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If you’re on TikTok — or have anyone in your life who is — you’ve probably already heard the nursery-rhyme tune to Kenndog’s “Drip Like Me.” It’s inescapable melody, borrowed from the song “I Have a Little Dreidel,” has been used in over 1.3 million videos on the app to date. Now, he’s bringing the sing-along fave to UPROXX Sessions.

Maybe it’s because of the instantly recognizable piano strain that starts off the song (you know it, even if you can’t remember where it comes from) or because of the aspirational relatability of its catchy hook, but the LA rapper’s lighthearted track has become a go-to for anyone who wants to flex, twerk, or in some cases, show off their hair care routines. Kenndog’s bio is a little light on details for now — he’s really new — but his introduction to the world has made him an instant favorite.

Watch Kenndog perform “Drip Like Me” above.

UPROXX Sessions is Uproxx’s performance show featuring the hottest up-and-coming acts you should keep an eye on. Featuring creative direction from LA promotion collective, Ham On Everything, and taking place on our “bathroom” set designed and painted by Julian Gross, UPROXX Sessions is a showcase of some of our favorite performers, who just might soon be yours, too.

Kenndog is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

In the last few months, we’ve seen the British-born Kingsley Ben-Adir play two of the most famous Americans of the last century, Barack Obama in The Comey Rule, and now Malcolm X in Regina King’s wonderful One Night in Miami (which hits Amazon on Friday). The premise of the film, based on the night in which Muhammad Ali (then using the name Cassius Clay) beat Sonny Liston, has Ali (Eli Goree) hanging out with Jim Brown (Aldis Hodge), Sam Cooke (Leslie Odom Jr.) and Kingsley Ben-Adir’s Malcolm X. This night actually happened, but the dialog is imagined.

Obviously, there’s already a pretty famous portrayal of Malcolm X By Denzel Washington in Spike Lee’s 1992 film, which isn’t lost on Ben-Adir. So how does one navigate that, while still being true to the role? Ahead, Ben-Adir explains this is a Malcolm X viewers might not be used to seeing.

Also, here’s a movie about four men with differing opinions, trying to come to an agreement about how to use their fame and influence for the greater good. In a time we are living through now, it’s a refreshing thing to see. And Ben-Adir does his best to make sense of what we are living through now in relation to the message of the film. (As I asked, I then realized what a heavy question that was. But he does a pretty great job answering it.)

It’s good to talk to you.

My pleasure Mike. How are you doing?

I don’t know how to answer that anymore.

How are you really feeling right now in this moment?

Pretty terrible, how are you?

I’m sort of feeling kind of a little bit in la la land, just because of lots of repetition and coffee, but that might be a good thing?

So, you’ve just played two of the most famous Americans to ever live. Do you think about that more than if you’re playing someone else? It seems really heavy.

No, I feel like it was. My memory of the experience of working both jobs, there was a real feeling of excitement. Yeah, I was buzzing. I was like, god, I’ve got an opportunity here to explore transformational acting and trying to figure out how to kind of play people who actually existed. As an actor, the challenge is really quite stimulating and exhilarating.

With Malcolm X obviously there’s a very famous portrayal already. I’m curious if that’s in your head or not, or if it’s just like, no, I don’t think about it at all.

I made a decision not to think about it when the audition came through, because I just felt like it wasn’t going to be particularly helpful trying to figure out how to best represent Malcolm in this film. Because the Malcolm that this movie was asking for was really a very specific moment in his life where so many things were changing. A moment in his life where his 12-year relationship with Elijah Mohammed and the Nation of Islam was really coming to an end. He was really at a moment where his political and religious thinking was shifting in such a monumental way.

Regina and I really connected on the idea that the vulnerability of Malcolm needed to be the heartbeat and center of this story arc. Regina needed to feel comfortable with the person she employed to play Malcolm in this film. She understood that Malcolm was a father and Malcolm was a husband, and trying to show this heroic figure in a place of real vulnerability. So, Malcolm’s humanity, people could see their own humanity in him. I think that was what was really important. I feel like this film was a really unique opportunity to explore that side of Malcolm. My job was to convince Regina that I was excited and fearless and up for the challenge. If I was feeling nervous at all, there was the pressure of playing him because Denzel’s performance is so iconic. I definitely did a terrific job of pretending I wasn’t nervous. I don’t know if I actually was or I wasn’t, I just knew that if Regina got any sniff that I was, she definitely wouldn’t have cast me.

