Two rare steaks, 3 cm thick
Two steaks of the same thickness cooked to the same doneness go in together and come out together — the only thing to get right is the clock. Here it is for 3 cm rare, in a pan heated until it is just about smoking and then eased back a touch.
| Time | What to do |
|---|---|
| 0:00 | Both steaks on 4 min 30 on this side |
| 4:30 | Turn both steaks 3 min 40 on the second side |
| 8:10 | Everything off the heat Rest 6 min — somewhere warm, not covered tight |
| 14:10 | Serve Every steak, every doneness, all at once |
Set this up with your own steaks and run the timer →
The numbers
- Rare (52°C on the plate) — 4 min 30 on the first side, 3 min 40 on the second.
- Rare (52°C on the plate) — 4 min 30 on the first side, 3 min 40 on the second.
- Both off the heat at 8:10, rest 6 min, on the plate at 14:10.
Two temperatures, not one
Those are the temperatures on the plate. A steak keeps cooking once it leaves the pan — the centre climbs 5°C while it rests here — so the schedule takes it off the heat at about 47°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 3 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 — 52°C for rare, measured on the plate. The useful part of a timer like this is knowing when to start each steak, and that doesn't change.