).

Hit up the article below for lab results, gorgeous photos, and even a timelapse video of the salting process.

The Food Lab: More Tips for Perfect Steaks