Here's Why It Pays To Always Baste Your Steak With Butter

You probably don't need any outside encouragement to eat more butter or steak; these things sell themselves. But what we can tell you is you should be eating them together more frequently. A meaty, juicy steak is just about the nicest homemade meal you can treat yourself to, and it also has the upside of being relatively simple and quick. There are a lot of great ingredients that can elevate your steak, but if you are buying a high-quality cut you want to keep the focus on the rich, beefy flavor, which means using just a few simple additions that will compliment and boost what's already good about it — not distract from it. Butter is the perfect choice for that role, and basting with butter is the best way to use it.

Butter basting is wonderful for both the flavor and texture of your steak, and it delivers those results with the simplest of techniques. The first thing butter basting can do is allow you to get the perfect sear on your steak. Because you only need to baste for a minute at the end of cooking, you can cook a dry steak in a scorching hot pan and develop a great crust without any moisture getting in the way. Basting also helps the steak cook more quickly and evenly, preventing the interior from getting overdone by applying butter on all sides. And we haven't even touched the taste.

You may have heard the term "fat is flavor," and butter is the ultimate proof of that. Not only will butter's richness add depth and complement a nice marbled steak, but butter is a fantastic carrier of other flavors. A few simple ingredients like rosemary, garlic, or shallots can be tossed into your butter as it melts before you baste, which will bring a whole new world of complexity to your steak. You can even push things in a savory, nutty direction by upgrading your basted steak with brown butter. And of course, that butter doesn't have to sit idly by after cooking is done. The leftover butter, which will have absorbed not just the aromatics, but also the browned bits of steak on the pan, can be spooned over your sliced steak as a pan sauce.

All of this steak goodness can be yours with only a few minutes of work. Once your steak has formed that perfect crust in your pan, toss a few tablespoons of butter in with your aromatics. Once the butter is melted, tip your pan gently so the butter pools in the corner closest to you, and use a spoon to continuously bathe your steak in the fat. Keep flipping your steak every 30 seconds to ensure both sides get even treatment, and take your steak off at your preferred temperature for the ultimate at-home luxury meal.