Choosing Your Steak
Choosing the right steak is the most important step towards success when cooking a steak. Good beef makes all the difference between enjoying a steak, and not. The first thing to understand are the different grades of steak. The USDA is in charge of beef grading in the USA, and the grades you will find at the store are select, choice, and prime. What does the grading mean? It is based on the amount of intramuscular fat, also known as the marbling in the steak. The more marbling, the better the USDA grade will be, with prime being the highest grade they offer. Another type of beef you might find in the store is American or Japanese Wagyu beef. Wagyu beef in general grades above prime, but can also be inline with prime grades. When picking out a steak at the store, look for the cut with the most specs of that white fat inside the meat.
The Grades
Select is budget beef, and is the lowest grade for human consumption. Select beef will generally have less flavor, and be much tougher. If you want to make the best steak you’ve ever had, you aren’t going to do it with select grade. I have a rule, and that rule is buy the absolute best cut you can. If that means eating steak less, trust me it’s worth it to save up longer and get a better piece of beef.
Choice is what you will most commonly see in the meat case at your store. Choice is a good step up from select most of the time, and you can make a good steak in this grade group. I still believe it’s better to get prime or wagyu, but everyone’s budget is different.
Prime is the highest grade the USDA offers, which also means there is no cap on how marbled it can be. Prime beef is going to be more expensive than choice and select, and usually by good margin. Trust me, it’s worth getting the absolute highest grade when you can get a great marbled steak in the prime grade. This is also where wagyu in the USA will be graded as the USDA can’t grade it any higher.
Wagyu beef is extremely popular right now in it’s many different forms. You have American Wagyu, Australian Wagyu, Japanese Wagyu, and others to choose from. Here in the states primarily you will find American Wagyu, which is a breed of cattle with the combined genetics of American angus cows and wagyu cattle exported from Japan. Generally wagyu is graded on the Japanese scale with A5 being the highest amount of marbling. A5 Japanese wagyu steaks are extremely rich, and should only be consumed in small amounts. American wagyu generally doesn’t get into A5 grade range, but it is possible. Snake River Farms is one of the largest producers of American Wagyu and you can find it in grocery stores as well as Costco. I personally buy American Wagyu whenever I’m buying a steak.
Prepping Le Steak
Prepping the steak to cook is a key component to mastering steak. When you are ready to get cooking, try and remove the steak from the fridge about an hour ahead of time. The internal temp will not come up to room temp, but it will raise a few degrees. More importantly the surface temp will have risen and this will make it a little quicker to start transferring heat into the middle of the steak once it goes into the pan. Before you season, be sure to dry the surface thoroughly. A dry surface will sear a lot more efficiently than a wet one.
When it comes to seasoning, I prefer to only use salt before cooking. Any other seasoning will likely burn during the searing process which leaves a bitter taste. Be sure to use a kosher salt, NOT iodized table salt. It won’t require a heavy hand, but a steak can take a good amount of salt. If you are well prepared you can dry brine your steak over night to get an even better flavor. Dry brining is salting the steak about 24 hours in advance and letting it sit in the fridge overnight. If you do this make sure the steak is on an elevated surface, not just sitting on a plate as there will be liquid that comes out. If you didn’t plan ahead, salt your steak about an hour ahead of time to allow the salt to dissolve into the surface.
After cooking using fresh cracked black pepper with a nice flakey seasoning salt is my preferred method of seasoning. If you have good beef you don’t need to drown it out with the flavors of seasonings. Anyone who says you MUST use heavy seasonings has never had good beef. There’s a form at the bottom you can use to message me if you disagree.
Cooking Le Steak
When it comes to cooking steaks there are so many different methods to choose from. Grilling, pan frying, reverse searing, and sous vide are probably the most popular options. My personal favorites are pan frying and reverse searing as they are very consistent and easy to do. When cooking steaks the goal is to try and keep the grey band to a minimum, and to nail the doneness you are looking for.
