How To Pull Off A Steak Lacquer For Delicious Crust On Your Meat

Just when you've mastered the peak butter-basted steak, perfecting the ideal medium-rare doneness, a beefy new challenge is unlocked. A lovely lacquer is the next step to give your meat the photogenic sheen of a sponsored social media post. But, of course, there's a catch: You've got to be cautious not to burn that extra layer off, taking care not to overcook the beautiful cut in your efforts to make it even prettier. Fortunately, however, the trick to nailing a lacquer applies the technique you've already honed, and its prep isn't any different, either.

Lacquered steak is also basted, but, rather than using butter alone, it gets coated with a reduced sauce. It's harder to mess up when cooking a nice, thick cut. And, as always, if you're new to lacquering steak, it might be a good idea to give it a go with a more budget-friendly but still flavorful cut like a Denver steak, which should have a decent height. Then, the only new move will be whipping up the sauce.

Okay, you're probably going to achieve a finish more like that of a glistening pond than the New York City architectural marvel but it should still gleam, thanks to your quick sauce work. A lot of versions call for some combination of red wine vinegar, soy sauce, oyster sauce, a sweetener as simple as granulated sugar, and alliums like garlic. But the recipe, such as it is, is fairly forgiving as long as you hover around the foundations of those basic ingredients. You will, however, want to be more particular when reducing it all in the pan, lest it all disappear into thin air or, more likely, cook down into a sticky mess. As glazes go, this one, once cooked down by about half, should end up pretty thin. Imagine a sweet chili sauce, but even less viscous. Your first pass might not even have a tremendous effect, but you'll keep building to the ideal flash.

Once your lacquer's all set, you'll salt and sear the steak like you would in a butter baste. Then, you'll reduce the heat and begin layering on the sauce with a brush, flipping, and layering some more every minute or so until you've reached your desired varnish and doneness; about eight minutes or so for medium-rare, the oh-so perfect steak temperature. Add ground black pepper closer to the end of the process so it doesn't singe.