Beef ribeye steak

Take it out of the fridge about 20 minutes before cooking and pat it dry. Sear in a very hot, lightly oiled pan for about 2–3 minutes per side for a 2.5 cm steak, then rest it for 5 minutes; use a meat thermometer if you want to check the centre temperature.

Look for fine, even streaks of fat through the meat, called marbling, and a creamy strip of fat around the edge. A steak cut evenly, about 2.5–3 cm thick, is easier to cook without drying out.

Keep raw steak covered on the lowest shelf of the fridge and cook it within a couple of days of buying it. To keep it longer, wrap it tightly and freeze it; thaw it in the fridge, not on the worktop.

Serve it with chips or roast potatoes, peppercorn sauce and a green vegetable such as green beans. Sliced leftover steak also works well in a steak sandwich with mustard and rocket.

A sirloin steak is a good swap if you want a similar pan-cooked steak with less marbling. For a more tender, leaner option, choose fillet, but shorten the cooking time because it can dry out quickly.

In the listed figures, beef ribeye steak has 9.4 g of fat per 100 g, compared with 10 g in Scotch fillet steak. Both are tender cuts suited to quick cooking in a hot pan.

A cooked portion of about 100 g provides 21 g of protein. A steak often weighs more before cooking, as it loses moisture in the pan.