The bone-in rib steak (côte de bœuf) is the cut you buy for special occasions, and the one people are most afraid of getting wrong. At 4 to 5 cm thick, it can't cook in the pan alone: the outside would burn before the centre warmed through. The safest method combines both: the crust in the pan, the finish in the oven.
Before cooking
- Take it out of the fridge 1 hour ahead. For a cut this thick, that's what avoids a cold centre.
- Pat it thoroughly dry with paper towel.
- Salt generously on every side, just before cooking or 1 hour ahead.
- Preheat the oven to 180 °C. Check your pan is ovenproof: no plastic or wooden handle.
The cook, for a 1 kg rib steak (4 to 5 cm)
- Empty pan, high heat, 3 minutes, until the water drop test works. A spoon of neutral oil.
- Sear 3 minutes a side without touching, until a dark brown crust forms. It releases by itself when ready.
- Stand it on its fat edge with tongs, 1 to 2 minutes, to render and brown the fat.
- Into the oven in the same pan, with a knob of butter, garlic and thyme. Allow roughly 8 to 15 minutes depending on how you like it — the thermometer decides, not the timer.
- Rest 10 minutes on a board, loosely covered with foil.
Core temperatures
Take it out of the oven a few degrees before your target: while it rests, it climbs another 3 to 5 °C.
| Doneness | Take out of the oven at | After resting |
|---|---|---|
| Rare | 48–50 °C | about 52–54 °C |
| Medium | 53–55 °C | about 57–60 °C |
Insert the thermometer at the thickest point, without touching the bone. For a cut at this price, a cheap thermometer is the best investment you can make. The full chart by meat: what temperature to cook what.
Careful with the pan out of the oven
The handle is scorching. Put a tea towel over it as soon as you take the pan out: this is when people burn themselves most, because they're used to grabbing the pan bare-handed on the hob.
The sauce, while it rests
The pan is full of brown bits and flavoured butter. Put it back on medium heat (with a tea towel on the handle), a shallot, a splash of red wine off the heat, scrape, reduce, cold butter: shallot and red wine sauce. Or peppercorn sauce.
The three mistakes
Cooking it straight from the fridge. The centre is still cold when the outside is done.
Doing it all in the pan. At this thickness, the crust burns before the centre is cooked.
Slicing it straight away. Ten minutes of rest is what keeps the juices in the meat. Then slice across the grain.
Sear hard, then into the oven in the same pan: exactly what an uncoated stainless pan allows. The pan we film with comes in 22, 24 and 28 cm, with the 25-recipe book free. For a rib steak, take the 28 cm: 28 cm pan + free book.
