Fried Beef Steak

A bare pan-fried steak with almost nothing to it, which means the technique carries the whole dish. Two details in the original are worth reading closely: the pan must be genuinely hot before anything touches it, and the salt and pepper go on in the pan rather than beforehand.

• The hinge: heat first, fat secondButter alone in a very hot skillet will brown and burn before the steak sets a crust. Either use clarified butter or a neutral oil for the frying and save whole butter for the finish the recipe already calls for, or accept some scorched milk solids as part of the flavor.
• "Porter house" in this periodA porterhouse is the loin cut with a section of tenderloin on one side of the bone and strip on the other. Steaks of this era were often cut thinner than today's steakhouse standard — figure three-quarters of an inch to an inch for this method. A modern two-inch porterhouse cannot be cooked through by constant turning alone and wants oven time.
• Turning constantlyThis runs against the mid-century advice to disturb a steak as little as possible, and it is the older method vindicated: frequent flipping cooks more evenly and browns perfectly well. Turn every 30 to 45 seconds.
• SkilletCast iron or heavy carbon steel. Nonstick will not reach the temperature this needs and thin pans lose their heat the moment cold meat lands.
• "When done"The book assumes a cook who knows by feel. For a one-inch steak over high heat, roughly 4 to 6 minutes total gives medium-rare; an instant-read thermometer at 130–135F in the thickest part off the bone is the reliable check.
• The butter finishMelted butter poured over is the whole sauce. Better still, pour the pan juices in with it — they carry the browned fond and the seasoning that came off the meat.
• Rest and serveGive the steak five minutes off the heat before cutting or the juices run onto the plate. One porterhouse of this size serves one generously or two modestly, with the tenderloin side divided.