Grilled Porterhouse or T-Bone Steak

Your a genius. You shouldn't have called it "cooking ro engineers" - you should've called it "cooking for men". This is the first recipe source that MAKES SENSE !!!

Caveat: I'm an accountant, but then I'm also an academic and a Perl hacker, so maybe I'm not normal, but a sub-engineer? Who knows. At least I can now learn to cook !!!!!!!

Stop eating the cattle, f#*ker.

It's cooking for _engineers_. It would be very nice if you used SI units. It would be very helpful for European readers, too. Cheers.

Engineers use the units that are available locally to them. Scientists use SI. :)

See my post on this topic in the Standing Rib Roast article.

Great job! One comment though. I found the last paragraph about evening out the cooking by favoring one side confusing because there is no component identification diagram. Could you enhance your otherwise complete process guide with a placement diagram so I can understand which is the strip side? Thanks!

Scotty,

In the first photograph with the steak (when it is raw on the plate), the strip (or top loin) section is the lower portion. The smaller portion (on the upper half of the steak) is the tenderloin or filet cut. The strip can be cooked closer to the heat as it handles overcooking better than the filet, so orient the tenderloin away from your heat source.

I'll try to take a picture the next time I grill a Porterhouse.

I highly recommend starting off by grilling the steak for 15 seconds, on each side, TWICE. This will prevent the steak from sticking to the grill. Next, flip the steak every 45 seconds, for two to three full cycles. Then switch to every thirty seconds until the steak is close to the desired level of "doneness." Then switch to every 20 seconds until it is ready. Flipping often like this allows you to get the steak to have a very even level of red or pink (in medium-rare and medium levels of doneness, where rare == "dark red center (raw)," medium rare == "bright red center," etc. Switching to 30 seconds per side, followed by 20 seconds per side keeps with this goal, and makes it far easier to prevent over cooking. I learned this through trial and error over time. This is the technique I came up with after about 100 steaks grilled, and I get them cooked to perfection every time (unless the steak was cut badly, i.e., the middle is thinner than the edges, or some such variation).

The way to cook the mushrooms is a great idea. Thanks.

Was wondering; any recommendations for those who like their steaks done a little more?

I assume that you'd just leave it on for a few more minutes on low heat, but do you have any suggestions on how to keep it from drying up too much going to medium or medium well? There's a big difference between "medium well" and "burnt leather" that I've tasted before, but I haven't figured out how to replicate reliably.

I agree that Porterhouse is the best. Personally I don't mind a bit of char on the fat so I lightly trim mine leaving about 1/4" of fat and then grill on very hot coals (as in charcoal, mesquite or hickory) turning only once after about 3 min. (for a 3/4" - 1" steak) and cooking until the steak just starts to feel firm when poked with tongs. (NEVER use a fork!) The more it's turned and the longer it cooks the more it dries out. (I think it's impossible to cook a steak less than 3/4" well) If cooked until rare and quickly wrapped in foil for a few min. it will be medium rare when served. NEVER cook a steak past medium rare....just buy hamburger....or eat an old shoe!

My $.02

PS Nice site!

If you really must overcook your steak--ie take it to medium or medium well--the only way to perserve the quality of the meat is to finish the cooking time off the grill.

The fat conducts the heat to the meat very efficiently and helps keep the meat from drying out. The butter solids and salt will add some richness to the meat to help compensate for overcooking. The sugar in the jelly will also enhance the flavors and contrast nicely with the saltiness of the butter.

Add a pat of butter to your saute pan and heat until butter starts melting, and a spoonful of currant or other jelly (not jam, but jelly, there is a difference) that will work with your seasoning mix. The jelly and butter will melt together and start to bubble. When a small amount foam starts to form, add the steak and saute it until you reach the desired level of doneness. The meat will cook very rapidly. Turn it frequently and check for doneness.

This works very well if you are cooking for a big group and you want to precook your steaks. Just cook them all rare and hold hot. When you are almost ready to serve your food, ask each person how they want their steak. Saute each steak to the desired level.

Hi,

great web site.

Just two tips: I would not season the meat before, but during cooking, as soon as you move it from high heat to low heat. Salt causes the uncooked meat to dry out, and pepper can burn on high heat, making the meat bitter.

For the barbarian who wants his meat overdone: The trick is to work with really low heat. I have not tried the pan solution, but what works is to cover the steak in aluminium foil and keep it on very low heat - an oven set to 80 degrees centigrade works well. Or cover it in foil and keep it at the very side of the fire - less reliable, but more of the stone-age barbecue feeling ;-)

Awesome. I'd tack on an overnight marination in anything at the beginning, though.

I am surprised that you advocated adding pepper (and from the picture it appears to be ground pepper) prior to cooking.

As any chef will tell you, black pepper will become carcinogenic if heated. If one insists on having the pepper present while cooking, whole peppercorns should be use, as it will diminish the carcinogenic effect. That is why all of the fine restaurants have peppercorn steaks on the menus.

For a different, more savory taste, try putting whole juniper berries on the steak while grilling.

re: carcinogen

This is the first I've heard that ground black pepper is carcinogenic when heated. Do you know where I can find more information on this?

EEEEEK. One does not turn the steak repeatedly over and over and over a mesquite, hickory or lame gas fire.

Grease the grill first so it doesn't stick. Jeez.

Turn only once, the first side is your presentation side.

Or sear first on a cast iron pan for a minute or so and we're talking red hot pan.

Toss in to a 500 degree oven for about 10 minutes or less depending upon thickness.

Basic stuff man. Sorry for your 100 steaks, poor things. Steaks been done before.

Dr. Biggles / MeatHenge

The "don't salt the meat before cooking it" warning is an urban legend. It makes sense logically, but in practice, it doesn't hold up. Any chef or cook who specializes in this area of cooking will tell you that salting the meat BEFORE it gets cooked is imperative to achieving a good flavor and nice, seasoned "crust" on the surface of the meat. I used to believe in this myth, but once I tried it myself, I realized just how wrong it is.

Even Bruce Aidells, the king of meat, strongly refutes the idea of post-salting.

I agree – salt and peppering before grilling is essential. I have heard the theory that seasoning should not be done until searing to seal in the flavor & juices, but I don’t believe this to be true. I have read, heard (on Food Network) and found through testing that seasoning BEFORE putting the meat to heat creates much better flavor as well as a nice crust to truly seal in the flavors and juices.

Regarding the comment on not using pepper when grilling due to carcinogens, two things. First, I have heard that everything grilled is full of carcinogens due to the fact that the food is cooked over burning coals, wood and/or gas. I have not heard that pepper specifically has anything to do with this. Even if pepper does increase the carcinogens, I say it’s worth it. In my opinion, a steak without plenty of salt and freshly ground pepper applied before cooking will never be as good. And let’s not forget, YOU’RE EATING A PORTERHOUSE – a healthy meal is not the objective!

I also agree on minimizing turning of the steak. The steak needs to sit in one spot for a period of time to develop that tasty crust.

As for cooking a steak beyond med rare, the first thing I would suggest is to avoid porterhouse. It’s simply not worth the money if you’re going to cook it that long. Fillet Mignon (one side of the Porterhouse) needs, more than any other steak, to be on the rare side since it has so little fat. If you want a more well-done steak, I would suggest a thinner and fattier cut which will allow you to cook it through w/o totally drying it out (ribeye or thinner strip steak for example).

Also, great site!

Always allow your steak to come to room temperature before grilling.

