Well my local Kroger had T-Bones on sale for like $5 a lb so I picked up four of those bad boys. Problem is, I have never prepared nor cooked a steak by myself and I was wondering if any of you guys could help me out here on prep and how long I should cook them, I generally like my steak medium to medium well.
Thanks guys, and please nothing too detailed lol I can’t afford to go buy a bunch of marinades and what not.
Is it also just as good to cook them on the stove top as opposed to a grill? We aren’t allowed to have grills here but they have a public one down by the pool I could use.
I did some steaks today (pan fried though, but i grill to a lot). I put salt, cumin, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder on them. Put a lot you actually want to taste the fuckin’ seasonings.
Anyways throw them bad boys on there. 3-4 minutes each side. Then after what I’ll do I like to cut a little slit on the thickest part. cause that’s the only way I can see and get it where I want it perfectly. after a while though, I get like a 6th sense for when it’s close to being done. Remember it still cooks a little after you take if off.
Medium? Medium rare man c’mon!! That’s how chefs all around the world prefer them, goes down easier to!
Or what’s good as hell, get some jerk seasoning and mix it with olive oil, marinade any meat for like an hour. baddabingbaddabooom.
Take the steak out of the fridge and let it sit for 30 minutes or so to get up to room temperature. Take a pan and heat it up on the range on medium-high heat, hot enough that a drop of water will evaporate when it hits the pan. Meanwhile, sprinkle the steak with salt and pepper. And if you have rosemary, keep that on the steak when you’re cooking it. Put a knob of butter in the pan (or olive oil, but that doesn’t taste as good), and when it melts and starts to bubble (should be pretty quick), put the steak in. Leave it alone for a few minutes.
Depending on how thick it is, maybe 6-7 min. Flip it and give it another 5-6 min on the other side. Take it out of the pan and put it in a plate, and let it rest for 5-10 minutes.
If you have balsamic vinegar lying around, pour half a cup into the pan (let it cool a little first or it will splatter everywhere) and reduce it until it is thickened. Then pour the juices from the steak on the plate into the pan and let it reduce a little more. Then turn off the heat and put a little more butter into the vinegar (this is optional) and pour it on the steak.
Also, if the steak is too thick (I am hesitant to pan fry any steak approaching an inch thickness), then it will burn before it gets cooked well enough. If that’s the case, I stick it into the broiler after frying both sides for a couple of minutes.
You should salt and pepper them before you cook them, they are good to cook on the stove top if you have a powerful stove other wise a grill would be better. Feel the meat while its still raw, when cooking it the feel of the meat will change and it takes some practice to nail down the doneness you like.
Rare is soft like raw meat but with more of a bounce, medium rare is soft and bounces back, medium is firmer but it has some give. On the grill put over the hottest area first to brown the steak then move it to the cooler side to cook to your doneness, same idea on the stove top start off hot with some olive oil to get color and reduce the heat to doneness. If you want more flavor from the stove top after you get some color on the steaks you can throw in some butter and when its foaming and brown you can baste the steak as it gets cooked to your doneness.
For marinades you can use olive oil, garlic, thyme, rosemary or anything you want.
IMO all the seasoning you need is salt and pepper. No need to marinate this cut. Let it sit out 30 min to get to room temp first. I grill or pan fry hot and fast till the outside has a nice crust and if the inside isn’t done stick it in the oven to finish the inside.
This $16 thermometer or one like it will make it almost foolproof. Robot or human? when it hits 135-140 pull it from the heat cover it and let it rest for 5 min to let it finish cooking and the juices redistribute. BTW this is medium rare, medium is 160 degrees. I also used to think I preferred medium until I tried a big fat T-bone this way. It is ten times better. Steak cooked to medium now feels like eating leather.
Yea, Salt and pepper is basically the only thing you should ever put on a nice grilling steak. Marinades are for tougher cuts like sirloin or london broil. I am going to assume your t-bone is a pretty standard 1-1.5 inches thick, if so, your cooking time should be approx 6 MIN on first side, and 4-5 min on other side.
If you have an oven with a broiler, use that, better than pan frying and just about as good as grilling. Position your oven racks so the top of the steak is 6 inches from the heating element. Also letting the meat come to room temperature is a good idea as was mentioned above.
On most ovens, when you pull it open just a little, it will hit a little stop so the oven stays just open, this is not a flaw in your oven, it is there on purpose, keep you oven open like this when broiling, if your oven heats too hot, the element will shut off and your meat will not cook properly.
Once you pull your steak, let it rest 5-10 minutes, most good chefs also will put a little butter on the steak at this point. Just enough to cover the top. Do not ever cut into the meat while it’s cooking or before it has sat for a good 5-10 minutes. I cover mine with aluminium foil during this rest period. And also, medium rare is about as cooked as you should ever go. You do know that heat denatures protein making it unusable, so even if you only do it so you are getting the most protein from your meal, don’t cook it to medium or past.
[quote]Vegita wrote:
You do know that heat denatures protein making it unusable, so even if you only do it so you are getting the most protein from your meal, don’t cook it to medium or past.
V[/quote]
Damn so those thousands of dollars I have spent on chicken/steak/beef have been nothing but a waste?!
Sorry but what a crock of shit. Denatures maybe, but not unusable.
[quote]hardgnr wrote:
Vegita wrote:
You do know that heat denatures protein making it unusable, so even if you only do it so you are getting the most protein from your meal, don’t cook it to medium or past.
V
Damn so those thousands of dollars I have spent on chicken/steak/beef have been nothing but a waste?!
