How long to cook steak in a pan

For a whole cut of beef, generally yes. Bacteria live on the surface rather than through the muscle, and searing kills them. That is why steak and burgers are different: 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.

Two reasons. The temperature keeps climbing 2 to 3 °C after the steak leaves the pan, so a steak pulled at target is overcooked by the time you cut it. And the muscle fibres relax, so the juices stay in the meat rather than on the board. Five minutes for a 2.5 cm steak, ten for anything thicker.

The finger test is a rough guide at best and most people learn it wrong. A probe thermometer costs very little and turns a guess into a fact, which matters more here than almost anywhere else in cooking because the window between medium rare and medium is about three degrees.

It helps. A fridge-cold steak needs longer and cooks less evenly, so the outside overshoots while the centre catches up. Thirty minutes on the counter is enough, and these times assume you did that.