
Stick to oils with a high smoke point and a neutral flavor, and your taste buds will thank you. So, to make a long story short, olive oil isn’t the best oil for cooking up a steak. The oil’s going to overpower the taste of the steak - making it bitter instead of letting that beautiful piece of meat shine. And while that might be great in a salad dressing or on some bread, it isn’t so great on a steak. Nobody wants that.īut even more than that, olive oil’s got a pretty strong taste even when it isn’t burnt. So, if you’re cooking your steak at high heat, that olive oil’s going to burn and make your steak taste acrid. First off, olive oil has a relatively low smoke point compared to other oils.

“Dude,” you’re thinking, “what about olive oil?” These oils can take the heat and give your steak that beautiful sear without messing with the flavor.

So, which oils are good for cooking up a mean steak? And since steak is best cooked at high heat, you want to use an oil with a high smoke point. But, if you’re using clarified butter - that’s butter with the milk solids removed - it has a higher smoke point and can handle the heat.ĭifferent oils have smoke points, too. When it does, it can fill your kitchen with blue, noxious smoke and leave your steak tasting… well, weird.īutter has a low smoke point, so it can’t handle the heat of high-heat cooking methods like searing or grilling and it will blacken and burn. You know what it is, right? It’s the temperature at which the fat or cooking oil begins to break down and smoke. When choosing a fat or oil for cooking a steak, one of the most important things to consider is its smoke point. Time to whip out that pan, take that steak out of the fridge, and get cooking.
BEST OIL FOR SEARING STEAK HOW TO
There are some real ins and outs to cooking steak in oil and butter, and it’s important to know what they are, so you know exactly how to prepare that beautiful piece of meat sitting in your fridge. Now, I know you’re thinking, “Isn’t this just a matter of preference?” And to some extent, you’d be right.

What’s up, fellow foodies? Are you ready to dive into the fiery, sizzling, hissing, smoking world of steak cooking? If you are, then it’s time you and I put to bed the question that’s been on everyone’s mind lately: Should you cook steak in oil or butter? Can’t make up your mind between butter and oil? Ready to take your steak from bland to grand? Let’s do this.
