How to Grill a Great Steak Good friends, outdoor music, a nice summer breeze, cold drinks, a hot fire, and meat: all the ingredients for a perfect July backyard cookout. And the centerpiece of the occasion is the grill. (For those on the West Coast, it’s not called a barbecue. Barbecue’s a Southern specialty involving pork, smoke, spices, and time.) Though it’s easier and cheaper to throw some frozen burgers or brats on the grill, real men eat steak (also known as warrior food). And if you’re going to spring for steak, you may as well learn how to grill it. Great grilling requires attention to three key ingredients: the grill, the meat, and the cooking. The Grill: Though a charcoal grill is preferable for the taste, smells, and ambiance it produces, novices will likely do better with a gas grill. It’s easier, faster, and more forgiving. Size doesn’t matter; a two-burner gas grill will do the job. The Meat: The next step to grilling a perfect steak is your choice of the perfect cut of meat. With a few exceptions, the rib (rib eye), short loin (T-bones and New York strips), and sirloin cuts typically yield the best steaks. The tenderloin (or filet) is the most expensive, and by far the most tender steak of all. The tenderloin sacrifices some flavor for its tenderness, and contains a relatively small amount of marbling, meaning that if it is cooked beyond medium, it will end up being dry and tough. Most meat sold in grocery stores is graded. The grading system basically looks at four things: color, texture, firmness, and the amount of marbling (fat woven throughout the flesh). The more marbling, the higher the grade. The grading system is divided into eight tiers, though most consumers are concerned with only the top five: Prime, Choice, Select, Standard, and Commercial. Prime is the best of the best but hard to find at the grocery store. (Most of it is sold to restaurants.) Choice is usually your best bet (and only a small step down from Prime.) Next comes Select, which isn’t as select as it sounds. You’ll start to notice a difference in flavor and tenderness here, so choose a steak graded at least Choice. The steaks select should be bright red, with nice, white fat and marbling. New York strips and Rib eyes combine the best of both tenderness (filet) and flavor (sirloin). A good range for steak thickness is 1-1/4 inches to 2-1/4 inches. The Cooking. A number of mistakes are made before the steak ever hits the grill. One common mistake made by many backyard grillers is to pull out the steaks, remove the grocery store plastic wrap, and immediately plop the meat on the grill. The true grillmasters know that a steak needs to be brought to room temperature first to ensure proper cooking. This is also the time to season the meat. Generously season each side of the steak with salt and pepper. This will give the seasonings time to dissipate across the surface of the steak, resulting in a better-seasoned piece of meat. Another common mistake is not allowing the grill to heat properly. If you’re cooking with charcoal, you want a nice, even ash on your coals. If you’re cooking with gas, you want an even flame and a hot grill. Once the grill is ready, put the steaks directly over the coals or the flame, and then let them alone. Don’t touch, poke, prod, or otherwise play with your food. Don’t flip it, check it, or press is. Let the steaks sit unmolested for three or four minutes. (They need that time for the sugars to start to caramelize and produce a flavorful crust.) After three or four minutes, turn the steak using tongs. (Poking it with a fork will spill the juices.) Wait another three or four minutes (depending on the thickness of your steaks) and flip ‘em again. Keep a spray bottle of water with you at all times. Use it to douse flame-ups. Flames licking at your steaks will deposit carbon on them and give your steaks a bitter, off flavor. How do you know when your steaks are done? You can tell by the way it feels. (Don’t cut into your steaks, or you’ll dry them out.) A rare steak will feel like the large, fleshy part of your hand (at the base of your thumb) when you bring your thumb and forefinger together. Now bring your thumb and middle finger together, that’s medium. Well done corresponds to the feel of your hand when you bring your thumb and pinky together. Well-done is a terrible state of existence for a steak. Medium rare to medium is really the perfect temperature. With their relatively low fat content, steaks cooked beyond medium start to get tough and dry. The final and most important step is to allow the steaks to rest or heal before you serve them. Remove the meat from the grill and allow it to sit for five minutes so the juices can disperse throughout the steak again. Without this time to rest, all the juices will flow out onto your plate when you cut into the steak, instead of staying where they belong, in the meat.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:57:43 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015