This thread has had me salivating hardcore for the past twenty minutes. This is food erotica at its finest, ladies and gents, keep it up!

600 degree grill

2:45 each side

not hard, bro

I don't know how you can **** up grilling steak, except if you use a steak that was frozen. frozen = exploded cell membranes = dry.

I'm not ****ing it up, I'm looking to go to expert level. And I knew there were guys here who could help.

You should absolutely sear both sides, but "keeps the juices inside" is total bullshit. You do it because it creates flavors (Google Maillard reaction if you're unfamiliar) that you wouldn't get otherwise. It's been shown time after time that searing actually creates MORE moisture loss than not searing.

This is pretty much not the case. Searing gives it a delicious crust if use lightly salt it. Read the 7 old wives tales about steak that need to die I posted earlier.

Okay.

This is what you have to do:

1. Get a cooking surface as hot as ****ing possible. Put an iron skillet in the oven at highest temp and heat it for ten minutes. Then turn on your burner on max and plop it right on there to get it screaming hot.

2. Lightly oil the steak with a HIGH smoke point oil (not olive oil). Season lightly with kosher/sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. If you salt the steak earlier than just prior to throwing it on the iron, do it at least 45 minutes prior so the steak has time to reabsorb the moisture it loses when having salt on the surface. You can leave it in the fridge for this. MAKE SURE THE SURFACE HAS NO WATER ON IT BEFORE YOU COOK. External moisture will steam the meat rather than giving it a delectable crust and char, as well as it make take longer to cook.

3. Throw that bitch on the metal. Sear for 30 seconds, then flip to an UNUSED part of the cooking surface to ensure maximum temperature transfer to the unseared side and sear that for another 30 seconds. If you're using a grill, move it to a medium high heat area. If you're using a skillet and you don't like black and blue style steak (seared on the outside, cold and raw on the inside), put it back in the oven for two minutes at max temp, then flip, cook for another two minutes.

4. Take it off the metal, put it on an upside down plate or rack with a pan underneath and cover with foil and let it rest for several minutes. This is good for medium rare, which if you aren't eating it that way, you're throwing your money away with steak. Go to McDonald's instead.

Another way I've done it (and is AMAZING), is doing the above with searing in the skillet, then turning the heat way down and basting with butter over and over while the steak cooks. Unbelievably delicious.

that talks about salting in the last 40 minutes before grilling, not the day before as you recommended.

I read the day before I think from Cooks Illustrated, but I think the article I linked says 40 minutes or more. The point is once the meat reabsorbs the salt solution, it's not going to lose moisture. So 40 minutes at least, 4 hours, a day, it is all basically the same.

And from personal experience, I get the best results when I salt a full day ahead.

It does say that you can do it several days before. If you're patient enough, you can age the steak in the fridge for a few days to remove surface moisture and get an even better crust.

I hate that paste.

Stop using donkey meat

Huh. Wonder if it's the same in AZ?

This thread will stay on the main page for weeks....steak is like cars and pussy. Everybody likes theirs different.

Well said!

If Arizona is like Cali, the answer is no.

Beef at Costco is garbage in Cali. Actually, all the beef is garbage unless you go to a butcher shop or Harris Ranch at the Fairfax Farmer's Market. A good NY Strip runs $20 a pound and even then, the quality varies.

Yet when I've visited my parents in the KC area, my mom will get cheap steaks at Costco and they're great.

Thanks, that's what I figured. That's my experience here as well. I go to French's Butcher shop, they have Midwest beef.
And of course anything mom cooks is great, right?

I found out the hard way. My mom and dad grilled steaks for us in the middle of winter a few years back and IIRC, they were like $5 a pound from Costco. My wife and I flipped out because we'd been paying $20 a pound, so I bought some from our local Costco shortly after we got home.

Suffice to say, they were flavorless and tough as an old leather shoe. I may have even started a thread about it years ago. Some of the guys recommended a meat tenderizer but I never purchased one.

There are a million great things about living in the west. Freely available high quality beef isn't one of them.

You got that right! She stayed her for a week during my wife's ordeal to help with the baby and cooked the entire time, from chicken noodle and navy bean soup with ham, to chicken Parmesan and homemade marinara to enchiladas, breakfasts and more.

Pure awesomeness.

That's for sure but the older I become, the less red meat I eat. I'm really into the Foster's Farms organic chicken from Costco. I use Zarda BBQ poultry rub and let a couple of breast sit overnight in a quart container in the fridge before grilling.

I frequently grill chicken for salads, as a main course with a side or to mince and make chicken tacos with avocado, cilantro and chopped onions on a steamed corn tortilla. There are just so many great ways to incorporate grilled chicken into a meal.

Oh yeah, pesto pasta with chicken is another fave.

Hah! I was in Iowa last week and my mom made ham and beans.it's one of my favorites. Also stuffed green peppers and beef and noodles with home made noodles.
Glad your mom was able to come help when you needed her.

I have such a craving for steak, I may just make a video tonight and show you.

Have you thought about using charcoal instead of gas?

