Crousti-bleu – That is how I want my beef

I am difficult with my beef. When in restaurants, I tried for a long time to explain in detail how I wanted it cooked, but with little success. I suppose a stressed chef hit by 40 or more covers doesn’t have the time to listen to a maitre d´ who explains what the pain in the ass client in the dining room has just instructed him how the steak should be cooked.

Then one day when I was about to give up, I found the two-word description I had been searching. Crousti-bleu. I want my steak crispy on the exterior, well seared but not charred with a good flavor from the Maillard reaction. Then inside I want it blue. Body temperature, but not warm, so that no liquid would run out from the beef when cutting it. Warm enough to optimize the beef flavors of beef.

One the one hand, beef that is too cold does not taste much. Hence, a raw beef tartar should be let to reach a temperature well above fridge temperature. On the other hand, beef that is too warm, is runny and will taste dry when chewed plus I find the heat sometimes to be masking flavors. Perhaps some flavors are too volatile for cooking beef beyond rare.

First time I ordered my beef crousti-bleu in a Parisian bistro famous for their beef the server looked at me for a few seconds and repeated: Crousti-bleu? Yes, “crousti” on the outside and blue on the inside. Aha, he said. Often the reaction is a few seconds of afterthought, but more often than not, at least with professionals, it will be clear what it is I want. The success rate has improved immensely. I now often get the beef the way I want or not to far from it.

So how do I do it at home? There are a couple of approaches. My preferred one is to use a 3 centimeter thick piece of rib-eye beef that I take directly from the fridge and put it in a moderately hot pan, but not fuming hot, greased with palm oil for its higher burn temperature and let it crust on one side, then on the other. After that I do each side one more time on a little lower heat and for a relatively short time. The beef is finished off with one more turning on even lower temperature on each side. This sort of evens out the temperature. I suppose we could call it triple cooking of beef. The result is a crisp beef with an interior that is approximately body temperature and not runny. All juices will flow in the mouth when the beef is chewed. It is delicious.