On Saturday, my girlfriend and I stumbled into one of our favorite NYC areas, where the neighborhoods of the West Village and SoHo collide. As soon as I got down there, I knew I had to go visit my favorite butcher shop, Pino's on Sullivan Street.
I watched as they cut away the aged exterior of a 30-day dry aged ribeye, revealing the intensely marbled insides, and immediately bought a 2 pound cut on the spot. I brought the giant steak home and immediately seasoned with salt and pepper, leaving it out on the counter to come to room temperature. Meanwhile, I heated up my oven to 225 degrees F to prepare for the reverse sear.
There are plenty of sources out there to explain the science behind the reverse sear method of cooking (My favorite being the Serious Eats piece, found HERE), but in essence, it is a method in which you bring your cut of meat up to temperature in the oven, and then AFTER, finish the cooking as a sear in a screaming hot pan.
I took my steak, placed it on a wire rack, and put it in the 225 degree oven for 40 minutes, constantly checking the temperature with a meat thermometer. It is crucial to get your steak to the right temperature at this step as to not overcook it. For my rare/medium rare steak, I was looking for an out-of-oven temperature of 115 degrees.
Here it is as it just came out of the oven:
Once out, I let the steak rest while I heated some vegetable oil in a cast iron pan to a screaming hot temperature. As soon as the pan was smoking, I placed the steak in, only giving it a minute on either side, halfway through placing a pat of butter, some rosemary, and some thyme in the pan and spooning the buttery mixture over the steak.
I took the steak out, cut into it, and was happy to find the inside rare to medium rare. I finished the cut steak with some finishing salt and enjoyed with a homemade creamed spinach!