The less you flip the steak the better. If you insist on going past medium rare become a vegan and save the beef for us.

I agree, too much flipping makes the meat tougher. You should only flip it once. I don't know why exactly but my theory is that it has something to do with heating up and cooling down more than once (the side away from the flame cools down somewhat).

I remember from my undergraduate organic chemistry textbook that, indeed, black pepper contains 32 known carcinogens (2nd ed by Bruice). You don't have to cook black pepper to produce carcinogens. This knowledge has never stopped me from eating black pepper in excess.

The carcinogens intrinsically produced in grilling are mainly free radicals that are produced whenever you heat a hydrocarbon (i.e. butter, fat, burnt-sugar, etc.) to high temperatures. This is why french fries are so incredibly unhealthy: not only are they high in fat but they are also loaded with free radicals.

Fortunately for us, there are antioxidants that bind to free radicals and render them harmless. Anthocyanin, the pigment responsible for most of the red in fruits and vegetables, is just one such antioxidant. My favorite source of anthocyanin just happens to go excellently with steak: red wine.

Cheers!

Have just read through the methods of grillin a Porterhouse Steak. Seems simple enough. Those that have written in seem to be suffering from, "Beating an old horse to death" syndrome. Surely they're smarter than they're letting on. A little common sense goes a long way...in cooking too!!!
R. Westin-Frisco, Texas
Yes, Texans know how to grill. It's genetic!

I really appreciate your website and many suggestions. Once again tonight I attempted grilling three nice porterhouses that had plenty of marbling. Since my family prefers their meat medium well, it has been a real challenge for me. I've tried the thermometer it doesn't work for me. I've got three in my house cause I thought I was buying bad themometers. I grilled them about five minutes on each side and then brought them inside to finish them in the pan like it was suggested. I read a good temp for medium well is 165. Thank God I didn't wait for the thermometer to read that. I had trouble getting them up to 140. They were well done at 140. They were about 1 inch thick. I would like to know about how long to grill a 1 inch thick porterhouses or t-bones. It would be helpful to me to know how many minutes per 1/2 inch of thickness to acheive medium well results. Also, after you do the two minute sear, do you leave the lid up. My steaks seem dryer when I leave the lid up. Also, when you are grilling more than one steak do you have to grill them longer. Please advise.

The smaller side is always or almost always the filet on a steak with a "T" bone. I prefer my steak rare, even being a microbiologist. I have found that certain things cook fine or better if they are flipped often, depends on what it is and what you want to accomplish (I flip marinated chicken breasts quite often, coating more sauce on them as I do, very yummy). I also put garlic and onion powders on my steak. Seasoning post cooking produces an inferior product, I accidentally forgot to season first when I was new to cooking and even after drowning it in seasonings afterwards it did not fix the blandness.

Also not an engineer but my lab is populated by them and I am the daughter of one =).

Engineering is an exact science based on mis-information from Instrumentation. I made a block of wood for use in stores to get the exact steak thickness I want. That is, my small block of wood is exactly 1 1/2 inches in length (used for home cooking) by 1 3/8 inches in width (used for commercial purposes). I ask my butcher (I reside in Mexico) to set his saw per my block and receive uniform pieces of (frozen) meat I can cook to perfection.

I'm not going to comment on the cooking, we just grill ours til they look done.

Re: the salt/pepper thing. I rub the meat with Maggi, a salty, German liquid seasoning. I don't think it would help form a "crust" though. And I wouldn't add pepper, DH is much fonder of pepper than I am. I'm much fonder of salt than he is. So, the compromise is to rub a little Maggi on the steak and grill it and we season our own. I've never noticed it hurting anything taste or texture wise. But then, I've never heard that salting or not salting it did before grilling did anything, either.

Re: the filet/NY structure of a Porterhouse. If you really want to grill a bunch of NY steaks (and I've had to a time or two) every once in a blue moon Porterhouse steaks are cheaper. You can remove the filet (I cubed it and put it in the freezer, to be Stroganoff later.) and grill the NY steaks. You don't have the worry about the two textures and cooking times of the meat that way. And, for a party, it makes it much easier!

jkd

;) Just in time for the barbecue season! By using this marinade you dramatically reduce the carcinogens which occur when barbecuing.
ANTI-CANCER MARINADE FOR BARBECUE
(From Lawrence Livermoore Labs)
6 T. olive oil
4 T. cider vinegar
4 T. lemon juice
1/2 c. brown sugar
3 T. grainy mustard
3 medium cloves garlic, crushed
1 1/2 t. salt
Mix all ingredients together in a glass bowl. Put meat in re-sealable plastic bag. Cover completely with marinade and refrigerate for at least 4 hours to overnight. Barbecue as usual.

Hello,

Does anyone have any tips as to what makes a steak tender on the grill? My husband and I seem to get it hit and miss and I haven't been able to isolate what makes the steak perfect when it turns out so. We recently took some medium thickness steaks and cooked them on WHITE coals, and they turned out absolutely perfectly - never had a better steak in my life. We did the same thing the next time, and it wasn't nearly the same. The only thing I could see we did differently was that the steak was thin the second time.

Comments?

Emily

This is a topic that could easily take a couple articles to cover the bare essentials - but I'll try to see if I can summarize the key useful info.

It depends on a variety of factors, but probably the most important factors are the cut, the quality of the cut, and the temperature to which the cut has been cooked (in no particular order).

Cuts from the back are generally more tender because the muscles have been used less. A couple examples are: tenderloin (including the filet), top loin (such as New York strip), and rib (like a rib-eye or delmonico steak). A rib-eye steak has more intramuscular fat than a filet and this will also affect the tenderness and flavor. A filet (the choicest cuts from the tenderloin) is almost always the least used part of the least used muscle and is therefore very tender. However, it doesn't contain a lot of intramuscular fat, so it tends to have a less beefy flavor than other cuts. Another factor of having less fat is that when cooked to the point where the proteins tighten up, there isn't any fat to melt into the steak and lubricate it, so you lose a key factor in how tender the meat feels to your mouth when cooked beyond rare. The rib-eye has more intramuscular fat (the distribution of which is referred to as marbling) and so tends to have more flavor and a more tender consistency when overcooked (i.e. beyond medium-rare).

The quality of the meat is determined by three main factors - the age of the cattle when slaughtered, the amount and distribution of intramuscular fat, and the aging process of the meat. I will skip the first factor (almost all cuts you will be buying are from young cattle - older cattle produces meat for canning, hamburgers, and commercial meats) and briefly explain the other two. The marbling is important because of the affect of fat as it melts and spreads through the cut during the cooking process. It brings flavor and a perceived sense of tenderness. The more marbling, the higher the quality of beef and the higher the USDA grade (Prime has more marbling than Choice which in turn has more then Select). Be aware that many popular supermarkets have recently taken to branding their beef (usually USDA Select) to bolster sales of lower cost cuts at a higher price point. It's probably best to examine your steaks and look for ample amount of white flecks of fat dispersed liberally throughout the cut than follow fancy sounding supermarket labelling. The aging process also serves to tenderize beef. Generally supermarket beef is wet aged (sealed in a vacuum bag and refrigerated for a couple weeks) to allow the natural enzymes to begin decomposition of the tough proteins - naturally tenderizing the beef. In the U.S. almost all beef sold is wet aged to provide tender beef. Some places will dry age (sometimes they will wet age and follow it by dry aging) where the beef is not vacuum packed and is hung in a refrigerated compartment or room where humidity and temperature are controlled to allow the enzymes to do their work without the meat going bad. This is typically done for about 14 days for more supermarket dry aged beef (if you can find a market that carries it) to up to 1-2 months depending on how lucky you are and how much you are willing to pay. Dry aging yields a superior flavor (dry aging enhances the flavor of beef while wet aging does not) and tenderizes effectively. Unfortunately dry aging takes up space and results in a significant loss in edible beef as the exterior of the cut drys during aging and must be cut away by the butcher before sale. Therefore, dry aged beef is more expensive - but more flavorful and usually more tender than the standard wet aged beef.

