oh, lol. i forgot. my "range hood" is a microwave with a fan. it doesn't vent out of the building. it vents out the face of the microwave, which is humorously enough in the direction of the smoke alarm. double sigh. i usually go with some combo of the damp cloth, open windows, and the kitchen ceiling fan on high, when cooking something smokey.

This is pretty hard to believe.

I don't have enough experience to tell you if it should be done with 2+inch steaks, but I've over seared too many steaks to try. Also, the people discussing olive oil having a high smoking temp: I've fooled around with this, and gotten my cast iron just below when the oil begins to smell, and it was too hot. It cooked the steak to medium in 4 minutes total. And it was over seared. I don't think you need to get the pan as hot as possible to get a good sear.

I've eaten plenty of Wagyu, both in and out of Australia, and it has always been recommended to be cooked medium.

I can also give a second recommendation for nutmeg with spinach. Excellent combination.

Cooked a steak last night, pan was slightly too hot and the oil started to smoke very heavily. My apartment was absolutely filled with smoke and the smoke alarm did not go off. Yay?

It doesn't all the time, but it's pretty likely to happen if the steak is thick.

This is worth a shot.

I have to grill cause I have no windows and my landlord lives upstairs (lol basement apartaments). The smoke goes up there and he gets pissed.

I had always heard the same thing as kom, and one server at Cut also recommended the same thing. But I ignored him and got mine medium rare. I could see lots of unmelted fat blobs in the middle the meat that might have been better off cooked enough to melt. It still was a great steak, but I'll probably try wagyu medium next time just to compare.

Kobe beef is great at medium and classically its cooked to medium at a lot of places in Japan.

First, this is by far the best thread on 2+2. Second, I cooked a 7oz bacon wrapped filet last night. Opted to use my grill instead of cast iron/stove/oven. Does anyone prefer a grill to the cast iron/stove/oven method? I've been using the cast iron method with great results, but decided to grill this one.

My grill is run off the gas line at my house, and it gets super hot so it's generally excellent for cooking steaks. I cooked this for 6 min total. 2 min/2min/1 min/1min to get cross marks, etc. I overcooked it a bit and regret wrapping it in foil for 5 minutes after I removed it from the grill. Pics are from my iphone and kinda poor quality.

[IMG][/IMG]

room temp for 45 min, dried, kosher salted, crushed black peppered, and lightly coated with evoo to prevent grill stickage

[IMG][/IMG]

the char/crossmarks came out excellent

[IMG][/IMG]

finished product. i like it more mid-rare and i think wrapping it in the foil was a mistake. i was a bit disappointed, but it tasted fine.

the 2 best steaks by far i've ever had were both in restaurants where they didnt ask me how i wanted it.

That places recommend wagyu steaks to be cooked to medium is strange to me, but I've never had or cooked wagyu, and I may be way off on this. I guess it's possible that meat can be so well marbled that you have to cook it longer. There could be a kind of diminishing returns with fat content where at some point it compromises the tenderness of the meat because you have to cook it longer.

Chewing raw fat is no good.

It is a fatty piece of meat. In a good way. Raw fat is chewy, cooked fat is delicious.

I may be quite wrong on this, but from what I recall, in Japan Wagyu beef is always thinly sliced, then cooked, then served in shabu-shabu, yaki-niku or sukiyaki. The full on "big block of meat like the Americans do" is not what Wagyu is used for.

Wagyu is relatively new in North America, and is perceived as 'The Best' beef, and purchased at restaurants by folks trying to show off or splurge, but who probably don't know what to look for in a good steak in the first place.

I would guess that it becomes a bit difficult to try and transpose this uniquely Japanese beef into our North American cuisine. If trying to make a 'steak', probably you should cook it the way you normally like it (for me, medium rare), but really it may be better to slice it thin, quickly cook it, and serve it like the Japanese.

"Filet is like Paris Hilton. Very little fat, and no personality."

Ribeye is my go-to cut. Strip is good too. Hell, for home cooking, a big slab of cheap sirloin has good beefy flavor at an awesome price. I find the flavor to cost ratio in filets suck compared to other cuts.

porterhouse. best of all worlds.

Pan fry ask a belgian

Oh yeah and the key is the right cut of meat. Good steak is very expensive
Korean BBQ ftw

Normally I use the Alton Brown method, but last night I cooked a ribeye and used Ramsay's technique. It turned out just as well, in less time, with the added bonus of a slightly better crust.

I think in general Ramsay > Brown for thinner cuts (<1.5") and vice-versa for thicker.

Ah so it has to with the spread of the fat within the meat huh. I thought it had to do with how they cooked it. Thanks for the great explanation.

I love steak and hate seeing this thread off the first page so.....grunch!

I've been having issues lately with a poor sear.

I've been doing the Alton Brown method and the sear is coming out gray/ugly without much of a crust.

I've tried using oil and not using oil, different lengths of time searing, and can't figure out how to get a pretty sear.

I've generally been cooking ribeyes but noticed the same issue with a strip.

Any ideas what I may be doing wrong?

How hot are you getting the pan before you put the steak on it? It has to be freaking hot. Basically if once you put the steak on the pan, you don't need to open a window/door to let the smoke out, it ain't hot enough.

Don't use oil in the pan or the steak will end up "boiling" in it and won't get a good sear. I rub a super small amount on the steaks beforehand when i'm marinating them with salt + pepper and then put them in an empty pan.

Also make sure the steak is at room temperature before you start cooking it. Take it out of the fridge at least an hour beforehand.