Let's discuss grilling steaks

[Jenise]

Everybody does it, and almost no one does it the same way.

I'm not even sure I have reached the point where I think I know the best way--about every five years it seems I change my mind about what cut and what treatment constitutes perfection on our grill of the moment.

Got to thinking about that this morning when I watched part of an episode of Cooks Country on PBS. I quit subscribing to their publications because I eventually found their approach more tiring than illuminating so not what you'd call a fan, but it's not bad company on the teeve when you're prepping for the day's meals as I was, and today they were prepping some New York strips for grilling. Something of a money shot, that. And then she had to mention the word 'crust'.

Crust is my current favorite focal point about grilling meat, because our new grill is so crazy hot that I can now not just aspire to but achieve real crustiness on a steak. The old one could not. Not in the 8 to 10 minutes it takes to cook a steak the warm rare we like, anyway.

They did two things to enhance crust that I've never seen done before, or considered. 1) For four steaks which had been patted dry with a paper towel, a mixture of one teaspoon each salt (probably plain old fine grain salt, though it wasn't said) and cornstarch was distributed among all eight surfaces*. 2) The steaks were then put on a rack on a sheet pan and put in the freezer for "30 to 60 minutes" to effectively "dry age" the steaks, taking advantage of the freezer's circulating, low humidity air. Best I could tell, the steaks went directly from the freezer to the grill where things went fairly normally: eight minutes for rare on their unit, lid down, turn once, pull the meat, rest five minutes.

Frankly I would quibble with them about having gone to all that trouble to build a crust, and then resting the meat under foil and on a plate (my steaks rest on a rack), both of which would soften it IMO, but that's just me.

Anyway, I look forward to trying their method. Has anyone else tested it?

FWIW, my current favorite steak: Costco prime top sirloins, which tend to be an inch and a half to two inches thick, salted and peppered both sides and allowed to sit at room temperature for an hour before going on the hot grill's searing burner. We take care of all the crusting there, then move the steaks over to the regular grill to roast at about 300-350 until the steaks are about 130 at center. I rest it about ten minutes, racked and uncovered, in the warming drawer and then slice for service. (We share one steak.)

*To my eye, that actually looked a bit scant for both ingredients. 1/8 of a teaspoon of something as finely powdered as corn starch is hard to spread around on a good sized steak, and theirs were large. Too, though it's probably politically correct for our times to be minimalistic about salt, but I would use more on steaks that thickness.

That does seem like a lot of trouble. But that's what Chris Kimball does best: take the hard way. I tend to follow your path except that I use a charcoal grill. I sear the shit out of both sides directly over the coals and then move the thing over to an indirect heat area of the grill. Cover for about 3-5 minutes and that takes me to a perfect forefinger-to-thumb rare/mid-rare that I like (5 minute rest included). I season liberally with salt and pepper before cooking.

rwj

Well, because it was so hot today (89 degrees F), I drove the tractor and trailer around back and loaded up the grill, smoker, and utility chest out of the basement; and got them set up. So, I grilled a rib eye tonight over charcoal and mesquite smoke; after rubbing it with EVOO and Morton Rub. Have to admit I overcooked it!! Practice makes perfect. Drank an bottle of '08 Knapp Finger Lakes Merlot with it. Burp!

I threw 6# of boneless leg of lamb on the charcoal tonight (actually, in two chunks because my grill is very compact). It had marinated overnight in olive oil, thyme, black pepper, 4 large cloves of garlic and 3 bay leaves. I gave it approx. 6 minutes on each side so there are some good scorch, ah, grill marks. The meat is medium in the thin parts and quite rare in the thick parts -- something for everyone tonight and a bit of wiggle room for reheating the leftovers.

don't agree with the cornstarch - seems that would be supplying the crust - not the meat. the quick dry aging can be done on the counter or in the frig. i use real charcoal - salt only not pepper. and yes, i dry them on paper towels. the surface must be as dry as possible to crust well. a little EVOO seems to help this get started too. i try never to lower the lid on beef as this seems to give a different flavor and even moisten the crusting. so, only direct heat at first, moving off center if it is in danger of burning.

Frankly I would quibble with them about having gone to all that trouble to build a crust, and then resting the meat under foil and on a plate (my steaks rest on a rack), both of which would soften it IMO, but that's just me.

Yeah, I think everyone hates undue meat softening!

Interesting that David doesn't lower the lid - I do. Maybe I'll try it his way, but expect that it will exacerbate the issue of forming a nice outer layer (my steak gets only S&P and perhaps a wee bit of garlic after air drying on a rack with paper towel on top, before hitting the grill) while still leaving the inner meat very rare. SWMBO likes her meat medium, and I like mine rare, which caused repeated recrimination until I settled on the methodology of cooking mine the way I wanted it, and then telling her "Yours is still on the barbie - take it off when you want to". We've had one or two carbonized forgotten offerings, but once the responsibility for finishing the meat was clarified, it hasn't come back to my door again.

My biggest BBQ issue is the marinated ribs we often have with the Friday steaks. They are thin flanken cut ribs and the difference between almost done and carbonized on a hot grill can be a matter of less than a minute. Getting an important phone call (or reading email) while grilling can be disastrous.

[Jenise]

Interesting that David doesn't lower the lid - I do. Maybe I'll try it his way, but expect that it will exacerbate the issue of forming a nice outer layer (my steak gets only S&P and perhaps a wee bit of garlic after air drying on a rack with paper towel on top, before hitting the grill) while still leaving the inner meat very rare. SWMBO likes her meat medium, and I like mine rare, which caused repeated recrimination until I settled on the methodology of cooking mine the way I wanted it, and then telling her "Yours is still on the barbie - take it off when you want to". We've had one or two carbonized forgotten offerings, but once the responsibility for finishing the meat was clarified, it hasn't come back to my door again.

My biggest BBQ issue is the marinated ribs we often have with the Friday steaks. They are thin flanken cut ribs and the difference between almost done and carbonized on a hot grill can be a matter of less than a minute. Getting an important phone call (or reading email) while grilling can be disastrous.

Typically we cook lid up in order to excite more flames, though on colder winter days sometimes we make the other choice. Your grill is the hottest grill I've ever cooked on in my life--wouldn't think lid up or down would matter.

As for your Suzanne solution, if Bob ever told me to go get my own steak I know where he'd be sleeping for the next month or three! Why not just put hers on first? When we need to cook more-done for guests, that's what we do.

As for your Suzanne solution, if Bob ever told me to go get my own steak I know where he'd be sleeping for the next month or three! Why not just put hers on first? When we need to cook more-done for guests, that's what we do.

Bingo. HWMBO likes well-done and I like rare/medium-rare. I cook his approx. double mine.

As for your Suzanne solution, if Bob ever told me to go get my own steak I know where he'd be sleeping for the next month or three! Why not just put hers on first? When we need to cook more-done for guests, that's what we do.

Bingo. HWMBO likes well-done and I like rare/medium-rare. I cook his approx. double mine.

Yeah, but SWMBO sometimes makes it hard to do that by postponing the allocation decision until the meat is on the grill. Often suffers from 'eyes bigger than stomach' syndrome, so we divvy part way through. Forcing an allocation earlier does make a lot of sense, though and I shall try out that methodology, despite the fact that it would leave me in sole charge with responsibility for any inadequacies in cooking (of the too rare, too well done sort), real or imagined.

I think that the judges should take into consideration that I do more of the cooking than she does and bring her coffee in bed on weekends, when they pass sentence on me for any meaty defalcations in not finishing her steak!