Even experienced home cooks make mistakes when preparing steak. The good news is that most errors are easily corrected once you know what to look for. We've compiled the ten most common steak cooking mistakes we see, along with practical solutions to help you achieve consistently excellent results. Master these fundamentals, and you'll be cooking porter house steaks that rival your favourite steakhouse.
Mistake #1: Cooking a Cold Steak
Taking your steak directly from the refrigerator to the pan is one of the most prevalent mistakes. A cold steak experiences thermal shock when it hits the hot surface, causing the exterior to overcook before the interior reaches your desired temperature. The result is an uneven cook with a grey band of overcooked meat around the edges.
The Fix: Remove your steak from the refrigerator 45-60 minutes before cooking. This allows the internal temperature to rise toward room temperature, ensuring more even cooking throughout. The steak should still feel cool to the touch—you're not trying to warm it completely, just reduce the temperature differential.
Mistake #2: Not Drying the Surface
Surface moisture is the enemy of a good sear. When wet meat hits a hot pan, the water immediately converts to steam, which lowers the pan's temperature and creates a barrier between the meat and the cooking surface. Instead of the beautiful Maillard browning you want, you get a grey, steamed exterior.
The Fix: Pat your steak thoroughly dry with paper towels on all surfaces before cooking. Some cooks even let the steak sit uncovered in the refrigerator for a few hours or overnight—the dry air further removes surface moisture while the cold temperature keeps it safe.
If your steak was marinated or has accumulated moisture, dry it more aggressively. Multiple paper towels may be needed. The surface should feel tacky, not wet, before seasoning.
Mistake #3: Insufficient Pan Heat
A common fear among home cooks is that they'll burn the steak if the pan is too hot. But for searing, the opposite is true—a pan that isn't hot enough leads to poor crust development and extended cooking times that dry out the meat. You need aggressive heat to trigger the Maillard reaction quickly.
The Fix: Heat your pan over high heat until it's just beginning to smoke. For cast iron, this takes 4-5 minutes. When you add a drop of water, it should sizzle and evaporate instantly. Don't be afraid of the smoke—proper searing requires it. Just ensure good ventilation.
Mistake #4: Crowding the Pan
When you put too many steaks in the pan at once, you drop the temperature dramatically and trap steam between the pieces. Each steak essentially steams in the collective moisture rather than searing properly. The result is grey, unevenly cooked meat without a decent crust.
The Fix: Cook steaks in batches if necessary, leaving at least 3-5cm between each piece. Better yet, use a pan large enough to accommodate your steaks comfortably. For a 30cm (12-inch) skillet, two porter house steaks is usually the maximum.
Mistake #5: Moving the Steak Too Often
The urge to flip, poke, and move your steak is strong—but every time you lift it, you interrupt the crust formation. The steak needs sustained contact with the hot surface to develop proper browning. Constant moving leads to a spotty, underdeveloped crust.
The Fix: Once your steak hits the pan, leave it alone for 3-4 minutes before flipping. Resist the temptation to check underneath. You'll know it's ready to flip when it releases easily from the pan—the crust formation actually prevents sticking. After flipping, leave it alone again.
A total of two flips is ideal for most steaks: initial placement, one flip to the second side, and removal. Some chefs flip every minute for a more evenly cooked interior, but for most home cooks, the simple two-flip method produces excellent results.
Mistake #6: Relying on Time Instead of Temperature
Cooking instructions that say "4 minutes per side for medium-rare" can only be approximations. Every steak is different—thickness, starting temperature, fat content, and your specific pan all affect cooking time. Following time guidelines blindly leads to inconsistent results.
The Fix: Use an instant-read thermometer. It's the only way to know exactly when your steak reaches your desired doneness. Check the temperature in the thickest part, avoiding bone and fat. Remove the steak 3-5°C below your target temperature to account for carryover cooking during resting.
Mistake #7: Skipping the Rest
We've covered this extensively in our resting guide, but it bears repeating: cutting into a steak immediately after cooking floods your plate with juices that should have stayed in the meat. This is perhaps the single most impactful mistake home cooks make.
The Fix: Rest your steak for 5 minutes per 2.5cm of thickness. Place it on a wire rack to prevent the bottom from steaming. Tent loosely with foil if needed to retain heat, but don't wrap tightly. Use this time to finish your sides or prepare your plate.
Mistake #8: Under-Seasoning
Home cooks often season timidly, worried about making the steak too salty. But a significant portion of the salt falls off during cooking, and a thick steak needs substantial seasoning to flavour the interior as well as the surface. Under-seasoned steak tastes flat and one-dimensional.
The Fix: Season more generously than feels comfortable—about 3/4 teaspoon of salt per 500g of meat. Use kosher or sea salt flakes that adhere well to the surface. Season just before cooking for the simplest approach, or up to an hour ahead for deeper penetration.
Add black pepper after cooking, not before. Pepper can burn at high searing temperatures, creating bitter flavours. A generous grind of fresh pepper on your rested steak adds flavour without the burnt taste.
Mistake #9: Using the Wrong Cut for the Method
Not all cooking methods suit all cuts. Thin steaks are difficult to cook to medium-rare without overcooking—there's simply not enough mass. Very thick steaks can burn on the outside before the interior cooks properly using high-heat methods alone.
The Fix: Match your method to your steak. For thin steaks (under 2.5cm), use very high heat and quick cooking times. For thick steaks (over 4cm), consider the reverse sear method—low oven temperature first, then a quick sear. Porter house, with its varying thickness between tenderloin and strip, particularly benefits from careful attention to this balance.
Mistake #10: Forgetting About Carryover Cooking
Many home cooks hit their target temperature on the thermometer, then are disappointed when the steak is overcooked after resting. The interior continues to rise in temperature after removal from heat—this is carryover cooking, and failing to account for it leads to steaks that are 5-8°C more done than intended.
The Fix: Remove your steak from heat when it's 3-5°C below your target temperature. For medium-rare (57°C), pull the steak at 52-54°C. The thicker the steak and hotter the surface temperature during cooking, the more carryover you'll experience. Track your results and adjust accordingly.
Putting It All Together
Most of these mistakes come down to a few core principles: proper preparation, sufficient heat, patience, and temperature-based cooking. Master these fundamentals, and you'll find that cooking an excellent steak becomes almost automatic.
Remember that even professional chefs occasionally overcook a steak or misjudge their timing. The difference is that they learn from each cook and adjust accordingly. Keep these common mistakes in mind, be honest about which ones you might be making, and commit to improving one aspect at a time. Before long, your home-cooked porter house will rival anything you've had at a restaurant.