A perfectly cooked pink and juicy sirloin steak is a luxury that many of us only get to enjoy at a restaurant. Steak is an expensive choice both in a restaurant and when cooked at home, and lacking the know-how of the trained chef to decide when it is done can make the whole process quite daunting. It's important to find a good sirloin steak recipe first and foremost, but there's a wealth of handy hints and tips out there that will help you nail that perfect steak.

A lot goes into cooking the best-ever sirloin steak – you need to think about using the right pan, cooking at the right temperature, and for the right amount of time. Then there's the question of seasoning. Do you season an hour before cooking, or just before it goes in the pan? The latter is the most reliable way to get the flavour you want, but the former is still perfectly reasonable. Salting long before you cook will cure the surface of the steak, giving you even more flavour – just make sure you wipe off any excess moisture before you cook. As a general rule, we would avoid using pepper until after the steak is cooked – if your pan is hot, the pepper will burn and taste acrid, so best to add it afterwards.

One of the most important things to remember before cooking a sirloin steak is to make sure it comes to room temperature before it goes anywhere near the pan. If you cook a steak straight from the fridge, the inside will be cold and take much longer to cook, and it'll likely still be raw by the time the outside of your steak is done. An optimum thickness for a steak is between 3cm and 4cm, any thinner than this proves tricky not to overcook.

In terms of oil, it is best to use a flavourless oil with a high smoking point such as groundnut or vegetable oil. If you want to add the richness with butter, do so after you've flipped the steaks, and baste the steak with the gorgeous foaming butter as it cooks. Try adding herbs such as rosemary or thyme and garlic when you add the butter for an extra flavour dimension.