Basic Grilling:
Tips on Grilling a Great Steak
America’s backyard gourmet delight!
One of the favorite meats to prepare on a grill is beef steak. This series of tips is offered as a primer on the basics for grilling this great American favorite. You’ll want to practice these tips, add your own and master them all to suit your own sense of things.
Grilled beef steak with sear marks, served with baked potato & grilled veggies.
For starters, download something FREE from the CATTLEMEN’S BEEF BOARD AND NATIONAL CATTLEMEN’S BEEF ASSOCIATION. CLICK HERE to Download a PDF guide on Beef Cuts and Cooking Recommendations
Choosing and Prepping Steak for Grilling
If you’ve read the guide then you have a better understanding of which cuts of beef are best to prepare on a grill. Generally speaking cuts with a degree of marbled fat throughout the meat will cook better on direct high heat. The amount of fat on the outside of the steak, or the edge of the meat, is almost not important – because it simply cooks off and doesn’t season the meat. You can trim much of the fat off the edge of the meat before cooking. If you prefer to grill with it on and your steak is under 1 inch in thickness it is a good idea to cut or ‘knotch’ the fat about every 3 inches to help prevent curling.
Tip for choosing steaks for grilling.
Choose thicker cuts that are finely marbled with fat. If you can find and afford it, prime and choice grades will give you a better value for flavor and quality. Leaner cuts of beef will not grill as well and may actually get tough and dry when grilled.
Marinades
I don’t like marinades. If I pay the price for a good cut of beef – I want to taste the meat and not the marinade. However some recipes call for seasoned or well-marinated beef. These are not steaks, they are ‘dishes’ which use beef. [OK - so I'm showing that I'm a snob of sorts.] If you must marinade remember that acids in fruit and vinegars will break down and tenderize. Anything with high sugar content will tend to immediately caramelize and then burn when exposed to searing and grilling temperatures.
Rubs
I feel the same way about rubs as I do marinade. If you prefer a rub, I advise you refrain from using sugars and seasonings which will burn at the searing and grilling temperatures.
Basic Beef Cuts as defined by the CATTLEMEN’S BEEF BOARD AND NATIONAL CATTLEMEN’S BEEF ASSOCIATION
Beef SteaksTender Steaks: Most come from the center (rib and loin sections) of the animal and are usually cooked by dry-heat methods. Tender steaks can be categorized as premium steaks or as more affordable family-priced steaks.
Premium tender steaks include top loin (strip),
T-Bone, Porterhouse, rib-eye, rib and tenderloin.Family-priced tender steaks include shoulder center, top sirloin, top blade (flat iron), chuck eye and round tip.
Less Tender Steaks: These are primarily from the more heavily exercised fore- and hindquarters and are better suited for moist-heat cooking. Some may be cooked by dry heat after being tenderized in a tenderizing marinade.
Less tender steaks include full-cut round, top round, eye round and bottom round; chuck shoulder, chuck 7-Bone, chuck arm and chuck blade; flank and skirt.
Cubed Steaks: These are mechanically tenderized steaks, usually from the round.
Seasoning
I recommend a light sprinkle of freshly ground black pepper and kosher or sea salt. Not too heavy on either. Now some folks insist that salting a steak prior to cooking will “dry it out” because the salt draws moisture from the steak. They are part correct and part incorrect. Salt draws moisture from the steak – but that moisture is composed of naturally occurring sugars and proteins – which when exposed to the high heat of searing (440F – 550F degrees) either on a grate or a cast iron skillet – will turn brown and form the crust that so many of us truly enjoy about a well prepared steak. [This is called the Maillard reaction.] Of course many folks, you may be one, enjoy using various rubs and spices on the steak. Just remember that some spices will actually burn at the high temperatures of grilling and may affect the flavor of your steak.
Searing
As stated several times in this post, searing the outside of a beef steak at a temperature in the range of 400F – 550F degrees is the way professionals do it. With the proper seasoning applied (above) and at high searing temperature you can finally grill a room temperature steak exactly the way you always wanted. Make sure you don’t cook the steak at this high temp for the entire time – unless you enjoy the “Pittsburgh Style” which is also known as “Blue” when the meat is seared crispy done on the outside and pretty much raw on the inside – view the cooking chart to get a sense of the time and temperatures.
