Rob's Rants

No, not the crappy pieces of tough beef cut into small chunks, slathered in cheap marinade and then passed off as quality beef to unsuspecting New Englanders steak tips … this is some advice I gave to a novice griller for getting a good sear on a real steak. I originally answered this on the BBQ Source message board. But I thought I’d reproduce my answer here.

His question was:

I am an absolute grill novice. Just got my first full time charcoal grill. Nothing fancy, just a Weber 18.5″ One-Touch Gold. I use lump charcoal. For my first venture, I tried some NY Strips. I pulled them to sit for about 30 minutes. Half way into that, I added course ground salt and pepper. Just before throwing on the grill, I added some olive oil. Now I used the direct to indirect to finish. (Blasphemy, I know, but I like a medium well steak. I like pink, but cant do a red/raw center.). I can’t even say what temp, but my lump was hot. Went direct for 2 min rotations. (4 total for 8 minutes.). Finished on indirect for a few minutes. Now the sear was PERFECT for me. So much flavor, even my GF commented and asked what seasoning I used. I love a heavy sear, even a bit of a crust. The inside color was even great. Had a touch of pink. Problem was, it was tough. I assumed too much sear time. (these are like 1″ cuts of Choice Angus.)

…

I just wonder how I can get that great sear without a tough steak? I’m obviously going to try cast iron fried one day, but I’m interested in direct grilling for now.

My response follows:

I can think of a few things that will help … but fundamentally there is a conflict between cooking a steak to medium or beyond and having it stay juicy and tender that is VERY hard to resolve. It’s just the nature of protein … animal muscle protein contracts and gets tough when cooked beyond 140 degrees. Only the best, most expensive prime cuts can stay close to tender when cooked to a barely pink medium, and some (myself included) feel that it’s kind of a shame to waste good prime beef by cooking it to anything beyond medium-rare.

That said, there are some different techniques I suggest for getting a good sear. These are complicated by the stock grates on the Weber One-Touch. The thin plated bars are not at all conducive to creating grill marks or a good sear. They simply don’t have the thermal mass and rough surface area needed to really facilitate the Maillard reaction that creates a good sear and that seared flavor. But a few tricks can help. A replacement set of cast iron grates would help more (I have no affiliation with this company at all and I am not recommending them specifically).

First, the surface of the steak needs to be really, really dry for a good sear. If there is even the slightest hint of moisture, the surface will generate steam when it hits the grill grate and not sear. The same goes for oil … although for flavor olive oil is helpful, it actually hinders the searing, so I’d leave it off and just give the grate a light coat of oil (I actually use cooking spray). Patting the surface of the steak with paper towels isn’t enough either. One trick I picked up from Cook’s Illustrated a few years ago is to season the steak with salt, let it sit for a while to come to room temperature (like 40+ minutes, more on why below; I often let my thick steaks sit salted overnight in the refrigerator), then pat it dry with a paper towel. Then, sprinkle both sides lightly with a mixture of kosher salt and corn starch (equal parts by volume) and place it on an elevated rack in the freezer for 15 to 20 minutes. The key to this is that freezers are extremely dry and usually have air circulating, so this helps dry the surface thoroughly. And the corn starch absorbs any other moisture. Plus, the freezer cools the outside layers of the steak, so when it’s back on the grill it will cook a little slower and won’t get so tough while the middle, which stays close to room temp, cooks through.

The reason that the steak is salted before being dried is to help with the Maillard reaction. This reaction requires amino acids (protein building blocks) and the presence of a reducing sugar to occur. The primary reducing sugar available in steak is the glucose trapped in the cellular fluid. The idea behind salting the steak is to draw some of this cellular fluid to the surface of the meat. As Tubby’s Smokehouse points out, the longer salt stays on the surface of the meat, the more moisture is pulled out … to a point. If left on long enough, the osmotic pressure will equalize and fluid will begin to redistribute back into the steak, bringing seasoning with it (this is the principle behind brining chicken for example). Although there might be a slight net moisture loss, the steak should be more flavorful and the surface will end up with the right compounds to facilitate the Maillard reaction. There’s a great explanation of this at the Serious Eats website.

