Can you butter-baste steak without a gas stove?
I'd love to try butter-basting a steak but the method involves tipping the skillet to one side so that you can scoop up the melted butter and pour it onto the steak. I have an electric stove and if I tip my skillet, it stops making contact with the heating element. A gas stove doesn't really have this problem because the flames still heat the skillet (albeit unevenly, but it's better than nothing). I'm concerned that if I tip my skillet off my electric stove, it won't cook correctly since heat isn't constantly being applied.
Am I overestimating the impact of the type of heating here? Is it still possible to reasonably butter-baste a steak with an electric stove if the cast iron is preheated sufficiently?
Best Answer
The couple of seconds it takes to scoop up the butter won't have any significant effect on your pan's temperature, especially if you use something that retains heat well, like cast iron.
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Can you butter baste a steak on an electric stove?
And even with a regular pan, it's not going to make a difference unless you're holding it at an angle for a long time. Just butter-basted a steak tonight on my electric stove and it came out great! Thanks!Should I baste my steak in butter?
Using a larger, thicker steak (at least one and a half inches thick and weighing between 24 and 32 ounces) makes it easier to achieve good contrast between the crust on the outside and the tender meat within. Basting it with butter both deepens the crust on the outside and helps the steak cook more quickly.How do you baste steak with butter?
However, if you want to butter baste the steak in that pan, you need to add butter near the end of cooking and usually by that point the pan has recovered from the small dip in temperature from adding the steak and will be too hot to add the butter without burning it.How To Make Pan Seared Butter-Basted Steak
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Answer 2
You definitely can.
Use a thick, heavy cast iron skillet and you won't have any problems at all - lifting the skillet off the heat for a couple of seconds won't affect the cooking because of the skillet's thermal mass.
Answer 3
I use this method with both steak and burgers and - although I do use gas - it doesn't involve tipping your pan so should work.
- Sear the meat both sides in a hot pan (depending on thickness and how you want it cooked)
- Sit a large knob of butter on top on the centre of meat
- Put the whole pan in a warm oven (~100C) for around the same amount of time as the total time you seared it for
- Serve (the oven serves as resting time!)
I also like to mash the butter up with herbs and spices in advance - such as garlic and thyme - and roll it into a sausage shape in some parchment and chill. You can then just cut off a couple of slices whenever you're making the steak.
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