help me cook a steak without a BBQ
 

Currently without a BBQ but fancy eating a nice steak at home from time to time. I prefer a medium cooked steak....oh so juicy and good.

What is the best way to cook a steak, and what cut of cow should i buy if my options to cook it are: a George Foreman style grill, fry pan and oven?

IMO, it is way too easy to overcook food in the Foreman grill. I prefer the frying pan method indoors. I rub a little bit of oil on both sides of the meat, season appropriately, and get a nice sear on each side of the meat. The key is not to keep poking and prodding it once its in there. As to whether you cook the meat through in the pan or transition it to the oven really depends on how thick the cut is.

Broil a 3-pound steak on the top rack of the oven (2" away from the heating element is ideal) by heating the pan with a bit of high-temperature oil (olive or peanut works,) throwing the steak on for 10 seconds to sear the side, flipping it to sear the other, then cooking for 7 minutes on each side. You might want to go up to 8 minutes per side since I like mine rare and 7 leaves it nice and juicy on the inside.

im glad you posted this. my BBQ was recently burnt though, and i need a good grill-less steak cooking method.

MSD's got it!! :thumbsup: Sear and Broil is the best way when you lack a grill. I had to do that this weekend since I had forgotten to get gas for my grill.

What do YOU prefer? Some prefer a leaner steak, some feel the leaner custs are tasteless and look for a marbled cut. Some like their steak tender like butter, some like it chewy. Here are a couple of guides:

http://www.certifiedangusbeef.com/chef/cuts.php

This one is is a PDF file:
http://www.cooksillustrated.com/imag...ndersteaks.pdf

I will go with this mostly,

I pre heat my oven to 500 degrees
put my biggest cast iron skillet in

get the thing as hot as it will get

while preheating
I rub some oil on my steak (I prefer a good rib eye for this)
and will usually put some salt and pepper on it

once the oven has heated twice (told me it reached temp, then started heating again, then turned off)
I take the hot pan, put it on my hottest setting on my stove, and slap the steak in it. let it cook for 2 min on each side, then straight into the oven for about 6 min
probably go 7-8 min for med.

make sure you let it rest for at least 10 min before cutting into it.

If you want to know... go to the master.



Steak... DONE.

I love the title of it...steak porn. Totally was, too. Now I want one.

dead

Thank you everyone for the ideas!!! I used the hot skillet and oven method for a pair of thick pork chops and it was fantastic.


Will be hitting the butcher for a steak tomorrow to try this on a nice steak.

Keep'em coming folks!

I've never cooked a steak on a grill, personally. I broil.

About 3 1/2 minutes on each side. Perfection...well, except for the lack of 'hot off the grillness.' Which I do understand.

Fried steak upsets my stomach. I usually opt for braising it if BBQ isn't an option.

6 beef short ribs 2-3" thick
1/2 c. olive oil
3 poblano peppers, diced (remove cores and seeds)
2 yellow onions, minced
3 stalks celery, minced
5 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 bottle red zinfandel
1/2 q. KC Masterpiece
1 q. chicken consomme
kosher salt
red pepper

Season the ribs with salt and pepper. Warm oil in a large roasting pan and add beefs. Sear until browned. Remove.

Add peppers, onions, celery and garlic, cook until browned. Degalze the pan with the zinfandel, then add consumme and BBQ sauce. Bring to a boil. Add beef again and cover with foil. Braise at 350 for 2.5 hours or until tender.

Remove ribs, season with salt and pepper, and then pour sauce over the beef and serve.
(courtesy of the Zin Restaurant)

Serve with a light salad.

Get a cast iron skillet (if you buy a new one, be sure to season it properly), preferably one with a lid. Heat it up, empty, with the lid on, in your oven at whatever the hottest setting below broil is. Heat it a good 20 minutes or so.

For your steak, MAKE SURE YOU TAKE IT OUT LONG ENOUGH AHEAD OF TIME THAT IT IS ROOM TEMPERATURE!!! I can't stress this enough. You will have much better success if you are cooking a piece of meat that is 60-70* rather than one that was just taken out of the fridge. Season the steak simply. I usually just use a little sea salt, fresh ground pepper, and maybe some garlic powder or onion powder.

Take your hot skillet out of the oven. Place a small amount of olive oil in the skillet (it WILL smoke.....probably a lot....I suggest open windows or a fan on), then throw the steak in there, closing the lid. Depending on the thickness of the steak, cook it for a few minutes on each side, turning only once. For a 3/4" ribeye, I would say 2-3 minutes on the first side and maybe 2 minutes on the second side will give you a medium to medium rare steak.