Only way to go IMO.

I am still confused as to why this good sized niche market hasn't been filled. When I came out of college it was primed and ready to go and at least 3 of the grad students were contemplating taking a stab at it... yet no one seems to have taken full advantage of it on any decent sized scale. Small Midwest farmer raised grain fed & properly aged small butcher processed beef will knock the socks off most anything you guys can buy on the left coast while sliding into what many of the regions people would consider "organic" and/or "all natural". There is a substantial USDA hoop to jump through, but it should easily be offset by the premium collected. :shrug:

This is a broad statement but not many people I know grill or enjoy steaks on a regular basis.

Beef isn't a staple of Cal-cuisine, best I can tell. It's all fish, shellfish, chicken, veggies, etc.

turn down the heat ! you say u used high heat, turn it way down, drink 3 extra beers while grilling, thats all it takes trust me

I'd be eating the hell out of the fresh fish if I lived there too. Do you believe the lack in grilling beef is mainly due to the health concerns or the lack of quality and tradition? The dozen or so California natives who have moved here all rave about the quality of beef. The culture shock and lack of good fresh fish probably helps force them to beef though.

Perhaps the advertising battle and cultural differences are larger than I see from a distance and keep the niche smaller than some of the beef industry perceives it to be.

I already have 2 grills, don't want 3. I'm just plain too lazy to go the charcoal route.

Yes. I do red meat maybe once every two weeks. But when I do, I want it right. Currently into salmon.

The added flavor you get from charcoal is well worth it.

I don't blame you, it's a pain in the ass compared to just turning on the gas.

Having done a couple hundred blind taste tests in college, most people can't correctly identify a difference between toughness and dryness let alone properly taste and consistently identify the differences between cooking methods. The direction you cut the individual pieces of meat and how you place it into the mouth have enough of an effect on perceived quality as it is. Add in the effects smell has on perceived taste and people have no ****ing clue what they're tasting half the time. The visual and aromatic placebo effect is much larger than most people realize. The rest of the subtle differences just further confuse most people.

When I go through all the trouble of properly smoking something there is NO WAY all that work I did didn't make it taste better than something that took half the time and effort. Just ask me. ROFL

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM...yessur!!1

Should have stopped here + salt n pepper.

This is the way I like women served to me.

Not on an every day kind of basis. I eat steak at least 4 times a week. Gas is the way to go. You can add flavorizer wood to gas grills, as well, to get the taste. The convenience seals the deal for gas for me, especially since it's hooked up to my house. **** propane tanks.

You're fine. It's not necessary to make an out-of-this-world steak.

If you like gray, dry, listless, hockey puck steaks, you should do this. A good crust complements the beef flavor, which is the entire point of the sear. You shouldn't be using a bunch of seasoning to cover up the meat flavor unless it's really awful beef.

The guy sitting across from me just ordered a KOBE flat iron steak medium well... I. Cannot. Believe. This.

Claude's BBQ brisket marinade is good for every bit of beef on the grill.

savory withOUT salty, easy for steaks, a GODsend for burgers.

I got some burger patties from Harris Ranch and they were substantially better than any others I had gotten from the grocery stores here in Cali. I only purchased them because they were the best priced in the fat content range I wanted. I started a thread on here about it quite a while ago, wondering if anyone knew why they were so good. I did find this on their site:

Feeding Practices

Although our cattle spend approximately 80% of their lives grazing on grass, we finish them for about 120 days on a nutritional-balanced diet of corn and other feed grains, plus alfalfa hay, vitamins and minerals. One of the secrets to great beef is meticulous attention to feeding practices. Harris Ranch is one of just a few producers in the country that produces beef exclusively from cattle fed in our own feedlot, Harris Feeding Company. Since corn-fed beef is the most flavorful, tender and juicy beef available, Harris Ranch’s Central California feedlot purchases Midwestern corn by the trainload to serve as the basis for our scientifically formulated rations. We mill all of our own feeds under the guidance of a consulting animal nutritionist. As part of our specialized feeding regimen, Harris Ranch tests to ensure all ingredients used in our feed are free of pesticide residues. Furthermore, Harris Ranch has never fed any animal proteins. Many of our customers are surprised to learn that beef produced in feedlots actually has a smaller carbon footprint than meat raised exclusively on grasses.

Oh, and I very rarely eat beef anymore. Chicken, fish, pork.

No doubt about the Maillard reaction, but this guy seems to disagree about the moisture loss:http://goo.gl/FgXkfX in fact went so far as to write a four page rant on it. He seems to think that a lot of the tests that were performed were flawed since they neglected to take fat loss into account. Which is right? I have no idea, but searing is definitely a good thing no matter what.

I use the same basic process you do but add a rest in between the sear and the cook. It's based on the T-Rex method which can be found here. Basically it's sear, rest, cook, rest then EAT. I've tried it without the rest period after the sear and it's just not quite as juicy. I'm one of those 'sinners' who likes to eat their steaks medium to medium-well. It's quite possible that if you weren't cooking the steaks as long that it wouldn't make as much of a difference.