Finally, we come to the cooking part. After selecting a cut that maximizes your chances of tenderness (let's say a USDA Prime filet or rib-eye that has been dry-aged for 3 weeks), you'll want to make sure you don't overcook it. An accurate and fast meat thermometer (such as a ThermaPen) is a vital tool for hitting the exact same temperature window every time because (unless you cook steaks everyday) it's difficult to tell how fast the temperature is rising in a steak as your cooking because, between two different meals, your steaks may be a different width or shape or the starting temperature may be drastically different... anyway, what temperature are we aiming for to achieve maximum tenderness? I'd say 125°F at the center. At this point, the proteins have just begun to tighten and form the tell tale striations that reveal that water has just begun to be squeezed out. Further cooking will cause the muscle fibers to continue to tighten and more and more water and juices will be lost. Cuts with more intramuscular fat will help mitigate the loss of tenderness. Most people's tastes tend to lean toward a more cooked steak at around 135-140&176;F - but the steak has become noticably less tender at this point - which is considered medium-rare to medium. Thicker steaks make it easier to sear the outside forming a brown crust while the inside doesn't overcook. Steaks thinner than 2-in. often have a tendency of being unpredictable and disappointing (either the outside is perfect and the inside overcooked or the inside perfect and the outside laking the rich, brown crust that is the only reason that makes a steak better than a slow roast).

To accomplish a 125°F, you should grill on the high heat. With a gas grill, that's basically as much heat as you can muster. On a charcoal grill, build a two level fire with a generous amount of lump charcoal. When the initial fire has burned down a bit, slap the steak down and leave it for five minutes. Using tongs, flip the steak over and leave it again for five minutes. Pick up the steak with tongs, insert the instant read thermometer from the side (through the part of the steak that is perpendicular to the grill) and measure the middle of the largest muscle of the steak (the coldest part). Take it off the grill to rest once it hits 110°F. If it hasn't hit 110°F, place the steak on the cooler part of the grill and check again at regular intervals (every 30 to 60 seconds). Keeping your steaks refrigerated until grill time also helps as extra insurance that you won't run past the designated temperature as you sear the outside. Cover the steak with a tent made of aluminum foil and wait ten to fifteen minutes. The unevenly heated steak (very hot on the outside, 110°F on the inside) will even out the temperature a bit, causing the interior to warm up to about 120-125°F - perfect.

I've got to say something here. Both Epicurious and Cooks Illustrated both agree that constant flipping is a GOOD THING; as in every 30 seconds. It keeps the meat at a more constant temperature. The thought of only one or two flips is another ubran legend. All that's going to do is dry out the meat on the outside of the steak until the inside gets to a high enough temp.

Try this before you say no.
Cavenders Greek sesoning is great, I use it on all my meats,save fish.
Mushrooms fresh,cut , broiled in butter as you say are very tasty, try adding beef bullion granules and garic at the begining then don't add cream, but after the moisture is out of the mushrooms UNCOVER them ,reduce heat and let the "sauce" reduce to a "glaze", don't burn them!
Leave your steak out to come up to near room temp and you can reduce cooking time or more easly get medium or better doneness.
Now I now you will flince, but to get it more done, off the grill put it in the microwave and nuke at NO MORE THAN 60% POWER and WACTH your time!Or you WILL ruin your steak. Try these and use the ones you like.
My guests never know "I NUKED their steaks"!

Wow, I didn't expect a long informitive article in response to my question. Thanks a lot for taking the time to answer! It's appreciated, and sounds quite helpful.

Emily

Where does the name Porterhouse come from? Is this steak named after someone in history?

I don't know, but it may have picked up it's name from the old porterhouses (like a bar & grill). Perhaps a particular porterhouse served it as their Porterhouse special and the name stuck? (Like the Delmonico steak named after the restaurant which undoubtedly served more than a single cut of beef for steaks... the weird thing is that the Delmonico is a different cut depending on what reagion you're in.)

I'm using a propane grill to cook the steaks, which doesn't have a 'low heat' area. If I finish cooking the steaks to 130 degrees internal temp by using my oven, what temp would you recommend setting the oven to? Also I assume I can use the Bake setting instead of Broil since by that point I don't care about browning the outsides.

Is there no way to turn down the heat on your grill? If not, then transferring to the oven may be the best course of action. Preheat the oven to about 300°F and then when you're done searing the meat, measure it's internal temperature bofer placing it on a sheet pan (or some other heat proof container). I can't really give you guidelines here because it all depends on your oven and how thick you get your porterhouse cuts. But if you've got quite a ways to go (steak is at 90°F) leave it in the oven fore ten mintues and check again. After you cook two steaks this way, you'll get a good feel for how long you'll need to keep it in your oven.

Great post...I'm a huge fan of T-bones on the grill also...but nothing beats a great top sirloin IMO.

I've gone down many paths of marinades and seasonings and for this type of cut, I always come back to one standard.
Seasoning Salt (Lowry's or McCormick if possible)
Worceschire Powder (or Powdered Worceschire Sauce..I've found a few brands) - this works great since I've found that the fat and liquid in a good steak prevents actual Worceshire sauce from really penetrating the steak, and when grilled, the juices that are forced out of the meat wash away that great flavor. The powder sticks and cooks on with the seasoned salt. That's all a great steak needs.

Now for marinades...Michael needs to do a good Grilled London Broil thread! There's a real grilling challenge! :)

Alton Brown made a very good case for SLOWLY cooking the steak over a low-moderate heat until the interior temperature was a somewhat less than the desired final temperature, THEN quickly searing the outside to form a crust, followed by a rest period before serving. The contention is that this prevents the meat from drying out or splattering over high heat in the beginning causing flare-ups at a time when most of the cooking is still to be done. I tried this and it works.

I remember that episode I think. I've always seared them over the coals and then move them off the heat to finish to doneness, and never had a dry steak. I eat mine rare and the wife likes med. rare though. Never cook anything well done. In fact, even when I make a pork tenderloin roast, my thermometers say 170* and I usually only go to about 155* and let it rest for 5-10 min. Maybe hits 160* tops. Always delicious and jucy!

i only use charcoal / propane is not hot enough
build a big fire until the wire rack glows red
put the steaks on 2 minutes each side / no salt no pepper
take off the fire / let them rest 5 minutes and dig in
the mushroom sauce sounds good on pizza
don't forget a big mug of beer (Sam Adams)
boyaaa!

So...this post inspired me to sautee some mushrooms for a little steak grilling with my neighbors the other day.

I took some pre-sliced mushrooms that i picked up at my local Stater Bros. market. I poured about a 1/2 cup of red wine vinegar and 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar in a bowl, added about 1 tbsp of McCormicks steak seasoning and about 2 cups of the sliced raw mushrooms. I let them soak in the mix for about an hour. I put about 2-3 tbsp of EVOO in a frying pan on high heat, drained the mushrooms and put them in the hot oil. Saute'd until brown and carmelized. They came out awesome!!!! They had a sweet and savory flavor with the balsamic reduction and the steak seasoning. Put them out in a serving dish with a cup of crumbled bleu cheese for topping some sirloins.

