A steak’s cooking time is set by how thick it is, not how heavy it is — and it rises faster than the thickness does. Double the thickness and you more than double the time.
Heat reaches the middle by conduction from both faces, and conduction time scales with the square of the distance it has to travel. Widening a steak at the same thickness adds no distance, so weight barely moves the answer: at 25 mm, going from 180 g to 400 g changes the time by a few per cent, while going from 15 mm to 40 mm multiplies it by about five. Where it fails: a bone, a wet surface that stalls near 100 °C while it dries, and any steak thick enough that the outside overcooks before the middle arrives — past about 45 mm, sear-then-oven beats pan alone.
Past about 45 mm the outside is ruined before the middle arrives, and the rule stops being useful advice — that is the thickness where sear-then-oven beats the pan alone. It also fails on a wet steak, whose surface stalls near 100 °C until it dries, and on anything with a bone through it.
Estimate with the rule, then check it against the calculator that models it properly.
Open Steak Timer & Doneness Calculator →A steak’s cooking time is set by how thick it is, not how heavy it is — and it rises faster than the thickness does. Double the thickness and you more than double the time. Heat reaches the middle by conduction from both faces, and conduction time scales with the square of the distance it has to travel.