You must be pretty experienced if you are more experienced than steakhouse chefs that use them every day cooking god knows how many steaks. Anyways, LOL @ a thermometer needing more experience to use correctly than cooking by touch.

Prop bet cookoff if you're ever in Dallas? We'll both cook a half dozen different steaks to different levels of doneness (1 rare, 1 med-rare, 1 med, 1 med-well, 1 well, and 1 black and blue), you use your magic finger and I'll use my Thermapen.

Just curious, is there a difference between Kosher salt and sea salt?

It's not that I think I'm more experienced than a steakhouse chef, it's that I think you're full of ****.

If the sea salt is coarse-grained, and it's not Passover, then no, not really. Sea salt's generally more expensive.

Will the label tell me if it's coarse-grained?

Usually the coarse grained sea salts I've seen are much coarser than kosher salt.

JasonInD, you're wrong about experienced chefs using thermometers. Chefs in a busy steakhouse don't have time to take the temperature of all the steaks. They go by feel.

JimHammer.. My thoughts from cooking mine: You didn't use nearly enough salt, but you let it on too long.

Absolutely cover it it in the Kosher salt so you cannot see any red on top. Go about 25-30 minutes on the sitting time. Also, have salt on the plate and so the bottom of the steak is sitting in the salt as well.

I tried this the other day inspired by this thread. Totally doused the steak in kosher salt for about a half hour. Rinsed thoroughly and dried then grilled. Very tasty and tender and no real hint of overpowering salty taste. I will definitely do this again!

the doused in salt method also works a bit better with a thicker steak.

Probably, but if this is something currently in your possession just look at the salt. If they're big chunks, it's good to go. If they're little tiny grains like you'd find in a typical salt shaker, don't coat your steak in that because it'll absorb pretty much all of it.

All this pre-salting stuff is like a weird shortcut version of the pre-salting fad that went around a couple of years ago thanks to Judy Rodgers/Zuni Cafe. Her method involved pre-salting a day or more in advance using more salt than you would normally cook with, but not as much salt as people are advocating in this thread. The idea is that the salt draws the moisture out at first, but then the salty water at the surface gets sucked back in after a while, resulting in something akin to brining. The version people are talking about here doesn't give enough time for that to happen and people are using huge amounts of salt and then rinsing it off, which is just plain odd.

I've tried the Zuni method for chicken and turkey and it was great. For those of you who want to pre-salt, I'd suggest trying her method rather than the one people are talking about ITT.

fwiw, i tried the method in this thread yesterday with great results. could def see an improvement over my previous method of cooking.

Not during the indirect part - no need to as long as the steak is being exposed to failry equal heat on both sides, i.e. if you have a decent sized grill with 3 burners and have the steak in the middle. If you are using a 2-burner grill, then you may want to flip as I would think the side closest to the burner is getting more heat.

Pretty salty. I need to start cutting back on this.

I tried the oversalting tonight for the first time, and it came out pretty well, but it's definitely fairly salty at the end.

I think Nootka's comments about this not really being enough time for a poor man's brine are probably accurate.

For those who are using the magic salt method:

Enjoy having your first heart attack at 30 just to save $4 on a piece of steak.

Start with a good cut of meat. Splash with liquid smoke, then rub with freshly cut garlich clove. Then rub with Wishbone Italian dressing, let marinade 2 hours to overnite. Sear on a hot charcoal grill while applying hickory smoked salt to both sides. Never cook it past medium rare, then eat the best steak you've ever had. I never put the salt on until I'm ready to grill.

what is the best way to reheat steak? I have about 6-7 oz of prime new york strip in the fridge that was originally cooked rare-medium rare

Your best best is to eat it cold or turn it into something else if you insist on reheating it (and thus overcooking). Maybe a steak quesadilla.

wtf that is an ideal steak sandwich situation.

yeah a sandwich sounds good actually, don't usually have leftover steak so I hadn't thought about it

well after a week of experimenting i have concluded that the key to cooking a good steak is to buy a good steak. earth-shattering, i know.

you can salt the hell out of a $5/lb steak and maybe turn it into a $6/lb steak but you ain't ever turning a $6/lb steak into a $12/lb steak by adding salt. not happening. ever.

Best way to reheat steak without overcooking it is to 'flash' it. Slice it into thin strips, put it in a ziploc bag, get some water simmering, and drop the bag in. After a minute or two it will be nicely reheated without further cooking the steak.

they cook to temperature at smith & wolensky steakhouse, at least the one in dallas did

anyhow, i was mostly LOLing at the guy who was saying that it's hard to use a thermometer correctly

i know a lot of chefs cook by feel but there are in fact legit steakhouses that cook to temp

but WTF do i know, i only worked in 4 restaurants for a few years...

leftover steak is also really good for salads btw

It's quite probable here that you have no idea how to cook.