I use a Kamado for grilling at home, but I've successfully done the same thing using a hot skillet and a gas grill. The process takes a little longer but it is well worth it. I use only oil (or clarified butter if I want to kill time), kosher salt, fresh black pepper and minced garlic as a treatment on the steak.

Unless you eat your steak well done or medium well....then you are just a god damned grade a sally

I take my raw steaks on a platter out the back door and point back and forth between them and the grill menacingly.

Well done steak? No thank you.

:D

No way:

http://www.steaknight.com/assets/ima...ess_chart2.jpg

Medium rare..mmmmmm.

Rare if a thin cut, up to borderline medium rare for a really good thick cut. 50% red is a MINIMUM. 60% is optimal, but I've had a couple of 75% reds that were thick enough that it included a 40% raw cross section. Just a little too much.

Yeah. If I wanted to eat leather I'd chew on my car seat.

You eat a well done Steak? What?

Are you 12?

Zach c'mon you play soccer

Medium is the upper limit on how far a steak should be cooked. The rarer the better.

More done steak is much tougher and chewier than a rare steak. At least, if you're not using shitty cuts of meat with a lot of connective tissue.

WTF? Seriously the people that tear up good meat like that are the sallies. Not sure if you are even being serious.

Thick ass t-bones in the fridge awaiting salting, sitting, searing, sitting tonight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MxZWsMzTss
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2wg0UDuU2-o

Thanks. And thanks to everyone who has contributed in this thread.

This thread has had me craving steaks. Fortunately, strip steaks just went on sale so it's all good now. :thumb:

get a rope

I actually just got a new gas grill to go with my WSM, and haven't had a chance to try steaks on it yet. My deep freeze (where I was storing a quarter steer) tripped its breaker somehow and I lost all of it.

damn shame

a moment of silence please...

I don't like Kobe beef. Weird taste.

Bummer!

Bought a new, bigger, and much more energy efficient freezer, where it is now located in my garage instead of the basement so I would hopefully notice before it loses temp. Also lost about 30lbs of raw cat food that I made, and is a huge pain in the ass to make. Never again.

I dun think you guise kan read.

I was saying that IF YOU eat your steak "medium well" or "well done" you are a sissy. I like mine medium-rare, rare if I'm at a really good steak joint.

Well that's not what you said. :harumph:

I can't recommend this enough.
Although I would recommend a few adjustments.
1) Let the steaks come to room temperature.
2) Season with Kosher Salt and Black Pepper (optional on the pepper)
3) Let the steaks sit with the seasoning for 20 minutes
4) Pat the steaks dry with a paper towel (this is critical to getting a good crust on the steak
5) Make sure your fire is very hot and cook to desired doneness. I recommend an instant read thermometer (125 for medium rare)
6) let the steaks rest 10-20 minutes based on size.

Enjoy

Ang

I would hold off on the pepper until the end. If you're grilling at the temps you should be, the pepper will burn.

Just because it keeps popping up:

Mythbusting: Letting Meat Come To Room Temp

http://www.amazingribs.com/tips_and_...room_temp.html

http://www.seriouseats.com/2013/06/t...ing-steak.html


Long story short, the math behind this idea isn't there. It takes a lot longer than 20 minutes to bring meat to room temp, plus when dealing with grill surfaces, the difference in temperature is negligible.

From the second website:

Ribeye grilled medium for me please.

Just had one last Saturday with a variety selection of pumpkin and oktoberfest brews.

Get thee to the internet and splurge on a $12 freezer alarm. Sure beats making cat food over and over.

Like this or a dozen similar.
http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER%C2%AE-R...=Freezer+alarm

That is a well and good, But I have cooked an average of 150 steaks a week for the last 20 years professionally.
Bringing them to room temp works for me and I will keep doing it.

Ang

1) The point of resting it after salting isn't necessarily to bring it to room temp. Although, if you leave it out long enough, the more even cooking is there. They just aren't leaving them out long enough in their tests.

2) It's also why you need to leave the steaks out longer, use more salt, and then rinse the salt off and dry them when searing. It seasons the steak better, and drying them removes the moisture that prevents a great sear.

Thanks!

I cooked my t-bone rare last night. Thin crust on outside and very little cooked the rest. It was melting in my mouth.

I'm not huge into rubs for steaks, especially good ones, but try this sometime. It's really very good - it seems to boost beefiness/umami more than actually flavor the steak.

"Grilling spice mix" from Modernist Cuisine

10g sweep paprika
10g porcini powder
10g honey powder
5g onion powder
5g smoked salt
1g ground black pepper

I know the porcini powder is very high in glutamates, which makes beef taste beefier (much like mushrooms, tomatoes, worcestershire sauce, and sardines). Keeps for a couple weeks in a Tupperware.

Doing this tonight. My first experience with cast iron. Can't wait

:spock:

Have you not been paying attention to me all this time?!?!

:D The question is: is the cast iron broke in?

LMAO I salivate at all the posts you make about food so much that comprehension is impossible.

It's your fault, really.