Steaks on the Grill

The temperature in a restaurant's broiler is often over 700-degrees. The flame burns continuously. The broiler in our home ovens is lucky to hit 500-degrees, and once it does, the heating element is likely to turn itself off. You're no longer broiling. The heat is no longer coming from one direction. You're roasting.

There are two ways to get around this problem: A cast iron skillet or a charcoal grill. Let's take a look at grilling on charcoal.

Now before we go too far, let me warn you about a major grilling pitfall. The method that I'm going to describe for steaks is for steaks. Just steaks. Hamburgers, sausages (including hot dogs), pork chops, chicken, ribs… they all require different methods -- sometimes very different. You may be able to mix burgers and steaks with a little compromise, but if you try to do chicken and steaks on the same grill, one (or both) will be ruined. For now, we're only grilling steaks.

We want to start with a super-hot grilling surface. If you use one of those flimsy, shiny chrome grates, it won't stay shiny if you're making steaks. If whoever is does clean-up around your house can't accept that fact, you're in trouble. Get a separate grate just for steaks because the fat is going to permanently bake on, and the only way to get it off will also take off the shiney chrome finish.

Personally, I suggest just scraping-off the chunks immediately after taking the steaks off, and giving the surface another scrape before you put the next steaks on. Further cleaning is unnecessary. If your grill is hot enough for steaks, no bacteria is going to be able to survive on the grate.

I prefer to start my charcoal with a chimney instead of the traditional suburban bath of lighter fluid. While our hot fire would burn away the petroleum, the ligher fluid method also takes longer than a chimney. Fill the chimney with charcoal, put two -- only two -- pieces of newspaper in the bottom. Light it, and then let it alone for fifteen or twenty minutes. It'll be so red hot, you'll need gloves even to hold the stay-cool handle.

Obviously the chimney gets hot enough to set a wood deck on fire, but you may not realize that it also will get hot enough to melt asphalt, or cause tile, brick or some kinds of concrete to "pop". The place to do this is in the grill, on the grate you'll be pouring the coals onto.

As soon as you dump your coals, distribute them evenly across the area below where the steaks will go. Don't mound them. We want even, direct heat. Put your cooking grate on immediately, and bring the coals as close to the grate as you can. We don't want to put steaks on a cold grate. A cold grate won't give us those delicious looking grill marks, and you may find that when it comes time to turn your steaks, they have stuck to the cold grate. Hotter grate equals grill marks and no sitcking.

Make sure you've trimmed-off all the extra fat on your steaks. If you don't, you'll have flare-ups. Those flare-ups result in soot, and soot does not taste good. You can use a squirt bottle filled with water to knock down big flare-ups, but this will result in steam. Steaks shouldn't be steamed.

The fire should still be super hot, and that's good. But let's not get carried away. Move the coals as far from the grate as they'll go before putting on the steaks. This is critical if you have thick steaks.

Now here's the hard part. Let the steaks just sit there. We only flip them once. The time to flip comes when we see signs that the effects of the heat are reaching towards the top. On a thick steak, you can see change color on the side. On a thinner steak, you might see juices that aren't bright red starting to rise. That's the time to flip. Use a turner or tongs. We don't want a fork releasing all the juices. If you've done it right, the bottom will have a caramel crust, and possibly some dark grill marks (if your grate was hot enough), but it won't be burnt, and dried-out. If the bottom is gray-ish, you didn't wait long enough, or your fire isn't hot enough.

The second side takes just a little less time than the first. The coals are getting cooler, but the center has already started cooking. If you have a very thick steak, use an instant read meat thermometer to check the temperature in the middle of the meat. Stop 5 to 10 degrees before the meat reaches your target doneness.

After taking the meat off the grill, let it sit for three to five minutes. If the ambient temperature is cool, make a foil tent over the meat. Leave it loose enough that you aren't locking in steam. This is a very important stage, that people often overlook. If you don't let the meat stand, as soon as you cut into it, the juices will all flow out, and the meat will be dry. Letting it sit locks the juices in. Mmmmm.

Stick with medium thick steaks until you get skilled. Thin steaks cook very fast, and do not have much of a margin of error. Extra thick steaks may burn before building to the right internal temperature. Also, the thicker the steak, the longer the sitting time after grilling.

To review:

• Very hot coals. Hot grate = grill marks. Cold grate = sticking.
• Spread the coals evenly for direct heat.
• Trim extra fat to prevent flair-ups.
• Flair-ups produce soot. Knocking down flair-ups produces steam. You want neither.
• Turn the steak only once.
• Let the steak sit before serving.

One loose end: A gas grill isn't as good as a charcoal grill because of the way gas burns. A by-product of the compustion of the gas is water. Hot water is steam. That's why gas broilers in restaurants have the heat source above the meat, and why you won't get the best results from a gas grill.

The essence of making great steaks is direct heat, searing the outside of the meat, but allowing a pink middle. The charcoal grill was one way. There's another way we can do it at home: A cast iron skillet.

NEXT: Steaks in the Skillet >>
PREVIOUS: Introduction <<

 

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