Steak cooking times
How long to cook steak by doneness, with the temperature to pull it off the heat and the temperature it rests to.
Steak is the one thing in the kitchen where three degrees changes the result. Medium rare and medium are about five degrees apart, and the difference between them is obvious on the plate.
So the clock is a guide and the probe is the answer. Thickness matters more than weight, a heavy pan behaves nothing like a thin one, and a fridge-cold steak cooks differently from one rested on the counter.
Three things that matter more than the timer
Pull it early
A steak keeps cooking after it leaves the heat. The centre climbs another 2 to 3 °C while it rests, so cooking to your target temperature lands you past it. Every chart on this site gives you the pull temperature and the final one separately.
Get the pan properly hot
A crust forms through the Maillard reaction, which needs a surface well above 150 °C. A pan that is merely hot steams the outside grey while the inside overcooks waiting for colour. Heavy cast iron, high heat, and give it longer than feels sensible.
Rest it, lid off
Five minutes for a 2.5 cm steak, ten for anything thicker. Covering it with foil traps steam and softens the crust you just spent effort building.
Common questions
Is it safe to eat steak medium rare?
For a whole cut of beef, generally yes. Bacteria sit on the surface rather than through the muscle, and searing kills them. Mincing spreads surface bacteria all the way through, which is why burgers need 71 °C and steak does not. Food safety agencies still advise 63 °C plus a three minute rest for whole cuts, and anyone pregnant, elderly, very young or immunocompromised should follow that.
Does the cut change the timing?
Thickness changes it far more than the cut does. A 2 cm sirloin and a 2 cm ribeye cook in about the same time; a 4 cm ribeye takes roughly twice as long as a 2 cm one. Fat content affects flavour and how forgiving the steak is, not the clock.
Egg times come from the thermal-diffusion equation for a spherical egg published by Charles D. H. Williams (University of Exeter), calibrated so a large fridge-cold egg at sea level matches the times cooks actually use. Size, starting temperature and altitude then follow from the physics. Treat the result as a very good starting point, not a guarantee, because pans, hobs and eggs all vary.