Do’s and don’ts for great grilled steak
Hamburgers and hot dogs might appear most often on the backyard grill, but nothing excites the masses like the sight and smell of a sizzling steak. And beef prices are high right now, so when you do indulge in a steak night, you want to maximize the returns.
I reached out to a panel of experts to get their thoughts on the proper do’s and don’ts for working those steaks.
Meat selection
Beef is given grades by inspectors for quality, and it ranks from Select to Choice to Prime. The grades are based on the amount of fatty marbling that is found within meat. Select is the cheapest with the least marbling, currently averaging $9.50 per pound, and Prime hovers around $15 for rib-eyes, the runaway most popular cut.
You really can’t go wrong with anything Prime, but Choice (priced around $13 per pound) should be the initial focus of your steak pursuit. The inspectors sometimes get it wrong, and you can get Prime-grade meat at a discount.
“Marbling is the key for everything,” said Heather Nanez, longtime chef at Bohanan’s Prime Steaks & Seafood in San Antonio. “I’m looking for meat that has almost a feathered look to it. You can find that with Choice and save yourself a few dollars per pound, but you will not be able to make a Select taste like a Prime.”
The thickness of the cut should be another key player in your decision. Look for steaks that are cut at least an inch thick, preferably 1½ or 2, as it’s easier to control how they cook. Steaks cut to these measurement are fairly easy to find, but most meat departments are willing to do it for you, if needed.
“You get any thinner than that, and it’s going to be pretty hard to control,” said Steve Jimenez, a Converse-based competition cook with multiple wins on the Steak Cookoff Association circuit. “You can’t really cook a medium-rare skirt steak.”
Prepping
A common blunder to cooking steak is taking the meat straight from the fridge to the fire. It should be allowed to get to room temperature, which is likely in the 70s for most households. The meat should then be dried with paper towels, removing as much moisture as possible.
Prime-grade and most Choice steaks don’t typically need much more help than an equal ratio salt-and-pepper seasoning applied moments before cooking. For Select and other steak types such as flank or skirt steaks, the flavor can be boosted with a marinade.
“When cooking a Prime, I want all of the flavor to be in that beef, and I don’t want to be distracted,” said chef John O’Larnic, who has been with H-E-B for more than 20 years. “The reason salt and pepper is found in nearly every recipe is because it works.”
Grill setup
There are two schools of thought in play here: You can go hot and fast and cook directly over the coals, or you can prepare your grill for indirect cooking with a hot and cool zone. In any case, the steaks should be cooked over the hot coals at some point to give it that signature crusty sear.
However you choose to do it, the area over the charcoal should be in the neighborhood of 600 to 650 degrees, and the grates should be wiped down with oil. There is little to no difference between using charcoal briquettes or hardwood lump charcoal since steak cooks so quickly. Mesquite charcoal works great, though, as does the line of charcoal at H-E-B that has garlic and onion infused into the briquettes.
“The biggest thing is you definitely want to stay away from using lighter fluid,” Jimenez said. “That flavor will not cook off, and you notice it right away when you bite into the steak. There are so many easy ways to start a fire, you don’t want to waste a good steak by taking that shortcut.”
Doneness
O’Larnic has a very simple process to get his steaks to preferred doneness: four minutes per side, rotated 90 degrees midway on each sidefor medium, and he goes down to three minutes per side for medium-rare. This technique also produces uniform grill marks.
Nanez, who estimates she has cooked more than 10,000 steaks at Bohanan’s, doesn’t have to use a thermometer to check for doneness, but she recommends it. Rare steaks start at 120 degrees internal temperature and rise to medium-rare (130 to 135 degrees), medium (140 to 145 degrees), medium-well (150 to 155 degrees) and well done (160 and above).
“The worst thing you can do is cut into the steak to check,” Nanez said. “Once you do that, it’s all over. You will have a dry steak. That’s why it’s also a good idea to always use tongs to flip the meat instead of poking into it with a fork and doing it.”
Jimenez, who uses a thermometer, pulls his steaks at 125 degrees and rests them in a foil packet, where they can continue to cook another 10 degrees or so for medium-rare. Resting allows the juices to settle back into the meat.
“I cringe when I see people cut into the steaks right away,” Jimenez said. “That’s probably the most common mistake. They will stay plenty hot if you let them be for 10 to 15 minutes.”
And as a final pro tip, Jimenez, Nanez and O’Larnic say to go ahead and add some melted butter over those steaks while you wait to dig in.