Here's How Often You Should Be Flipping Your Steak
There is something magical about a perfectly browned steak. Whether it's at home or at your favorite steak restaurant, cutting into a steak that has been cooked to perfection and for it to melt in your mouth can be a euphoric and momentous experience.
The Chopping Block reminds us of the old adage that you should only flip a steak once, whether cooking it on a stovetop or a grill. According to Serious Eats, science states otherwise, which is great news for multi-flip steak cooks everywhere. Science backs the claim that flipping your steak several times while cooking it not only cooks it faster, but yields better overall results, compared to the single flip technique (via Serious Eats). Reddit user Averagejoeqpublic explains that flipping your steak constantly also reduces the "desiccation zone" within the meat — that's a fancy way of saying "the dry area." The end result? Averagejoepublic claims that your meat sears much more evenly (and who doesn't want that?).
So, how often should you really be flipping your steak?
The verdict is in, and people are saying that you can flip your juicy steak as little as every 30 seconds, according to The Chopping Block. Yes, 30 seconds, folks. Famed food scientist and writer Harold McGee states in his book On Food and Cooking that continuously flipping your steak while cooking can help your steak cook an estimated 30 percent faster than just doing a single flip (via Serious Eats and the kitchn).
A test kitchen experiment by The Chopping Block corroborated. They tested the single flip style against the multi-flip style and found that cook time had a difference of about 20-25 percent. The single flip steak clocked in a cook time of about seven minutes, while the multi-flip steak took about five minutes and 30 seconds to cook.
But what about the browning process? There must be a difference, right? Wrong. On all accounts, the browning on all the steaks was the same (via Serious Eats, The Chopping Block, and Made in Cookware). Another added bonus of constantly flipping your steaks? It's juicer on the inside, according to The Chopping Block. In the end, it doesn't matter which flipping team you're on; all that matters is that you enjoy your steak.