Barbecuing Steak!
OK. The bottom line here is practice makes perfect.
More than any other meat you will barbecue, people want their steaks cooked just the way they like them; from rare to well-done. If you are throwing a steak barbecue for a lot of people, all I can say is Good Luck!
Go to some of the best steak house restaurants and ask to get your steak cooked the way you like it. You won't always get what you want. So how can you possibly expect to always get what you want barbecuing at home?
If you are cooking it for yourself - not a problem. If you miss a little, only you will know and you can live with it. Particularly if you have a good cut of meat.
Make one for someone else though . . . . . oh man. You're sweating bullets. You do the best you can just to hear them say "Good steak". You can probably live with a "Not bad Bob". But you are going to have those that are going to point out that "I like to see more red on the inside" or "Geez. I haven't seen that much blood since my wife's last period". Lol.
The absolute best way to get the steaks grilled the way everyone wants it is going to be a thermometer. The fork thermometers work decently, but the holes they make in the steaks are pretty big so you can lose some juices here. The best kind are thermometers with the smallest diameters.
Even the temperatures vary as to what is considered medium, medium rare, etc., but this guide works.
- Very Rare Steak - 120°
- Rare Steak - 125°
- Medium-Rare Steak - 130° - 135°
- Medium Steak - 140° - 145°
- Medium-Well Steak - 150° - 155°
- Well-Done Steak - 160°
Next you can move up the method of the pro's. A finger poke. This is not easily mastered but gets better with practice. The best way to master this is to use a thermometer and try the finger poking for the different readings until it becomes fairly simple to you.
. Basically give the steak a poke and test for firmness.
- Rare Steak - soft to the touch
- Medium-Rare Steak - yields gently to the touch
- Medium Steak - yields only slightly to the touch, beginning to firm up
- Medium-Well Done Steak - firm to the touch
- Well-Done Steak - hard to the touch
You really won't know if you got it right until you and/or your guests cut into the steak.
- Rare Steak - red in the center and warm throughout
- Medium-Rare Steak - pinkish red in the center and fairly hot
- Medium Steak - pink in the center, grayish brown surrounding, hot throughout
- Medium-Well Done Steak - grayish brown center, only a trace of pink
- Well-Done Steak - gray in the center
Important tip:
Taking a steak off of the grill doesn't mean its finished cooking. The heat that has built up in the steak will continue to cook the meat until it begins to cool off, and can add an additional 5 or 10 degrees to the steak's temperature. It's best to undercook a little and let the steak sit for a couple minutes to reach it's serving temperature.
They say you can always throw it back on the grill but I don't always agree. To me, once you have cut into the steak, tossing it back on the grill is not only an embarrassment; albeit one you can live with; it seems to dry it out. If it is really undercooked, you might have to do so (really if too much undercooked the juices haven't completely released anyway so a little more cooking may bring them out) but otherwise, I say eat it.
By the way - here's a tip that goes against what lots of barbecuers say. Flip the steaks often. The juices tend to rise to the top - ever notice all those juices laying on top? You want them to stat in the steak - so flip often and they will.
|