Rave reviews!

Pffffff!! Propane not hot enough? If your grill doesn't get hot enough, make like an engineer and take out the valve and drill the gas orifice a little larger to get more gas into the fire. Then re-install. If you are leary about this, you can buy an extra set of orifices before you drill if you are concerned about the results. You can also try it out on only one burner until you see the results. Replacement orifices cost only a few dollars apiece and are available at any good propane store. It helps to have a number drill set (#1-60) and just experiment enlarging the holes until you have the inferno you desire. Enlarge the hole one drill size at a time and test it. Using fractional size drills is not recommended because the graduations between sizes is too great. Your burner may wear out faster, but it's worth it! Let the orifice be the limiting factor for the high setting and the valve will be the limiting factor for the low setting. You'll be amazed how well your grill will cook.

Of all the methods I've tried -- propane gas grill, pan-frying, using a George Foreman grill, and broiling inside the oven -- I can't get the steaks to come out with a smooth dark brown crust on the outside while remaining pink on the inside. No matter how I cook them, by the time the outside gets dark brown, the insides are usually cooked well done. I've ordered steaks to go from the Keg and brought them back to see how they look compared to the ones I'm making, and I can clearly see the difference, I just don't know how to get mine to look like theirs. (At that point I usually eat my homemade steak anyway, and then eat the Keg one for dessert.)

I know the way the Keg gets theirs to come out perfectly is using a flame broiler, but presumably there are no home versions of those.

I saw the post about taking a drill to your propane grill. That's a little bit hardcore for me. I get lost just trying to follow Rachael Ray on TV.

The only practical home option that I haven't tried is the charcoal grill. I've heard those produce a better heat for searing. But doesn't it take a lot of time and preparation to get a charcoal fire going -- a lot just for one steak for myself for dinner? And in any case I'm hoping to avoid buying any more big equipment until I've ruled everything else out.

So, what's the most common troubleshooting tip for people who can't get their steaks to come out dark brown crusted on the outside and pink on the inside?

The key is to get really high heat onto the surface of the steak so that the time ti takes to brown it is minimized. If your propane grill, broiler, and electric grill aren't doing it, then use the good old cast iron pan. If you don't have one, you should be able to pick one of for $10. Put it on high heat and let it get really hot. Slap the steak on and don't touch it for at least three minutes. Flip it over and see if you've got the brown sear you're looking for. If not, then you'll have to leave it on longer on each side - which means, you probably can't get high enough heat to not end up cooking your steaks to well-done. The solution at that point? The easiest is just to buy thicker steaks - 2-in. steaks are wonderful to cook with and result in delicious crusts with ample medium-rare flesh. 3-in. is even better, but you'll probably want someone to share that with. :)

Also, you might want to try brushing on some melted butter before grilling or searing the steaks. It adds a nice flavor and promotes browning.

Thanks. To questions:
1) For an average-size cast iron pan on over high heat, how long does it take for it to get "really hot"? (I'm an engineer, not a cook :) )
2) As a healthier substitute for butter, can I brush on olive/canola/flaxseed oil instead? (Weight Watchers lets you eat steak, you just can't put butter on it!)

Thanks for all these great tips. 2 more questions:
- Any experience ordering steaks by mail order from OmahaSteaks.com or similar companies? Do they taste noticeably better than what you can get in a grocery store?
- Do steaks, even the very high-quality ones, taste any different after they've been frozen and defrosted? I know that chicken and fish taste noticeably different after being frozen so good restaurants always serve them fresh. But I assume steaks taste the same, since even Omaha Steaks delivers theirs frozen.

It depends on your stovetop. I'd say that after 5 full minutes of sitting on the flame (or heating element), it should be plenty hot. You can always fling some water on it as a test (wet you hand and flick it towards the pan so water droplets fall on it). If the water doesn't move - it's way too cold. If it sizzles away quickly - you're almost there (this is a good temperature for cooking just about everything else). If it jumps around like mad, throw on the steak.


Yeah, sure. You'll lose out on the flavor though. What is the rationale of allowing oils and not butter? Same number of calories for a given quantity (in fact, butter is a little less because it's not 100% fat).


My personal experience is limited since Omaha steaks is so expensive, but the only time I tested their product it was pretty good but not as good as the natural rib eye I get from Whole Foods (not even the dry aged stuff). My personal feeling is that either Omaha Steaks is all marketing or the freezing process does detract from their product. They use a flash freezing process which is different from home freezing which will definitely affect the texture and eventually the flavor of beef.

Well I got a cast iron pan and put it on a burner over high heat for 5 minutes. Then when attempting to cook the steak, I couldn't even put olive oil into the pan without it evaporating before the steak hit it. When the steak hit the pan it burned completely black around the edges in less than a minute.

I'm guessing I'll have to experiment with this for a while to find the right heat level to cook the steak brown but not black! Hope someone can chime in with some experience on this specifically. I see people posting about going through 100 steaks to get their technique right!

Yeah, I think I might not have mentioned that you do not want to put oil in the pan for this method. Sorry.

So, start off by salting your steak. Leave it out with sprinkled kosher salt on it surface for about 15 minutes. Then slap it on the cast iron pan. The water drawn up to the surface will evaporate quickly and might look like it's shooting off like steam rockets horizontally. Before it blackens (which sounds like is one minute), flip it over. Once you get the brown crust that you want, you might have to finish the steak in the oven (at 350°F) to bring the internal temperature up to the desired level.

If you're getting uneven patterns (not evenly browning/blackening :) ), the heat might be too strong. Reduce and try again. I think we can nail this down in less than 10 steaks...

Sorry about that last burnt one.

Thanks so much for all the tips! Another quick question if you've got time:

I assume that if you're pan-searing the stake, you should rub the seasoning (not the salt you're talking about, but the actual seasoning) on the steak after searing it? And that if the steak comes from the store with seasoning already rubbed on it, that searing it in the pan wouldn't work? This seems to burn the seasoning to a bitter flavor on any heat that's high enough to sear the steak.

I see a lot of posts saying "season before searing!" "season after searing!" "great taste!" "less filling!" "Windows!" "Macintosh!" But I assume that even the season-before-searing camp are only talking about steaks seared on a grill -- even they would presumably not advise seasoning a steak before searing it in a pan, if the seasoning gets burned?

So I assume if it comes like that from the store, I'd have to broil it or grill it.

In the case where the steak is preseasoned, you'll have to use a lower temperature technique (which means less of the meat will be medium-rare). We can still maximize the amount of medium-rare flesh in the middle though. You'll want to turn the heat down a bit and get the pan hot but not ridiculously so. Flinging some water onto the pan should result in a quick sizzle, but not the jumping and running around of the water pellets as before. This should be a temperature where the meat will still get seared, but not so high as to burn the seasoning too quickly. Give the steak a couple minutes on each side, and then measure the internal temperature with a fast reading meat thermometer by sticking it in through the side of the steak (the thin side, not the sides created by the butcher's cuts) into the thickest part of the muscle. This will give you an idea of how much warmer the steak will need to be. Stick the whole pan in a 300-350°F to finish the steak off evenly.

Following this recipe:
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_99,00.html
I was able to get the steak to come out nice and evenly brown by heating the cast iron pan in the oven at 500 degrees, then putting it on a burner at high heat and using it to cook the steak.

