05.06.07
How to Cook a Blue Steak
I’ve finally had enough of the internet failing to give me an answer to how to cook a blue steak and have decided to do my own step by step instructions.
First off: What is a Blue Steak?
If you think about the difference between well done and rare, well there is just as much difference between rare and blue. It’s way beyond Very Rare. I’ve seen “blue steak” variously described as: take a cow, rip off any horns, wipe it’s arse, and throw a match on it; or my personal favourite: steak so rare, a good vet could bring it back to life! 
Don’t get me wrong, a blue steak is not Steak Tartare (which is completely raw), it is cooked though of course definitions vary as to what “cooked” means when it comes to a blue steak. When I left home as a teenager, I believed a simple idiom: If it’s not brown, it’s not cooked. So whenever I had steak, I always had it Well Done. So guess what: I hated steak! I rarely (haha) ate it, as it was tough, chewy and tasteless. I couldn’t see why everyone seemed to rate a “good steak”. It all tasted the same to me: like boot leather.
Over the years though, I figured that as half the population hadn’t died by eating rare steak, maybe it didn’t kill you on contact after all! Perhaps people were right that rare steaks were “cooked”. So I looked into it, and here’s what I found.
Here’s my take on it (disclaimer - I know nothing, and the advice here is worth what you paid for it: nothing! If you change your eating habits as a result of this post and die, not my fault, though you may have had a great last meal, lol!): anyway, as I understand it, germs on a piece of steak only grow where they come into contact with air. Therefore, the germs are only ever on the outside surface. This is why you never get even medium burgers, because the mincing process mixes up all the aerated surface bits through out. Burgers have to be well done, to kill the germs in the middle, steak isn’t like this. If you sear the outside surface, you kill the germs.
But eating even medium well done (i.e. a slight hint of pink) was what my mother had taught me was “raw meat” and it made me gag. However I implemented mind over matter and slowly went from well done, to medium well done, to medium, to medium rare, to rare, to very rare and finally to our destination: blue steak. I’ll admit, that simple sentence has taken me 10 years of my life and no small amount of “encouragement” from the missus!
And now: I love steak! Gone are the minutes of endless chewing a hunk of leather that required copious amounts of beer to make palatable enough to wash down. Blue steak is tender, juicy, full of rich flavour and best of all, melts in the mouth. This is a great picture of some blue steak:
See how only the outside is dark brown, followed about a few millimetres of light brown, then the middle is as red and bloody as the day it was born. Yummy! 
But anyway, back to the point of this post: how to cook the perfect blue steak! Here’s how I do it:
- Get the best bit of steak you can: go for fillet steak if you can get it, or sirloin steak, or if you must rump steak.
- However, also try to get the thickest cut possible.
- If you can, leave it out of the fridge for a few hours before cooking. This is to bring the steak up to room temperature, which will help the middle become warm, considering the quick cooking time (2-3 minutes).
- Salt and Pepper the steak to taste, I like a bit of sea salt and a lot of cracked black pepper corns. You can also add some herbs if you like, a sprinkling of rosemary is my favourite.
- Heat some (extra virgin) olive oil in a large frying pan. Set the heat to HIGH, you want it HOT.
- Pop in a small nob of butter, which should bubble immediately.
- Now carefully place your soon to be blue steak in the frying pan. Try to leave it alone, don’t fuss over it. No stirring or prodding, no weighing it down or pressing, the occassional shake of the pan should be all that’s required to alleviate your worries that it might be sticking.
- Make sure the heat is still on high.
- If your steak is thin, after 1 minute, that side will be done so turn it over.
- If your steak is thick, you might be inclined to stretch to 1.5 mins per side.
- After the 2nd side is done, you should ensure that no part of the surface of the steak is still uncooked. If you have a particularly thick steak, it’s possible the sides aren’t cooked, so manipulate the steak to slowly roll it round on its side.
And we’re done! Your newly cooked blue steak is ready for eating. The one I had for tea tonight was a nice Zone Diet friendly version, so I had it with a simple side salad and a black pepper sauce made from the liquor left in the frying pan, I simply added some beef stock, some red wine, and a dash of single cream. Zone diet experts will notice that this is probably a bit short on carbs for a properly balanced zone meal, but ask yourself this: where did the wine for the sauce come from, and what do you think happened to the rest of the bottle! 
Azz said,
June 30, 2007 at 6:11 pm
About time somone did this, i always ask for Very, very very very rare, i have mine about 45 seconds per side and its done! yum
Colin McNulty said,
July 1, 2007 at 11:13 am
I have a slight adaptation on the above, if you don’t like it cold in the middle (some people do, some don’t), which is after the cooking above, stick it in the oven on just 100C for 10 minutes to make sure it’s warmed through thoroughly, but not so hot that it turns the insides brown.
