Grilling a Steak: 10 Really Thorough Steps to Greatness!

Steaks on the Grill at Wood Ranch

One of the questions I get asked most often is, "How come when I grill a steak at home, it's not as good as at a steakhouse?"  OK, let me try to help.  One of my neighbors shared that he loves to fire up the grill and throw the steaks on at high heat, letting the flames surround the meat.  This is a very common mistake.  I'll address that and other challenges in 10 easy steps.

1.     Buy a good quality piece of beef.  Let’s use a NY strip steak as our baseline.  I wholeheartedly recommend this medium-marbled (marbling refers to the intramuscular fat in the steak) cut for being sufficiently beefy without being overwhelming.  Let’s go with four steaks that your butcher will cut about 1 ½ inches thick, weighing anywhere from 12 to 16 ounces each.  Please note that when you’re grilling a steak, the thickness is the priority.  So, if you want a smaller steak, still try to get one that is fairly thick.

You’ll also need: 

½ lb butter

½ cup olive or corn oil

4 teaspoons Kosher salt

4 teaspoons coarsely ground black pepper

1 meat thermometer, preferably digital

1 bag of natural hardwood charcoal

1 charcoal grill

2.     Take the steaks out of the fridge.  Put the steaks on a cookie sheet and cover them with plastic wrap.  Let the steaks sit for about 45 minutes or however long it takes for them to get to room temperature.

3.     As the steaks are getting to room temperature, prepare the grill.  If you’re using a gas grill, answer these philosophical questions:  Why?  Who am I?  If you’re using a charcoal grill, let’s say the ever-popular Weber Kettle, read on.  Light about 40 hardwood charcoal briquettes (Kingsford now makes a competition briquette that is all natural, meaning no petroleum products.  You can also get lump hardwood charcoal at Trader Joe’s and most hardware stores.)  Once a white ash has developed on the charcoal, place it in the grill bed and make a descending slope from one side across to the other of the grill.  Pile more glowing briquettes on the right and fewer as you move the left.  This will create a hot area and a warm area in the grill.  (If you don’t have enough charcoal, light another 20 briquettes.)  If all the steaks are going to be one level of doneness – say medium-rare – then lay an even bed of briquettes, but leave a part of the grill without any so you can move the steaks over if need be.  Let the coals sit in the grill for about 15 minutes.  Put the lid on with the vents fully open.  This will even out the burn on the coals. Now, back to prepping the steaks as the charcoal gets hot.  

4.     Your steaks are still getting to room temperature.  Here’s where you need to make a choice.  If you like butter, melt about a half-pound and skim the milk solids off to create clarified butter and let that cool. (Yes, like for lobster.)  Pour about four ounces of oil, olive or corn are what I prefer.  The oil will help conduct heat to form a char, or a crust on the outside of the steak. Measure out 4 teaspoons of Kosher salt and 4 teaspoons of coarsely ground black pepper.  If you don’t like butter, use only the oil for the next step.  I’ll assume for our purposes that you love butter.

5.     Mix the oil and clarified butter to combine well.  Once the coals are burning evenly, meaning there’s not a big flame coming off them, brush the steaks with the oil-butter mixture and let any excess drip off.  Sprinkle each steak with about 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper, both of which should stick to the oil-butter.  You are almost ready to put the meat on the fire.

6.     Here is where it gets tricky because this step takes patience and is somewhat contrary to your instincts.  Assuming you’re going for medium-rare, you want the fire to be about 350 to 400 degrees.  If you have a meat thermometer, put the probe through a wine cork or a piece of raw potato and set the cork or potato on the grill grate.  Get a reading of the temperature.  (An instant-read digital thermometer costs about $10 - $15 bucks at Target.)  If you get between 350 and 400, put your hand, palm down, about six inches above the grill and get a sense of what that temperature feels like.  If you can hold your hand there for about four seconds, your fire is spot on.  Take the thermometer off the grate and put it aside.  You’ll want it back soon.

7.     Finally, put the steaks on the grill!  Since you’re going for medium-rare, which in steak-ese means 125 to 130 degrees Farenheit internal temperature, you can put the steaks right over the coals.  NEVER, NEVER, NEVER PRESS DOWN ON THE STEAKS.  All you will accomplish is making them lose moisture.  Now, don’t get freaked out here, but DO NOT LET ANY FLAME TOUCH THE MEAT!  You might get flare-ups because you’ve got oil on the meat and the steaks themselves contain fat that can melt and drip into the fire.  If you get a lot of flare-ups, move the steaks toward the outer edge of the grill until the flames subside, then move the steaks back.  Cook each side for about 4 minutes and flip.  Flip back after 4 minutes and cook for 4 minutes, then flip one last time and cook for about 4 minutes.   At any time after the second flip, use the meat thermometer to get a reading of the internal temperature.  By the end of the cooking, the outside of the steaks should have a fairly nice char (crust) on them and the inside should be medium-rare.

8.     But wait, you say.  I don’t think that 125 to 130 degrees is medium-rare.  I think that’s actually rare.  Fine, but don’t grill your steak any more right over the fire because you risk charring it too much.  Move the steaks over to that side of the grill without coals under the grate and cover the grill with the vents half open.  This will essentially roast the steaks for the last bit to get them to 130 or 135 degrees.  Check them with your thermometer or leave the probe in one of the steaks. 

9.     I would recommend that the first time you use this method to cook the steaks to a lower temperature because at the end of the process you must take the steaks off the grill and let them rest for about 4 to 5 minutes before you serve them.  During this time the steaks will continue to cook from their own heat. This resting lets the steaks calm down and redistribute the juices inside so that when you cut into the steak you won’t get a river of liquid streaming out.

10.“Eat your meat.  How can you have any pudding if you won’t eat your meat!” – Pink Floyd

So, enjoy your steak.  Put steak sauce on it, slab more butter on it, make a pasilla pepper hollandaise for it and risk a coronary.  (I’ll give you the recipe once you know me better.)  Of course, if all of this is just too much to contemplate – and it really isn’t, but it just requires some precision – just come on over to Wood Ranch and we’ll be happy to make a lovely steak for you.