CB’s Tips for grilling like the steak houses
If you enjoy the “crust” on a steak the way it’s prepared in a high-end steak house – lightly season both sides of a room temperature steak with sea or kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper. The moisture drawn to the surface after only a few minutes contains the natural sugars and proteins that form the crust when exposed to the high heat of searing. Brush lightly with canola oil and place on a clean and searing hot (500F degrees or hotter) grate until the proteins in the steak release the meat. Use tongs to turn it to the other side, which you have also brushed lightly with canola oil. If the steak is less than 1 ” thick – at this point it is most likely at the 130F degree internal temperature and that is certainly RARE. If you want it cooked more – be mindful that continuous grilling on direct heat will dry out the meat. Better to set it to the side off of direct heat and let it finish with indirect heat.
Grilling
Most folks grill their steaks at the same temperature of approximately 325F – 375F degrees on their gas grills. Charcoal grills can achieve higher temps in the low 400F – 450 degree range and the new infrared grills from Char-Broil can easily achieve the higher searing temperatures. Only at the higher temperatures will you see grill marks form on a rare steak – UNLESS you use this trick. If your grill d0esn’t get to the higher temperatures for searing then lightly brush the surface of the seasoned steak with clarified butter. This is a low smoke point oil and it will assist in rapidly transferring the heat from the grates to the meat – helping to create the grill marks you love to see. You can also use a light touch of brown sugar on the outside of the steak – but experiment with both of these techniques to get the hang of it before trying it out on the neighbors or in-laws. If you have a high temperature grill, say one of the new Char-Broil infrared grills – then I do not recommend using this trick, unless you are extremely vigilant!
Roasting
If you’ve ever been in a commercial kitchen one of the tricks you will see is the broiler cook pulling a steak from the grill and placing it in a pan in a 400F degree oven. This roasting of a grill marked steak will help to cook the steak to the degree of done the customer has requested – while giving the cook more room on the broiler for searing and marking the steaks. If you try this…pay close attention to the internal temperature of your steak – to ensure you don’t over cook.
Resting
After cooking it’s important to allow a steak to rest for about 10 minutes before slicing into it. First of all you can’t taste the meat or seasoning when the temperature is too hot and perhaps most important – allowing the steak to rest enables the internal moisture to re-distribute and keep each bit moist and flavorful [Personally I enjoy eating steak that has been properly seared, roasted a bit, allowed to rest and is nearly room temperature - as I think the flavors are more evident.]
Cooking by Thickness Guide
The temperatures shown are estimated internal temperatures recommended for the degree of done.
Sauces and Compound Butters
A good steak is a perfect balance of flavorful meat enhanced by the traces of flat. I think sauces can certainly add to the experience, but I’m not a big fan of the piquant steak sauces found at many restaurants. I think these sauces mask the flavor of the meat. Compound butters, on the other hand, can accentuate the flavor. A touch of butter with a garlic and herb infusion can be a real treat on the taste buds!
Beef steak recipes you might want to try:
CB’S EZ GRILLED NY STRIP STEAK
BISTEC DE PALOMILLA/BUTTERFLIED STEAK
Here is a post explaining in more detail the technique I call “Sear & Hold” which is a great technique for grilling steaks and other meat. And a post entitled: The Perfectly Prepared Grilled Steak
How about you? What are your favorite steaks and recipes prepared on the grill? Please post your comment below or send me an email!
Happy Grilling!
CB, The acids in marinades aren’t strong enough to really break down the meat. What they will do is permeate the meat and leave it tangy to the taste. That tangyness (is that even a word?) will cause your mouth to water and in your saliva is the necessary enzymes to break down meat.
If I’m doing steaks, I like them with just a little bit of salt and then grilled. If I’m doing a larger cut such has flank steak, I like to marinade or put a rub on it before grilling. Flank steak will respond well to BBQ sauce (but only if you put it on at the last minute to prevent the sugars from burning!).
Johnny – thanks for the comment…right you are. The only enzyme that will actually break down meat before it gets into your system is contained in mango – right? Uh, or is it Papaya? I use the term “break down” to refer to tenderize and that’s sloppy on my part. – CB
CB, it is papaya. The enzyme is called papain. I can’t wait for warmer weather to be here so I can start grilling again!
