Authored by Doug Baker

We have many recipes that use a grill or smoker but we understand that not everyone has a grill or enjoys grilling as much as I do. I wanted to show that you can still get an amazing meal from our beef without using anything fancier than an oven, stovetop and a thermometer.

I started with one of our hanger steaks aka hanging tender. This is a very flavorful and tender muscle that hangs down from the diaphragm and does not do much work which is why it is so tender. You may not find it in your local grocery store butcher counter but then again you won’t find Twin Oak Farms beef products at many butcher counters either. Bringing high quality beef products along with unique products is something we love to do. But enough with the talk, lets get down to cooking.

I thawed out the hanging tender and then I trimmed off the fat.

I did not separate the two muscles which leads to there being a line of connective tissue in the meat but it was tender enough my children had no problems with it.

I then seasoned both sides of the meat with a steak seasoning. While I was doing this, I was preheating the oven to 250 degrees. I put a little oil in the bottom of a cold cast iron skillet and put the meat down in it and put the whole thing into the oven.

I kept it in the oven at 250 degrees and checked it regularly to see when the inside came up to a temperature of 120 degrees. It took just under an hour.

I then pulled the cast iron and steak out of the oven and removed it from the pan.

I poured all the hot grease out and placed the cast iron skillet on the stovetop on medium high heat to get hot. I then slathered the steak with mayonnaise (more on that in a minute) and placed it in the hot pan to sear.

I knew the pan was hot when the bits that were left in there after I poured out the grease started popping and it almost started to smoke. I let a good sear occur and then flipped it to sear the other side.

I then removed it from the skillet and placed it on a cutting board and checked the temperature.

It was 137 internal which is in the range of medium rare that I prefer and recommend for most people to enjoy our steaks at. We then sliced it and served it and it didn’t last long.

A word about the mayonnaise sear. Many people are familiar with using different oils and fats such as canola, grapeseed, butter, ghee, etc. for searing. You may also be familiar with using an egg wash to aid browning on baking such as breads and pies. Mayonnaise is a mixture of egg and oil with a few other ingredients. It helped lead to that amazing crust and browned surface you saw on the pictures. It also did not leave any recognizable mayonnaise flavors in or on the meat that my family noted.