Instructions

1. Season the sirloin by following the acronym “SOFA,” which stands for salt, oil, flavoring and acid. Soy sauce counts under “salt,” and it leaves behind a delicious flavor in steak. Also apply olive oil and your favorite herbs -- maybe basil or tarragon -- to flavor the steak. The acid stands the best chance of breaking down the protein in the steak, but think beyond the basic balsamic or raspberry vinegar and turn to a citrus juice. Pineapple and orange juice make good choices separately and taste even better together. Let your seasoned steak sit out at room temperature for an hour before you cook it. This will help ensure that the steak reaches a consistent temperature and cooks evenly.

2. Turn on the fan over your stove to ventilate your kitchen. Open a window, too. Before you start cooking, grab your instant-read thermometer – a key to ensuring that you cook your steak just how you like it: medium-well.

3. Heat a pan large enough to hold the steak over a medium-high flame. Pour some olive oil, butter or a combination of the two into the pan and wait for the oil or butter to sizzle.

4. Reduce the flame to medium and cook a steak measuring between 1 ¼ to 1 ½ inches thick for about five minutes on one side. Then flip it over with tongs and cook it for another five minutes.

5. Take the steak’s temperature in the thickest region; for medium-well, it should display a final reading of between 150 and 160 degrees. Take two more factors into account: whether you want to sear your steak -- effectively browning it, quickly, under a high flame -- and the fact that the steak’s temperature will rise a few degrees while you let it rest, before cutting into it. So if your steak registers 140 or 145 degrees, you can quickly sear it for 1 minute on each side without jeopardizing the medium-well state you prefer. Err on the conservative side when you’re pan-cooking steak. If the final temperature reads 150 degrees or less, you can always return it to the pan to cook further.

6. Let the steak sit under a tent of aluminum foil for three to five minutes. Slice the steak against the grain and top it with some crumbles of feta or blue cheese, which enhance the flavor of steak in a wondrous way.