Thats a perfect technique for cooking a steak - my mother-in-law is an executive chef in France and she *always* uses the thumb and forefinger test to get steaks right... and she really does.
The only thing I would say different is to try good quality, aged, rib-eye - which to me always tastes a little nicer than fillet because of the fat marbled through it - unhealthier yes, but a special taste.
Thanks Matt - I agree, the marbling does make for a more flavoursome meat. In fact, the fillet I had on Friday was quite marbled, and it was so delicious that it inspired me to write this post :)
At, last! some straight forward info without any cheffie lingo. You confirmed what I already knew, but I wanted to be sure as I'm cooking some beautiful Scottish, aged, fillet steak for some Danish businessmen.
I came across this recently about making cheap steaks taste like expensive ones. Its all about the salt apparently.
http://lifehacker.com/software/cooking/turn-a-5-steak-into-a-50-steak-299951.php
Ian
Scottish fillet steak is clearly the best, Michelle, as I'm sure Ian would agree :) Not sure about taking a cheap steak and then cooking it med rare, hoping it will be as nice as a good cut, though... That said, the best steaks I've had in a long time come from Costco, even though Mrs D tends to go all out Organic.
We even bought a whole fillet from Costco in time for Christmas, and came out with to-die-for beef wellington (comfortably the very best I've ever tasted, if I say so myself... though I did follow sweary chef Ramsay's recipe from http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/F/fword/recipe_beefwellington.html)
Another post from the "Random Stuff" category. Just over a year ago, I wrote on how to cook