Bromelain, an enzyme found in fresh pineapple and kiwi also breaks down protein and aids digestion. It is most abundant in the core (along with numerous cancer-fighting compounds currently under intensive research, for those grillers who also have a keen interest in eating healthy). It all but disappears if you cook the fruit even lightly, which is why fresh pineapple and kiwi will keep gelatin from setting up, but canned will not. Fresh pineapple juice from pureed cores is a good and flavorful way to tenderize tough cuts of meat. For good cuts of meat worth eating as a stand-alone entree, I prefer to just inject with a tiny bit of light sesame oil and I finish on a tin plate with a very thin rub of cola, peanut butter, molasses and chili powder, crusted on with a plumbing torch. I never lay it on very thick……maybe 1/32″ on a 2″ steak. But I find that the flavors complement the beef so well and the color blends in with the beef so well that people don’t even know it’s there–they just know it’s the best steak they’ve ever had.
–Genetica
Great comments and help. Really like the “glazing” recipe…I’ll have to try that! – CB
CB, I enjoy your column. Just last night I grilled steaks for my wife (Valentine) and myself. It was only 5 degrees outside so it took a little longer to cook. She prefers a rib-eye and I like the strip steaks. Of course we have a bias as we believe Nebraska beef is the best and cannot be beat. What is interesting is I grill steaks almost exactly as you described above. Always have, always will. A good steak cooked properly will never need a marinade, a rub, or steak sauce in my opinion. Thanks and keep those articles and recipes coming.
CB – Your grilling steak article was good as expected, though your 4 suggested recipes included some strong seasonings for a guy who professes a dislike of marinades and rubs! I will try the Bistec recipe as I find eye round otherwise inedible. I do however occasionally roast an unadorned eye to 115, chill and run on the slicer THIN as sandwich meat. Your recipe calls for trimming excess fat from the eye. Where do you get an eye round with any fat to trim?
You will perhaps be horrified to learn that for steak, I use my gas grill primarily for searing. With 1.5 to 2.0 cuts I then remove to a pre-heated cast iron pan in a 375-400f oven to finish. Like you, I eschew the tangy steak sauces but make frequent use of compound butters. Another acceptable dressing is to de-glaze the cast iron pan with a big hunk o’butter and a splash of Worcestershire. If you are tempted to add minced shallots and garlic, don’t!
And here is a nice dressing for rib or strip:
dick
dick, with you on the watch I know I have to always be on my toes!!!
Please note that only my recipe is called CB’s EZ. And it is for the regular guy – like me. The other recipes are for folks who like spices and challenges. The Bistec recipe is from one of our guest chefs and I suspect he is used to butchering his own beef in the kitchen – thus the comment about trimmed fat. I like your dressing idea – I think it could make an excellent ‘cure’ for pork or beef prior to going into the smoker or the barbecue. And as you are a true outdoor camp cook, you may not know the secret of many restaurants is to add just a touch of brown sugar and butter to the steak after it comes off the grill and is plated. As it sits waiting under the ‘hot light’ for pick-up by the wait-person the brown sugar and butter meld into the grill marks and if there are any burnt areas from a scorch (especially true when cooked on electric grills in some restaurants) it will combine with the carbon to make for a better taste with the first bite. – CB
Hi, love all the tips but need a little help when searing a steak on my charbroil red how long for each side then how long set aside for indirect heat? you listed 6 to 7 min a side for a 1 inch steak at medium. Is that searing, or total cook time? if total cook time how long do you sear for?
Tedd – the 6-7 minutes per side seems a bit too long for a steak that’s only 1 inch thick – unless you put it on the grill nearly frozen (not joking)
The answer will result from a little trial and error on your part…I’d say sear on the highest setting using just a lite spritz of canola oil, until the sear marks appear and the meat releases from the hot grates. Then lift with tongs, spritz the other side lay that down on the grates to sear. How long is that? Honestly can’t say because of the variables unique to the weather on the day you are grilling, the type and quality of the steak and even the actual temperature of the steak when you put it on and the actual temp of the grates when you begin the cook. Also, if you prefer to leave the hood open or closed.
In spite of the above variables and generally speaking, once you’ve achieve sear marks on the first side – I’d say use an instant read thermometer inserted into the side so that the tip of the probe gets to the cent of the largest section of meat (not fat) and get a reading. That will give you a ‘educated’ sense of what you need to do to get it to the next stage of ‘done.” When you’ve seared both sides and got one set of sear marks – then lift with tongs and check the internal temp again. If you like it more done, then let it rest on indirect heat to rise the final degrees to the level of ‘done’ you prefer -or- repeat the searing on one or both sides to cross-hatch the sear marks and check again.
Does this help?