Maybe when I was just heating the pan on the burner, it wasn't getting all the way to 500 degrees the way it does in the oven. I was mildly curious about testing the temperature of the pan after heating on the burner vs. after heating inside the oven, to see if that was what made the difference, but apparently you need something like this:
http://www.cutleryandmore.com/details.asp?SKU=11740
to actually measure the surface temperature of the pan accurately, and it wasn't worth $70 to me just to solve that riddle, when I've found a way that works :)

I have found though that this only works well with a steak where both sides are cut smoothly so that the entire side can be touching the pan. Any part that's not touching the pan doesn't get browned.

i thought i would give a true engineers response to this question. (it's only "true", because um... it is.)

* first of all, the t-bone and porter house have two very unsimilar cuts of meat on each side of the bone, and i would NOT recommend them for a uniform tasty steak. think new york strip, thick cut (just enough chew, with plenty of flavor, cheaper, and uniform in texture).

* corn fed beef, and nice cuts, make a difference, i travel to omaha (offutts afb) once a year, and nothing beats an omaha steak! (even if you know nothing about cooking steaks)

* if the steak is too rare, it will be chewey (and less tasty). a very hot smoking grill pan (pan frying), in my opinion, is still the best way to cook a steak. grilling will never give as good a sear as direct, heavy metal, cooking. i like pink versus red.... better taste.

* salt and pepper the hell out the steak before you cook it (carcinogens be damned)... and always let the steak reach room temperature before cooking.

* searing does NOT seal in juices. this is a myth. it instead makes the meat taste better (via maillard reaction, which is similar to caramelization in a carbohydrate).

* "resting" a steak is okay, but don't over do it. a few minutes is more than adequate. juices will be lost no matter what... ergo, let it rest in your plate!

* remember... the only thing that separates us from the animal kingdom, is our ability to cook. nothing else. :)

p.s. nothing else! just cooking..... hehehee... and y'all thought that you were special with those developed monkey genes! (cough)... well ok, ok, ok.... we also have "poptarts". but obviously god helped us with that one.

(Possibly) last questions :)

I try to bring my steaks to room temperature before pan-broiling, like the instructions always say, but no matter how long I leave them out, they still feel cold. How long should this take? If it's important, should I even go so far as measuring their temperature with the meat thermometer to make sure they're at 70?

Also, how much kosher salt should go on each side beforehand? If possible, I mean measuring right down to the teaspoon per square inch of surface -- let's say a steak is 2 inches by 4 inches on each side, would one teaspoon divided between the two sides be enough?

Mine are still not coming out that great and I just want to keep eliminating possible sources of error one at a time.

Also, just for my sanity, how much canola/olive oil goes on each side of the steak? 1 tablespoon per side, 1 tablespoon split between the two sides? Again if it's about 2 inches by 4 inches of surface on each side.

Leave them out for about 1 hour. They will still be cold to the touch, but the temperature should have risen a fair amount. You don't actually want your steaks at 70°F unless you're dealing with london broil or other cuts that produce undesired flavors when heated too long.


Unfortunately, I brush on the fat (melted butter in my case), sprinkle kosher salt onto the surface of the steak with my fingers, and grind black peppercorns right onto the steak so I don't know the exact quantities I use. Seasoning is one of those areas where I feel it's not useful to be exact since the amount will vary every time you cook since the steaks vary in size, thickness, and quality. I would estimate that I use a little more than a tablespoon of fat for both sides and about 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt on each side of the steak and a similar amount of fresh ground black pepper. Maybe someone else has more exact instructions?

Why do you use kosher (large granule) salt rather than regular salt? isn't one gram of salt, one gram of salt?

True, one gram of salt is one gram of salt. But in this case, I am sprinkling it on the exterior of the steak (and not dissolving it in a sauce) so it is easier to handle and control the amount of kosher salt using fingers than granulated salt using your fingers. It's easier to gauge how much salt you've laid down and to control it's spread/distribution.

I just tried a steak while allowing it to properly warm up to room temperature (sitting for an hour on the counter) for the first time. (Previously I had thought that leaving it out for 5 or 15 minutes was enough.)

This appears to have made a real difference -- following Alton Brown's instructions at
http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_99,00.html
I got a nice smooth brown on the outside, pink on the inside, and no black anywhere :)

This wasn't a completely controlled experiment so there may have been something else I did differently this time that made a difference -- maybe salting the steak well in advance of when it touched the pan, or possibly it was because while the steak was on the pan, I was pushing down on it with the tongs to ensure that the bottom part of the steak got pressed evenly against the iron.

But as engineers know, once you get something working once, from there it's just tweaking :)

Thank you Michael for your many helpful answers!

Based on your article, you were targeting temp of 130. you should remove the steak from the grill at about 120 and rest to get the temperature target of 130. In your article, you said to remove it when it hits 130. That would get closer to 140 and a medium not a medium rare.

One thing I would like to see is an article on aging steaks. The best steak I even had was from Peter Luger's in Brooklyn, NY. My friends and I ordered 2 porterhouses ( 1 rare and 1 medium rare). The best on was the rare steak. The steak sauces was not used at all.

Man, you medium-rare guys bash medium like I bash medium-well and well-done, what's wrong with you? :)

I eat steak with my mouth
It makes me want to drool.
I once tried to eat steak with my feet
I sure looked like a fool

I ate steak in a car
I once ate steak in the gym
I wish that steak was in the air
So I could breath it like oxygen

I think steak is fun to eat
But the best steak, I suppose
Are those little pieces of steak you get
From picking out your [u:02afbb342f]nose[/u:02afbb342f]

I used to grill my steaks
Using a grill with fiery logs
But I found steak tastes much better
When you wear it for a hat.

Love Bernie, age 32 :shock: :shock:

hey i have same problem 8 months back,now The type of grillers choose will make a difference in the flavor of the foods. Charcoal grilling and propane grilling both create delicious foods but it is thought by many that charcoal grilling gives the food a better tast.www.homegrilling.com B)

Hello, I have no idea if it is a myth or not but Ive heard that if you keep flipping your steak, the the juices can't run out, like I said I don't know if it is just a myth, but I flip mine constantly and they turn out delicious... :P

I follow all meals with a healthy cocktail of mostly grain alcohol and fruit juice including tomato- if it does not kill me it will make me stronger-
Look, you could be killed by errant space junk- LIVE WELL! Thanks for a great read -pg

:shock: ALWAYS bring food to be grilled up to room temperatur first. The cooking will be more even, eleminating cold spots in the meat. Also, salt and/or pepper well in advance of grilling. This gives the seasoning time to enter the steak and again, it produces an even coating. Grilling to a sear will not "seal in the juices", that is a myth. The best thing to do, is get your grill hot. Put on the porterhouse, cook for 2 minutes. Turn 90 degrees, cook another 2 minutes. Flip and repeat (Thanks to Alton Brown of Good Eats on Food Network!) Rest the steaks for at least 5 minutes. You will have the best meal in the world, at I did this Fathers Day! Cheers, and happy grilling!

For those concerned about grilling on Charcoal, I get a small grill going real Hot on Lump charcoal(mesquite is best for quick grilling). After flopping the steaks on the Grill, I close the cover and close one of the vents to tamp the fire down. In about 2 minutes the fire has died down to a low temperature grill. Continue to cook with a low heat burn a total of 8-12 minutes per side. Perfect steaks and smiles result.

