How To Cook The Perfect Steak
It's ridiculous how easy it is to ruin a good steak, but if you can follow directions, here's how to do it right. You really only need to keep it simple. Yes, you can spice your beef with whatever you want... Seasoned salt, meat rubs, Montreal Steak seasoning, etc... But really, it comes down to half and half salt and coarse black pepper. The more important detail is to let your seasonings linger on the steak for a good long time, like five or six hours seasoned in the fridge. Before you say that's too long, it's not. If you're taking your steak out of the fridge, seasoning it, then plopping it on the grill juicy and plump, you're not eating steak... That's pure disappointment. The salt will pull moisture out of that cut of beef and fast-track a dry aged taste to it. The longer you let them season, the better they taste... sort of. Prime time is anywhere between five and eight hours. I've tried it everywhere all the way out to 36 hours, and beyond eight, the steak tends to toughen up again. So season, let it sit, then let it come to room temperature before tossing it over the coals.
Some argue between cooking methods, and really, it all comes down to the cut of beef you're cooking. Fattier cuts tend to curl on really hot grates, and leaner cuts don't get done enough on the cool side of the grill. To combat that, have a cool side and a hot side. Don't worry about flipping your steaks around. Pretty meat is nice, but tasty meat rules all.
Also, cook it to the temp it needs to be. Don't be poking around on your nose or palm to estimate how the steak feels... a meat thermometer is only a few dollars and you'll know without a doubt how perfect your steak is. Invest in one.
Let it rest after you take it off the heat. You can wrap it in tin-foil and stick it in the microwave if you like, just don't turn that bad boy on. Sparks fly. The rule is five minutes per inch of thickness. If you're buying thin cut steaks, there's no need to let it rest because that's not steak, and odds are you probably put ketchup on it anyway.
Give a subscribe to Kent Rollins... He's the world famous SWOK cook in the video above. His channel is full of amazing, stupid-simple recipes for the man that knows cooking is both a masculine activity and a character trait of adults. He may be a little heavy-handed on the chipotle peppers and adobo, I don't agree with putting lime juice and making cowboy ceviche, but to each their own. Double bonus points if you pull off the ridiculously easy poor-mans crab feast.