Bone-in Ribeye
- Makes
- Serves 2 - 4
Ingredients
Green amounts are scaled. Anything else is as written, so adjust it yourself.
Method
Amounts and times written inside the steps are for the original quantity.
- Heat oven to 400F
- Heat a 10 - 12 inch cast-iron pan over high heat. While the pan is heating, season the steak liberally with salt - like you’d salt a sidewalk in New York in the winter - and with pepper.
- When the pan is good and hot - the steak should sizzle aggressively when it touches the pan - brown the steak. Put the steak in the pan and don’t touch it or press it or do anything stupid like that after you add it. After , take a peek; the steak should release easily from the pan and the seared side should be on the golden side of browned. Flip it. Sear the second for another , following the same program. Stand the steak up with the fatty side opposite the bone against the pan for , then turn the steak back over so side that was seared first is against the pan.
- Put the steak in the oven and leave it untouched for .
- Return the pan to the stovetop over low heat. Add the butter, thyme, garlic, and shallots to the pan. As soon as the butter melts, start basting: Use one hand to tilt the pan up to a 45 degree angle and, with the other hand using a very large spoon to scoop up butter from the pool in the pan and spoon over the steak. Repeat this motion constantly, cloaking the steak in an eddy of aromatic melted butter. After about of basting, give your pan-holding hand a break and give the steak a poke - it should be squishy-soft, or somewhere close to that. If it's there, and if you like your steak the kind of ultrarare the French call bleu, pull the steak from the pan and put it on a plate to rest (this is how Meredith and I like it). If you're going more medium rare, baste it for another minute or two more, then remove it to a plate. Do not cook a steak like this beyond medium-rare. Please. (And do not think about dumping the fat from the pan either. After the steak has had time to rest and it's time to eat, reheat the pan sauce until it's hot to the touch, pour it into a small bowl, or a couple of small bowls, and bring it to the table. It goes on everything.)
- Let the steak rest. Just leave it the hell alone. No touching for at least . Get the rest of your meal together. Get out a cutting board and a good knife to slice the meat.
- Slice it: Cut the steak off the bone, then slice it against the grain (cutting in the direction that was perpendicular to the bone) into ½-inch-thick slabs. Put on plates and pour any juices from where it rested and the cutting board into the pan drippings. Scatter the steak with Maldon salt and serve with the drippings on the side.