P.S. With charcoal you can make one side hotter than the other for adjusting to the preferred amount of pinkness.
P.P.S. Flipping will just lets more heat escape from the lid and you have to cook it longer(and make the meat tougher) than if you just leave it with the lid on.

:-)

Grr, Unable to register...
Grilling ribeyes: I use a lot of birch bark strips tossed on the coals once the fire has died down a bit, as I don't want them to catch fire. Close the cover and watch the misquitoes run from the smoke.
May want to soak the bark in water 1st if you have a real hot fire going.
I don't but only have a small charcoal fire going for the 2 of us.

For the meat, I never use black pepper as had a real bad encounter with a peppered steak at outback steakhouse -yuk. We don't go there no more (only been there twice).
But lowry salt and garlic hurb and steak seasoning works nice for me :)

I also coat the meat with HONEY (also I order this way at resturants by telling them to put honey on before cooking) then I jab the steak all over with a large fork to ram the seasons in deep along along with the honey.

Buy the time I get the charcoal grill going, its maraniated long enough for me. Am hungry, lets cook now! :)
I usually do not flip much unless the fire is too hot. I try to keep the flames well below so won't be on the meat but hot enough to crisp the outside.
You do have to careful as too long on one side, the honey will burn, so need a cooler approach when using honey, or be flippin.
Note, you will not taste the honey, but the steak is sweet and tender :)
Once I see there's no more blood coming out and juices are clear - its done medium rare, at least for me its that way!
I always try to get the thicker cuts, all depends on which store has a sale going on :)
Otherwise Sam's Club has always have great cuts of meats.


I was originally looking to find out whats better - slow cooking or fast cooking.
Primary, Ribeye Roasts - 5lb area in the oven.
I been slow cooking (230^) covered with water added, then at the end open and turn on the broiler to HI to crisp the outsides.
Reason is that I do not always know the excect time wife gets home from work. Once she does, then broil so meal is ready buy the time she is...

Just wondering which way is more tender for a ribeye roast - slow or fast?

Last weekend I had a group of people over, and decided to do all the cooking on the grill. Everything was grilled--corn, asparagus, pineapple, potatoes, carrots, 1 1/2" thick ribeyes and chicken (a few guests don't eat beef-what do they know!!). While one side of the grill was cooking the chicken, the steaks were just sitting on the "cold side" warming up (it's a large grill). After they got to about 115-120F inside using a thermapen, I placed them on the hottest part of the grill for about two minutes on a side to sear and lightly char the outside. This gave a great thin crust and a completely even pink color inside, ending up rare/medium rare and very juicy. Everyone agreed these steaks were on par with the best they ever had at a fine steakhouse.

That's similar to what I did tonight for dinner - about 60 minutes in the oven at 200°F to bring the temperature up slowly then a three minute sear on each side on the grill to finish.

I've been grilling since 1962, and slow-smoke barbecuing since 1983.

I've cooked with flat-pan grills, hibachis, Japanese ceramics, and gas, as well as slow cooked two-chamber barbecuing with hickory, oak, maple, apple and cherry wood.

My grill of choice for steaks is a Weber 22 1/2 inch charcoal grill.

My choice of steak is 2.5 to 3 inches thick, either ribeye, porterhouse or New York/Kansas City strip (the big side of a porterhouse). Mostly I do choice, but for special occasions, I order dry-aged prime from Lobels.com. Everybody who has his/her grilling technique down should try a Lobel's steak at least once in their life. Lobel's buys not just USDA prime, but top-prime meat. Then they dry-age subprimals for 6 weeks. This evaporates water, intensifying flavor. Stockyards has a really nice 1.25 inch thick 4-porterhouse package. A little less expensive than Lobel's, arrives frozen, it may be "wet aged" prime, but none of your guests will complain. For a big barbecue, order from either vendor, a couple boneless rib roasts, and cut your own ribeyes.

I load one half of my Weber with 4 layers of coals. I fully open the vents and put the lid on a little bit cocked. This gets REALLY HOT. How hot? Well, when you remove the lid, it flares up momentarily, and burns your eyebrows off. Oops, keep some distance, and use the lid as a shield.

Drop the steaks on, put the lid on in fully closed position sear for about a minute, flip, sear for about another minute. Flip over and do about another 30-40 or seconds. Flip again for about about another 30-40 seconds. Then transfer the meat to the uncharcoaled side, put the lid on fully, and shut the bottom vents to about 1/4. This roasts the meat. For a 2.5 inch steak, about 8 minutes will give you medium rare, 15 minutes medium.

Always let meat warm to room temperature before putting on the grill. Actually, I put my steaks in zip locks and immerse in 100 degree water. This enables the muscle fibers to "relax"

Why 2.5-3 inches thick? Because you get a sumptuous browned surface with a juicy pink inside the surface, and some deep red in the center. They all have different flavors, that will make your tastebuds go, "Ooh, Ahh, MMM". Cut each steak in half to divvy up normal-sized portions. This tastes way better than thinner steaks, one to a person. Don't believe me. Try it out for yourself.

For thin pre-cut steaks, 1.25 inch thick or less, try two layers of charcoal and cook the meat fully directly over the coals. Several turns will be necessary for medium cooking to allow the heat to get to the inside of the meat without burning the exterior.

For choice meat, Italian dressing marinade is very good. For prime meat, salt and pepper is perfect.

:) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :) :)
brilliant site.
my advice would be to cook your steak exactly how YOU like it.
not how someone think,s it should be cooked.
let,s face it, YOUR the one eating the damn thing.

B)
I think it would be nice if you can present the recipes in process flowchart format.. Then it will suffice the website's name cooking for engineers.. Too technical though..

- Medel M. Usona REE

Having tried many different ideas for a properly grilled steak, I have come to the conclusion that an extended marinate is not the way to go unless your BBQing a lesser cut. Lesser being anything less than a good sirloin.

A good rub of salt and pepper should do the trick although I like rub some crushed garlic on it. Montreal Steak Spice is mostly salt and pepper anyways.

Trimming off some fat is fine but be sure to leave some. The buttery flavour we all love is the fat. Most commercially available beef rarely has enough fat in the meat. For me, buying a 4h calf produces the best meat, since its basically treated as a pet and has been hand fed. The beef is far superior. (although if overfed on grain they can get too fatty).

Other than 4H beef, try to get to know a good butcher/beef cutter. WARNING: on occasion I have had 4H beef cut and oddly there were maybe 6 t-bones when I picked it up.

As to the cooking I am a believer in medium rare. Since the invention of refrigeration, having to cook a steak beyond that stage is nearly sacrelige. But experimentation will let you experiment with your own "blood tolerance". Having a plate full of liquid is no gaurantee of better flavour. BUT that being said only flip a steak ONCE. When liquid starts to pool on the top surface, it time to flip it. Once liquid formson the top surface again, EAT IT.

But like anything else, starting with a top quality raw piece of meat will help ensure better results. If you go buy bargain basement meat, you can do whatever you like with it and its better off being hamburger.

If you prefer your steak cooked any more than medium rare, you don't belong on this site and should consider buying your beef from Wal Mart then getting a sex change operation.

It is a huge responsibility being at the very top of the food chain. If we don't eat cattle, then I'm concerned that they might start eating us.

Try this on a Porterhouse: Order it 1.75" thick, and tell the butcher to leave 0.25" rim of fat on it. Toss it on a very hot charcoal grill close to the coals. After a few minutes it will catch on fire (a good thing), so move it around so it doesn't stick to grill. Flip it, allowing it to flame up on side 2 for 5 minutes. Most of the fat will be burned off by now, so continue to cook 5 more minutes on side two at a cooler temperature. Flip back to side 1 until done (3-5 minutes). Serve with a big, bold cab. I call this "chared, medium rare." Worth dying for.

