There are ways to ensure a steak is cooked well.

Steaks need to be marinated before they are cooked.

It does not matter what kind of marinade you choose. The main idea is to use the marinade to loosen the tissue of the piece of meat. The most commonly used ingredient is oil. You can use salad oil, olive oil, peanut oil or any kind of oil you desire. If you have a meat tenderizer (the device looks like a brush with retractable needles). You can break down the tissue by perforation. Then rub the oil on your steak with your garlic, pepper, chilli pepper, crushed basil, oregano, onion powder, soya sauce, tobacco, frank’s hot sauce, Worchestershire sauce and other exotic spices you can image. One word of caution, do not add salt at this stage. Salt will draw the moisture out of the steak resulting dryness. When it is done, let the marinade work for at least an hour.

Your grill has to be hot enough that you cannot put your hand over it for more than 5 to 10 seconds. By all means pre-heat your grill. If you are using a BBQ, watch out for the ash white color on the grill.

Familiarize the softness of the steak to the touch. Generally speaking, the doneness of the meat is in direct proportion to its softness to the touch. When the meat is well done, they are stiffer. If you close your thumb and your index finger of your left hand, you will see a bulge. Then you can use your right hand index finger to feel the degree of softness of that bulge by touching around it. Identify this softness. This degree of this softness can be compared with the doneness of the steak on your grill.

Patience will yield a great product. Once your steak hits the grill, let it sit there untouched for at least 1 or 2 minutes. Do not move the steak all over the grill hoping they will cook faster. You should move the steak 4 times during the whole cooking process. You place the steak on the grill, you turn the steak 90 degrees to get the cross hatch mark, then you flip the steak onto the reverse side and then cross hatch again.

During all these times, the steak should remain relatively stationary. You determine the doneness of the steak through finger touch. For a medium rare steak, it should take 4 minutes on each side the most. There is no identical cook equipment in the world. You need to test and find out the best timing for yourself.

Have a little brush and a container of soft butter standing by. Brush the steak with some clarified butter before serving. During this time, you can add your steak spices on top of the steak before you call it finished. The steak spice should have salt in it and that would give your steak all the flavour it desires.

“A steak is a definite tool to carve through a man’s heart.
A mean steak grants you the throne to a submissive male.
Ladies, work your magic.” … DW

Most people are confused about the kind of steak they purchase. The above diagram would serve as a guide line to demystify some of the names of steaks.

As a general rule, the muscle that got more exercise would be tougher in texture. The front of the animal would get more exercise than the hind side of the animal and consequently the meat from the front of the steer will be tougher.

Chuck steaks are sometimes called clouds. The fore limbs of the steer perform most of the supporting work and they receive a lot more exercise. The meat texture will be a lot tighter. Intensity and fat bring out more flavour. Meat like this should be cooked slow and with steam or water moisture. Braising is a perfect way. Briskets are mainly smoked and they produce wonderful corn beef.

What we should be concentrated on should be the meat from the sirloin section. It is easy to remember sur = after. So sirloin is the part after the loin. From this section we get the T-bones, Porterhouse steaks. Tenderloin is a straight piece of meat that does not contain much marble (fatty tissue) and you have to pay attention when you are cooking them. Thus you would have bacon wrapped tenderloin to allow fat from the bacon to compensate the dryness.

Personally I believe people have the absolute right to decide their taste. There are people who love blade steak and sirloin tips for they love the bite of meat. Other would not be satisfied unless the steak is fork tender. So, do not listen to any food critic or follow the food show host to the T. There is no definite recipe. The French did it the best. All the ingredients in a recipe are general guide-lines. They should be modified to your own liking.

To be continued, “A Steak Well Cooked”