Miso Pecan Butter New York Strip
Miso Pecan Butter New York Strip sears strip steaks in cast iron, then crowns each with a compound butter of white miso, toasted pecans, and scallion.
White miso on a New York strip makes sense the second you stop thinking of it as “putting soup paste on steak.” Miso is salty, fermented, deeply savory, and unusually good at making beef taste even more like beef. Mix it into softened butter with toasted pecans, grated garlic, scallions, and lemon zest, and you get a compound butter that is rich, nutty, sharp, and just funky enough to keep a straightforward cast-iron steak interesting.
The steak itself stays simple. Pat it dry, season with kosher salt and black pepper, let it stand for about 20 minutes, then sear in a hot cast-iron skillet for three to four minutes per side. Finish over medium heat until the center reaches 125°F for rare or about 130–135°F for medium-rare. Then rest it for eight minutes. Yes, eight. The steak has been through enough.
Only after the rest does the miso-pecan butter go on. The residual heat melts it slowly across the crust, carrying the toasted pecans, scallions, garlic, and lemon into every slice without washing away the sear. It is familiar steak-and-butter territory, except somebody opened a side door and let umami in carrying pecans.
