For several years I’ve referred to a technique I call, for want of anything better – “Sear & Hold.” This uses the grill to sear steaks, chops, burgers, fish and even chicken over direct high heat – and then finish on low indirect heat to produce a tasty and perfectly cooked meal for your guests. Using this technique on just about any grill, pair of tongs, a thermometer and a little practice you will consistently serve food your guests enjoy and of which you are proud.

Because there are so many questions about how to do this I thought it might be helpful to show the technique on several different grills over the course of the spring and summer in hopes that I’ll inspire you to try it and, if you like it, adapt it to suit your own style of cooking. Each grill design has specific features that require you to understand as the head chef at your house. This month I’ve been using the Big Easy Smoker-Roaster-Grill for various cooks and for this post it’s set up for grilling.

Trim away the excessive fat from the lip. It's not needed for flavor "in" the meat and it will only add to smoke & fat fire flare-ups. Note the RED cutting board? Color code for raw meat.

If you happen to read the post from February 16th called “Some tips on grilling great steaks.” – one of the first steps I recommend is to trim away excess fat from the individual steaks as it only adds to the fat dripping into your fire and doesn’t add to flavor in the meat. Yes, of course you can eat the cooked fat with bites of meat – but I’m trying to be more conscientious in my eating habits these days!  Cutting away excess fat will reduce the amount of smoke when searing steak at the high heat range of 450F – 650F degrees and your doctor will appreciate the effort as well.

The next step of preparing steaks for grilling is to dry off the meat with a paper towel to remove the excess ‘wet’ that’s accumulated while in the packaging. For seasoning I prefer to keep it simple and use the basics of good salt and freshly ground black pepper  – but you are the chef at your house so season as you wish.  By-the-way, I checked the amount of salt I apply and it’s less than 1/4 tsp of freshly ground sea salt for one steak on both sides. That’s not a heck-of-a-lot especially when you consider the salt flakes are rather large and not compact like fine ground table salt, so the 1/4 tsp is more likely between 1/8 and 1/4.  Good salt goes a long way to enhance the flavor by drawing out natural sugars and proteins to the surface where they will brown when exposed to the high searing heat. When you use good salt – less is more.

The picture on the right demonstrates taking the temperature of the steak prior to cooking.  I insert an instant read thermometer into the side of the steak until it is about centered to get a reading. When it comes to grilling over direct heat and especially when using your version of the Sear & Hold style – “hot & fast” is the phrase best used to describe it. Sear the outside over direct heat and remove from the high direct grilling heat to let the meat come up to the desired internal temperature and doneness.  If you’ve been cooking for a while you may have a pretty good understanding for the desired internal temperature you want the meat at the end of the cook – but have you thought about the starting temperature of the meat before placing it on the grill? From my own experiences of too many poorly cooked meals I’ve begun checking the temp of chops, steaks, chicken pieces and especially whole roasts prior to placing on the grill or in the smoker, cooker, roaster.  By checking the temperature the meat at the starting point of the cook you will have a better understanding of what needs to happen inside the meat as it cooks. For larger pieces of meat, like turkeys and beef roasts, I will periodically check the temp at several locations of the meat during the cook.  Checking the temperature during the cook mostly applies to roasts, whole poultry and chicken parts more than it applies to cooking individual steaks or chops. But you get my point – right?

Understanding temperature is the fundamental knowledge to master for all outdoor cooking. What you desire to have happen with the meat or other food you cook is a direct result of your understanding the temperature capacity of your cooker (direct, indirect, high, low, etc. – and that means getting to know the cooker you are using) and what the temperature needs are for the food to turn out the way you want it.  For instance a pork shoulder cooked several hours at 200F degrees using indirect heat  will slowly rise in temperature and eventually render all of the collagen into flavoring of the meat to become pull-apart tender. But the same pork shoulder cooked at 350F or higher will become more like a pork roast and is more likely to be enjoyed sliced and served with a sauce or gravy. For more information on temperature – check out this post: It’s all about Heat!

The grates need to be hot – in the range of 450F – 650F degrees. If you don’t have a good feel for the grate temps on your cooker, or experience has demonstrated the grate on your cooker doesn’t produce those higher temperatures there are a couple of tricks to help ‘boost’ the performance of your grill to get the sear marks.  Here are two:

• Trick 1. Use a double layer of heavy-duty aluminum foil and lay it over the section of the grates where you will be searing the steaks, chops, etc. during the warm-up period.  Don’t worry about oiling the grates, you’ll spritz the meat with some canola oil prior to grilling and that will work just fine.  After the grill has heated to the highest temperature the grates under the foil will be extra hot – use tongs in both hands and lift the foil with one while using the other to grab a seasoned and lightly oiled steak to place on the super heated section of the grates. You should hear a distinct sizzle on the grill and see a bit of smoke.  CAUTION: don’t over do the use of foil on grates because some grills are just not made to handle the higher heat. Perform this technique only if you have confidence in both the grate quality and your ability to do it with some swift movements and then – please use it with self restraint!