I am a steak freak. I have a reputation amongst my friends and family of being a bit of a steak snob, and also being the best man there is to have at a grill/BBQ or cooking a piece of red meat. Next to grilling a steak (and sometimes even better than that), this procedure with a cast iron skillet is the best steak you'll get. It is basically how all of the finest steakhouses around (Morton's, Ruth's Chris, etc.) prepare most steaks.

If you don't have a cast iron skillet, they are cheap, and well worth the investment. Just make sure you research how to season it first before you cook a good steak in it. Usually just cooking regular hamburger in it a few times without washing it (wipe it out with a paper towel, no soap) will do the trick.

Alton Brown does no wrong:

Who the hell LIKES a chewy steak? Please point this person out to me so that I may remove them. :mad:

As a side note, broiling them IS a good way... I usually wrap mine in foil first, shiny side inwards. pan-frying CAN be good... depends a lot on the cut of steak (Ribeye - OK, T-bone - bad).

Quite a few, actually. I'm not one of those, but I do like me a good skirt steak done on the barbecue grill. When cooked to perfection (medium-rare for me, thank you :D ) , I'd consider that chewy.

Borla, you need to talk to my SO. Doesn't matter if the meat's done, if it hasn't reached the REQUIRED TEMP. she won't take it off.

Then again, I've told her and cooked her repeatedly on the ways of the beef, so no talking will suffice.

The best way to do a steak idiot style is five a side. Five minutes after heating on one, five on the other. This works primarily with half to whole inch cuts and pleases the masses. For the rest of us, no more than three a side.

I refuse to burn a steak. When we have people over, I tell them that if they expect me to grill their steak anything past medium (and even that is too far IMO), I'm feeding them chicken instead. :D

for me steak was always simple. but then again i sometimes have simple tastes and the quality of meat in au is so good even if you screw it up it´ll turn out pretty good but anyway. heat a decent pan to really hot. throw some butter in while it is heating. when you are satisfied the pan is just short of red hot chuck the steak in and put a lid on. turn over after a minute. after a minute the steak will be somewhere around mediim rare to medium. i like my steaks well done so at this point i turn off the heat and turn the steak over every minute and a half for about 3 turns and it turns out well done, slightly crunchy and the flavour is 100% there. i spice with steak spice or use sweet chilli sauce then serve. me.

Good plan my friend! I agree, even medium is pushing it. If it's a REALLY good cut of steak, I want that bad boy to moo at me when I stab it.

I though I was using the de-facto pan steak recipe but it turns out I can't find it anywhere on the internet...

I basically heat up butter until it turns brownish and then throw on the seasoned steak, flip and eat (I add caramelized onions too). If you don't want the steak blue (you should try that at least once) you just have to turn the heat down after the butter is brown. Oh and you should definitively use a cast iron for red meats. I just hope I'm not the only one using this recipe

By the way, braising, as suggested above, is only good for tougher cuts of meat (shin, tail, pot roasts, ribs). If you braise things like T-bones, Rib eyes and loins you will ruin your meat.

Take a thick rump steak, show it to the frying pan (tease), then place on plate and devour like a lion.


Seriously,
What we do is heat a pan up very very hot, then stick either side in for a minute or so to seal it. Make sure that you leave it in the room for half an hour or so, instead of just out of the fridge. Not sure what this does but I'm told it's best practice so I abide.

Then put them in the grill until they're hot, remove.

Add:
fried onions, friend mushrooms, iceberg lettuce with lemon juice+olive oil+balsamic vinegar, then finally:
English mustard!

Then devour like a lion. ;)

Ummm... No. These two restaurants use special broilers that reach temps of around 1800 degrees. If you asked for a pan-fried steak, they would laugh so hard they'd wet their pants.

A medium steak has an internal temp of 130 degrees. I'm not sure how you're getting that on a 3/4 inch steak in 2-3 minutes per side. But hey, what do I know. I only managed Steakhouses (including one mentioned above) for 5 years.

Just a note about searing... this really isn't for sealing purposes. The reason you sear something is to impart flavour. If you are going to broil something you want to sear it so the surface browns or caramelizes. This is pure flavour. If you were to just broil it from the start, it wouldn't taste (or look) as nice.

thanks, i did not know that!

A nice 12 ounce rib-eye, take it out of the fridge in plenty of time for it to get room temperature.

Rub some olive oil on the meat, go light on the salt but heavy on the pepper (has to be fresh cracked peppercorns)

Make sure your pan is screaming hot, to the point where it should be highly uncomfortable to have your hand over the pan. Put the steak in and don't move it for 60-90 seconds.

Turn it over with a pair of tongs and don't move it again for 60-90 seconds.

Take the pan off the stove and stick it in the a pre-heated oven at 400-450 for desired done-ness (I eat mine at 145-150 internal temp, takes about 7 minutes or so).

