Spring has sprung my friends!
Today is more of a lesson in the fine art of grilling meat than it is a recipe, so no long lists of ingredients will haunt you this fine afternoon.
One of the most popular questions I get asked by friends, family and readers alike is “how do you tell when meat is cooked?” This is a loaded question. Everyone likes it differently and everyone you ask this humble question to will probably have thier own answer. Here’s mine:
Practice.
The actual testing of doneness is crucial, yes, but there are other steps of equal important. Let’s take a look, shall we:
1. Always bring your meat up to room temperature before grilling, this ensures even cooking throughout. You wouldn’t jump in a steaming hot shower after running around naked in the cold would you? It might sting a little bit, unless you’re one of those crazy Norwegians…I hear they like doing that.
2. Always rub steaks with a little oil before grilling. This will help keep the meat moist and also prevents sticking.
3. Season with a little salt and pepper not more than 10 minutes before grilling. If you load up your meat with salt too early, it will begin to draw moisture out of the steak, not much, but some. You want to keep it all in there though.
4. Never use a fork to turn your steaks (or any meat for that matter**). Piercing your lovely steaks and other cuts with a fork allows all those delicious juices to run right out before you’ve even had a chance to taste them. Keep all your juices where they should be by using tongs. Tongs are your friends. In commercial kitchens across the nation, chefs battle over the best pairs and I can remember even hiding some to ensure I always got my favourite.
5. Prehat your grilling device thoroughly. This also help with even cooking. Whether it’s a charcoal or propane BBQ, an indoor grill, a hibachi, or whatever you can fandangle into searing your meat. Always preheat!
6. Learn the art of touching your meat to test for doneness. There are various ways in which one can gauge the doneness, such as comparing the spring back to the flesh between your thumb and index finger when you hold them together. All nonsense to me. A heavier person may have more fleshy bits there then say, Kate Moss. Poor Kate will never be able to tell when her steak has passed into inedible territory. So here is my best advice; learn what you like in a steak. Most people will tell you medium rare, thougha great many (*sob*) will tell you medium to well done. Feel your steak by pressing down on the thickest part with your index finger when it is still raw. See how it gives, but does not spring back? That’s raw. A slight variation of the same feeling you would get after a scant minute or two on the flames, which will yield you a blue rare steak. For medium rare, your steak will begin to spring back to you, but not much. Remove immediately and let stand for 5 minutes or so before cutting in.
7. Here is a list of the definitions of each “doneness”:
- Blue rare (aka. bloody, blood rare, or even just seared): only just seared on the outside, will be red and cool on the inside.
- Rare: Outside will be cooked and gray-ish, inside will be red throughout and slightly warm.
- Medium rare: Cooked and gray/brown on the outside, warm and red throughout.
- Medium: Outside will be gray brown, inside will be slightly red, though mostly pink and hot.
- Medium-well: Inside is now only slightly pink, and hot.
- Well done (My Father’s choice): Meat will be gray and hot throughout
8. To achieve the ever sought after cross-hatch grill marks, place your steak on the grill at a 45 degree angle, a quarter of the way through cooking, turn 90 degrees and cook for another quarter of the total. Flip steak over, keeping it on a 45 degree angle and repeat. Et voila! Perfect grill marks every time.
** Duck and goose are the only things I can think of right now that you would pierce at all before cooking, but even then, you only pierce the skin and fat, never the flesh.
Since I can say that Spring is officially on it’s way, we celebrated this week with a side of (California) asparasgus. Yes, yes, boo hiss. I couldn’t resist! Top your steak off with a little herbed goat cheese and you have yourself a celebration!
Elizabeth!! These steaks look amaaaaazing!! I’ve always been such a huge fan of your photography and this post is no exception. Makes me want to run out and buy some gorgeous steaks of my own to cook up tonight!
.-= the wicked noodle´s last blog ..Carrot Souffle =-.
Man, if this doesn’t get people craving steak, than nothing will. They must be vegetarians!=)
.-= Aimee´s last blog ..Three Easy Recipes for a Snow Day =-.
These look great! Can’t wait for grilling season!
.-= Tony Perez´s last blog ..Home =-.
Gorgeous, GORGEOUS photos. Wow. I want steak. And ASPARAGUS.