Try this method and see if your results are better. With a thin (1″ or less) steak the standard sear and then cook over lower heat should work. For thicker steaks (1.5″+) cooked to medium or beyond I actually recommend an opposite approach, starting over low heat and getting a sear at the end.

Finally … I can’t emphasize this enough … get a really good, accurate thermometer. I use a Thermoworks Thermapen but there are less expensive alternatives. Cook to reach the desired intrnal temperature, not the desired look on the outside. After some practice you’ll get the timing correct so that a 5-step, 1-flip procedure (On the grill, quarter turn, flip, quarter turn, remove) will give you a nice cross-hatch of grill marks. But until then concentrate on not overshooting your desired temperature and you’ll be rewarded with great steak.

Good luck and I hope you post some pics!

In addition to always seeking better bar-b-que I’m also always questing for a better steak. Over the years, I’ve grilled just about every cut of beef – T-bones, ribeyes, filets, NY strips, flank steak, skirt steak – it doesn’t matter. All of the typical American steak cuts come from the loin primals (sirloin, short loin, tenderloin). And they share the typical characteristics of the loin: they’re lean and flavorful.

But lately I’ve been jumping on the Flat Iron bandwagon.

Beef Primals

The flat iron steak is a relatively new cut, invented by the beef industry as a way to use a typically cheap cut of meat from the chuck (shoulder) primal. The beauty of meat from the chuck is that it’s naturally full of fat and connective tissue. And as any carnivore knows, fat = flavor. So the beauty of the flat iron steak is that it has a natural marbling such that even a choice grade flat iron steak has the kind of marbling that you’d see in a prime grade ribeye.

This gives the flat iron unique cooking characteristics. Like pork shoulder, the amount of connective tissue means that the meat can absorb quite a bit of heat before the internal temperature really starts to rise. This means that the flat iron is best cooked over a medium high heat, and in my experience, doesn’t sear as well as other cuts.

But man is it flavorful. All that fat gives it a really rich flavor. And the way it’s cut makes it really tender. If you love to grill and haven’t had the chance to try a flat iron steak, I suggest you do.

More information:

• Wikipedia has a good article about flat iron steak.
• Derek Riches at About.com has a good article about the flat iron.

The Final Product

I’m a big fan of dry-aged beef. At least compared to wet-aged beef. But I was always under the impression that individual cuts couldn’t be aged by themselves — whole primal cuts were the smallest that could be safely aged at home.

But in the March 2010 issue of Cook’s Illustrated magazine, they talked about a method of aging individual steaks at home (membership required)  by wrapping them in cheese cloth. From their article:

To try replicating these results at home on a smaller scale, we bought rib-eye and strip steaks (each $10.99 per pound) and stored them in the back of the refrigerator, where the temperature is coldest. Since home refrigerators are less humid than the commercial units used for dry-aging, we wrapped the steaks in cheesecloth to allow air to pass through while also preventing excessive dehydration and checked them after four days (the longest length of time we felt comfortable storing raw beef in a home fridge).

I thought I’d give this a try, at least for a couple of days at first, rather than four.

After 2 Days in The Fridge

And believe it or not, it worked well. I took a nice organic t-bone steak, wrapped it up in cheesecloth, and put it in the back of the bottom shelf of my refrigerator. I left it for two days and then salted it and cooked it up. And I felt that it was comparable to dry-aged steak that I buy from my local Whole Foods. It was definitely richer and more tender than a regular steak. As Cook’s said:

Sure enough, four days of dry-aging in a home fridge gave the steaks a comparably smoky flavor and dense, tender texture. As long as you remember to wrap the meat in plenty of cheesecloth, place it on a wire rack for air circulation, and store it in the coldest part of the fridge, you can skip shelling out extra money for commercially aged cow.

