I don't know and I don't really care. I just know that garlic salt has the perfect combination. I'm sure you can mix garlic + salt or whatever, but then you're going to have to measure **** and tinker around. F that. Just buy the garlic salt shaker, cover the steak with it, add some pepper and you have the best steak in the world.

Guess I'm lucky I live in Wisconsin when it comes to steaks. I've never even seen something close to a paper-thin cut of steak, but that sounds horrible.

Salt and pepper on both sides. Get a nice skillet. Heat oil on medium high heat. Right before skillet starts to smoke add steak. Let it cook for 3-5 minutes on each side and DO NOT move it around while it's cooking.

I was at my parents and they bought tons of steak (rib eye & ny). Unfortunately, they were all hungry so my dad started making steaks his crappy way. I left 1 rib eye for myself and tried to do the salt trick thing... but didn't have enough time. I also didn't read the kosher salt part, I just used garlic salt and pepper. Then when I put my steak on my dad's grill and went inside for a minute the entire grill caught on fire... making my steak well done.

However, the steak was still soft, tender, and juicy even though it was well done. I tried the steaks my dad made (he cooks them well done) and mine was way better.

Oh. You were so emphatic, I thought you actually had a reason that you preferred pre-mixed garlic salt - which is garlic, salt, and anti-caking agent - instead of just being too dumb to mix garlic and salt yourself.

There's more than just garlic, salt, and anti-caking agent in garlic salt (I remember seeing sugar and parsley, not sure what else but the ingredients list was pretty long). I'm not going to waste my time combining everything together when somebody has already combined them for me in a convenient little shaker.

Mine has parsley and other fun stuff!

RunDownHouse relies on wikipedia, not actual facts.

I wouldn't put it on steak though unless it was for fajitas or something because I'm not a savage

Just tried searing + oven + **** tons of salt method. Steak is currently sitting in it's five-minute post cook period. Will post TR soon...

What are your recommendations for buying steaks?

Alright. I can say with confidence that this is the best steak I've ever cooked myself. Wow.

For you? Sadly, though Allen Brothers has great meat and is in Chicago, I believe they don't have a retail location.

I believe the best place for you would probably be Gepperth's, at 1964 N. Halsted.

Alternatively, there's never anything wrong with Paulina Market 3501 N. Lincoln.

Also Whole Foods obviously has good product, and I think that at least the one by Wrigley, and the one by North Ave have dry aging chambers, if you're in to that (not sure about the Ashland location).

If you're feeling adventurous and are looking for a larger block of meat, there are places down in the meat packing area where you can buy things like whole primals, and save a bundle while still getting great steak, if you know what you're doing. Again alternatively, for larger quantities of steak, Cost Co actually has good stuff, though you have to be a member to shop there.

If I were you (an aspiring grill afficianado), I would walk in to Gepperth's at some point and ask them to tell you about steaks, maybe with some guidance of what you personally like, and telling them that you're probably most likely to grill whatever you're buying.

Don't really know why I didn't IM that to you, but who knows, maybe some other Chicagoan will find it useful.

If there are no good steaks already out in the meat section, I ask the butcher to cut one for me. There is always a butcher on duty at my local grocery store.

What are the advantages of Gepperth's over WholeFoods?

Wikpedia says that grilling (BBQ) is at temperatures of up to 260 °C (500 °F).

Why the hell does it matter whether the meat starts out at 5°C or 20°C? It'd seem to me that the difference is insignificant relative to the cooking temperature, and you just increase the chance of bad **** happening to your meat. After all, even if the meat is refrigerated, it is going to go "past" room temperature on the way to being cooked.

Is there any evidence that letting it reach room temperature is any good, or is it just an urban legend?

Hey guys, was wondering if someone could give a good subjective opinion in this thread. Everything so far has been really reasonable and born out through extensive experience, what I'd really like is a good post where someone who has always done something one way comes in here and tells all of us newbs how to do it right, through the well known best way of doing things. Thanks!!!!

My brother, who is a really good cook and went to culinary school, actually puts his steak in the freezer for 15 minutes just before putting it on the grill. He says it makes the outside of the steak cold and thus keeps the middle from getting overcooked. The steak he made for me was perfect, btw. I tried it last time I grilled a steak and didn't really notice a difference, fwiw.

The concept of the room temperature steak has to do with the needed temperature change to go from raw to cooked. I will explain in F since I'm a stupid american.

Let's say you want to cook your steak medium rare and you're going to rest it. You want to pull it off the grill when the internal temperature is 125. A steak out of the fridge is going to be aroung 37 while a room temperature steak will be about 70. That's 33 degrees of heating that the grill doesn't have to do which means you can cook it for less time. You obviously can get the same sear on the outside but the difference lies in the fact that less cooking time = more of the middle will be at 125 instead of the 300+ the outside will be.

I don't know if that makes any sense.

i believe it's just to make sure the centre of the steak isn't too cold. if you put a cold big fat steak from the fridge on the pan, by the time you get a nice sear the middle is still going to be almost raw.

i tried the method guids posted in that link last night to a london broil

steak was room temp, I covered it in kosher salt, the salt started to turn a pinkish color and I saw alot of liquid seep out of the steak during this process. the color of the steak went from deep red to more purple/brown during this process. I rinsed the steak and patted it dry for several minutes. I threw it on the grill on high heat for about 3-4 minutes on each side.

overall the steak tasted good, i used very little seasoning after the salting (rosemary, pepper, garlic), overall the steak tasted very salty even though I washed the salt off.

i'd probably do it again, but i'm not sure it was exponentially better

your probably better off marinading london broil for 12-24 hours.

i like the salting method a lot more for rib eye etc

yea i was wondering if london broil was not marble enough, i'll try this again on a different cut some time but the london broil was on sale so i said whatever

Exactly. When I'm cooking I like a rare steak but I don't want it cool in the middle. Letting it come up to room temperature fixes that.

This probably isn't the best method but I use it all the time, it's easy and the steaks are good:

- take the steak out of the fridge about an hour before cooking time and coat liberally in salt and let it sit for about an hour

- about 5 minutes before the hour comes up put a skillet on the stove top and turn the burner up to ~5/10 (probably a lot of variability here depending on the type of stove you have) so it can preheat

- after the steak has sat for ~1 hour brush off the excess salt and then rub some pepper on it, then put a light coat of oil on it (I use olive oil but per this thread I'll try peanut oil next time).

- put the steak in the pan (it should start sizzling instantly) and cook it for about 1-2 minutes on the top/bottom/sides (should end up with a steak on the rare side of medium rare)

Plenty of money in chef home games. They're all suckers.