Meat & Livestock Australia has released an updated version of its popular ‘Beef Essentials’ iphone App to help consumers select, prepare and cook the perfect steak.

MLA’s next generation ‘SteakMate’ app is designed to help the consumer get the perfect result on the barbecue every time, regardless of how they like it cooked.

“SteakMate is your best friend when barbecuing or pan-frying beef steaks,” the Apple istore explanation says. “It ensures you have a great eating experience every time and takes the guess work out of cooking beef steaks.”

The next generation SteakMate app is easy to use. The user simply enters the cut they intend to cook, the cooking method being used, the degree of ‘doneness’ required, and the thickness of the steak cut. SteakMate will then tell the user exactly how long to cook it – with handy prompts for when it is time to turn the steak, and when it has finished cooking and needs to be rested.

The app can even handle situations cooking for a group, with different preference for degrees of doneness. SteakMate has that covered with its queuing function, allowing the cook to add as many people to the queue as required so that everyone gets their steak cooked the way they like it.

For situations where a user repeatedly cooked their favourite steak the same way, it can be added to a ‘favourites’ list, meaning they are only ever one step away from cooking the perfect steak.

Not sure about what steaks to barbecue or pan-fry? SteakMate gives the user a list of all the beef steaks recommended for cooking this way, as well as information about each of them. It also includes all the alternate names for the same steak, such as sirloin, striploin, porterhouse, or New York cut.

• To download the SteakMate App in the Apple App Store, click here, or as an Android phone App on Google Play, click here.