Many dishes of Italian cuisine have long earned worldwide recognition. Moreover, they include not only pasta, lasagna or pizza. For several centuries around the world, the famous Florentine steak has been very popular. He is considered the aerobatics of culinary art. To verify this, you should find out the rules and individual features of its preparation.
Classic version
Italy is a country where long attention has been paid to meat dishes. For the first time, Florentine steak was prepared by local chefs back in the 18th century. In fact, it is a piece of beef weighing from 1.5 to 2 kilograms, fried on charcoal. This is the main feature of such a product. In addition, it is customary to cook using a minimum number of spices. This allows you to preserve the aroma of the meat itself, which makes the product even more attractive. To prepare such a steak, as a rule, the following ingredients are used: meat on the bone weighing 2 kilograms and a thickness of at least 5 centimeters, a little freshly ground pepper, olive oil, a couple of sprigs of rosemary, salt (must be coarsely ground) and 2 lemons.
The dish is prepared as follows:
- First you need to prepare the barbecue. The coals in it should be red-hot.
- Place the meat on a wire rack and, having coated it with oil, fry it for 5 minutes on each side. In this case, the product must be constantly turned.
- Once again, process the meat with oil, sprinkle it with salt and pepper.
The result is a real Florentine steak. Inside, it is soft and juicy, and outside it is fried and even slightly burnt.
Interesting to know
Florentine steak got its name by chance. Historians put forward several versions regarding its origin. The main feature of this dish is related to the main ingredient that is used for its preparation. As you know, the homeland of steaks in Italy is Tuscany. It is here that a special breed of gobies is grown, the meat of which is commonly called โchyaninaโ. To humanity, these prehistoric animals have been known for over 2 thousand years. At first, people used them as an ideal sacrifice to the gods. Later, people began to esteem them for very tasty meat. In addition, festive robes for triumphal processions were sewn from the skins of these bull-calves with perfect snow-white wool. The dish itself is called the capital of Tuscany. After all, it was here, in Florence, during the reign of the representatives of the Medici family at one of the holidays that the kyanana was fried at the stake and distributed to everyone. Another feature of the famous steak is the carcass cutting. During cutting, a piece of loin lumbar is specially cut for him. This is done in such a way that the T-shaped bone is exactly in the middle of the workpiece. Finally, it is worth paying attention to the quality of the meat itself. For slaughter, as a rule, gobies are taken no older than two years. Their fillet flesh does not have veins of fat. After processing, the meat is tender, juicy and very tasty.
Basic Rules
To achieve the desired result, you must know in advance how to cook a steak. It is very important to resolve the issue regarding technology. So, Americans, for example, make steak from marbled beef. In Europe, only sirloin meat is used to prepare such a dish.
Before you begin, you need to learn a few important rules:
- Fresh meat is never used for steak . Previously, it should lie down for at least 2-3 weeks.
- Particularly noteworthy is the carcass cutting. For an Italian steak, you will need a piece of meat on the bone from the loin of the hip. After chopping, the product should lie on the table for about 30 minutes.
- For this method of processing, meat should never be pickled. Everything should be natural.
- The product should not be washed. It is desirable that it be as dry as possible.
- For frying on the grill, it is necessary to use coals from firewood, which smoke the least. These are deciduous trees, for example, oak.
- Heat treatment must be performed in three stages. High heat will be required first. A little later, the piece must be moved for 3-5 minutes in the temperate zone. In conclusion, the steak is fried, "standing on the bone." In general, the processing time is not more than 20 minutes.
All of these tips will help you learn how to cook steak. Only then will the product turn out as the Florentine craftsmen do it.
Secrets of Home Cooking
If you wish, you can also prepare a delicious Florentine steak in the conditions of home cooking. This will require the following components: a piece of the front of the beef fillet (with rib) weighing 1.5 kilograms, a little coarse salt and 50 grams of olive oil.
The cooking process takes place in several stages:
- First, the meat must be removed from the refrigerator and allowed to lie on the desktop for at least 3 hours. This time will be enough for it to become almost room temperature.
- Fry the selected piece in a pan (one minute on each side) in warmed olive oil. In this case, the meat should only slightly change color.
- Place the prepared product on a wire rack and leave for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 200 degrees.
- After this, the product should be immediately placed on the grill pan, previously sprinkled with coarse salt. Processing lead from all sides.
- Transfer the prepared meat to a dish and let it lie down for 5 minutes.
Only after this can the steak be cut with a sharp knife into portioned portions and then served with bread and red wine.
Young beef steak
For frying it is best to use young meat. So you can guarantee that as a result, the dish is sure to turn out juicy and soft. In addition, in the apartment hardly anyone will install a barbecue. And not everyone has the opportunity to purchase, for example, rare for our country kyanina. Therefore, it is worthwhile to carefully study the methodology of how to cook veal steak in a pan. You will need a minimal set of products: calf carcass, salt, spices and vegetable oil.
The essence of the method is extremely simple:
- First, meat at room temperature should be cut into portioned pieces. Their thickness should be about 6 centimeters.
- Flatten each piece slightly, beating it with his palm.
- Coat meat on all sides with oil and sprinkle with spices.
- Fry in a preheated dry pan for a couple of minutes on each side.
- Finish the treatment in an oven preheated to 140 degrees. This will take at least 15 minutes.
- Remove the finished product from the oven and place on a plate. After that, it must be salted, and then covered with foil and left in this position for 10 minutes.
The result is an amazing steak that tastes as good as those prepared using standard technology.