.-= Alta´s last blog ..Slow-Cooker Pot Roast =-.
Beautiful! All of your photographs are amazing, as always. I love steak with asparagus, too. YUM!
.-= Jen @ My Kitchen Addiction´s last blog ..Easy Italian Chicken and Rapini =-.
Very well said my dear. Thanks for the tips and infos….
.-= Mhe-Lhanee Benito´s last blog ..Churrasco Feast Express =-.
You need to season a steak like that 30-40 minutes prior to cooking… The penetration of seasoning more than makes up for “moisture loss” which i think may be a myth anyway…
Also, no steak regardless of what doneness it’s prepared to should be gray on the outside… That’s silly!
Notable things you forgot to add; Don’t overload your grill/ make sure to turn your steaks onto a place they haven’t been. More importantly resting your steaks at the end is one of the most important steps, and you didn’t mention it or carry over cooking for that matter…
I stumbled onto this site, and i’m just trying to contribute and give some constructive criticism…
Otherwise, nice article with a good amount of easily digestible information…
Actually Chef D, I did say to let the steaks stand before eating, in Step 6.
As I said in the article, opinions are just that, opinions. Any restaurant I have ever cooked in would say that you are crazy to season your steak 30-40 minutes in advance. Salt and pepper only have so much penetratable power. 10 minutes is just fine.
Also, I did not speak of overcrowding a grill because this is not a commercial website. It would take more than 15-20 steaks to crowd my BBQ. I see that as a non issue. I think most home cooks would not be putting that many steaks on their BBQ at the same time.
Moisture loss is not a myth, it has been scientifically tested. Moisture loss is minimal though, which is why I mentioned it.
Steak is considered “gray” on the outside, or “brown” if you prefer. Again, preference. What colour would you call it then, just to be clear?
I’ve never heard of turning your steaks onto a new area of the grill, what would this achieve exactly?
That steak looks perfectly grilled indeed…nyum!
wow…I learned so much by this post – thank you for sharing it!
.-= Brandie´s last blog ..Winter Squash Soup =-.
Oooo! That ‘s looks good. I wish I saw this post before grilling our steaks and asparagus tonight. I didn’t know it was necessary to oil the meat before putting them on the grill.
.-= Zibi´s last blog ..Weeknight Honey Garlic Ribs =-.
When is it best to add the blue cheese to the top of the steak? While it is still on the grill or after removing it from the grill?
.-= Lunch Pail´s last blog ..Colonel K’s Pasty Shop, Menominee, MI =-.
I would add the cheese after you take it off the grill and before you let it rest. Then it has a chance to melt a little before you eat it. Happy cooking!
This looks fantastic. I’m definitely going to be following your instructions soon.
Great post with lots of good tips. We did a whole lesson on cooking steak and I was shocked how little I really knew.Keep up the super posts I love reading them. Here’s one of my favorite steak recipes we did at Rouxbe, Enjoy.
http://rouxbe.com/recipes/1059-caprese-style-steak
.-= Steve´s last blog ..Torchiette with Bacon, Beer & Cheese Sauce =-.
Thanks Steve! Awesome post too.
Some good looking steaks! Great tips as well.
I’ve never read such a thorough analysis of steak grilling – it’s almost surgeon-like. Love the analogy with the steaming shower and also the timing of the seasoning. It all makes perfect sense and make me long for a ribeye cut for lunch! Thanks for a great article.
Perfect!! Amazing!! Like food in a 5 star hotel. I’m not really good at steak grilling. I tried but not perfect sometimes its overcooked. Thanks for the tip.
Thank you for #4! I absolutely cringe when I see people use grilling forks to grab their meat off the grill. 🙁
[…] Grilling the Perfect Steak | Guilty Kitchen […]
[…] Grilling the Perfect Steak » […]
[…] Grilling the Perfect Steak Recipe | Guilty Kitchen ** Duck and goose are the only things I can think of right now that you would pierce at all before cooking, but even then, you only pierce the skin and fat, never the flesh. Since I can say that Spring is officially on it’s way, we celebrated this week with a side of (California) asparasgus. Yes, yes, boo hiss. […]
[…] Three years ago: Grilling the Perfect Steak […]
[…] Grilling the Perfect Steak :: Guilty Kitchen […]