Sorry but what a crock of shit. Denatures maybe, but not unusable.[/quote]
I’m not saying it all dissapears, but denatured protein is of no use to you. Protein will denature over time and heat speeds up the process, so say I take my steak to 145 for 10 minutes, you take yours to 160 for 15 minutes, your steak will have less useable protein in it than mine will. I don’t have an exact figure or percentage, could be 5% could be 20% hell I don’t know, but I like the taste of rare better and if it provides more protein period, why would you cook it longer?
[quote]Vegita wrote:
hardgnr wrote:
Vegita wrote:
You do know that heat denatures protein making it unusable, so even if you only do it so you are getting the most protein from your meal, don’t cook it to medium or past.
V
Damn so those thousands of dollars I have spent on chicken/steak/beef have been nothing but a waste?!
Sorry but what a crock of shit. Denatures maybe, but not unusable.
I’m not saying it all dissapears, but denatured protein is of no use to you. Protein will denature over time and heat speeds up the process, so say I take my steak to 145 for 10 minutes, you take yours to 160 for 15 minutes, your steak will have less useable protein in it than mine will. I don’t have an exact figure or percentage, could be 5% could be 20% hell I don’t know, but I like the taste of rare better and if it provides more protein period, why would you cook it longer?
V[/quote]
I’m pretty sure the amino acid profile in food is unaffected by heat, and these are the main purpose of eating protein anyway. I don’t remember exactly.
anyone that “pan frys” a steak needs hurt(along with anyone that goes more then medium with beef). Seriously you’re RUINING a steak, STOP IT!
Steak seasoning is highly personal. Right now my favorite is to coat low-sodium soy, then some season salt, and a little home-made garlic powder.
Get grill glowing hot, hotter the better. put steak on the grill and DON’T TOUCH, just close the lid and wait 3-4 minutes. Open grill flip over and put on a different part of the grill, close lid, DON’T TOUCH for another 3-4 minutes. Feel firmness of steak, if where you want remove, WAIT 3 MINUTES for the meat to rest and soak back in some juices, eat.
[quote]hardgnr wrote:
Vegita wrote:
hardgnr wrote:
Vegita wrote:
You do know that heat denatures protein making it unusable, so even if you only do it so you are getting the most protein from your meal, don’t cook it to medium or past.
V
Damn so those thousands of dollars I have spent on chicken/steak/beef have been nothing but a waste?!
Sorry but what a crock of shit. Denatures maybe, but not unusable.
I’m not saying it all dissapears, but denatured protein is of no use to you. Protein will denature over time and heat speeds up the process, so say I take my steak to 145 for 10 minutes, you take yours to 160 for 15 minutes, your steak will have less useable protein in it than mine will. I don’t have an exact figure or percentage, could be 5% could be 20% hell I don’t know, but I like the taste of rare better and if it provides more protein period, why would you cook it longer?
V
I’m pretty sure the amino acid profile in food is unaffected by heat, and these are the main purpose of eating protein anyway. I don’t remember exactly.[/quote]
I stand corrected, Denaturing of the proteins happens in the gut anyways so cook your steak to shoe leather to your hearts desire. BUT it still tastes better rare. You win I lose.
haha I’m just not a fan of the really bright pink/redness. I like it to have some dull color but my mom always used to cook steak and it ended up being almost raw in the middle whenever she tried to do “medium rare”.
I don’t get steaks at restaurants because they charged an ungodly amount for very small portions. I’m not paying $20 for a 16 oz steak it just ain’t happening.
I have no idea what a good medium rare tastes like is essentially what I’m saying so I can’t argue that medium is better, but I’d rather cook too much than too little.
Quick tip that no one figures out. The filet (smaller side of the T-bone) is more tender and will cook faster than the larger side. So when you place them on the grill use your hand to find the hottest spot and place the larger side over that heat and place the smaller side away from that spot.
[quote]BigJawnMize wrote:
Quick tip that no one figures out. The filet (smaller side of the T-bone) is more tender and will cook faster than the larger side. So when you place them on the grill use your hand to find the hottest spot and place the larger side over that heat and place the smaller side away from that spot.[/quote]
If you enjoy the filet side you could also skip the t-bones and pick up, my favorite cut, the porterhouse. T-bones are basically a porterhouse that’s had 90% of the filet cut off. Normally tbones and porterhouse are the same price per-lb.
As an aside, do any of you guys know if there is a significant difference between the 90% lean ground sirloin I usually eat as opposed to a more expensive steak?
[quote]mitchellh wrote:
anyone that “pan frys” a steak needs hurt(along with anyone that goes more then medium with beef). Seriously you’re RUINING a steak, STOP IT![/quote]
You know that many up-scale restaurants pan-fry their steaks?
For my money, salt and pepper and a cast iron skillet. 2 minutes and flip, 2 minutes and put in the oven for 2-10 more minutes depending on the cut and thickness is good for the perfect rare to medium-rare steak.
[quote]jtrinsey wrote:
mitchellh wrote:
anyone that “pan frys” a steak needs hurt(along with anyone that goes more then medium with beef). Seriously you’re RUINING a steak, STOP IT!
You know that many up-scale restaurants pan-fry their steaks?
For my money, salt and pepper and a cast iron skillet. 2 minutes and flip, 2 minutes and put in the oven for 2-10 more minutes depending on the cut and thickness is good for the perfect rare to medium-rare steak.[/quote]
Agreed. Personally for my money I like to go a little Tuscan. SnP, fresh rosemary, and a little Olive Oil in a hot cast iron skillet.
