Grill Your Steak the Right Way

No matter what you preference in a steak, maintaining good moisture should always be your goal. When searching for a good cut of beef, look for a cut with good consistent marbling. Fat equals flavor so very low fat content in meat will tend to dry it out and have much less flavor. You should not have to coat a great piece of meat with sauce just to get flavor, in fact you should avoid using a sauce at all. You want to see visible grains of fat running through the meat but not large pieces of fat. If you do see larger pieces simply trim them off. As you cook your steak the fat will melt and naturally tenderize the meat.

After removing the meat from refrigeration seasoning the meat with generous amounts of salt and pepper.
Many other herb and spice combinations can be added to your taste just be sure you have plenty of salt and pepper in addition to any other seasonings. Allow the meat to come to room temperature before grilling.

When grilling your steak first make sure that you have your grill nice and hot. This will give the outside a nice crust and will also help seal in its natural juices. If you fire flares up at any point, move the meat off the flame. While you want a hot grill, you do not want direct flame on the meat for any extended time period. The worst mistake that most grillers make is to continually flip the meat time and time again. Continually flipping the meat does nothing but cause the meat to dry out. Flipping the steak over and over does not make you a grill master, doing it right, does. In the end you will flip your steak 3 times which will mean you have cooked both sides twice for 3 minutes on each side. For cross-hatch marks on your meat simply turn it 45 degrees when flipping. Total cooking time should be roughly 12 minutes. This will achieve a medium rare steak depending on how hot your grill is. Because every grill it different you will need to experiment to get the desired results.

There is no exact way to tell when the steak is done. Without cutting the meat open and risking the release of its juices, the best way is to either press the meat to judge its tenderness or use a meat thermometer. If you choose not to press the meat, you can use you hand as a guide. For instance if you take you index finger and touch the fleshy part of your palm right under your thumb, that is what rare should feel like. Conversely if you touch you pinky to that same part of your palm that is the consistency of well done. So from finger to the next starting with your index finger and ending with the pinky it would be: rare, medium-rare, medium and well done.

Herb rub:

1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons freshly cracked black pepper
2 teaspoons mustard powder
2 teaspoons paprika
1 teaspoon onion

Mix all ingredients thoroughly in a bowl. Brush the steak lightly with olive oil and rub in herb rub.

Scott Schirkofsky is the chef and owner of At Home Gourmet. You can find more recipes, cooking tips, food and beverage articles on his highly recommended website: http://www.athomegourmet.com Scott is also the owner of http://sushihousesupplies.com

Recommend : all clad copper core 12 fry pan cuisinart multiclad pro 12 piece set

Choosing a Steak

So you've decided to have steak for dinner. But what kind? There are many different cuts of steak, some with multiple names, which can make steak selection confusing. The following is a descriptive list of the many delicious cuts of steak that you can try.

Filet Mignon or Tenderloin

Cook Steak

These two names describe the most tender steak you can buy. This is part of the reason why it is also the most expensive. It is a very lean cut of steak, with very little marbling or thin threads of fat in the meat. Tenderloin is a versatile meat that can be cooked a variety of ways, though it should be cooked only to medium rare. The small amount of fat in this cut means that it is also prone to drying out if cooked for too long.

New York or Strip

Another tender steak, the strip steak is part of a muscle that does very little work. The less work a muscle does, the more tender the meat will be. This cut has a good amount of marbling and a medium fat content, giving it a decent flavor. It is an ideal steak for broiling but is also very tasty when grilled. A New York strip steak is boneless.

Porterhouse

A porterhouse steak is a combination of tenderloin and strip steak on the bone, basically a 2 in 1 deal. Because of its size and the quality of the meat, it is more expensive than most steaks. A very tender, large steak, this cut is great for larger portions and can be broiled or grilled.

T-Bone

T-Bone and Porterhouse steaks are very similar. Both are large on-the-bone steaks that contain both tenderloin and strip steak. Compared to Porterhouse steak, a T-Bone cut has more strip steak and less tenderloin steak. T-Bone also has a good amount of marbling giving it a lot of flavor.

