Comment on Consistency is key
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
If I’m in an expensive restaurant with a trained chef with access to the best cuts of aged beef, I’ll ask for a medium rare steak.
If I’m in a back yard BBQ with some guy at the grill, no matter how good he or she thinks they are … I’m asking for well done and I won’t complain if you burn it. I’m not trusting some weekend backyard cook to make anything even remotely rare even if they spent $50 on a steak.
I once visited a friend who raved about some $50 steaks he wanted to make for us. He used a small charcoal grill he used maybe three times a year so he didn’t really know what he was doing. He asked us how we wanted our steaks and I immediately jumped to asking for well done … he tried to tell me that medium rare was the best for these expensive cuts. I insisted. He cooked them, slathered them with BBQ sauce and burned everything … the grill was an inferno with huge flames.
I also had the opposite happen. My wife’s friend from Montreal who is a trained chef came for a visit and said he was bringing $50 steaks that he picked himself. We knew he only selected the best cuts fun the best places in the city. He came north to see us with his steaks in cold storage. I showed him my cheap barbecue and he said he would take care of supper. He figured out how to manage the grill, made grilled roast potatoes and grilled the steaks … he never asked us how we wanted them. I watched him … one minute on one side, turned it, grilled another minute and served it. The thing was singed on two sides and blood raw in between. I thought I was going to die of ecoli poisoning but my friend kept telling me not to worry. We never got sick. It was the most savoury, softest, most succulent steak I’ve ever had.
Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 4 days ago
The only thing I came away from your story with is you have no idea how to cook a steak.
ininewcrow@lemmy.ca 4 days ago
Lol … you got me … but in all honesty, it’s taken me years to learn how to make my own steak.
I used to try to cook it by eye or feel or timing but either burnt my food or didn’t cook it enough (so that I had to reheat it to be safe, which just ruined it). I also tried dry rubs, wet rubs or just plain BBQ sauce to make it tastier but ended up just burning everything.
After about 20 years of experiments I’ve settled on a method.
Buy fresh cuts of sirloin with enough fat and marbling in it.
Marinate it with salt, dry spice, lemon and a touch of Worcester sauce … leave it for at least an hour but usually for about five or six.
BBQ it on a hot grill and stand over it or next to the grill … babysit the dammed thing. Keep an eye out for fire and flames. Flip it after five minutes and turn it every five or more of flames and fire start happening. Flip as many times as you want so long as you avoid any fire or flame.
Don’t put anything on the meat … no salt, no water, no sauce
Use a meat thermometer and test the centers at two or three points.
Once you get the temp you want, take it off the grill and put it on a plate and cover it for about five or ten minutes before you serve it.
I live in a part of the country with cold winters so we can’t BBQ in the snow. A few years ago I discovered that I could apply the same method to an air fryer in my kitchen. It’s made steak just as good as any BBQ so that now on rainy summer days, I’ll just use the air fryer.
The only other way to put this method over the top would be to buy AAA aged and cured beef but that would cost a fortune. I’ve often thought of making my own but that would cost a fortune as well.
Manifish_Destiny@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Confirmed.