Summer Cooking: The Simple Steps for Cooking Perfect Steak

Cooking perfect steak might mean different things to different people, but by using the same - very simple procedure, everyone can achieve their own personal definition of perfection right on their own BBQ grill. The process begins with choosing and preparing your own beef tenderloin and ends with knowing exactly when that steak has finished cooking to the exact doneness that you want it to be. And all of this happens without disrupting the steak's beauty with knife gashing and checking that center for "pinkness." Intrigued? Give me 10 minutes and I'll give you my formula for cooking perfect steak on your outdoor grill tonight! It All Starts BEFORE Cooking Tenderloin! In cooking tenderloin, there is an important first step before the actual cooking and that is prepping! I recommend you start with a whole tenderloin (chain and all). This will save you some significant money, justifying the choice of tenderloin over a lesser cut of meat. And there it is - Step One: choose a nice steak to begin with. To get that nice steak from a whole tenderloin, you will need to do just a little bit of work. Trust me - it's worth it. First, you will need to remove the chain, which is the long muscle along the side. Next, remove the thick "head" from the top of the tenderloin. What you're looking at now is a long (tenderloin) cut of beef from which to cut your steaks. Steaks should generally be portioned somewhere between 3 and 5 oz, the recommended portion size for an average adult. The size you choose is not important, but keeping all of the steaks approximately the same size IS important. You'll want to use a scale and try to get the steaks as consistently sized (by weight) as posible to ensure the most consistent and reliable cooking results. Do you Really Know How to Grill Beef? If you believe most people, grilling takes no skill at all. It's so much easier than cooking and anyone can do this with little advance planning or common knowledge. Right? This is actually one of my favorite cooking myths! Knowing correctly how to grill beef (or anything else) is essential to outdoor cooking success. Grilling is direct source conductive heat. Cooking is to grilling as driving is to flying a rocket ship. Everything happens quickly and intensely with grilling and that includes mistakes. So, let's begin with the simple process:

1. First, get the grill as hot as possible. Keep the lid down while heating the grill, but open when cooking. This is another common grilling mistake. If you close the lid while cooking, the method you are applying is similar to that of oven cooking. Why bother doing it outside on the grill?
2. Brush the steak with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. You can use any other kind of seasoning or rub here, but I find that the true steak flavor comes from a good cut of meat and you don't need anything else. You might have a different opinion so season as you see fit.
3. Place the steak on the hot grill "show side" down - meaning the side you'd want to display on the plate goes down on the grill first.
4. Now observe for signs of done-ness. When the steak is 75% done on one side, flip it over and cook the rest of the way.

Knowing how to grill beef is a simple process, but most people still go into it blindly. By following the steps, you will always be working towards cooking the perfect steak, rather than just cooking a steak until it has reached a safe to eat temperature and texture. The fine line of difference between acceptable and perfection make all of the difference, and with perfection so reliably reachable, why not aim high? How Long Should the Meat Cook? Until It's Done! In cooking anything, we continue the process until it's done. I always get a snicker when I respond this way, but if you want to know how long to let the meat cook, it's the best one I can give. The answer is going to vary by your definition of steak perfection as well as many other variables. I would much rather show you how to determine that your steak has achieved the goals you've set for it than to tell you to cook it for 15 minutes, flip it and cook it for 5 more. I am not totally sure what would happen at that point, but I am entirely sure of what happens at various points during any cooking process. That's what we go by to determine how long to cook something and how we go about cooking pefect steak. The first cooking sign we look for is coagulation of proteins, which happens at 165 degrees. The sides of your steak will turn grayish brown, as it stiffens and shrinks a bit. At 320 degrees, sugars carmelize forming grill marks and imparting a nice steak smell. At 50-75% done, (what the French term as "a point"), you flip the steak to the other side to complete cooking. You will insert a thermometer - and ONLY a thermometer - into your steak and cook until the steak has reached your desired final temperature: 125-135 degrees is rare; 145-150 is medium and 160-165 is well done. This is really the only way to determine that your steak is cooked "the way you like it." If you cut open the steak to examine the middle, you've released some of the moistness. If you prod the steak to determine firmness, you will most likely overcook your steak because we tend to prefer over cooking meat to the risk of under cooking. So just use a simple thermometer. This is truly the #1 secret for cooking perfect steak each and every time for each and every person. Before serving your steak, let it rest for 5-10 minutes so that the juices have redistributed in advance and will not run off on the serving plate. While cooking perfect steak is different for everyone, learning how to prepare your little piece of outdoor grilling perfection is as simple as understanding the process and cooking with the end result in mind. What will you think of next?