Grilled ribeye steak served medium-rare with side of grilled gulf prawns.

Depending upon your level of overall confidence and outdoor cooking skills – you may aspire to preparing steaks that rival those served in expensive steak houses. There are really only a couple of secrets to grilling great steaks.

1. Good quality meat cut thick enough to sear without overcooking

2. High heat & clean grates

OK – there is definitely a third…

3. Patience & Experience

Here’s a pictorial I made of a mixed grill cook I did just this past weekend on the Big Easy Smoker-Roaster-Grill set up for grilling.

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Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!

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1. Choose the cut of meat that’s right for flavor and best for grilling – based upon your taste buds and your budget! Here’s some information about USDA Grades of Beef and here’s a Beef Chart to help you select meat best suited to preparation techniques. For this cook I happened upon a special deal on USDA Prime Ribeye steaks.

Here’s what the ribeyes I purchased looked like when I brought them home:

These steaks might look pretty familiar - it's the way most folks purchase meat, individually cut and packaged in plastic. From this viewpoint they look about the same size. Oops!

And here’s what they looked like when I open the packages:

Viewed in packaging, all steaks may appear to be about the same size - but when choosing a steak for grilling - thicker is most often better. Too thin and the steak can easily overcook before seared on the outside.

The marbled fat in meat adds flavor when grilling. The fat on the lip of the meat is pretty much excess and will only render and drip into the fire, where it adds to clean up and also contributes to flare-ups. Yes – I agree that it looks nice when it’s all browned and pretty on the plate when served, but it’s not necessary and your doctor would most likely agree it’s to be ignored – so why not trim it off prior to cooking?

Excess lip fat on a steak doesn't add to flavor only flare-ups.

This is the amount of fat I trimmed off the steak. When grilling the lip fat is not needed for flavor and my arteries also don’t need it!

Trim off excess fat from the lip to reduce flare-ups without losing flavor in the meat.

Dry the meat with a paper towel, removing any excess moisture that accumulated while in the package.

Dry meat prior to seasoning to reduce excess moisture. Remember: "Wet meat steams and Dry meat sears."

Season with a light pinch of good quality salt. This is freshly ground sea salt – the flakes are bigger and the flavor is different than ordinary table salt. I like the way it interacts with the meat to draw natural sugars and proteins to the surface – which become the source of the browning sear marks we all enjoy and associate with a grilled steak.

Salting the surface of a dry steak will start the chemistry going to draw out natural proteins and sugars. Contrary to conventional wisdom a pinch of salt evenly dispersed over the surfaces of the meat will not dry it out if present for a short while.

I generally let the meat and salt interact for at least 20 – 30 minutes prior to continuing the seasoning process. (Some techniques also use more salt and prep the steak longer, overnight in some instances. We’re not going to cover that here today.) Just before the steaks go on the grill I also season both sides with some freshly ground pepper and lightly spritz with canola oil before placing on HOT (450F – 650F degrees is considered the range at which meat sears) clean grates.

Here’s a tip on using oil and how it impacts searing:

At the higher temperatures necessary for searing meat if you try to wipe the hot grates with a brush or paper towel to apply vegetable oil – it will burn off almost immediately and often ignite the towel! Theoretically you could cook the meat on the grates without oil – because when the proteins in the meat are cooked to perfect point – they will ‘release’ – but that is difficult to judge and sometimes the heat doesn’t transfer evenly between the grates and the meat.  So we use a light spritz of high temperature cooking oil like canola, peanut or safflower – to name a few.  The oil serves as an aid to the conduction of heat between the grate and the meat.  You don’t need a lot and you don’t need expensive virgin olive oil or other cold pressed oils because they are not good for high heat cooking and will burn and turn bitter.

Want to learn more about oils best suited for outdoor grilling and cooking? Read “The oils I use for grilling and why.”

2. The steaks go on a HOT grate and “Where they hit – they sit.”

Seasoned and lightly canola oil spritzed steaks go on a HOT and clean grates.

To sear mark the meat you use the grates to transfer heat to the meat – this is both flavorful and eye appealing.  Depending upon the thickness of the steak and the heat of your grates – you can cook with the lid open or closed and/or move the steaks at 90 degree angles to get cross hatch marks on the steak. The amount of time spent searing is critical to the overall doneness. Keep an eye on the edges of the steaks where the grates and meat touch – as the meat begins to get to the perfect searing status the proteins will align and the meat easily releases.  You’ll start to see the browning from the grates at the edges of the meat – use tongs to lift a corner to see if the meat is seared to your preference and then turn  or flip, appropriate to the degree of doneness you wish, the thickness of the steaks and the heat of your grates.

When the steaks are sear marked by the hot grates, identified by the browning, the proteins align and the meat releases. To check if your steak is ready use tongs to lift a corner.

I generally advise most folks to use a “Sear and Hold” method for grilling steaks. This will help you to learn how to judge when meat is cooked properly and is a method used in many fine steak house.  Click on the link to learn a bit more about this method.  (There are other many other methods for grilling steaks and you may be a fan of one of them.  A very popular method is commonly referred to as the “Reverse Sear” method.  This technique roasts the steak using indirect heat until the internal temperature is approximately 90F – 100F degrees and then the meat is quickly seared on super high heat before serving immediately.  It works, is very tasty and – the opportunity for error is much greater for folks who are either new to grilling or who don’t have much experience with slow cooking meat.  I’ll be featuring this technique in a post later this spring – but if you’d like more details on this or any other grilling techniques – head on over to the Users Forums and search out a conversation or topic of interest.)

If you have a couple steaks of different thickness -  start grilling the thicker one first  by a minute or so – or this is an easy way to stop the cooking process of direct grilling while the other finishes.

Steaks getting too done or you want to slow one down? Piggy back!

I use an instant read thermometer inserted from the side into the center of the steak to check for temperature to determine doneness.  Everyone has their own preference and definition for what the various levels of Rare, Medium-Rare, Medium, Medium-Well and Well done are.  I’ll not argue you with your taste buds or desires.  Here are some guidelines from the USDA that you may wish to use for a reference point.

USDA Recommended Internal Cooking Temperatures

Rare: 130F degrees
Medium Rare: 145F degrees
Medium: 160F degrees
Well: 170F degrees

3. Patience and Experience

What I will argue is to remove the steaks either from the grill or the holding pan and allow them to rest for about 10 -15 minutes prior to cutting. This helps the juices in the meat redistribute as the fibers re-absorb juices released during the high heat cooking.

Here’s my Grilled Medium-Rare Ribeye Steak and it was DEE-LISH-US!

Grilled ribeye steak served medium-rare with side of grilled gulf prawns.