Sirloin

Sirloin steak includes a variety of types of steak. The most popular is Top Sirloin, the most tender type of sirloin. This is a lean steak with less marbling than other cuts of steak and therefore less expensive. However, it is more flavorful than bottom sirloin, which is best used for roasts. Top sirloin is a popular steak choice because it can be found fairly cheap but still has a good flavor.

Rib Eye

Rib eye steak is simultaneously one of the most tender and fattiest portions of steak, with a lot of marbling within the steak. These qualities makes rib eye steak one of the most flavorful steaks available. It is a great cut for broiling and grilling, as well as pan frying.

For More Information

Once you have chosen your steak, you have a number of cooking options and potential flavors to mix with other foods. For more information on choosing and cooking steak and to find great steak dinner recipes, please visit CD Kitchen here.

Choosing a Steak

Joseph Devine

Recommend : rachael ray 10 piece cookware set lodge logic pre seasoned 17 inch cast iron skillet

Cuts Of Beef Steaks

Going to a steakhouse or choosing beef in the grocery store is more complicated than ever these days. What is a flat iron steak? How do you cook a porterhouse? It is important to understand about different cuts of beef if you want to buy the best type for whichever purpose.

If you can imagine a cow, begin at the neck and work your way down the back. First, you have the chuck followed by the rib and then the short loin. Next is the sirloin and finally the rump. The part on the side is the flank.

The Most Popular Types of Steak

Chateaubriand is a large piece of tenderloin, which is the pointy end of the short loin. This cut is roasted and serves at least two people. Delmonico is from the rib section. This boneless cut is named after the 1800s restaurant in New York, which made this cut so well known. Flank is lean and it comes from the underbelly of the steer. The flank grills quickly so marinate it and use it for fajita recipes.

Filet mignon is the tender, tapered end of the short loin. The name itself is French for "tender loin." London broil comes from the flank. It should be marinated and then broiled. Serve London broil in thin slices. Flat iron steak looks like a flat iron and is cut from the top blade. Hanger steak, or hanging tenderloin, is from the diaphragm, between the loin and ribs.

Prime rib is a bone-in rib cut. It comes from ribs six through twelve. This meat can be gristly but it is very tasty. Porterhouse is a giant cut of meat and it combines filet with New York strip. New York strip, which is also known as Kansas City strip, sirloin club or shell steak, is the bigger end of the short loin. It is marbled and flavorful. Rib-eye is a boneless steak with great taste and marbling throughout.

T-bone is similar to porterhouse but the fillet is smaller. This piece of meat has a T-shaped bone through its middle. Sirloin is between rump and short steak and it is tasty but not as tender as short loin. Tri-tip, culotte, or triangle steak, is a triangle-shaped piece of top sirloin.

Different people like different kinds of meat. If you favor marbling and you do not mind some fat, you might like a sirloin, prime rib, or T-bone. Filet mignon is ideal if you do not like the idea of any fat or gristle and you do not mind the heftier price tag.

Grades Of Beef

Beef can be divided into eight grades, which are canner, cutter, utility, commercial, standard, select, choice, and prime, in ascending order of quality. Restaurants usually serve choice or prime and less than two percent of all commercially produced beef qualifies as prime.

It is important to realize that prime rib and prime beef are different things. Prime rib refers to the location where the cut comes from on the cow, not its quality. Beef grades refer to the marbling and fat mainly. Prime beef contains more than eight percent fat between the muscles.

If you are going to cook steaks, you might like to make a delicious gravy recipe to go with them. Gravy is not just for beef. You can also make a delicious and easy biscuits and gravy recipe.

HomemadeGravyRecipes.com - Gravy The Way It Was Meant To Be - Homemade Good

Tags : cuisinart multiclad unlimited 4 quart saucepan all clad stainless steel 10 piece cookware set