How to Cook a Great Steak Part 2

For those of you just tuning in this is the second installment of how to make a great steak. Which should be pretty obvious with the 2 in the title but no one is judging you. When we last left off you had that big piece of meat in your hand ready to toss it in a pan. Before you do that though you need to gather your ingredients.

Kosher Salt
Black pepper (if you don't have a pepper grind, which you should, the ground box stuf works)
Butter
Olive or Grape Seed Oil.

You also need to let your meat come up to room temperature. We are almost there, I am promise you. I am going to presume that you have chose to cook a ribeye or new york strip. Why? Because those are my favorite steaks and you know being like me means you are awesome. Go ahead,

The first thing you need to do with your lovely piece of meat, other than unwrap it is to blot it with paper towels. You want to get the excess blood off it. I like to use a meth similar to the below photo where I take the steak and kind of roll it up so I can blot it all over at once. [PRO TIP: Do NOT use cheap napkins or paper towels that tear easily. It will just cause you to have to peel it off.]

You want to get the meat as dry as possible though don't go over board with it. You don't want to start rubbing off flesh. Just blot it. Depending on size you will like need more than one. If your meat is still cold this is the time to let it come up to temp. This can take a few hours if you have a thick piece of meat. 

Once the meat is clean of the excess moisture lay the out on a flat surface. Take a bit of your chosen oil the rub the meat down with your oil. You don't want it dripping wet. You want it basically to coat the surface of the meat. Once your meat is coated grind or sprinkle your black pepper on the steaks. On top of that give it a generous amount of kosher salt. You want to make sure that the entire surface is coated in salt and pepper. 

 Up close food pr0n's

After you salt and pepper both sides I like to let my sit a bit to let the meat suck in the seasonings. No more than 10 minutes usually. Now you need to take your favorite skillet and get it HOT. On a good electric stove that means 7 or 8. Once it hot go ahead and lay your steak down. Immediately set a timer for 60 seconds.

 While the steak is sizzling away on the pan grab a pair of tongues or your hands if you are crazy like me, and press down on the meat making sure to get as much surface area in direct contact with the pan as possible. You may be wondering why? Well salt and heat on red meat has some type of effect which forms a crust on the meat. This is quite tasty so you want that crust, this is how to get it. When a minute is up flip the steak, turn the heat down to 5 and let the other side crust up.

The reason for turning the heat down is that the steak will cook longer on this side. This will also be the side that is plate up.So you get a strong crust along with the steak cooking slowly.

Some people swear that you only need to flip a steak once, but I am not one of those. I flip as often as I feel is necessary though I don't flip it constantly either. I like to add butter to my steaks and let it brown on it to give it a bit more flavor.

Once the steak is done don't forget to grab the tongs and put the fat strip on the skillet too. 

Speaking of being done. Let us pause for a second. You may have noticed that I did not add any cooking times to any of this. Well there is a reason for that. Cooking times can vary a lot depending on how thick a piece of meat is. I like to go by feel. Let me borrow someone's hand to show you. The below chart seems silly but it is actually spot on. Once you get a few steaks under your belt you will be able to judge the time, until then stick to the chart. 

This is a chart that gives you a good understanding of the different degrees of steak doneness. I will say though this chart is a tiny bit misleading. If you look at this it looks as if rare and medium rare are completely raw in the middle. Which is not true at all if you cook it properly. Now if your steak was cold, and you quickly seared the outside it could be raw in the middle. Now this chart is clearly bias but I do agree that well done and medium well are both too done for a good steak. I eat mine medium leaning towards medium rare.

Once you get your steak to your desired doness, which I hope isn't well done, you need to let it rest. DO NOT CUT INTO THAT STEAK!! If you do you will ruin your hard work. When meat gets hot it expands, the juices flow. If you cut into it all your juices will run out onto the plate. Wrap it in some foil and sit it aside for at least 10 minutes.  Edit: It has been pointed out to me that you do not need to wrap your steak in foil. If you are going to keep it warm then you can just tent the steak with foil until ready to serve. 

Once you do you will be rewarded with a steak that is juicy (unless its well done) and tender. That was a good steak.