When that's done, take the steak out of the pan and place on a cutting board to rest, while the steak is resting deglaze the pan with a quality balsamic and finish with 2-3 pads of butter.

Slice steak, pour over balsamic reduction.

Experience heaven.

Use this recipe with either a blade or a chuck shoulder steak:

Simmering Steak
COOKING DIRECTIONS:

1. Season steak/strips, in lightly oiled skillet, brown all over. Add sliced onion, green pepper, garlic, etc., if desired.

2. Add enough liquid (such as canned soup or tomatoes, broth or red wine) to just cover beef.

3. Simmer, covered on stove-top or in 325ºF (160ºC) oven approximately 1 1/4 hours or until tender. Serve with cooked rice, noodles or mashed potatoes.

From www.ontariocornfedbeef.com

my recent favourite way to cook steak:

30 mins before, place steak in a bowl with equal parts olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and a good sprinkling of oregano. Rub it in thoroughly and leave to absorb.
Griddle pan on the stove, with a very little olive oil on it, get it very hot.
drop the steak in there (minus the marinade) - I only leave it a couple of minutes on each side, I like it pretty raw! Leave longer for medium. While the steak is grilling, drop some coarse sea salt over it to season, on each side.
the grill leaves some nice marks on the steak. Serve and enjoy!
Seriously, the oregano is not overpowering here and the remaining seasoning makes any steak juicy and really tasty - brings out the meat flavour.
I came across this method accidentally and it has received several compliments from friends and family.

Grill or broil. Personally i find the term broil is just the american equivalent to grilling.
If your steak is an inch thick or less this works, put it in a frypan or on a grill after seasoning both sides. For medium, when you see the blood come to the service of the meat, turn it over. Wait for the moisture/blood to come to the surface, take off the heat and rest in a warm place for 5 to 10 minutes. This allows the moisture to return to the centre of the meat. Works everytime for me.
If its fatter, generally its easier to cook in the oven after searing both sides.

Well. . I just tried this method. It's one of the best steaks I've ever had, and the meat itself wasn't even all that good. A fantastic way of doing things if you don't have a grill.

who was the master?!
the video's not available any more.
i just found out last week that we are not allowed to have a grill of any kind in our condos and i was really upset.
since then i've been looking through all kinds of stuff and even contemplating an indoor electric grill.
can you use a cast-iron skillet on a glass range?

Gordon Ramsay

Olive oil in a very hot skillet (Does not HAVE to be cast iron)
Press salt, pepper, chopped garlic into the steak
Lay in pan - should hear a fast sizzle.
Let it brown for a bit, then turn, placing a sprig or 2 of rosemary beside the steak.

Take a stick of butter and cut about 1/8" lengthwise, laying it beside the steak. Once the butter has melted, tilt the pan backwards, and constantly spoon the butter over the steak.

Wait till cooked, then let it rest.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/601-4581799-8880145?ASIN=B00008GKDQ&AFID=Froogle&LNM=B00008GKDQ|Lodge_Pro_Grid_Cast-Iron_Griddle&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=B00008GKDQ&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

Nuff said. Goes over 2 eyes. Reversible for a flat griddle top for pancakes

Sure. Just don't thunk it down too hard.

Thanks Shakran...

Gordon Ramsay vid:



One of my favorite recipes is from the May issue of Bon Appetite magazine, that had a super food-porn pic of steak-frites. I'll have to look for it, but the basic recipe goes like this:

Rib eye steak seasoned with salt and pepper, seared on a ripping cast iron skillet. Take out of the pan, let it rest, deglaze pan with cognac and beef stock, add herbs if you want. Whisk away, scraping all the delicious meat bits stuck to the pan. Add a bit of heavy cream til it reaches your desired consistency, spoon over steak. I have a habit of making too much sauce (never a bad thing), so I spoon that into a little bowl and dip my fries into.

I live in an apartment without a balcony so I am faced without having a BBQ as well. I tried the recipe in the Ramsay video and it was delicious. From start to finish it took about 15 minutes to do, including the artichokes.

my cast iron (enameled for protection of the glass stove top) arrived in the mail today.
i'm sooooo ready for this steak this weekend!!

never never never using the cast iron skillet in this house again.
we did, however, learn that should the condo catch on fire for real, we're dead.
stupid smoke.
stupid smoke alarms that never went off. holy shite, what an experience.


what an amazing steak.
i spoke too soon.
the story was too long so i stuck it in my journal because i wanted to remember it. :lol:

Yea, unfortunately no matter how many windows you open, you're still gonna get that crazy hissing steam and smoke. But that's what gets you that tasty crust. Good to hear it worked out!