Remove your steak from the fridge a minimum of 45 minutes before cooking — up to an hour for thicker cuts like a tomahawk or porterhouse. Cold meat hitting a hot pan or grill creates a temperature differential that results in uneven cooking: the outside overcooks while the centre struggles to reach temperature. A steak at room temperature sears immediately on contact, cooks evenly throughout, and responds to heat predictably. This single step is responsible for more consistently cooked steaks than any other.

For Wagyu cuts, extend this to 60 minutes — the intramuscular fat needs to be fully relaxed before it hits the heat.

The finger-press test is unreliable, inconsistent and entirely dependent on variables unique to each individual. A good instant-read meat thermometer removes all guesswork and guarantees repeatable results every time. It costs less than a single steak and will pay for itself the first time it saves a premium cut from being overcooked. Insert it into the thickest part of the steak, away from any bone, and pull the meat from the heat 2–3°C before your target temperature — it will continue to rise as it rests.

The TJB recommended thermometer: Thermapen ONE. Fast, accurate to 0.1°C and worth every penny.

When a steak comes off the heat, the muscle fibres are contracted and the juices are concentrated in the centre of the cut. Rest it on a warm board, loosely covered, and those fibres relax — the juices redistribute evenly throughout the meat and every slice stays juicy to the last bite. Cut into it too early and those juices run straight out onto the board. As a rule, rest for roughly half the total cook time. A two-minute steak rests for one minute minimum. A twenty-minute tomahawk rests for ten. Use the resting time to add a disc of Sublime Butter and let it melt into the crust.

The most forgiving steak to cook thanks to its generous marbling — the intramuscular fat self-bastes the meat and provides insurance against slight overcooking. Cook on a screaming hot cast iron pan or charcoal grill. Don't move it; let the crust build. A well-developed crust is the difference between a good ribeye and an extraordinary one.

Add a disc of Sublime Chimichurri Butter the moment it comes off the heat. It melts into the crust as it rests and takes the ribeye to a completely different level.

Leaner than ribeye with a firmer texture and a clean, intense beef flavour. The fat cap on the edge of a sirloin should be rendered before the flat faces hit the heat — stand the steak on its edge for 2 minutes at the start of the cook to caramelise that fat fully. It adds enormous flavour and prevents the steak from curling in the pan.

Sirloin responds very well to a béarnaise — the tarragon cuts through the leanness of the cut beautifully. Our Sublime Béarnaise Butter is the two-minute version.

The most tender cut on the animal and also the leanest — which means it has the least margin for error. A fillet steak overcooked by even a couple of degrees loses its defining quality: that extraordinary butter-soft texture. Cook quickly over high heat, finish with a baste of butter in the pan, and pull it early. The fillet is the one cut where we'd always suggest searing in a pan over the BBQ — the controlled heat of cast iron gives you more precision.

After searing, add a generous knob of butter, a sprig of thyme and a crushed garlic clove to the pan and baste the fillet continuously for the final 60 seconds. This compensates for the cut's lower fat content and adds enormous flavour to the crust.

Rump is the most flavourful cut for the money — bold, deeply beefy and with a satisfying chew that many steak lovers prefer over the tenderness of fillet. It's also the most forgiving cut to cook: the firmer texture means a degree or two of overcooking matters less than it does for fillet or ribeye. Cook it hard, rest it well, and slice it thinly against the grain to maximise tenderness in the eating.

Rump is the best value steak in the range for everyday eating. Our dry-aged version develops an intensity of flavour that makes it punch well above its price point.

Bavette is a thin, flat cut with a pronounced grain and an exceptional depth of flavour. It cooks fast, it needs high heat, and it must be sliced against the grain — without exception. Follow those three rules and bavette is one of the most rewarding steaks you'll ever cook. Ignore them and it's one of the most disappointing. See our full Bavette Cooking Guide for the complete breakdown.

Never cut bavette with the grain — the long muscle fibres make it chewy and tough. Cut at 90° to the grain, at a slight diagonal, into thin slices. The difference is extraordinary.

The T-bone and porterhouse contain two muscles — sirloin and fillet — but they are cooked as one steak, not two. The method is simple: start by standing the steak upright on the bone for 2–3 minutes. The bone acts as a conductor, bringing heat into the centre of the steak and allowing both muscles to begin cooking evenly from the inside out — without either face touching the pan. Once the bone section is rendered and the steak has warmed through, lay it flat and cook 2–3 minutes per side over high heat as you would any steak. The fillet side will cook marginally faster due to its smaller mass, so keep a thermometer in hand and measure at the fillet — that is where you are most at risk of overcooking. Pull at 54°C and rest bone side down so the residual heat in the bone continues to work gently through the cut.

The bone is not just for show — standing the T-bone upright on it at the start of the cook is what makes this cut work. Skip that step and you'll have uneven cooking across both muscles. Get it right and it's one of the most satisfying steaks you can put on the table.

The tomahawk demands the two-zone method — there is no other reliable way to cook a cut this thick evenly. Sear hard on both sides over direct heat to build the crust, then move to indirect heat to come to temperature slowly and evenly. The long rib bone insulates the meat and retains heat during the rest. Do not rush the tomahawk. It will tell you when it's ready.

For the reverse-sear method — which many consider superior for thick cuts — start the tomahawk in the oven at 120°C until it reaches 48°C internally, then sear hard over maximum heat for 2 minutes per side. The result is an extraordinarily even cook from edge to edge with a perfect crust.

Wagyu requires a different approach to every other steak. The intramuscular fat melts at a significantly lower temperature than standard beef fat — meaning Wagyu needs lower heat and shorter cooking times to achieve the same doneness. Apply the same heat you'd use for a standard ribeye and you risk rendering too much of that extraordinary marbling before the meat reaches temperature. Lower and slower is the rule for Wagyu — and the result is worth the patience.

Season Wagyu with nothing more than good flaky salt before cooking and cracked pepper after. The flavour of genuine Wagyu needs no help and anything more complex will compete with rather than complement it.