How to grill a steak—with confidence

(Written by Ralph)

This is the method I have finally arrived at that is mostly fool-proof for me.

I don‘t have a „sizzle zone“ on my 20 year old Weber Genesis but the heat gets high enough to get a nice sear anyway. You can do it like this over charcoal too by using a bit of indirect heat after the flip.

Unless I’m making a flank or skirt steak, I almost always buy rib-eye steak in whatever version you can get: bone-in (not generally available in Germany), boneless (called Entrecôte here), or even a nice slice of prime rib. Tomahawk steaks are getting more popular here as well but it‘s just a rib-eye with a big rib still attached. A good marbled porterhouse or sirloin works too. The main ingredient for success is nice marbling.

Since I’ve generally been making steak for just Heather and I, and we both like it medium rare (pink to red in the middle), I just buy one nice thick steak for us both and give her the „Edelstück“ (precious gem piece). I find cooking a steak that is thinner than an inch is much harder and more prone to being overdone. If it’s just for you, a couple of extra slices on a sandwich or with your eggs the next day isn‘t then end of the world—go big or stay home!

Ingredients:

Steak of your choice. Find a good butcher, and over time special cuts will be reserved just for you (my experience anyway).
Olive oil
Salt
Store-bought or homemade steak pepper spice

Instructions:

It seems there are two camps when it comes to seasoning—the before and after crowd. The after crowd thinks having salt on the meat prior to cooking dries it out. Because I use well-marbled steaks, I’ve never had a dry steak. I think salt would possibly draw out water moisture but not fat juices. I add my steak spice and salt about an hour ahead of grilling.

Take the steak out of the fridge about an hour before grilling. Spray or rub a bit of olive oil on the steak as it helps the spices adhere. I know, I know, why would a fatty steak need added oil? Well, it really shouldn‘t but I like the way it moisturises the seasoning. Skip the oil if you want.

Sprinkle on your favourite store-bought or homemade steak pepper. If you by a commercial brand, shop around until you find one with the combination of pepper and other herbs you like and make sure it doesn‘t have any crap like MSG or other tenderiser in it, as it‘s just not needed and that crap will kill you. If it already has salt then don‘t add more, but if it doesn‘t, sprinkle salt as well. Both sides.

When you‘re about 25 minutes away from wanting to eat, fire up the grill on highest heat and let it reach max. safe temperature. If you do have a sizzle zone, you can start 5 minutes later. Once the grill is hot, drop the steak on and let is sit for a few minutes with the lid up or wedged so it is searing, not baking. If it’s really thick, I sear the edges a bit first to lock in the juices. Once you have a nice sear on the one side (you can rotate it 45 degrees after a few minutes to get nice crosshatch grill marks on it if you want) turn the heat down to low and flip the steak. A sign it’s time to flip is when blood starts to appear on the top.

Close the lid and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The residual heat and the lower heat underneath allows the bottom to sear while the steak finishes cooking through. I’ve found that if you use high heat on both sides you get a nice sear, but the middle stays raw. Closing the lid and using lower heat to finish it lets it bake a bit and brings the internal cook up more evenly.

Testing for doneness is just something you need to acquire a feel for. I can generally tell by how spongy it feels when you press it. Cutting into it is normally frowned upon as it releases the juices which you want to keep in there while it rests. If it’s too firm your „medium“ friends will think it’s perfect.

Let it rest on a cutting board with a juice canal for about 5-10 minutes. If you plop it on a plate too soon your sides will be soaked in bloody juice; likely not the presentation you were looking for.