It's okay to bark as you eat the bone.

I’m a fan of grilled steak; fillets or ribeye. Season each side with salt, pepper, garlic powder. Stack the steaks with a thinly sliced onion between each and place in plastic wrap or bag; let sit for a couple hours prior to cooking. Usually on the counter to bring to room temperature. Remove steaks, discard the onion and cook.

I also remember my father cooking steak in a cast iron skillet. Heating the pan on high, covering the bottom of the hot pan with a thin layer of salt, and searing both sides of the steak. Cut the heat off, add a couple pats of butter, leaving the steak in the pan with the butter for a few minutes to finish and serve. It is still the best pan cooked steak I have eaten.

Good recipe for the t-bone/porterhouse. Here's a twist to the mushrooms for those you don't care about cholesterol/calories. After the mushrooms have started giving off some steam, instead of using broth and cream, try using a few more tablespoons of butter/margarine. While the addition is melting, put in a healthy teaspoon of garlic salt/powder/cloves. Add more garlic to taste. If you make enough, you can add them to your baked potatoes as well.

Always freeze your steak and put them on frozen, then make sure the lighter fluid is still burning when you put on the steaks, make sure that flames are surrounding the steak like a snowball headed for hell! (use more lighter fluid if necessary.

At least that is how my dad use to make them.....yummie!

PLEASE DO NOT cook anything while the lighter fluid is still burning off, especially do not add more while the food is cooking. The soot, burned and unburned hydrocarbons are really bad for you as they get deposited on the food. If you really thought your steaks were yummy then, try using a lot of coals and just letting them get really hot before you place your ROOM TEMERATURE (measure it) steaks on the grill. You will see what you have been missing--great taste of the meat without the taste of lighter fluid.

A thin frozen steak may come out OK, but if you have a steak of substrance, like 1-2" thickness you will end up with a burned /well done exterior before the inside gets anywhere near rare/medium rare.

Do prime, dry aged steaks cook faster than choice supermarket steaks? I like to grill steaks (rib-eyes are my favorite) over very high heat, starting at room temp with kosher salt and cracked pepper, turning once, tolerating flames and going for a med rare Pittsburgh char. Tried that with prime, dry aged steaks and they charred very fast, shrunk in size considerably and cooked past med rare quickly. Comments?

...dry aged steaks

that's the key - dry aging will result in 10%+ loss of weight - all moisture - the meat is indeed "drier" than fresh-fresh and will cook differently.

try a lower temp / less fierce heat source - start them low - let the heat warm it up (for Pittsburgh style, not so long . . .) then at the end - after you have them at the melt in your mouth stage - blast it to get the char taste / crisp outside.

I have been trying to duplicate the taste when I order an ouback t bone, I came close with melted butter, lemon and garlic, could anyone offer suggestions in the outback taste????? thanks frustrated :)

I only had a 3/4" cut and was worried so: salted it, sprayed with olive oil then smeared with melted butter. Put on highest heat for 35 seconds each side, then moved to lowest heat 2 min each side, let rest under foil 5. Inside was med rare (nice pink color) and tasted great. I might next time leave longer a little in the high heat for more char, and less on the low.. any thoughts?

MEAT IS MURDER! Thou shalt not kill...its in the bible. God brought us fruits and vegetables for use to eat...cause thats what our digestive system can handle. Karma will come to haunt you.

Visit your local slaughter house and see the process before the meat goes onto the shelves. See how its living...how they treat them..how their killed...how they are skinned alive and slices up. Meat is nothing more that rotting flesh...gods creature.

Because I had just bought some t-bone steak, I checked the internet for some good grilling recipes. I read your article and all of the comments and decided to use your advice, along with a little from some who have written in.

I let the t-bone stay out of the fridg for an hour. Then I salted and peppered it and added some garlic powder. I pressed the spices into both sides of the meat. After heating my gas grill on high, I seared the meat for two minutes per side and then turned down the heat between medium and low. We continued cooking the steaks for about 7 minutes per side.

Because the meat was about 3/4 to one inch in thickness it came out close to well-done. Despite of it being a little too done (We like it a little pink inside), it was absolutely delicious. I sauteed muschroom and onions in canola oil and some worchestershire sauce and served it over the steak. YUMMEE!

It was so good that I ran to the grocery store this morning and bought some more t-bone and some sirloin too. I can hardly wait for the next barbecue day!

Way back up the page someone asked where the name "Porterhouse" originated.

In the early 1900 there was a swank hotel in Denver Colorado, called the Porterhouse. Their chef made the generously cut T-Bone into a legend. He hung the oversized loin racks in the cool box till it formed a slightly moldy coating, then cut the steaks from the rack, trimmed the coating off and flame broiled them to order. My father contracted his team and wagon to deliver beef from the slaughter housees to the hotels in 1927 - 28 till the depression stalled out the flush times. He used to brag that "There was no other steak worth cooking except a "Porterhouse T-Bone".

OH MY GOD!!!!!!!! Everyone is talking about the porterhouse steak when you should be talking about the mushrooms that you made to go along with the steak!!!! They are the best tasting I have ever had!! Thanks for the recipe.

:lol: I have been reading through these posts and I think it is hysterical that nobody has bothered to respond back to the two or three individuals who, due to their personal beliefs, should probably not be in this site. It's fine that you are against the techniques used to slaughter beef, so am I, but I enjoy a nice steak and that is what this forum is about. With that said, I would just like to add that turning a steak too often, in my opinion, does make them tougher. I spray my grill with PAM Cooking Spray to prevent sticking and it works very well. I've used a variety of marinades but have found that some minced garlic, and a nice steak rub or Lawry's Season Salt and Ground Peppercorns is just as tasty and quicker. I never poke my meat as it tends to let the juices run out. I also get it to room temperature before placing on the grill. Searing your steaks on high heat for a couple of minutes on each side and then moving to the low side of the grill for the remainder of the cooking time, turning only once, is the best way to go. Thanks to all for the great information. Get Grillin'!

........it is hysterical

not really <g>

most sane folks can quickly decipher things that are - the context of the here and now - are simply not worth acknowledging.

Hi! i am a psychiatrist and currently working on Hindus and other vegetarians and fruitarians who feel strongly for Non-veg. people. So if you"d like to join our research programme please join www.F#*K-them-all.com and please confirm your availability because we have special prized Bull whom you"d praise>

Go get a life. i hope you also dont enjoy making love o your women because that should remind you of the day you were born via that route.

To All Other Great Guys please just keep making magic with the wonderful food as mentioned here.

For a perfect medium rare NY Strip steak (between what many restaurants would call medium rare and medium - because many restaurants err on the side of serving steaks too rare).

1) put the steak on the grill over HOT coals
2) Don't touch it until the juices begin to run on the top.
3) Flip it over
4) when the juices run clear on the top, it's done.

If it sticks to the grill, it's either
a) not quite ready to turn or pull off, or
b) burned/over-cooked

For rare steaks, pull it off the grill when the juices begin to run on top.
For well done, cook it the same time on side 2 as on side 1.

This is simple and works no matter how thick or thin the steaks.

it gave me gas! i fart and fart and fart and fart!

That probably has little to do with the way the food is prepared (i.e. the recipe) and more to do with the reactions of your particular body to the food - in this case, steak.

