Just had a steak at horseshoe hammond. Dude next to me complained to manager about his med well steak having TOO MUCH char. Inside looked great....

Mine (ordered mid rare) was med well at leat. Wtf...

so? char is horribly bitter and causes cancer. a lot of people don't want that on their steak.

Sous vide then pan

on the other hand, maybe char is actually delicious and healthful, and these "lots of people" are interpreting their own body odor problem as the bitterness of char, and are getting cancer because they can't just relax and enjoy the wonderful bounty that life offers us in the form of perfectly cooked, nicely charred steak?

i'm not saying that's necessarily the case, but we should at least consider the possibility...

Let's just say it's likely not a coincidence that of the top 100 or so steaks in this thread based on how much drooling has occurred as a result of the post, probably like less than 5 have had any significant amount of char.

I think char is is always found on a perfect steak. The flavor and texture of char is part of the experience imo.

The goal of this thread is literally char/crust... What r u talking about??

It's a fine line. Some people like charred black bitter or even burned flavors in moderation on steak. Crust doesn't have to be charred there's a difference between deeply maillard browned and charred, and there's no wrong answer. Just depends on the taste of the eater.

Cooking for a random I'd keep actual char to a minimum though.

ahhhh, we've found the root of the problem.

char and crust are very different things.

i can accept that position, but the idea that "too much char" isn't possible is laughable

They are not the same thing. You can still make a nicely browned or crusted steak with no char.

I saw it from a few feet over, it looked perfect. He was calling it char, And mahbe it was bitter, but i feel like he didnt want a crust on his steak

pete,

That's only because more people don't grill in this thread. If everyone did, we'd have a much higher percentage of steaks w/ some awesome char like SparkSteaks.

That's true. Probably mostly because grilling a steak super well and consistently is damn near impossible (even though probably 80% of adult males claim to be experts).

(Disclaimer: I do like a little char on my grilled steaks, but it's easy to go too far)

Here's some droolworthy steak porn for those of you who think "too much char" isn't a thing, from a buddy's recent facebook post:

this is wrong, as evidenced by regular contributions to this thread from myself and other grill enthusiasts

dont be hatin

edit: couple excellent submissions the past day or two

Count me in the camp that char should be minimized

Those last two steaks are so elite.

Thinking about going to a steakhouse to celebrate some work related stuff, but this thread is bringing me down, almost sure to be disappointed.

I've been to a good amount of local steakhouses that have reputations for being elite, I have no doubt that the super top end of this thread is better than every single one of them. Then there's 1 place that consistently puts out great steaks that belong just below the super high end stuff here. Then another that can consistently compete with some 8/10s here.

Everything else is significantly worse than like 6/10, good effort for just starting out here. I mean it's pathetic. $40-$50 for a steak, there's always grey band, and the crust is always weak. Not sure how these places manage that but it always happens. The average steak here is miles above the average steak at a typical steakhouse.

Can you toss frozen steaks into sous vide, no problem? I feel like it'd be a lot less air tight than thawed, but not the end of the world.

"steakhouses" are usually on the low end of quality in the culinary world and for the most part offer big amount of meat for fairly cheap prices(in relation to cost of goods)
it's a bit like complaining about the quality of food at a buffet

Cashy,

Uh, no. Maybe in whatever country you're in, but that's just an absurd statement in general.

Steakhouses are like that cashy, except the exact opposite.

uh, yes.
very few "steakhouses" are even gault millau/michelin rated as the standard is just totally different.
"down to earth", big portions, simple sides.

Cashy -- no.

We're not talking about Applebees and Outback.