I am curious how you get to that vulnerability. It’s still Malcolm X and he probably can’t be too vulnerable, for people who haven’t seen a performance depicting him before. That seems like a needle to thread.

You’re right, that there were moments where you sort of had to at least question whether we were going too far with it or what the right balance of emotion was. Regina definitely had a lot more heavier emotional versions of the character in the can. She constructed and built my emotional performance in the way that she thought was right. It was a constant conversation. We had to keep checking in about it. It was certainly one of those instances where thinking you knew what the answer was wasn’t going to be helpful. We had to just keep checking in and talking and checking in and talking and trusting that our intentions were healthy. Our intentions were to reflect Malcolm in a way where people could really feel his humanity.

I’m sorry to keep repeating myself. But that’s really what was crucial about this, that people understood that Malcolm, yes, he was a hero and yes he died for Black people in America and he stood up to white America and demanded respect in a way that was so incredible and moving. It was important that we wanted to show him as someone who probably did feel fear around this time. I heard that Malcolm had said to his friend Dick Gregory that he felt weak and he felt hollow and no one knew the torments he went through around this time. Dick really described Malcolm as a sweet, kind, bashful and good-humored man. The demagogue that we all know was really a character that Malcolm slipped in and out of. It didn’t represent everything about who he was. If Malcolm were here now listening to us talk he’d be embarrassed. So there was lots of wonderful things I found out about Malcolm as a man behind the cameras: private, and the games he would play with his children over the phone, and the love he had for his family. That was the Malcolm who I was interested in looking at. The other Malcolm you can just go on YouTube and watch the videos of. That’s where the process got really interesting.

You mentioned there were times you had had discussions about taking this too far? Is there a specific line or specific moment you remember?

Yeah, listen, the scene in the room with Sam Cooke, when we get back in from the roof?

Right.

There were versions where I went for his throat.

Oh wow…

I mean metaphorically.

Okay, I’m glad you clarified that.

Yeah, there were just much heavier versions of so many of the moments and there were lighter moments. Because I trusted Regina so much I wanted to play around with some different versions sometimes.

I saw this movie back in September and have thought about it a lot since, especially in the last couple of weeks. It’s hard to not think, here are four powerful people talking through their differences. I don’t know how much you’ve thought about this, especially this week, and I know Britain has had its own issues the last few years. Are we past that?

What’s that? The message of the film?

Well, not just specifically the message of the film, but more just the idea are we getting past the point where people can just talk through anything anymore, after what we witnessed.

Yeah, I feel like I don’t know, man. Communication and listening to other people’s thoughts and ideas and decency and kindness and humility and love and sharing and … I don’t know man. Sometimes it feels like everything is a bit all over the place. I don’t want to talk too much on what’s going on in your country at the moment because for me it feels very surreal seeing it.

Oh, same here.

It’s literally unpacking as we speak. It’s pretty fucking nuts. But, I’m trying to answer your question, I feel, you know … I don’t know, man.

Sorry, I hit you with a really heavy one at the end.

It’s all good. It’s all good.

I’m not going to expect you to fix everything on that one last question.

I do not have all the answers for humanity, unfortunately.

You can contact Mike Ryan directly on Twitter.

There’s no obvious favorite for Best Picture at the 2021 Oscars yet, but Nomadland is a strong contender. Chloé Zhao’s follow-up to The Rider (also very good) was one of the best-reviewed movies of 2020, with a predictably stellar lead performance from Frances McDormand. “How is it a 2020 movie if it hasn’t come out yet?” you might be wondering. That’s because Nomadland made the “virtual cinema” rounds over the fall and winter, but don’t worry, it’s getting a wide release soon.

Variety reports that Nomadland “will debut in select IMAX venues on Jan. 29 before opening in traditional theaters and drive-in locations on Feb. 19. On the same day as its wide release in February, Nomadland will premiere on Hulu.” Every one of those formats works for Nomadland: IMAX, because the cinematography is stunning and deserves to be seen on the biggest possible screen; drive-in theaters, because so much of the movie is about being in a car or van; and Hulu, because of the accessibility.