This is one of the funniest threads I've ever read. Cooking is an adventure. I gave up bbq-ing for others. I know exactly how to make a great steak on the grill for me, and no, I will not share it with you to save me from arguments... The advise that rings true is to let it get to room temp and burn the shit out of it, turning onlly once.. Thanks for all the fish......................

Using a soaked plank gives your steak a smoky flavor.

Buy some red cedar grilling planks locally or on eBay. Submerge the plank in water for at least 4 hours. With the grill between 300-350, put the steak on the wet plank and set the plank in the middle of the grill. Leave the lid closed; check it at 20-25 minutes for medium rare, 25-30 minutes for medium. It's unbelievably juicy.

You never flip or move the steak, since it's cooking with indirect heat. The vapor created by the moisture in the plank rises into the steak, which is a hot smoking technique.

Before cooking, I rub a little EVOO on both sides, along with sea salt and FRESHLY cracked pepper.

You can also use cedar plank for grilling salmon, just put the skin side down.

Just for those stupid meatcutting technicians around the world. A Porterhouse steak is the first 2 vertebra just behind the Rumpsteak (in other words from the back to the front) It should be cut between the bone in the soft tisue about 2" thick. There is only 4 Porterhouse steaks in an ox (2 each side). This is where the Rumpsteak end into the Loin. From there onwards go the T-Bone up to the Clubsteak. No fillet on the inside and have a C shape bone. Thanks for the opp. to help your people out there knowing your meat. Callie Rautenbach South Africa e-mail cgr@telkomsa.net

Ever try to get a tender steak. Try this out. Take a gas braai with a ripple plate and hot it up like hel. Then put the steak on the fat side for 10 to 20 sec. according to the thickness pf the fat. Let it drop one one side for 10 sec. and turn on other side for 10 sec. while you put u basting sause if prefere on and turn for 5 sec. while do the basting on the side facing you. Turn for 5 sec. and remove from heat. Light up a candle and cut the electric light. Enjoy a tender steak. If prefered cut the steak 1" thick instead of 2". DONT LOOK AT THE MEAT, JUST EAT AND ENJOY. The rarer the steak the more tender it is. Try it first before you say something.

I usually let my steak sit in apple cider vinegar for about 1 to 2 hours before seasoning and grilling, this to me is the best and cheapest form of marinade.

The best steak I've had (so far) was from the Saltlik Steakhouse in Banff. Black Angus steaks cooked at a white hot 1200 (yes, twelve hundred) degrees in an infrared oven.

I love this meathod and I also liked everyone else's comments too. Made for interesting reading for sure.
Regards, Ray :P

Daniel's Broiler (Seattle) uses an oven with 1800 degree temps to broil their steaks. It was delicious!
Now if I could convince them to use grassfed beef, for their customers' health, that would be awesome!

Take your right hand and open it until flat. Then using any finger on your left hand, poke the thumb muscle on the palm of your right hand (this is what rare will feel like). Moving round your palm, pointer finger muscle will feel like medium rare, middle is medium, ring finger is medium will and that hard callus on your pinky is well.

I don't recommend cooking past the pointer as your steak will taste bad as you had to poke it with your finger so many times. LOL

To the guy that say's stop eating Cattle.
What are you doing on this site?
BEEF It's what's for dinner! Fool!

Great blog, lots of tips. Here's another: Nobody has mentioned that when barbecuing steak, other than inserting a thin temperature probe into the side (if you really must), NEVER stab the meat with a fork or other sharp object, or you will lose juices. Only use tongs for turning.

Top quality beef should only ever require coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper. Why try and change the flavour of finest beef?

Salt is used for drawing moisture out of raw meat and vegetables, e.g. when making biltong or jerky, and pickles. For that reason, I prefer to add it fairly liberally when cooking, not before. (You can scrape off any excess with the tongs, if you need to.)

Searing definitely does seal in the juices (if you don't stab the meat with a fork!), and turning only once is best. However, this does require a bit of skill to ensure the correct cooking time. The suggestion to cook until juices start to appear on the top side, then turn and repeat, works very well.

If the steak is of lower quality, rub a bit of vinegar and dry mustard powder into it, and stand for half an hour. I always use vinegar for other cuts of beef as well, i.e. roasts, sausages (South African boerewors) or cubed stewing steak. It enhances flavour, tenderises, and removes any 'off' taste from meat that's been standing around too long. The mustard is also an excellent beef flavour enhancer. If the steak really isn't great, you can add a bit of soy sauce, beef flavour enhancer (e.g. Maggi seasoning or Oxo liquid) and oil, when rubbing.

To those who fry the steak in a pan, make sure the pan is very hot and do not put too much meat in at one time - a single steak is best. Otherwise, moisture is sucked out of the meat and it starts to boil instead of fry, and it will not get a crust. Disaster! That could explain some of the mishaps described.
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Your webpage says that the Portherhouse steak is less tender than the T-Bone steak; this is an incorrect statement. In actuality the T-Bone Steak is more tender because it is found on the rib side of the short loin, which means that it is closer to the middle of the animal. The closer the portioned cut of meat is to the center of the animal the more tender it is.

>>the Portherhouse steak is less tender than the T-Bone steak;

>>the T-Bone Steak is more tender

perhaps time re-phrase the contention?

something like less is less
or
more is more
and less of
"less is more"?

This is an awesome recipe and here's a little twist. REALLY SIMPLE BUT AMAZING!

In addition to the mushrooms add some bacon and once its browned remove some of the fat, add a thin layer of Jack Daniels and ignite. Then add the broth and simmer for a bit. Then pour that over your grilled steak and you will freak out on how good it is! My husband got tears the first time I made it!

Misty

Everyone knows that the ribeye is the king of all steaks. Pan fried for maximum crustiness. Write that down, you little mathematician.

Also, if you have to use a temperature probe cooking a steak, you should probably go back to counting beans.

I love the step by step instructions on this post! I'm not a master at the grill and somethings things will go awry - not fun with expensive cuts of meat!

However - I am completely repulsed by 'shrooms so I'm a bit turned off by that part. But in reading the comments I saw Misty's post above about the bacon. I think I'm going to try this WITH the bacon, but withOUT the mushrooms. Now that sounds like a grilling match made in heaven!

I realize this is an old post, but just discovered the site and see some amazing recipes to try. Wanted to add my two cents.

L-J

I have a friend who used to cook steaks for me all the time. First, we would start drinking beer. A lot of beer. Then, we would build the charcoal fire. My friend would have already purchased some lesser cuts of sirloin that were on sale. The cuts of beef would be in a pan, waiting to be grilled. After consuming many beers, we would drench the charcoal briquets with way too much lighter fluid, then we would drink more beer. Once the fire had died down, we would add more charcoal and more lighter fluid, almost causing an explosion before drinking more beer. Once we were good and hungry, we would drink more beer, add some more lighter fluid and charcoal and then immediately place those lesser cuts of sirloin on the grill before the charcoal crumbs remaining in the bag had even gotten the chance to ash over. Lifting the lid on the grill would create a vacuum and a nice crust of lighter fluid vapors combined with ash and charcoal dust would adhere to the outside of those cheap cuts of sirloin. After consuming the various cuts along with some various sausages, we would maybe eat a baked potato and chase that down with more beers. The next morning, I would suffer from a horrendous case of diarearuh. It would spray. I'm talking activated charcoal spray with hydrocarbons essence. Don't try this at home kids. It causes a terrible headache.