The Thinnest You Should Ever Slice Steak, According To Gordon Ramsay
Knowing how to properly slice a steak is just as important as knowing how to perfectly cook it. Whether you're hosting steak night or making sandwiches, you put a lot of hard work into getting the ideal cook on your steak — you don't want to ruin all that effort by slicing it incorrectly.
In a video shared on YouTube, renowned chef and television personality Gordon Ramsay shared several tips for cooking the perfect steak, including his guidance on the thinnest you should ever be slicing it. According to Ramsay, you should never go thinner than about half a centimeter, or a little less than a quarter inch per slice. In fact, you may even want to err on the side of caution and go with ½ inch to ¾ inch slices.
As Ramsay explains, the reason you don't want to go too thin with your slices is twofold. First of all, you want someone biting into the steak to get all the flavor you've infused into the cut of meat as well as the flavor of the steak itself, which is tougher to notice with a super-thin slice. Additionally, going a bit thicker with your slices will help each piece stay moist. While there are certainly cuts of steak that are sliced thinner prior to cooking, if you're cutting into a cooked steak, it's handy to keep Ramsay's minimum measurement in mind.
Additional tips for ensuring perfect steak slices
First of all, whatever cut of meat you're working with, you need to ensure you have a sharp knife. This will allow you to get accuracy with your steak slice thickness, and also ensure the final product looks neat and professional — no mangled edges here.
Before you even think of lifting that knife, though, you also want to give your meat some time to rest — even just a few minutes will make a huge difference. Anyone who has ever cut into a steak and seen a bunch of juices flowing out onto the cutting board knows exactly why this tip is crucial. Allowing your steak to rest allows those juices to redistribute throughout the meat, giving you a final product that's extra moist and tender.
In addition to paying attention to the thickness of each slice, you'll also want to note the direction you're slicing. For the most tender pieces of steak, you need to cut against the grain of the muscle fibers in your steak. In doing this, you break apart the muscle fibers, which makes your steak easier to chew. If you're not quite sure which way the grains run, you can try a test slice at one end to verify before you cut into the entire steak.