How to Cook a Great Steak Part 1

I like meat. This should not come as surprise to anyone. I am not easy to please when it comes to my meats, steak in particular. I have found while a lot of people cook steak, very few cook it well. I found myself going to restaurants ordering and receiving steak that was either bland or overcooked. It was rare that I found myself truly enjoying a nice quality steak. In hindsight I realize now that was because I was going to restaurant chains like Longhorns, Ruby Tuesdays, Applebee's etc. when I should have went to a place that specializes in steak. Non the less I decided to master steak on my own. I have spent count less and ruined many a piece of meat to get where I am now, where I feel I can make a good steak at anytime. I have decided to share some of my techniques with you guys.

Now the first part of making a great steak has nothing to do with cooking. Yes that is right, now back away from the pan and turn that stove off.

First we need to talk about meat. Not all steak is the same. Sure it may look similar but what kind of steak it is can and will make a difference on how the final product. Steak is usually graded like this

From Wikipedia:

U.S. Prime – Highest in quality and intramuscular fat, limited supply. Currently, about 2.9% of carcasses grade as Prime.

U.S. Choice – High quality, widely available in foodservice industry and retail markets. Choice carcasses are 53.7% of the fed cattle total. The difference between Choice and Prime is largely due to the fat content in the beef. Prime typically has a higher fat content (more and well distributed intramuscular "marbling") than Choice.

U.S. Select (formerly Good) – lowest grade commonly sold at retail, acceptable quality, but is less juicy and tender due to leanness.

Now you may be wondering why fat  content matters. Trust me it matters a lot. You get a lot of the flavor from the fat. In addition to flavor prime and choice beef will be more tender than select as well.

I look at it kind of how I see alcohol.

Select= Mr. Boston/Budlight
Choice = Three olives/Shocktop
Prime = Grey Goose/ Special Made Craft Beer

Choice is what I buy. It is what you will find at most quality supermarkets and butchers. It is easier on the wallet and can still be cooked to a great steak. I bet you are ready to cook now aren't you?

NO YOU ARE NOT SIT DOWN AND KEEP READING!

You must first decide what type of steak you want to cook. There are a lot of pieces of meat with the word steak on it. It can be rather confusing. I like this chart to help keep track.

For this article let us ignore the tenderloin roast. Astute observers will notice the tenderloin and the porterhouse look very similar. Correct you are. There is much debate over this, but basically they are both a combo of two steak, the NY Strip on one side and the tenderloin on the other. The difference being the porterhouse has more tenderloin on it.

If fat were to equal flavor you would be able to easily guess which of those steak would have the most flavor. As you can see the rib eye [rib steak above] has much more marbling than the other ones and therefore can often times be more flavorful. In contrast you see the coveted filet mignon has next to no fat yet we all know how expensive it is. It has a lot to due with how tender that piece of meat is. This is a purely subjective matter, and really you should buy what you like. I prefer the Ny Strip and the ribeye.

Now that you have selected your steak, you are ready to cook right? Great! let's go turn on the heat..........................................
























And read Part II, which is coming soon....

Edit Part 2 is now up. Glad you didn't have wait huh?