Nicky Brown said,
December 3, 2007 at 7:23 pm
I leave my boyfriends under the grill while i grill mine - not actually “under” the grill but under under the grill - hope you’re with me there!
This means that when i cook his blue, as he likes it, it is warm in the middle without compromising the blue part.
Colin McNulty said,
December 4, 2007 at 9:10 am
Thanks Nicky, that’s a good tip. Feel free to post an image of your blue steak up here.
Sherry said,
December 22, 2007 at 9:46 am
I always head it called “blood rare” but it is the best way to eat it. I will take a Ribeye about a inch and a half thick lightly sear both sides wrap in foil with mushrooms and place in a 200F oven for 15 min.
sam nelson said,
January 7, 2008 at 4:38 am
Im a big fan of a correctly done blue steak.
sorry Colin but IMO that pic you posted is a little overdone for me, but thats just me i guess
a few tips/tricks i have learned over the last few years of loving meat.
use an oil that has a high “burn temp” i.e. safflower oil
as you have said, leave the meat out of the fridge covered for a while to bring the temp back up a little to help with making the middle nice.
season with a small amount of fresh cracked pepper and kosher salt and some thin oil
cook in a thick HEAVY HOT!! pan
only turn the meat once and move it as little as possible
after you have cooked it, put it on a warmed plate and cover it with aluminum foil and let it sit for atleast 3 mins… the juices run out then soak back up in
then serve it on another heated plate.
sorry didnt mean to tell you how to do it those are just my ideas/tips.
i love to eat my steak no sauces but with mash potato and add a good size dollip of wholegrain mustard in the mash
Colin McNulty said,
January 7, 2008 at 9:14 am
Hi Sam,
Don’t apologise please. It’s always good to hear someone else’s view point. How about you post up a picture of the way you like it?
Colin
sam nelson said,
January 7, 2008 at 8:46 pm
ok will see what i can do… might go and select a nice cut today and see how it comes out.
fingers crossed pics to follow tomorrow
Sam nelson said,
January 23, 2008 at 2:06 am
Very sorry about the delay,
here is a quick photo of how i like it, i guess its not too far off yours
Colin McNulty said,
January 23, 2008 at 7:30 am
Ooh Sam that’s a lovely steak you have there! Good quality meat too, you can see the fat marbling. How’s the inside, warm or cold?
Sam nelson said,
January 24, 2008 at 2:19 am
the inside was perfect, nice and warm.
the meat was from our local butcher a nice cut of his $45/kg fillet steak
should have taken a photo of the rest of the plate, nice fresh broccoli from the garden, steamed beans and mashed potato (with wholegrain mustard)
was indeed a nice meal
ali said,
May 21, 2008 at 10:50 am
Great info, did one last night in our pbu for a customer, but why I chewed my nails while they ate I don’t know. I did it as you have described and it was surely ok, they paid!!
Colin McNulty said,
May 25, 2008 at 2:15 pm
That’s great ali, thanks for letting me know!
Paul Leslie said,
July 3, 2008 at 6:07 am
Colin,
magnificent - spread the word.
I wholeheartedly agree that one of the easiest ways is to just sear the steak and put it in a very hot oven for 10 minutes (while you fry the onions & garlic).
With the availability & reasonable price of Wagyu nowdays, this is an excellent meat to eat blue.
Colin McNulty said,
July 5, 2008 at 4:08 am
What’s Wagyu?
Lol said,
July 11, 2008 at 10:21 am
Interesting reading. I may try this soon.
Do you ever get steak that has come from a well hung carcass? (if you’ll pardon the expression!) Rather than looking bright pink, it tends to look a little brown even though it hasn’t been cooked. From what I have heard, a good butcher will recommend that the meat is hung a lot longer than any of the bright red meat you will see in a supermarket.
Also, how long do you keep a steak hanging around in the fridge before you eat it?
I didn’t know what Wagyu was either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wagyu
Colin McNulty said,
July 13, 2008 at 8:49 am
Well hung steak is great and it should look a dull brown colour and dry to the touch. The bright red stuff you get in most supermarkets is actually abnormal.
The easiest way of telling the quality of meat (in terms of how well it’s been hung) is its water content. Hanging meat makes it lose water through evaporation, that’s why supermarket meat is usually cling film wrapped, to artificially maintain it’s weight through water retention. You buy meat priced by weight right?
You can tell the difference before you even taste the difference by seeing how much water is released into the pan when you fry meat.