I strongly suggest picking up an instant thermometer because with steaks it’s all about temperature. Do not get fooled into the feel method, or cook it for X amount of time. Both of those methods are a farce and will lead you down a sad road of bad beef. There are an endless amount of temperature charts that you can look up to figure out the temperature for the doneness you like. The other thing to understand is carry over cooking. Carry over is when you pull whatever you are cooking off the cooking surface and it continues to cook. Removing a steak from the heat source is not like a magic switch, there is still heat energy stored inside the steak. You will need some practice with this, but carry over can last for 10-20 minutes and go from 5-20+ degrees over wherever you pulled it. Every method will have different amounts of carry over. As for doneness I prefer to be in the 125-130 degree range for final temperature, which is rare to medium rare. Now onto a brief explanation of cooking for each method.
Grilling
All you need is a grill and some fuel and you can cook a steak. Probably the most popular way people cook steaks as it’s very accessible and easy to do. You need to be very careful about having the grill too hot, you don’t want to burn the outside before the inside is done. Try to have the grill in the 350-400 degree range, that’s generally the best temperature to get a nice crust while cooking the inside at a sufficient rate. You will want to flip the steak every minute and depending on thickness start checking temperature after 6-8 minutes. Once a steak crosses 100 degrees, the temperature will rise significantly faster than before 100 degrees. Don’t get caught lacking because you thought it was still another 5+ minutes from done. If you are aiming for 130 degrees, pull at about 115-120 degrees and let the steak rest until it gets to your final temperature. Resting is not necessary, and if you find that you have gotten to your final temperature quickly, just cut the steak in half immediately. This will halt carry over in it’s tracks. Enjoy your beautiful steak!
Pan Frying
The second most accessible method is cooking your steak in a pan. Like grilling, you do not need a ripping hot pan. You will want the pan to be in the 350-400 degree range just like on a grill. Cast iron is nice, but so are a good stainless steel pan which is what I personally use. DO NOT use non-stick pans, they are toxic, not meant for high temps, and will kill you before your bad food decisions will. With your pan selected and pre-heated, take some high smoke point oil, ideally a wagyu beef tallow (in spray form works too), and lightly coat the pan. If you have a steak with a thick fat cap on it, you can opt to just grease the pan but putting the steak fat cap down and use it’s rendered fat as the grease. Flip every minute until you are about 10-15 degrees shy of the doneness you want. This will take generally anywhere from 5-8 minutes depending on thickness of the steak and desired temp. Rest the steak until it reaches your desired temperature and dig in! If you pull the steak right at it’s final doneness temperature, cut it in half immediately and stop the carry over in it’s tracks.
Reverse Sear
The fool proof method of cooking steaks without the need for harming the environment with excessive use of plastic bags like with sous vide. You also don’t need a fancy gadget, all you need is an oven and a pan or grill. A nice digital oven/roast thermometer is a nice thing to have as you will place the thermometer into the meat and monitor the progress. Set your oven to 250-275 degrees and place your steak on a cooling rack inside of a sheet tray. This will take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on how thick the steak is, and how much it weighs. You will find that you get a lot less grey banding this way, and it is very hands off. Once the steak is about 10 degrees shy of your desired doneness, pull it from the oven and let it rest while you get a pan or grill pre-heating. You want an absolutely ripping hot surface to provide a fast sear to the steak. DO NOT use a non-stick, once again they are toxic, and not meant for high temp cooking. With a pan 500+ degrees, quickly sear each side for a minute, then repeat. Repeat until the crust of the steak is to your desired level. You can enjoy immediately as the steak does not need to rest.
Sous Vide
Ultra popular, but also my least favorite. It takes forever, has a lot of waste, requires expensive gadgets, and you have to dry the meat off before you sear it. If you are cooking with sous vide, you can find a guide elsewhere because you are clearly a tech junkie.
Final Words About Le Steak
Steak is my favorite meal to cook, and it is very rewarding when done right. It takes practice, and your first steaks may not turn out as perfect as you might like. Stick with it, and you will reap the benefits. Focus on one aspect of the cook to improve upon each time and you will be cooking steaks better than your favorite restaurant in no time.