I will definitely do this again — in fact, I may never eat another steak without aging it for at least a little while. I suggest giving this a try if you like dry-aged beef.

Update 6/5/2010

Alton Brown recently aired an episode of Good Eats (“Porterhouse Rules”) where he described a similar method. Only he made  a home made rig to hold the steak using pie plates and wrapped it in paper towels instead of cheese cloth. But with two of my favorite sources of food information agreeing that this will work, I’m satisfied that it will work. You can find the recipe for the episode here.

Now What?

Get out there and grill some steaks! Yes, that is a picture of my own grilled porterhouse at the top of this post. Interested in grillmarks? Read about my opinion here.

Full disclosure - I got the picture from Wikimedia Commons. I usually eat my food rather than photograph it.

Grilling continues to gain popularity in the United States. And message boards all over the internet are alive with people asking how to achieve the perfect grill marks on their steaks. Grill marks are those blackened lines on a grilled steak, often in a diamond pattern when seen in a restaurant or on the Food Network. Most people quest for these grill marks believing that they offer the final aesthetic touch to their food. And there are all sorts of hints and tips and processes discussed for how to go about getting them.

But these people are missing the point. Grill marks are not created as part of the perfect grilling process. They are the result of the perfect grilling process. Grill marks are not made — they emerge when things are done well. They are a symbol of perfection.

What’s required to achieve this perfection? Many things must ace in harmony to enable these marks:

1. Proper heat: the grill must be hot enough to sear the meat and create the Maillard reaction, but not so hot that the part of the meat not touching the grates is also charred. This also requires flame / flare-up control. Thus, grill marks indicate that the cook understands heat control.
2. Proper heat transfer: well defined grill marks are produced when the grill grates can transfer a sufficient amount of heat over a sufficient amount of time into the meat to enable the browning reaction. Not all grates can do this. Cheap thin grates do not have enough thermal mass to build up a reservoir of heat to maintain the temperature necessary. And shiny, smooth grates don’t have enough surface area to enable the reaction. So showpiece grills made to look nice don’t work. Real tools are required — a quality grill with heavy (usually cast iron) grates is necessary. And these grills require more care and effort than something made of shiny stainless steel. Thus, grill marks signify that the cook has invested in quality equipment.
3. Grill marks are achieved with a minimum of movement of the meat. Again, this relates to heat control. The meat must be left in one position long enough to allow the grates to sear the lines in the meat, but not so long that the lines burn or the rest of the meat cooks too much. To achieve the diamond pattern, one rotation on each side is required.  Then the meat is flipped and the technique is repeated on the other side. Why a single turn and a diamond pattern? Because, a grill cooks through several heat transfer methods (conduction, convection, radiation, etc.) but conduction is a critical component and the most efficient. So putting the meat on a grill with sufficiently hot grates and leaving it without a rotation would result in areas touching the grates cooked more than other areas not touching the grates. So the meat must be moved at least once to even out the cooking process. Therefore, the bare minimum number of movements for a perfect steak is four: on the grill, rotate, flip, rotate, serve. More than four movements result in lines all over the steak. While making five or eight or ten movements might not make much of a difference on your home grill, for a professional working dozens of steaks at a time, efficiency is paramount. Too many movements and the cook won’t be able to keep up with all the orders. Thus, grill marks signify the cook’s mastery of the cooking process. Diamond grill marks show that the cook understands the heat, equipment, and technique well enough to properly cook a steak with a minimum number of movements.

So if you want to know how to get good looking grill marks on your steaks, it’s simple. Get good equipment. Learn to control the heat properly. Practice knowing how long to cook a steak. Master these things and the grill marks will come on their own.

What do grill marks demonstrate? That the cook knows what he or she is doing. The ultimate test: when a cook can put multiple steaks on the grill and cook them all to different requested levels (rare, medium, etc.), each with four movements, and with even grill marks so that the lines in each direction and on both sides are all the same color. That is the mark of a master.