“Nomadland firmly establishes Chloé Zhao as one of the best directors working today. Not that this declaration couldn’t be seen coming with her last film, 2017’s The Rider. But Nomadland is just one of those types of movies that announces a director’s presence with authority. It’s the type of movie that changes everything for an up and coming director. At this point, it would be an absolute shock if it isn’t somehow nominated for Best Picture,” our own Mike Ryan wrote in his glowing review. Zhao’s next project: the Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Eternals, out on November 5.

(Via Variety)

One of the WNBA’s most promising and successful franchises has new ownership. Las Vegas Raiders owner Mark Davis announced on Thursday that he has agreed in principle to purchase the team from MGM Resorts International, and the deal is pending approval from the WNBA Board of Governors.

“I am excited to announce that I have entered into an agreement to purchase the Las Vegas franchise in the WNBA from MGM Resorts International,” Davis said in a statement released by the team. “I will have more to say once I receive official approval from the WNBA Board of Governors and have had a chance to speak with the players, coaches and administrators of the team.”

As MGM continues to sell off many of its physical, non-gaming properties, including the Bellagio and MGM Grand Resort on the Las Vegas Strip, they also seem to have been pursuing a sale of the WNBA franchise they purchased just over three years ago. In doing so, MGM gave a lifeline to a crumbling San Antonio franchise and gave Las Vegas its second professional sports team alongside the NHL’s Golden Knights.

Now, with Davis having moved the Raiders to the desert starting with the 2020 season, he gives himself a chance to dominate pro sports in Las Vegas.

“We will continue our enthusiastic support of the WNBA, NBA and basketball in Las Vegas,” said George Kliavkoff, president of sports and entertainment at MGM.

Having sold the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino where the Aces play their home games and where the 2019 WNBA All-Star game was held, and moving to a business model focused solely on casinos and sportsbooks, this sale was seemingly in the making for months.

Still, that Davis, valued at $500 million, would sign on to own a WNBA team is an interesting wrinkle here, as he becomes immediately among the wealthiest and most well-known team governors in the league.

It’s not easy to have a song reach a billion plays on Spotify, but now a new artist has been welcomed into the club of performers who have pulled it off: Today, Harry Styles’ hit single “Watermelon Sugar” has apparently topped a billion plays. As of this post, the Spotify play count for the song is at 999,056,008 on my desktop Spotify app, so either my count isn’t updated or the song will very soon eclipse a billion. Regardless, Styles fans are celebrating the feat, as both “PROUD OF HARRY” and #1BWatermelonSugar were trending topics on Twitter today.

Meanwhile, “Adore You” has surpassed 700 million plays today to become his third most-played song, just after “Sign Of The Times,” which has over 750 million plays.

Introducing the song before playing it during his Tiny Desk concert back in March 2020, Styles described how it came to be, saying, “[I wrote ‘Watermelon Sugar’] in 2017, while I was on tour for the first album. I was in Nashville on my day off, and we went into the studio just to kind of play around a little bit. We started some ideas and then I was with the guys that I made the first album with and we had this idea, this chorus melody, it was pretty repetitive […] This song became ‘Watermelon Sugar.’ It’s probably the longest it’s ever taken me to finish a song.”

Now that the James Harden trade is official as of Thursday morning, Rockets players are free to move forward and think about the future of this team post-Harden, and in a shootaround call with reporters on Thursday, it was Eric Gordon, the longest-tenured player on the team, who clarified the mood in the locker room.

According to Gordon, the deal gives the Rockets a chance to move forward with a “real direction.” After spending so much time winning at a high level alongside Harden, Gordon was willing to give the superstar the benefit of the doubt, but made it clear that Harden had made up his mind to leave Houston and it wasn’t going to work any longer.

With a core of Christian Wood, John Wall, and the newly-acquired Victor Oladipo in addition to veteran role players like Gordon, DeMarcus Cousins, Danuel House Jr. and others, the Rockets are in good shape to remain competitive in 2021. They likely will trade P.J. Tucker who seems to still be unhappy and should have a nice trade market according to Kelly Iko of The Athletic.

When Gordon was asked about the identity of the team going forward, he hyped up the opportunity for Houston to be “aggressive,” playing the type of fast-paced and overwhelming style that new head coach Stephen Silas has tried to install since being hired.

Through nine games, Houston is 12th in pace and they have had some stellar offensive nights when Harden or Wall had it going. Wood is scoring 23 per game. All the shooting accumulated over the years is still here, and Wall is a capable offensive conductor even if he’s not an MVP-level player like Harden.

