Every weekend, dads across the country pull out their favorite grill and utensils, and cook up something delicious for the family. It’s a fun ritual that is an ingrained and iconic part of American fatherhood. I use my gas grill right through the winter – it’s not just a fair-weather sport! The charcoal one gets stored, though, I’m not that crazy.
Yes, I did say “dads” and not “parents.” For some reason, the grill is the domain of the dad. Standing in front of a grill, with a beer in one hand and a pair of tongs in the other is the recipe for happiness for many of us. And why wouldn’t it be? We have the essentials: beer, fire, meat, tools, and we’re providing for our family. This is an activity that stimulates the cro-magnon part of our brain that wasn’t lost to evolution. As a result, we take great pride in our grill-skills.
For the same reason, grilling can be somewhat mysterious, as if the guys who do it really well have some kind of black-magic voodoo to make it come out so good. Here, I’m going to share my technique for grilling the perfect steak. This technique works only for better cuts of boneless steak such as New York strip, Delmonico/rib-eye (again, no rib), or filet mignon. Larger cuts (like top round) and those with the bone in (such as a porterhouse) will require different grilling methods.
First, you need to start with a decent cut of meat. I usually buy NY strips as a whole loin, and have it cleaned and cut to approximately 1.25” thick steaks. While expensive up front, this is more economical by the pound. It usually works out to about $5-$6 a pound, while supermarket steaks are much more ($8-$10 and up). The store-bought ones are usually cut too thin, anyway. For the ones you won’t be cooking, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and then place in a freezer bag, and then of course, freeze. You don’t want to damage your treasures! An additional advantage is that you’ve got nearly identical pieces of meat allowing you to experiment with different grilling times without having to account for differences due to the meat between experiments
Seasoning
This is a debate that will never be definitively solved; it’s probably been raging since the first cave-man spread some herbs on his meat prior to cooking, and his dinner companion complained about the flavor.
To season or not to season, that is the question…aye, there’s the rub (Ha! Get it? Rub? I crack myself up).
Within the “to season” camp, you have debates between marinades and a dry rub (dry seasoning mix).
I’ve tried them all, and my perennial favorite for steaks is simply dunking them in a melted butter and olive-oil mixture (just enough oil to keep the butter a liquid longer) or spreading on butter, then sprinkling liberally with coarse salt and fresh coarsely-cracked black pepper and pressing it into the meat with my fingertips. Don’t bother using table salt, use the coarse kosher stuff. You don’t want the salt dissolving – it’s supposed to form a nice crust with the peppercorns. Plus, the small grains and strong flavor of ordinary table salt could overpower the meat. The pepper cannot be overdone. Once cooked, you’ll get a much milder flavor, not spicy.
Yes, I’m advocating adding salt and butter to cholesterol-laden meat. Look, this isn’t a daily meal, it’s a special treat! Don’t back out now. And no, margarine is not a good substitute.
If you prefer dry rubs, you can buy prepared mixtures, or make one of salt and pepper, a touch of cayenne, thyme, ground rosemary, garlic, and mild paprika (lots of it). For a marinade, try a teaspoon or so each of minced garlic and fresh minced ginger, in soy or teriyaki sauce. This needs no more than a couple hours to impart its flavors. This will yield a savory, Asian-inspired flavor. If you’re marinating to try and tenderize the meat, I’ll write another post on marinades in the future. However, the grade of meat you’re grilling for this recipe shouldn’t require tenderizing.
Some people also like to cut small slits at the edges of their steak to prevent curling during the cooking process, though I usually do not.
Cooking
Let’s talk about grilling in general: cooking the meat over high, direct heat. The idea, of course, is to sear the outside and form a crust or coating on the meat . This is done not to “seal” the meat as some people think, but for flavor. Everyone knows that the outside coating of grilled meat is the most flavorful. This is due to the “Maillard Reaction” which is what happens when the proteins and sugars are heated up. The combination “browns” and creates the flavor we are accustomed to in grilled, sautéed, or roasted meat. This is why meat is often browned before braising; otherwise, you just wind up with gray, boiled meat. Yummy.
This reaction, combined with the smoky flavors from the drippings sizzling in the fire, the direct flame scorching the meat, and the grill marks, yield a taste that is just incomparable to that given by any other method.
