The surprising 1-ingredient steak hack you’d never think to try from a specialist butcher

A good steak does not need much. Salt, heat and decent timing will usually get you there.

Once you know how, it’s one of the easiest dishes to make feel genuinely impressive, and most people feel like there’s no need to change it.

But according to expert Niall McCusker at specialist butcher Campbells Meat, there is one unexpected finishing touch that will give you the meatiest flavoured steak.

He recommends adding a light sprinkling of grated parmesan during the resting period.

“We’re not talking about the amount you would throw over a bowl of pasta,” says Niall. “Just a very light dusting, almost like you’re seasoning it a second time. It melts into the steak and brings out a deeper, more savoury beef flavour.”

“I didn’t believe a steak could taste even beefier by adding one unlikely ingredient. Done properly, it instantly feels like a more premium or aged cut,” he adds.

So why does it make a difference?

Aged beef and aged parmesan both contain exceptionally high levels of glutamates, the compounds responsible for deep savoury flavour. When you bring them together, they reinforce each other, and the steak ends up tasting more intensely beefy rather than cheesy.

“It works best on ribeye and sirloin rather than leaner cuts as the marbling helps carry the flavour, something a fillet doesn’t have,” he says.