how to grill steak - Page 2

My methodology automatically adjusts itself to assume Bobby Flay is wrong about everything.

The best tip given so far is to make sure the steaks are at room temperature before tossing on the ungodly hot grill.

Now, some are going to say "properly cooked steaks do not need any seasoning" or "a good piece of meat doesn't need seasoning" here, but I really don't care. Get a couple of good, thick, USDA Prime aged steaks and use this marinade.

# 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
# 1/4 cup red wine
# 2 tablespoons olive oil
# 3 garlic cloves, crushed
# 1/2 (5 1/2 ounce) can tomato paste
# 1 teaspoon black pepper, freshly ground

Take your steaks and pierce them all over with a fork. Place them in a big freezer bag, dump in this very thick sauce/marinade. Massage it all in so the steaks are completely covered. Marinade over night.

Then do what everyone else is recommending: grill high heat, about 5 minutes per side, wrap in foil, let rest.

Thank me later for just giving you the best marinade ever, that happens to be very simple and composed of simple, classic items. Match this with a good pinot or cabernet, your choice of veggies and/or starch (I usually grill asparagus with olive oil and garlic salt on the grill with the steaks) and you are ready to have people compliment your mad grill skilz.

As an aside, I'd take anything Alton Brown says with a grain of salt. I like him and I watch Good Eats, but he does present a lot of misinformation. Bobby Flay is, as far as I'm concerned, a much more credible source of cooking knowledge.

The only bone I have to pick with Alton Brown is that he's overly anal about ingredient proportions and cooking methods. I mean, I'm a decent cook who has a decent inventory of kitchen equipment, but damn, I don't have half the tools he uses for every one of his shows.

When he (or the show's staff) actually does research, he comes up with some cool stuff. But he still floats around some old wives' tales, stuff that's been disproven many times. It's not always harmful information, but it's enough to hurt his credibility, at least with me. For example, he had a pizza crust recipe where he recommended an overnight rise in the fridge, as the cold and slow rise improves the flavor. This is an old chestnut; it actually is a misunderstanding of the finding that using less yeast in bread products (which also results in a slower rise) improves flavor. Cook's Illustrated did something on this years ago.

Another is his insistance that one cook chicken wings for broth, and cook them for six hours in order to extract collagen from the bones for better "mouth feel." There are three problems with this: (1.) you can't feel collagen until the broth has cooled to about room temperature...several blind taste tests have proven this; (2.) using all wings instead of encouraging people to freeze scraps (both raw and cooked) encourages people to spend way more money than necessary on chicken broth (my friend makes Brown's all-wing broth and has recently admitted that mine is just as good and WAY cheaper); and (3.) it also asks people to spend more of their time than necessary monitoring the broth. Those of us who know better can ignore such advice, but not everybody does know better. I went to culinary school and have worked in several restaurants; the majority of his audience has not.

Now, I'll hand him this: he's also done his part to dispell some myths, and this is where his research has come in. I'm glad he dispelled the myth that you shouldn't wash mushrooms before cooking them, for example.

I agree with everyone with the cast iron method on the stove. The key with cast iron is that its temperature does not drop once you put the meat in it - that, to me, is essential in getting a steak that has the char on it while being still rare on the inside. Stainless steel with aluminum core does not achieve that.

As for cooking on a grill, I use Lazzari charcoal, or some other type of non-processed charcoal. It burns at a much higher heat, which, once again, is essential to me for a good char while having a rare inside. I also never cover the grill unless it's a London Broil cut.

I don't want watch enough "Good Eats", nor do I posses any formal culinary training or make my own pizza dough (yet) to make this sort of judgment. Alton's persona, at least as presented on "Good Eats" and in his cookbooks, does tend be overly analytical and even a bit compulsive, especially when measurements or timings are referenced. This emphasis on the science of cooking would let me to believe that his suggestion on the grilled steak rest period is good starting point for amateur cooks. With experience, everyone works out their preferences based on the preparation method, cut and quality of meat and palate. I am not big fan of Bobby Flay's personality but he is still one of the Iron chefs and a somewhat celebrated chef/owner of several restaurants. I think grilling is one of his specialties since he wrote four books on the subject. I have not read the books or cooked any Bobby Flay recipes but we all must start somewhere and through experimentation arrive at the recipe timing, ingredients and proportions that we think work best.

I grill at a high temperature (450 F) and cook each side only once. About 6 minutes on side 1, then 3 minutes on the other side (depends on steak size and thickness). I prefer a medium to rare steak, so if you like your meat well done you'll have to go with a lower temp.

Looks like a nice marinade, though I doubt I would use it on a prime cut.

bone-in:

salt, pepper and maybe a bit of oil infused garlic or better toward the end.

skirt, london broil, etc:

marinade in either:

1 tbspn garlic
1 tbspn oregano
1/3 cup extra virgin
pinch of sale
juice of 1/2 lime

or

1 tbspn sesame oil
1/3 cup of extra virgin
1 tbspn soy sauce
1/2 lime
1 tspn coriander
1 tbspn garlic
1 tspn ginger

Okay, optional for prime. Mandatory for choice or select. Seriously, this marinade is not only subtle, it macerates and tenderizes. Give it a try and them come back and testify

I've gotten the most ridiculous excellent brown crusts from pan cooking steaks, as opposed to real grilling.

Grilling is more fun though, and less clean up.

On this topic, I'm having real trouble gauging when a steak is done.

The time method doesn't seem to work for me; three minutes per side usually doesn't get me near medium rare, and the cooking time seems to vary a lot depending on the thickness.

I tried a couple of good quality meat thermometers, but the readings I get from these seem to be all over the ballpark.

The touch method still eludes me, seeming to vary depending on cut and thickness.

The only thing that works for me at all is to basically sear the hell out of it, guess at the time on the grill, and err on the side of rare, being prepared to return it from the table to the grill if it's just too raw once I cut into it. It's a pretty half-assed method, and irksome to me at my attempts to become an outstanding grill cook.

Now that I think about it, I have a terrible time telling when ANYTHING is done on the grill, without actually cutting into it. Chicken, potatoes, kabobs... you name it. I'm using the classic Weber charcoal grill most of the time, BTW.

Any ideas appreciated!

David

Chicken is easy with meat thermometer. Just stick it in the thickest part. Once it hits 165, its safe.

You don't want to poke a steak though. You'll get better at gaging temp through trial and error. I would try and use the same grill, same cut and appox thickness, with the same brand charcoal each time until you get a better idea of what it takes to cook a steak the way you like. Once you get this nailed down, you can branch out.