There is a drawback with this method: the heat itself. The high-quality meat you just paid good money for gets its tenderness from the “marbling” or streaks of fat throughout the meat, and a low collagen content (tougher fibers found in other cuts from parts of the animal that are more heavily exercised). The fat will essentially lubricate the fibers of the meat, making it tender, and provide moisture and flavor to the meat itself. Overcooking steak is easy to do. Cooking it through and melting out the fat fundamentally ruins the meat. At the same time, undercooked (rare) beef can also be tough, and unpalatable to many. You need to strike a fine balance between cooking it for flavor, and softening the fibers with heat, without driving out all the liquids.
The solution is to cook it as quickly as you can, while spending as little time over direct heat as possible so you don’t force out all the moisture. This is also the reason you must use a good cut of meat for grilling. Tougher cuts are better handled with braising.
To grill a steak on a gas grill, set all your burners to “incinerate” or whatever the highest setting is on yours. For charcoal grills, experience will tell you how much to use, but it should be enough to coat the entire surface with charcoal once the pile has burned down. You should be able to hold your hand over the grill for no more than a second or two. If your grill has a thermometer, it should be at or above 500.
Preheat until it’s as hot as possible. You’ll also need a watch or clock nearby; this method uses time very precisely.
Using tongs (not a fork – you don’t want to poke holes in the meat) lay your steaks on the grill at a 45-degree angle to the bars. Close the lid and wait exactly 2 minutes. Flip the steaks and cook for another 2 minutes, lid down. Then, pull the steaks and stack them onto a plate, and wait for 10 minutes.
Two things are happening while the meat is “resting.” First, the meat fibers which have contracted under the heat, begin to relax again, and reabsorb some of the juices. Second, the residual heat is gently cooking the meat, without melting out all the fat.
When the 10 minutes are up, return the steaks to the grill for another 2 minutes per side, laying them at 45-degree angles opposite however you had them earlier. This produces the diamond-shaped grill marks. If you move them around more than specified, you won’t get these.
Again, remove the steaks to a plate. They should be done! You can check after a few minutes by making an incision with a sharp knife to check the color. You don’t want to do this throughout cooking, only at the end, but don’t worry about defacing the meat – serve it to your guests with the cut side down if you wish. You can also check for doneness by squeezing with your tongs; a medium-rare steak should be firm, but not hard. Assuming you are happy with the doneness, let them rest for a few minutes before serving so the meat can draw the juices back in.
Some people put on a pat of butter to melt over the steak, or freshen the seasoning by sprinkling on more salt or pepper, but I do not.
You’ll find over time what works best for you in terms of time, your grill, and the cuts you usually buy. Heather is a fan of more cooked meat, so I may leave hers on the grill for an extra minute or two when cooking the second side, before pulling onto a place. I may add more time all around when grilling in the winter. The key is to try to follow a strict time regimen so that you’re able to adjust it precisely to learn from it.
Serving
The classic baked potato and side of green vegetables cannot be beat. We will sometimes do grilled potatoes: cut potatoes into halves lengthwise, coat with oil, season with salt, pepper, and rosemary, and leave these on the top rack of your grill for the duration. They will form a wonderful, flavorful crust. We also may serve white rice. The rice is molded in a cup or other container, turned out onto the plate, and a genuine aged soy sauce is then drizzled over it. Of course, a robust red wine is the perfect complement! I like a good, oaky Pinot or Tempranillo.
Do not put sauce on the steak. All that will do is drown the grilling flavors, seasoning, and delicate flavors of the meat itself. If you wanted someone to slather sauce all over your creation, you would have done BBQ, or just grilled a hamburger for them. Horseradish or mustard (English mustard, not the bright yellow stuff), crumbled bleu cheese, or sautéed peppers, onions, or mushrooms are all appropriate toppings.
That’s it! There’s nothing to do but enjoy, and review your process to see how you might improve it next time.
Now, you may still find that it’s not quite exactly like that perfect steak you had once at an uber-expensive steakhouse, which formed the experience you hold in your head as the Platonic form of what a steak should be. That’s to be expected. They have access to better tools, and higher grades of meat than you can buy in the grocery store. Additionally, they sometimes age their beef, or purchase it aged. The meat is hung, dry and unwrapped, under carefully controlled conditions for 10 days or longer. This causes the meat to intensify in flavor, and the natural enzymes within the meat help break it down and tenderize it. Don’t try this at home – there are recipes floating around the internet, but if you mess it up, you could make yourself very sick. However, if you buy an entire side of beef from a butcher, they may hang the carcass for you. It’s said that a side of beef will last a family of 4 for a year. I haven’t done this, but as soon as my boys get a little bigger (along with their appetites) I will try it…and you’ll learn about the experience here!
