For situations that call for just a beautifully seared quality steak I have a Big Green Egg outside that I can get up to around 750-800 degrees. With that it’s pretty easy - put steaks on for 1 minute, flip and cook 1 more minute, then flip again and close all the vents which puts the charcoal out but retains much of the heat within. Let sit without opening until done (around 3-4 more minutes). I usually use a probe thermometer to make sure it comes out exactly right.
If I’m going to cook indoors I like to make Steak Au Poivre, which is to say a French pepper steak. I like to use steaks that are 1-inch thick for this. I use a mortar and pestle to grind peppercorns and then salt the steaks and cover them in the now coarsely ground pepper. They get pan-seared in olive oil and butter for 3 minutes on each side and then are removed to rest. The pan gets deglazed with a half cup of cognac which I light on fire to burn off. Afterwards I add a cup of heavy cream and reduce on medium heat for about 5 minutes and serve the steaks with the resulting peppercorn cream sauce.
This thread is making me hungry, but all I have in the house is toast…
I consider myself rather lucky to have a real butcher’s shop just down the road from me, where I can get some very nice cuts of meat. We’ve had the best pork chops I ever tasted from him, he does different sausage recipes every week, and you can special order just about anything from him (including kangaroo, which might be interesting). I haven’t tried his steaks, but that can be a project for the summer. Also, he’s from Britain originally, and it’s very nice to be able to ask for a pound of mince and be understood.
Edit: also, one of the best things about QT3 is the thread resurrections!
tips i heard:
meat keeps cooking after you remove it, so let it rest.
don’t let it rest on a cold plate, heat up the plate beforehand.
don’t cut into it right away or you’ll bleed juice (ie flavor and the retained heat in the juice)
I’m not sure I would go so far as to call it the perfect steak, but we tried a flatiron steak for the first time and I was really pleased with the cut. It was incredibly flavorful.
This is how I usually cook steaks for me and the wife.
Prepare steaks as you like it seasoned. For me, it’s nothing more than about a tablespoon of Dale’s (or soy) on each side, stabbed a few times with a fork to allow the liquid seasoning to seep inside the meat. I’ll add some onion powder, some garlic, and a pepper. Directions are as follows for a steak cut 1.25 inches thick (or about). I personally don’t like alot of seasoning or marination because it effectively kills the taste of the steak itself. Remember, you want the seasoning to accent the steak, not the other way around.
Season steak to taste. 30 minutes of marination is fine. It doesn’t soak in any more if marinated for longer than 30 minutes. You won’t be able to taste the difference.
Warm up grill. Get coals as hot as possible.
Get a large cast iron skill (already seasoned) and put in the oven. Put the skillet in the oven with the power off. Heat oven up to 500 degrees. Wait ten minutes after reaching this temperature before pulling skillet out.
After 10 minutes at 500 degrees, pull skillet out, turn the oven off (if you have a grill, leave it on if you don’t), and put on stovetop (no heat other than the skillet). Immediately drop steaks into skillet for about 2 minutes on either side.
If you have a grill, take them outside after 2 minutes on both sides and cook to your preferred temp (med rare, medium, etc). If you don’t have a grill, put the skillet back in the oven to achieve your preferred cook temp. It will take some practice to learn what your particular oven or grill takes to cook a steak to the temp you want.
Eat.
I’ll occasionally toss in the veggies and mushrooms and whatnot in the skillet while the steak is cooking, and leave them there after I take the steaks out to the grill.
Edit to add:
Find and get to know your local butcher.
Don’t be scared of aged meat or learning how to age your own.
Don’t use previously frozen/dethawed meat.
I use this recipe. It says ribeye, I use whatever.
I use the oil and Montreal Steak Seasoning (because I’m lazy, basically).
However, I usually screw up in not bringing the steak to room temperature first, which makes me rely on the meat thermometer and a slightly variable rare to medium temperature when done.
I’ve done flatirons, and they’re good, but the place I was buying them from didn’t know how to cut them to get the gristle out of the middle. So I stopped. Very tender (other than the gristle).
Oh, and “sealing in the juices”, yeah, that’s not true. Searing it makes for a tasty crust, that’s the win of that part.
I would be beyond shocked, downright hornswaggled, if this has never been linked before on these boards*. This is how I learned to cook steak (beyond the grill, natch).
-xtien
“He wants to look at his plate and see a steak and say, ‘I like steak.’”
I had what I consider a perfect steak once out at a restaurant here in the Tdot. I’ve been to a number of high end steak houses and have never had anything that even comes close to this steak I got at this smallish joint.
Now I like my steaks as blue as possible which most chefs completely fail to do correctly and which I have no hope of replicating at home.
This steak was like a fillet mignon but slightly bigger (maybe even twice what a fillet mignon might normally be, grilled wonderfully crisp to exactly one millimeter and then perfectly blue inside yet nice and warm throughout as well. Ah how I loved that steak. I’ve never had another like it. Perhaps it would help if I went back to that restaurant.
I’m a novice griller, but the best steaks I’ve ever made have been heavy on Bullseye Hickory BBQ sauce, and parmesan (not shavings though) sprinkled over top.
You can get that effect with pan searing. Just get your pan SUPER SUPER hot. One of the things I have learned over the years is to not be afraid of a hot pan. You’re not going to burn anything - not unless you leave it sitting in there forever. So turn the heat up high!
I dont know how to make a perfect steak on my plain-jane charcoal grill.
I can say that, as a crazed carnivore, what I can produce is pretty sweet, relative to what a good steak costs me in an upscale steak house.
First thing, buy USDA Prime. Even though its about 3x the cost of Select, its so worth the price, its insane. Select is the standard grade I guess in most grocery stores. Choice is better than that. Prime is way better than Choice.
Second, I rub it down with Montreal seasoning. Available in every grocery store.
Third I get my coals as hot as I can and put the steak on for about 3 minutes a side per inch of thickness.
I cook very hot but my steaks never turn out the same. I can sear them nicely but they will be cold in the center, of course I don’t really mind that but it’s nicer if it’s warm yet blue. If I put them in the oven after wards I always manage to overdo them.
It’s a conundrum but I am just not able to make my perfect steak.
Watch the video I link above. Seriously. This is not hard. You can do this.
Preheat your oven to 500 degrees with cast iron skillet in the oven. Move skillet to stovetop and crank up the heat to high on the burner for five minutes.
Salt/pepper/canola oil on steak. Steak in searing hot pan for 30 seconds. Turn steak over and give it another 30 seconds.
Skillet then goes into 500 degree oven for 2 minutes. Turn steak over. Back in oven for another 2 minutes.
Take steak out of pan. Put on plate. Tent with foil for five minutes (so it stays warm). Voila…medium rare steak perfectly seared.
When cooking on a grill, I sear thoroughly then bring to temp on the cool side - always use a bi-level charcoal grill. (Coals only on one side, cover when cooking on non-coal side).
Indoors or out, I cook prime aged beef at room temperature (let sit 2 hours) with only kosher salt and pepper. All other sauces and seasonings come after cooking.
Garlic and garlic products will burn to bitterness. Any sugar-based sauce will caramelize, and be tasty and crusty but take away from the beef flavor.
On a wood or charcoal fire is best - grill pan (with the ridges) second best - cast iron third. You really do want those evaporating smoking juices coming up to flavor the meat.
