The Easiest Way To Bring Extra Flavor To Your Steak

The straightforwardness of a perfectly juicy, flavorful steak is a paradox in the culinary world. On one hand, the conventional wisdom is that it's dead simple. But then, often in the same breath, there's an endless list of caveats, and they frequently contradict each other. 

Bring your beef to room temperature, or pre-sear straight from the fridge? Salt and pepper only, or introduce a medley of aromatics? Somehow, every tip for a simple juicy steak is different. The truth is, the real key to a flavorful steak is an ingredient that's already in every piece of beef itself: fat.

The fat on your steak is more important than you realize — it's the foundation of keeping meat moist and flavorful. That's why well-marbled cuts of beef are superior — they help the fat melt throughout the piece, naturally providing an even richness and tenderness. But while the fat inside your steak itself can't be adjusted, you can certainly take matters into your own hands come cooking time. Adding fat to the pan with your beef has the same effect.

Not all fats are the same, and there are plenty of options for cooking a steak. Butter is the obvious choice, but it's a good one. Keep in mind that it burns at a lower temperature than pure fats, so it's typically added towards the end of cooking, or to top a steak after it comes off the heat (or you can go all-in and slowly cook steak in a butter bath for a decadent meal). 

Beef tallow, on the other hand, won't burn at high temperatures, making it ideal as a cooking fat for steak. Plus, it's the same as the stuff in the steak itself. It imparts a more, well, beefy flavor, while butter brings more deliciously sweet and nutty notes. Both will deliver plenty of richness.

Despite the essential differences between butter and beef tallow, they don't just impart their own flavor and lusciousness; they're also superb vehicles for other flavors you want to infuse your steak with. That's the reasoning behind a very popular steak technique, where aromatics like herbs and garlic sizzle in fat alongside the meat, and the resulting infused fat is spooned over the still-cooking steak. You can also add fat as the steak is resting. A compound butter of herbs or other flavorful ingredients (compound butter can include anything from mushroom stems to red wine) will serve as a topping and as a final basting for the steak.