• Trick 2. If you have a smaller grill with wire racks and don’t feel confident in using the foil to super heat the grates – first of all I applaud your good sense and self awareness. Use butter. Good ol’butter has a low smoke point and spreading a thin coat of butter on a steak prior to grilling will conduct the heat from the grates to the meat very well and it will also brown quickly and that, we know, will add flavor to your steak.  Use it sparingly to prevent flare-ups and practice a bit before jumping into the technique.

When the clean grates are heated to searing temperature range of between 450F – 650F degrees – and the steaks have warmed a bit, the salt has pulled some natural sugars to the surface and you’ve lightly spritzed the surface of the meat with a high temp cooking oil like canola, pomace olive oil, safflower or peanut oil – it’s time to place the steaks on the grates. AND PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO WHAT THEY ARE DOING. As you get to know your grill and your experience and confidence level grows you will come to understand that paying attention to what is happening on the cooking surface translates into a tasty steak on the plate.  Grilling steaks is not a lassez faire experience.

Keep an eye on the edges of the steaks where the meat and the grate surfaces are touching. You will start to see the edge brown just a bit and that’s gonna be the time to flip it. You can check it by lifting a corner of the steak with your tongs or, as I do in the picture, just quickly lift an edge to get a view of the process. If they aren’t quite ready (indicated by the browning) be mindful that you lay that edge back down on the same grates so the marks are consistent and even.

Flip the steaks. If you are cooking on an infrared or ultra-high BTU conventional gas burner or using cast iron grates over charcoal – you can pretty much flip the steaks in place. If your grates are stainless steel rods or porcelain coated wire – you may be better off moving the steaks to a new “fresh” section of the grates with each turn. Cast iron does an excellent job of retaining heat – while stainless steel rods and wire racks don’t – so creating sear marks and enjoying the flavor they produce is more difficult on these two grate materials.

If steaks are your thing and you aren’t getting the sear marks you want from the grates on your grill – it may be time to look into either a replacement grate like the Universal Fit Porcelain Coated Cast Iron Grates or place a cast iron grate on top of the existing wire grate system.

The searing process on a well-heated quality grate does not take long. My personal style is to flip the steaks and sear both sides before getting fancy with cross hatch markings. I like to cook evenly on both sides and sometimes that means only one side – often called “The presentation side” – gets cross hatch sear marks. When the proteins in the steaks are ready they “release” and the steak is easily turned.  Searing occurs at high temperatures – most of which exceed the smoke point of standard cooking oils. If you attempt to use a paper towel that’s been soaked in cooking oil to rub on the grates – most likely the oil will smoke instantly and burn away or the paper towel will catch fire.  The food requires only a minimum amount of high-temp or high-smoke point cooking oil to evenly conduct heat from the grates to the meat.  Don’t over do it and less chance of flare-ups on your conventional gas or charcoal grills. For more about cooking oils – or at least my opinion (for what that’s worth!) check out this post: “The oils I use for grilling and why.”

These two steaks have seared on one side and flipped to the other side to sear. Depending upon the thickness of the steak and the desired doneness, I may flip once more and turn at about a 90 degree angle to give the cross-hatch marks, or not.

Look closely at the edges of the steak - see how the sear marks are only just that - not embedded into the steak. That's the way I enjoy my steaks but your tastes rule!

How do you know when the steak is done? Take it's temperature is one way. Sorry for the glare int he photo - the instant read thermometer displays 127.6F degrees - right smack dab on RARE. If I remove the steaks to a plate to rest now they will continue to cook a bit, but not too much. Or I can move them to a holding tray off of direct heat but still in the grill cooking chamber where they will continue to rise in temp to the desired temperature. I like my steaks RARE - but cooked, not RAW.

The desired outcome is a steak cooked the way you like it.  The USDA guidelines are a good starting point – but you and your guests may have your own ideas as to what qualifies as Rare and what is Medium.  I present these only as a starting point from which you should determine your own temperature standards.

USDA Recommended Internal Cooking Temperatures

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

One fact worth noting is that individual steaks will vary according to muscle fiber, moisture content, and grade of beef and type of cut. For instance a grass fed Choice ribeye will cook differently than a corn-fed Choice ribeye and you need to get to know your grill and the type of meat you are cooking to deliver consistently great results on the plate!

So what is the result of this cook?  A perfectly seared surface that has a bit of crust and provides a good, what I call “tooth feel” with each bite. An interior that is uniformly cooked – with no layers of different doneness, you’ve seen steaks that look like sedimentary rock. Dark on the outside then brown gradually becoming gray and boody raw/rare in the center.  If that’s the way you like your steak – great. I like mine this way:

My idea of perfectly grilled steak is seared on the surface to produce attractive tasty sear marks with a slightly salty crust; evenly cooked RARE interior that has no indication of layers of doneness. What's yours?

Once the steak is seared over direct heat and on hot grates – you can remove it to a holding tray and allow it to slowly come to the desired internal temperature you most enjoy.  By repeated preparing steaks this way you will develop what I call a “mental muscle memory” that will enable you to host a party for dozens of folks and deliver a tasty steak grilled to perfection for each guest as they have requested.

Have questions or comments? Want more information or help with your grill? Post a comment below or sign up for the Users Forums and share your question with the hundreds of members – many of which may have similar experiences and equipment and who will have some tips and tricks to share.

Thanks and…

Happy Grilling!