Instructions

1. Remove the steak or fish from the refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for about 15 minutes. Room-temperature meat cooks more evenly and absorbs the sodium in salt more effectively and to a greater depth than cold meats. Room-temperature meat cooks more evenly than cold meat because the inside and outside start at about the same temperature, which causes them to heat at about the same rate.

2. Set the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit when baking meat instead of broiling it. Broilers radiate heat up to 550 F within 1 inch of the element or burner. Because the temperature decreases as the distance from the heat source increases, you can move the steak away from the heat source to control the temperature on its surface. An oven set to bake at 500 F, on the other hand, heats the air to 500 F, so you can't move the meat away from the heat source. So, you have to lower the oven temperature, which lowers the air temperature, to lower the temperature on the surface on the meat.

3. Bake meats for three to four times longer than you would broil them, depending on thickness. Steak usually takes five minutes to reach rare under a broiler, about six minutes to reach medium and eight minutes to reach well done. So, a baked steak needs about 15 to 18 minutes to reach rare, about 25 minutes to reach medium and about 35 to 40 minutes to reach well done. Because heat surrounds food during baking, instead of radiating on it, it takes longer to reach the interior, and therefore longer to cook.