How to make the perfect grilled steak

1. Choose good meat

The classic steak is prepared only from beef. To keep it soft and juicy, use meat from the back of the bull: the muscles there are the least involved in movement, so they have little connective tissue.

Fillet of pork, turkey or salmon is called a steak only formally.

Steaks are divided into several types, here are the most popular:

• Ribeye and ribeye on the bone - steak from the subscapular part of the carcass. It has a lot of fat in it, so it looks marbled and juicy. Can be carved with rib bone - it adds more flavor to the meat. If the bone is short, the steak is called a cowboy, if it is long, it is called a tomahawk.
• Striploin, aka New York steak, cut from the lumbar part of the carcass. Less fat, it has a denser structure.
• Filet mignon - sirloin steak. It is considered the most delicate and non-greasy. Never cooked with blood.
• Chateaubriand - the same filet mignon, but larger.
• Porterhouse - it combines two types of meat, striploin and filet mignon, roughly equally divided by a T-bone.
• Tibone - the same porterhouse, only the part with a filet mignon is smaller in it.

When buying meat from a store or market, choose pieces that are at least 2 centimeters thick. Be guided by the smell: if you feel ammonia, it means that the meat is spoiled. Pay attention to the color: the fat can only be white, the meat itself - evenly red.

Pavel Potseluev

Grill and barbecue master, owner of SteakHome butcher shop, grill shop and Bloodthirst restaurant.

I always pay attention to the following parameters.

1. Bull breed. Aberdeen Angus and Hereford: Their meat has a bright flavor and a pleasant texture. It is better to choose bulls for steak - the meat of an ordinary dairy cow will be inferior.
2. Fattening. Herbal or grain. Herbal has a bright taste, dense texture and a small amount of fat. And grain - high marbling, creamy aftertaste and caramel fat.
3. The amount of connective tissue. The bull's back is the softest, and it is from there that the butchers carve classic steaks. Alternative steaks from the diaphragm or from the back of the bull rump are fine, but require additional processing. And they don't cook shank steaks: this is meat from the most loaded part of the body.
4. The marbling of the steak. In Russia, the USDA system is used for designationWhat’s Your Beef - Prime, Choice or Select?: Select (the easiest meat for every day), Choice, Top Choice and Prime (the best).
5. Aging. There are two types.
   • Wet: Vacuum packed after factory packing. Optimum taste is achieved after 21 days of storage at 2–4 ° C.
   • Dry: meat spends from 10 to 100 days in a special chamber with certain indicators of temperature, humidity and airflow. Due to this, it loses moisture and is saturated with the aromas of hazelnut, jamon and cheese.
6. Storage. There's nothing wrong with factory-blasted ribeye and New York steaks. In other cases, I recommend taking the meat chilled.

2. Prepare meat for frying

You cannot cook cold meat: during frying, the outside will already turn brown, but the inside of the steak will remain cold. Warm it up to room temperature. How much steak needs to go outside the refrigerator depends on its thickness and weight. For example, a hundred-gram steak will easily warm up in 30 minutes, but a large one - weighing about a kilogram - will take an hour.

At the same time, put the grill grate to heat. Wait 15-20 minutes, then brush it off with a steel bristle brush to prevent the meat from sticking during frying. By the way, so that the steaks do not burn, choose a grill with a grill made of durable, high-quality materials, for example, steel or cast iron with porcelain enamel - like grills Weber. After cleaning, set the required temperature - and you can cook.

Marinating the steak is optional: just pepper, salt and oil to create a film that distributes the heat evenly. For taste, you can put a sprig of rosemary on the meat while frying.

Never wash meat. Just blot it with a paper towel. Bacteria will already die when exposed to high temperatures, but the water will make the meat more moist - this will prevent the formation of a crispy crust.

3. Use the right tools

You will need an oil brush, tongs to turn the meat, and a needle thermometer to keep track of the temperature.

In general, a steak can be baked in the oven, fried in a special grill pan or an ordinary thick pan, cooked on a grill or grill. The main condition is that the heat temperature should always be high and uniform. And it is most difficult to achieve an ideal result on the grill: the heat there can change from the direction of the air, plus the side walls of the meat will not be heat-treated.

The grill, on the other hand, is good for steaks. Its main feature is the presence of a cover. It helps to achieve the perfect readiness of the meat: not turn the outside into charcoal and not leave the inside raw. Cooking a juicy grilled steak is a task that even a person with minimal cooking experience can handle.

4. Fry fast and watch the temperature

Steak is a dish that cooks very quickly. It takes about 10 minutes to roast a thick piece of meat. Thinner steak - up to 5 minutes.

Pavel Potseluev

I recommend grilling the steak using direct and indirect heat. If you have a charcoal grill, put the briquettes using the 50/50 method, if you have a gas grill, turn on only the side burners.

There are two ways to fry:

1. Classical. Fry the steak on both sides until a crust appears and remove to the indirect heat zone. We check the temperature inside the piece by inserting the thermometer into the very center.
2. Reverse sear. First, place the steak on a wire rack in the indirect heat zone for even heating. As soon as the temperature inside the piece has reached 40 ° C, we transfer it to the direct heat zone and fry until a crust appears. This will make the roasting more even.

Readiness can be determined in two ways. First - with a thermometer:

• from 36 ° С to 40 ° С - raw / blue (steak with blood);
• from 40 ° С to 44 ° С - rare (very lightly fried);
• from 44 ° С to 50 ° С - medium rare (slightly fried);
• from 50 ° С to 55 ° С - medium (medium roasted);
• 55 ° C to 60 ° C - medium well (well done);
• from 60 ° С and above - well done (very well done).

Second - to the touch. This is where the method of comparing meat to the pad at the base of the thumb comes in handy. Open your palm, and then connect your thumb with the others in turn. With your other hand, touch the bump under your thumb:

• raw to the touch like muscle tissue in a relaxed state - when the thumb is not in contact with others;
• rare - when the thumb is connected to the index;
• medium - with the middle finger;
• medium well - with an unnamed;
• well done - with a little finger.

This method can be used if you don't have a thermometer on hand or if this is not the first time you cook a steak. Determining the degree of roast by touch can be difficult, because each type of steak has its own fiber structure: ribeye and strip-layer at the same temperature will differ tactilely.

Do not cut or poke the meat to check if it is cooked - it will become less juicy.

5. Let the steak rest

After frying, let the steak sit for 3-5 minutes on a warm plate or wooden board. During this time, the juices will be evenly distributed over the meat and the temperature will even out from the edges to the center. For extra effect, cover the steak with foil.

While the meat is resting, you can prepare a side dish. A light vegetable salad or grilled vegetables and mushrooms are suitable for a steak. A side dish of cereals can make the dish too heavy.

6. Clean tools

It is important to clean the dishes on which the steak was cooked: this way it will last longer and the next time the remains of old fat will not stick to the meat. Wash the oil brush, tongs, thermometer and pan thoroughly with dish soap if you have cooked meat on the stove.

If you've been grilling steaks, there are four simple steps to clean your equipment.

1. Heat the grill and keep the heat high until the food remains charred.
2. Cool the grill and remove any dirt from the wire rack with a dry wire brush.
3. Use special cleaning agents: this will help to make the grill shine.
4. Let the wire rack dry and sprinkle with a non-stick coating.

And periodically clean the outside walls and lid. This keeps your grill beautiful and shiny for a long time.