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A Beef Steak is a slice of beef cut thickly across the muscle. It can be "bone-in" or boneless. A steak differs from a roast in that a steak is meant to be an individual portion, while a roast serves more than one person.

Generally, when people hear the word "steak" they assume beef, and they assume a cut of beef tender enough to cook quickly with dry heat.

This last assumption is where the problem comes in. A steak is a way of cutting beef; it is not a particular quality of beef. In order to be suitable for dry heat cooking, the steak needs to be from the more tender areas of the carcass, namely the Rib, Short Loin or Sirloin areas of the cows. Many steaks, though, are not from those areas. Those steaks require cooking with moist heat. Oftentimes you will see suggestions that with marinating, you can go on to barbeque these tougher steaks. I've tried; it ain't worth it. You are better to follow some tried and true cooking methods for them such as braising, London Broil, etc.

Cooking Tips
For cooking steaks with dry heat (barbequing, grilling, broiling or pan frying).

1 minute per side at the start to char each side. Then, per side, an additional:

		Time per kg / 2.5 lbs
Rare		2 to 3 minutes
Medium		3 to 4 minutes
Well done		5 minutes each side

To cook steaks with moist heat (braising), follow recipe directions.

Literature & Lore
"Beefsteak" is also a name given since the 1950s to certain types of American male models.

See Also:

Steak

Other entries for:

Beef Steaks
Breakfast Steaks, Cube Steak, Minute Steak

Other entries for:

Beef
Baron of Beef, Beef Brawn, Beef Brisket, Beef Chuck, Beef Cuts Illustrated -- North American, Beef Flank, Beef Leg, Beef Plate, Beef Rib, Beef Roasts, Beef Round, Beef Shank, Beef Short Loin, Beef Sirloin, Braising Beef, Bresaola, Chianina Beef, Chipped Beef, Ground Beef, Kobe Beef, London Broil, Montreal Smoked Meat, Oxtail Brawn, Oxtails, Pastrami, Pork, Pot Roasts, Salisbury Steak, Steamship Round, Stewing Beef, Wadschinken, Wagyu Beef

Other entries for:

Meat
Affettati, Buffalo, Cap On / Cap Off, Game, Goat, Institutional Meat Purchase Specifications, Minced Meat, Offal, Paillards, Potted Meats, Poultry, Roasts, Sausages, Sheep, Steak, Veal, Venison, Yak