Quality Meat Scotland know their onions when it comes to Scotch Beef. Here are their recommendations on cooking the perfect rib-eye steak.

Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) recently unveiled a new range of versatile Scotch Beef recipes on the Scotch Kitchen website.

The recipes highlight the use of Scotch Beef in tasty home-cooked comfort dishes such as steak pie, blue cheese burgers and beef with a peppercorn and herb crust.

We will highlight more of these on the 5pm Food blog over the next few weeks but for today's blog we thought we would pass on QMS's for cooking the best steak ever.

Know your beef

The recipes are part of QMS's recently launched Know Your Beef campaign which looks to champion the unsung heroes of the Scotch Beef industry and educate consumers about the quality, sustainability and welfare credentials of Scotch Beef.

Quality Meat Scotland’s Director of Marketing and Communications, Carol McLaren, said: 'Scotch Beef is a flavoursome, quality meat which can be used for every occasion. From simple dishes that are quick to prepare and great for mid-week meals, to roasts which are perfect for family gatherings and dinner parties, Scotch Beef really does cater for all.

'Our new campaign Know Your Beef aims to show people what sets Scotch Beef apart, championing the work that goes into creating a quality-assured and traceable product, so they have peace of mind that what they are feeding their families is the highest quality possible.'

Rib-eye steak with flavoured butter

This is a simple recipe for rib-eye steak topped with a horseradish, garlic and parsley butter:

The butter serves eight people and takes about five minutes to prep.

Ingredients

100g salted butter at room temperature

2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped

20g hot horseradish sauce

3g fresh parsley, finely chopped

Black pepper

Method

 1.Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and season with black pepper.

 2. Make into a sausage shape and wrap in some greaseproof paper. Put in the fridge to firm up.

 3. Cut into eight discs and serve a slice on top of your cooked steak.

Cooking your steak

Remove the Scotch Beef PGI rib-eye steak from the fridge at least 15 minutes before cooking. This will enhance tenderness after cooking.

Pat with kitchen paper to ensure steak is dry before rubbing with oil on both sides.

Different oils smoke (or haze) at different temperatures – rapeseed oil can be heated higher than olive oil and butter will burn at a comparatively low temperature.

Season with salt and pepper.

Griddle, grill or pan fry - always make sure the pan or grill is searingly hot before you start cooking – this will ensure the steak is sealed and the meat is caramelised.

Don’t over handle the steak during cooking. Try to limit turning to only once – halfway through cooking.

This is how long to cook your steak for. Times are based on a 1.5cm thick rib-eye steak

Blue – 1 min each side

Rare – 2 mins each side

Medium/rare – 2 mins 30 secs each side

Medium – 3 mins each side

Well done – 5 mins each side

You can add a knob of butter to the pan towards the end, if frying or griddling.

Allow the meat to rest for at least 3 minutes after cooking.

We would serve it with a green salad or creamed spinach. If we were feeling particularly decadent - or it was a day with a 'Y' in it - then we would serve it with chips.

Either way, a large glass of red wine is obligatory.