Recipes
Steak au Poivre: Striploin in a Peppercorn Crust With a Cognac Cream Sauce
A French classic in 30 minutes: how to crack the pepper so it isn't bitter, how to sear striploin to medium rare and build a cognac, cream and mustard sauce in the same pan.
MYASYA team4 min readupdated
Ingredients
Serves 2 30 min
Steaks
- 2 striploin steaks, 250–300 g each, 3 cm thick
- 2 tbsp black peppercorns
- 1 tsp coarse salt
- 1 tbsp refined oil
Sauce
- 1 tbsp butter + 20 g cold butter to finish
- 1 shallot, finely chopped
- 50 ml cognac
- 100 ml beef stock (optional)
- 120 ml cream, 30–33 %
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
Why striploin
In France au poivre is most often made with fillet, but striploin is arguably better here: the firm muscle holds the pepper crust, and the fat cap gives the pan the fat the sauce is later built on. Ribeye is too rich for this dish — pepper and cream on top of marbling is simply too much.
Cooking the steaks
Step 1. Take the steaks out 30–40 minutes ahead
Pat the fridge-thawed striploin dry on all sides. Score the fat cap every 2–3 cm without cutting into the meat, or the steak will curl.
Step 2. Crack the pepper
Peppercorns in a bag — a few blows with a pan, or use a mortar, until the pieces are the size of a grain of rice. Then shake them in a sieve: discard the dust, it will burn and taste bitter.
Step 3. Salt and press in the pepper
Salt on both sides, then the pepper — press it in firmly with your palm so it sticks. Leave the edges bare.
Step 4. Sear in cast iron
Heat the pan hard, but not to smoking: at maximum heat the pepper burns. Oil, steaks — and don't move them for 3–3.5 minutes. Flip, another 3–3.5 minutes. Hold the fat cap against the pan with tongs for a minute.
Step 5. Pull by thermometer
For medium rare — 52–55 °C in the centre. Steaks onto a warm plate: while you make the sauce they rest and reach 55–58 °C.
Every doneness level with temperatures — in one table.Doneness guide →
The sauce, in the same pan
Step 1. Pour off the excess fat
Leave about a spoonful. Heat to medium, add a spoon of butter and the shallot. Stir for 1–2 minutes, scraping up everything stuck to the pan: that's the base of the flavour.
Step 2. Cognac — with the pan off the heat
Pour the cognac from a glass, not from the bottle. Return to the heat and reduce by half, 30–40 seconds. If it catches fire, don't worry — the flame dies down on its own in a few seconds.
Step 3. Stock and cream
Reduce the stock by half. Then add the cream and mustard, 2–3 minutes at a gentle simmer until the sauce coats a spoon.
Step 4. Finish
Pour in the juices from the resting steaks, take off the heat and whisk in the cold butter. Salt to taste — there's already enough pepper.
How to serve
- Bistro classic — the whole steak, sauce on top, fries on the side. Fries dipped in the sauce are a treat of their own.
- Lighter — sliced steak on a warm plate, sauce on the side, rocket salad with lemon.
- With green peppercorns — add a spoon of brined green peppercorns, lightly crushed, together with the cream.
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