Keep an eye on your grocery stores ads, and wait for the good ones to go on sale. ( rib-eye, new york, t-bone, porter-house ) Out here in SoCal, Stater Bros usually will have a good price on one of those cuts. Two weeks ago, I got a couple really good porter-house steaks for a little over $5 bucks each.

the temperature in the meat and the cooking come in hand. you wont get a rare steak that is cool in the middle and a rare steak that is proper temp in the middle right after cooking. for the refrigerated steak to be considered rare it would need to reach the same temperature as the one that was cooking from room temp to be rare.

Cooking a steak right out of the fridge is fine, it just means it'll take a bit longer to cook through.

someone else watches Good Eats!

seriously, this is the way to go when cooking steaks. steakhouse quality, every single time. can't say i do the ***most important*** step, but i do let it rest at least 5 minutes before cutting.

I'm not quite sure what you're saying but I hope you're not trying to tell me it doesn't make a difference whether the steak is at room temp or not when the cooking starts.

Both excellent, and easy, methods. I've only just started following the "start with steak at room temperature" and pat-the-steak-dry rules, so my sample size isn't too big, but it appears to have led to some excellent steaks.

One thing I'll add if you like medium-rare or rare steaks: it's pretty hard to under cook a steak, in my experience. It took me forever to understand this, and way too many medium to medium-well steaks. I'd hear 2.5 to 3 minutes a side, and simply couldn't believe that's all it took. It is.

The Alton Brown method is my favorite. Works wonders.

i never said it doesnt make a difference. i said a steak out of the fridge will take longer to cook through. there is no difference in result once both are cooked properly. if you disagree, please elaborate.

How can there be no difference in result if one must be cooked longer to get the same effect? The surfaces in contact with the heat cook at a much faster rate than the temp rise in the center of the steak.

If you want to have a steak cooked rare at refridgerator temps to match the core temp of a steak cooked rare from room temp, then by default the exterior is going to be more cooked/done.

in fact the steak out of the fridge cooks quicker if you count the time it takes to bring the other steak up to room temp as cooking.

you can use an oven to finish or some other method for more evenly distributing the heat. if you cook the steak sous-vide, or any method that protects the outside of the meat while still cooking, it certainly doesnt make a difference once the right internal temps are reached. Even in a pan you can just turn down the heat a bit and let it lightly cook on all sides, while keeping it moving, until the inside is done with little noticeable change to the outside of the meat. there is really a million ways to do it. In general the way to be certain the outside is the same even while getting the inside to the same temp involves just cooking the inside of the steak 10-20 degrees (or whatever you figure depending on your searing method) below perfect temp in some even heat system that keeps the outside protected before searing it heston blumenthal styles.

this is how i do mine and it comes out better than those 5 star joints in vegas. i remember sending my steak back at SW and Cut. once u learn how to make a good steak its hard to eat out again because you risk them screwing your steak up.

and the price difference seems absurd

bbq over done

This was my steak dinner from last night


Heated up a thick-bottomed frying pan while I trimmed the steaks. Patted them dry and rubbed them with a little herb-seasonsed sea salt, cracked pepper and thyme.

Put a very small amount of EVOO on the pan (regular OO is preferred for higher smoke point) rolled it once and put the steaks in. They seared up nice about 60-90 seconds on each side and edges to get a good crust on it.

Then I put them in the oven at ~250F until they were a little under medium rare (it was about 45 minutes or so). This gave the steak muscle time and heat to slowly relax.

Put them on a new plate and covered them with foil and ate them 15 minutes later.

They broke apart with a fork.

Could have finished them on the grill for 2 min on each side if desired

As others were saying, it does mean that you don't need to worry as much about applying low heat later on. Another possibility is that you want the pan to cool as little as possible when inserting the meat for ideal browning. If you're using a hefty enough pan (or a grill that will likely be quite high powered) then it's probably less of an issue.

It seems the procedure is now well known. Create crust/sear over high, cook interior in oven.

Don't use non-stick. You'd think this would be obvious, but it's not. Use stainless steel, or even better, cast iron.

I dunno, this seems like extra work to get around an issue I solve by letting the steak sit out for about an hour.

And of course you can probably make it similar in temp if you're going to use a different cooking method on the cold steak, I thought we were assuming the same cooking method

Wikipedia says that a medium-rare steak is ready when the core temperature reaches 55 °C [130 °F]. Therefore a 15°C difference in the beginning seems pretty significant.

Nobody really answered my question before but......

Do you feel insulted when people put A1 or KETCHUP (LOL - ***** hicks) on a steak you cook?

Everytime I see my roommate put ketchup on the steak I cook (or he cooks) I seriously have to gag. I seriously imagine him as a hick whenever he does it. It's ***** gross.

Looks great. I will try this next time I cook.

I had a friend over for dinner once; well I was cooking, he wouldnt leave, so I offered to grill him a steak.

I had gotten some Porterhouses on sale (not prime but at 3.99/lb they are unbelieveably awesome for the price), so I grill him up once, Med Rare as asked. Some salt, some pepper, I like to add a quick, quick hit of gran garlic and some parsely for color.

Finish up these bad boys with some herb butter (fresh parsely, garlic, place over steak when flipped).

Bring it in, dude asks for ketchup. I thought he was joking.

Havent spoken to him in 6 months.

A+

Not unless they take a few bites of the steak first and then decide it needs covering up in order to be consumed.

Why get mad at someone for having poor taste (no pun intended)? I'd tend to get mad at myself for wasting a steak on someone who is going to do that regardless of how the steak is cooked.

I believe I asked him if he was 12 years old again (WTF, even at 12 I knew better than that!). He didnt take that too well.

I was more annoyed because what Tom Ames said: why the **** did i even give you a nice piece of meat. Its like when we went to Lugers and someone ordered the fish. Really, the fish? Why bother?

I seen a Ruth Chris Steakhouse at Mohegan Sun @ Pocono Downs... They advertise pretty heavy, anyone ever eat there? Thinking about stopping in there the next time I'm there.