A change of scenery could be good for Oladipo, who looks physically like himself again, has started hot from deep, and is a nice partner as a defender and scorer alongside Wall. The Rockets will have the chance to re-sign him this summer.

It’s hard to say that the Rockets will be chasing home-court advantage again as they have for nearly every season with Harden, but Houston will surely be able to stay afloat. Sometimes addition by subtraction can be what’s needed for a group to come together, as we’ve seen countless times in sports.

Of course removing an MVP candidate from the equation will make this team worse overall, but the difference between this deal and other superstar trades is that by nabbing Oladipo and keeping Wall and Wood, the bottom will not fall out. And judging from how harshly Cousins and Wall responded to Harden’s tirade this week, the Rockets were clearly tired of the cloud looming over them.

Olivia Rodrigo has herself the first surprise hit of the year with “Drivers License,” which has drawn the attention of Taylor Swift and broken the Spotify record for most daily streams of a non-holiday song. Her success has been unprecedented, especially for somebody who wasn’t already a music megastar (the teenager is mostly known as an actress), and Spotify agrees.

Spotify’s Global Hits lead Becky Bass spoke about Rodrigo and “Drivers License” with Billboard, saying that she and her team have “never seen anything like this”:

“There’s truly no direct comparison here. You do have songs like BTS and ‘Dynamite’ or Ariana Grande and ‘7 Rings’ that come out with just massive first-day numbers. And then you have newer artists like Tones And I with ‘Dance Monkey’ or Lil Nas X and ‘Old Town Road,’ which took a little bit longer to grow into chart-toppers. But in my experience — and as a team, we were just discussing this earlier — we’ve never seen anything like this, where you do have a newer artist that just comes out of the gate in such a dominant way, and just continues to grow. I mean, we were like, ‘Whoa, these first day numbers are huge!’ And then they were bigger the second day, bigger the third day… so it really feels unprecedented, and likely is unprecedented.”

Rodrigo previously said of the song, “When I came up with ‘Drivers License,’ I was going through a heartbreak that was so confusing to me, so multifaceted. Putting all those feelings into a song made everything seem so much simpler and clearer — and at the end of the day, I think that’s really the whole purpose of songwriting. There’s nothing like sitting at the piano in my bedroom and writing a really sad song. It’s truly my favorite thing in the world.”

Read more of Bass’ Billboard interview here.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Marvel fans are understandably freaking out after a Deadline report that Chris Evans is in talks to return as Captain America. While little is known about how Evans’ return to the Marvel Cinematic Universe would play out following the events of Avengers: Endgame where Steve Rogers ends the film as an elderly who lived a full, rich-life after restoring the MCU timeline (or not…), sources say that Evans won’t be starring in a solo movie. The actor would reportedly take a similar approach to Robert Downey Jr.’s appearances in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Evans’ return is especially notable because the actor has been clear about being done with the MCU and pleased with the way Cap’s story ended. However, he’s reportedly been receptive to talks with Marvel who weren’t ready to let him go just yet. Via Deadline:

Things had changed in recent months as the idea was floated of Evans returning to the MCU as Rogers to see if there was any interest and as the weeks went by, Evans became more game to the idea with the two sides coming to agreement at the top of the year.

As for what all of this means for the MCU going forward, fans are already furiously floating theories on social media. At this stage, the possibilities are endless thanks to the introduction of the Multiverse, and the announcement of the Secret Invasion series for Disney+, which will feature Nick Fury trying to figure out which Marvel heroes are real and which ones are shape-shifting Skrulls.

As for how this will affect Anthony Mackie taking on the mantle of Captain America in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Marvel has clearly left themselves plenty of storytelling opportunities that won’t conflict with its future plans for a new Avengers team. It also wouldn’t be without precedent. Both the Falcon version of Captain America and Steve Rogers peacefully co-existed in the comics at the same time.

(Via Deadline)

Ivanka Trump, officially, has remained very quiet following the failed MAGA coup, in which a mob of Trump followers stormed the U.S. Capitol, which left five people (including two police officers) dead. Well, Ivanka did tweet-and-delete a description of these people as “American Patriots,” and there are reports that she fancies herself as a future president, but other than that, we’re hearing a lot from other people. That includes warring sources quoted by the Washington Post in a report about the many toilets of Jared and Ivanka… and their apparent steadfast refusal to allow their Secret Service detail to use any of them.

