One medium well steak and one well done, 4 cm thick
A well done steak needs longer than a medium well one of the same thickness, so putting them in together guarantees one of them is wrong. Start the well done one first, add the medium well one 10 min 30 later, and they finish at the same moment.
| Time | What to do |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | The well done steak into the oven out at 66°C |
| 10:30 | The medium well steak into the oven out at 60°C |
| 77:50 | Get the pan as hot as it goes Smoking hot — the sear has to be quick or it will cook the middle |
| 82:50 | All of them out, straight into the pan 1 min on this side |
| 83:50 | Turn them all 1 min on the second side |
| 84:50 | Everything off the heat A short rest only — 3 min. It is already evenly cooked |
| 87:50 | Serve Every steak, every doneness, all at once |
Set this up with your own steaks and run the timer →
The numbers
- Medium well (68°C on the plate) — 72 min 20 in the oven to 60°C, then 1 min a side.
- Well done (74°C on the plate) — 82 min 50 in the oven to 66°C, then 1 min a side.
- Both off the heat at 84:50, rest 3 min, on the plate at 87:50.
Two temperatures, not one
Those are the temperatures on the plate. A steak keeps cooking once it leaves the pan — the centre climbs 3°C while it rests here — so the schedule takes it off the heat at about 65°C and 71°C on purpose. Probe it as it comes off and a low reading means the plan is working.
Where these times come from
Heat diffuses into meat rather than travelling at a steady rate, so cooking time goes with the square of thickness — double the thickness and you roughly quadruple the time. These times come from solving the heat equation for the centre of a 4 cm steak, not from a lookup table. Turning the steak every 30 seconds instead of once will cook it faster, by up to about 30%, and more evenly.
Cook to temperature, not to the clock
Every pan and every steak is different. The centre temperature is the only thing that is actually true, so if you own a probe thermometer use it — 68°C for medium well, 74°C for well done, measured on the plate. The useful part of a timer like this is knowing when to start each steak, and that doesn't change.
Why this one goes in the oven first
At 4 cm a pan on its own cannot do it. The middle needs longer than the outside can survive in a hot pan, so you get a thick grey band under the crust before the centre is anywhere near ready. Warming it through in a 120°C oven and searing for a minute a side at the end gets an even middle and a proper crust. The oven times above assume the steaks come straight from the fridge, which is normal for a cut this thick.