Add This Creamy Ingredient To Steak For A More Flavorful Crust

A great crust can turn top-quality and underrated steak cuts into beautiful proteins, but it doesn't have to stop at the perfect Maillard sear. By incorporating a bit of blue cheese, you can develop some truly phenomenal flavors, whether your meat is lean or marbled, tender or tough.

While a quick sprinkle of blue cheese crumbles can introduce a bit of earthiness and creaminess that diversifies your meaty, straightforward meal, the real trick is in the perfect combination of ingredients. To put a great cheese crust on your steak, it's best to blend the cheese with some breadcrumbs, oil, and seasonings, creating a thick paste you can smear over the top. Not only does this give the topping a more toasted texture, but the starch also acts as a binder. When you place the whole thing under high heat, the topping melts and toasts, creating a complex blend of homey, funky, and creamy notes that pair perfectly with rich red meat.

While assembling this recipe is quite simple, the real trick is in slightly undercooking the protein. The melting stage, when you bring out your crust's full flavor potential, will still cook the steak a bit, even if you only do it for a couple of minutes. It's best to prepare your steak one level of doneness below your preference, giving yourself a margin of error that won't ruin your meal.

Both steak and blue cheese come in a pretty dizzying variety of options, and some combinations are better than others. You'll want to avoid pairing mild meats with potent cheeses and vice versa, or you may lose out on the flavor nuances of both.

Bobby Flay tops his steak with Roquefort, a sheep's milk cheese famed for its potent aroma, flavor, and crumbly texture. When you're on this end of the spectrum, you'll want to use it on extremely flavorful cuts like ribeye, flank, flat iron, or sirloin. These have an incredible level of beefiness that's pretty hard to overshadow with seasonings. If, however, you want something a bit creamier, young Gorgonzola is a solid bet. It has a higher moisture content and a softer texture than Roquefort, so it's easier to achieve that thick, paste-like consistency without a food processor.

Leaner, milder cuts, like filet mignon and round, do an excellent job of letting seasonings take more of the spotlight. This is a great chance to use blue cheese with a bit more subtle nuance, like Fourme d'Ambert or blue Stilton. These are solid all-around choices, perfect for everything from salads to meats, with enough flavor to be noticeable but not so much that you won't taste your steak. If, however, you want something a touch stronger, Bleu d'Auvergne is a good option that still lacks some of the potent bite that more intensely flavored varieties bring with them.