This seems a tad extreme, right? Jared and Ivanka’s D.C. home (which they will, uh, soon vacate) features six-and-a-half bathrooms, and if this report is to be believed, they didn’t even want to designate a powder room for the people who protected them from harm’s way. This led to the U.S. government eventually being forced to rent a $3,000 per month basement bathroom elsewhere that has totaled up to $100,000 over the past your years. Yikes. This absurdity arrived after Jared and Ivanka wanted the agents to use a porta-potty, which the neighbors hated, and after the agents used a garage bathroom nearby at Barack and Michelle Obama’s house. That got (literally) messy:

The porta-potty was the agency’s initial solution to the protective detail’s dilemma, but it was removed in the face of the neighborhood’s protests. After that, according to the law enforcement officials, the agents began using a bathroom in a garage at the Obamas’ house, which the former president’s protective detail had turned into a command post.

The Obamas did not use the garage, so the extra traffic to and from the command post caused no problem. Yet this solution, too, was short-lived after a Secret Service supervisor from the Trump/Kushner detail left an unpleasant mess in the Obama bathroom at some point before the fall of 2017, according to a person briefed on the event. That prompted the leaders of the Obama detail to ban the agents up the street from ever returning.

The Post quotes a law enforcement source that declared, “It’s the first time I ever heard of a Secret Service detail having to go to these extremes to find a bathroom.” Meanwhile, the official White House word is that the Secret Service didn’t want to use Jared and Ivanka’s bathrooms, but yeah, law enforcement pushed back on that one. So, is it January 20th yet?

(Via Washington Post)

Cooking a steak to (your personal idea of) perfection takes time to master. Because there are a lot of ways to cook a steak, which means there are a lot of ways to mess it up. We’re not talking about selection, cuts, or even methods today. Instead, we’re zeroing in on getting the meat done right in a general sense, whether on a grill or in a cast-iron skillet.

This is about teaching you to have a “knack” for cooking steak. So that you never cut into a $40 piece of filet mignon and find it blue when you wanted it medium ever again.

Our goal here is to help you learn the three main ways to check your temperature as you’re cooking and resting your meat. Using a thermometer is (surprise!) the most accurate. But beyond that, you’re really going off of feel more than anything else. And that’s something you master over time.

Obviously, there are a lot of variables at play here, too. Cooking a skirt steak isn’t the same thing as cooking a bone-in ribeye. Likewise, a filet is going to take a little more finesse than a strip. We’ll explore the differences in the process as it relates to the specific cut as we go along.

PART I — Know Your Temperatures

• 110F — Blue (seared, red, and just warmed through)
• 120F — Rare (dark pink and fully warmed through)
• 130F — Medium Rare (light pink throughout)
• 140F — Medium (losing most of the pink)
• 150F — Medium Well (brown with a hint of pink in the very middle)
• 160F — Well Done (no pink at all)

140F is generally the spot you want to hit if you’re worried about bad bacterias on or in your food. Side note: Buy food you trust from local sources and this becomes much less of a concern.

If you’re nervous about your meat, always cook it to at least 140F. However, a steak is a solid piece of meat and harmful bacteria (if there is any) will be on the surface, which reaches temperatures well beyond 140F while cooking. Onely when the surface area is ground and mixed into the whole (hamburger), do you really have to start worrying about harmful bacterias in your meat.

All of that being said, know what you like and are comfortable with. Then cook your steak accordingly. Sure, well done meat is worse for you, but who are we to judge?

Lastly, these are end-point temperatures. That means we’re talking about a steak’s internal temp once it has rested. In general, the internal temperature will raise anywhere from five to ten (sometimes more) degrees while it rests, depending on which cut we’re talking about (more on that later). So don’t make the common Thanksgiving mistake of not taking your protein off the heating element until it’s reached the desired temp.

PART II — Start With Room Temperature Meat

Give yourself a head start! Cooking meat fresh out of the fridge will screw up the final product. You want to take the steak out at least an hour — preferably two hours — before you cook it. This will bring the internal temp of the meat to room temp. That should mean a difference of starting your cook at 75F instead of 35F. The actual muscle and fats will be softer when the meat is room temp, allowing the heat you apply on a stove or grill more space to do its work.

You also want to salt pretty early. Our tip is to take your steak out of the fridge about two hours before you want to cook. Then liberally salt all sides and let it rest on the kitchen counter. This will help season beyond the surface while also desiccating the surface, allowing a better crust to form down the road.

(There is some debate on when to salt the steak, but with a lot of reps under my belt, I like this method.)

PART III — Rest Between The Sear And Finish/Baste

Whether on a grill or in a skillet, you want to go fast and hot for the first step of cooking. You really don’t need to worry about internal temp at this point. Heat some neutral oil in a skillet or turn your heat up to 11 on the grill and get a solid sear on your meat.

Once you have a sear on both sides, take that steak off the heat and let it rest for a second. If you’re going for rare or medium-rare, this will stop the outer layer of the steak from losing all its pink color and going brown.

Generally, let the steak sit for three to five minutes just to take the edge of that high heat off. If we’re talking about a flank or skirt steak, you really don’t need to do this because they’re thin enough just to sear and be done with it. If we’re talking something with a bone, this is crucial.

Then you want to finish the steak on closer to medium or medium-high heat. This is where you add in your aromatics — thyme, rosemary, garlic, whatever — and butter if you’re basting.

This is also where you start testing for temperature. Which leads us to…

PART IV — The Touch Method

The most talked-about way to test your steak’s doneness is called the “touch method,” where you use your hand’s meatiness as a gauge.

It goes something like this: Look at your palm. Start poking it where your thumb meets the palm, leading to the index finger. That little bit of soft fleshy bit is basically the same feel as a rare steak. Now, move your poking finger about a half-inch towards the inner palm. It’s a little stiffer, right? That’s medium-rare. Another half-inch towards the palm is medium. The next half-inch should have your poking finger fully in the palm and a fairly stiff point which is medium-well leading to well done.

This little explainer is actually produced by the American Heart Association.

Chef Gordon Ramsay has a different riff on the touch test here. He drops a few other gems, too.

This is not a science. A skirt steak will cook much faster than, say, a rib eye. So you’ll have to keep a closer eye on it and take it off pretty fast. Then there’s a filet (or tenderloin) which, depending on thickness, will still hold a bit of giggle to it even as it cooks through. So you’ll have to practice this and find the sweet spots.

PART V — The Metal Spear Method

This might sound a little crazy to the uninitiated, but most professional chefs use a very small metal meat pick or spear to test their meat’s doneness. Basically, what you’ll see trained chefs do is insert this thin little metal stick into the meat and then place that stick on their wrist (or more weirdly their chin) to test the warmth of the internal meat. How warm that metal stick is will tell the chef where the meat is internally.

While this is a cool looking trick, it takes forever to master. You really have to get used to how a temperature feels which you really can’t do unless you’re cooking 50 steaks a night in culinary school. Still, if you master this at home, good on you! It’s a fun way to prove your prowess at cooking meat precisely… if you can dial it in.

PART VI — The “Just Use A Thermometer Already!” Method

This is really where everyone should start, especially if you’re dealing with thick cuts of meat. You can use something like a Meater thermometer to know exactly where your steak is at all times. We’re calling out that thermometer specifically because you leave it in the meat while you cook. You do not want to be poking your steak a dozen times to check the temperature — it’ll create holes through which all the juices you want to preserve will escape. The thermometer in the image above sort of gets sealed into the meat as it cooks, so you don’t lose the precious fluids.

If you do want to use a standard thermometer, our advice is to use the “touch method” and then put a thermometer in to see how close you are to the targeted temp just once. Please don’t keep poking the steak with a thermometer. The best thing you can do is practice and feel it out over trial and error until you have it just right.

PART VII — Always Rest After The Cook

This is the final step of cooking any steak and crucial to the final doneness of the meat.

If you’re cooking something thin like a skirt or even something small like a four-ounce filet, you’ll need around five minutes for the rest. In that time, you can see anywhere from five to seven or eight degrees change in temperature.

If you’re talking about a big ol’ rib-eye or porterhouse, you’ll need at least ten minutes and expect a ten-degree increase in internal temp.

So, if you’re aiming for medium-rare with a rib eye, take it off the heat at 120F to 125F. Rest for ten minutes. Then check the temp with a thermometer. It should be between 130F and 135F. This process also allows the steak to calm down and for fluids to redistribute. The juices will settle back into the muscle, creating a more succulent final experience.

This resting time also gives you just the right amount of time to make a quick pan sauce. But that’s an article for another day.