BG Cooks

[Daydreamer]

lol nice Zal, but the grammar nazi in me decided to correct your obvious typo! oh and come back to WoW.

And to Daydreamer salt attracts water to wherever it is present in the meat, salt inside a burger will hold onto liquid (maybe minor amounts) but still holds onto it, salt on the outside will draw fluid out (again is minor and you would need to leave it there to have a noticeable effect). Just like when you work out you want electrolytes because they are contained with salts and help re-hydrate your body. Also when turning meat on a grill, don't puncture the meat with a fork to turn it, use a spatula, puncturing the meat can create holes for excess moisture to escape and also heat to enter the meat, drying out the steak faster. I do agree medium rare is the way to go.

And the reason searing medium rare helps keep liquid inside the steak is not because the crust prevents liquid from escaping, but because when you sear you are getting a quick cook on the outside without overheating the middle of the steak, and are generally moving the piece of meat into and out of heat very quickly. Low and slow heat on a grill only lets meat fall out of the meat and into a fire, you only cook low and slow when you are cooking meat inside a contained area, because it is cooking in liquids, and like daydreamer said fat melts at 135, and if you cook at a lower heat longer it more thoroughly melts the fat.

Notice how I never actually said salting beforehand pulls the juice out. I know it does, at least a little, but it's so small that it's not noticeable. And if you salt right before you toss it on a grill we're talking noticeable on a purely microscopic level I just used the hamburger example to try to show that salting and leaving things out for a while really doesn't make any big difference as far as water loss is concerned. Guess I should have chosen a better example

[Norelco]

Meat is apparently serious business here at BG.

[Xfaustx]

Meat is apparently serious business here at BG.

haha I was thinking the same thing, I love how serious these cooking threads get. Needs more cooking forum.

[Correction]

Meat is apparently serious business here at BG.

Wait till the beer thread gets going.

[Norelco]

How about the "how do you eat your reese's peanut buttercup" thread?

[Correction]

With a glass of water. That thread is 2 posts long.

[LogainDiabolos]

How about the "how do you eat your reese's peanut buttercup" thread?

With an ice-cold glass of milk.

The guy who said water needs to have his taste buds examined.

[Plow]

For people that don't cook much, you'll get the best results from doing this:

Get a good quality 14ish ounce ribeye, or 12ish ounce strip.

Buy some basic cheap steak rub.

Mix 2 tablespoons of soy sauce with 1/4 cup of olive oil and 2-3 teaspoons of your steak rub.


Set the steak in that mix while it warms to room temperature (20-30 mins).


Cook to your desired done-ness. Typically, if you can handle fairly pink, but don't want your shit rare, the flavor will be best right around the time the steak is able to slide around on the grill easily, without sticking. Try to avoid flipping it more than once.

[quannum]

soy sauce? bleu cheese? steak sauce? what the hell is wrong with you people.

thread should have ended here:

If the steak is of any decent quality at all, it's a crime to use anything but salt and pepper, or cook beyond medium-rare. If you're slathering it in seasoning or overcooking it, you probably don't actually like steak and should just eat something else.

seriously, go eat a hamburger

[Seraph]

soy sauce? bleu cheese? steak sauce? what the hell is wrong with you people.

thread should have ended here:

Shit is situational. I prefer a simpler steak, but I have had some amazing ones made with garlic/soy sauce/honey/brown sugar marinades.

I think the real trick is to not marinade it for too long, and make sure it is cooked correctly. Ideally, the flavor alteration/enhancement should be fairly subtle (assuming you don't have a piece of shit cut of meat, but that is what A-1 is for).

[Askari0]

Dale's is probably the best meat marinade I can think of, and I've pretty much tried them all:
Dale's Seasoning - History

Peter Luger's is decent if you're just looking for a steak sauce/dip type thing.

This. This. This. This. This. This x1000000

Dale's works miracles. All my family does is marinate it in s good amount of dales and garlic powder. Cook it medium, medium rare and it will be delicious so long as your buying a semi-decent steak.

[Erudite]

I rarely eat red meat, but I like it med/rare.
I don't have a grill, so I cook it in butter on the stove.

Thin slices over a low heat in a lot of butter.
3min on each side, and done.
Served with steamed broccoli.

[Resin]

I'm in the good-quality-meat-plus-salt-and-pepper group. Rubs and marinades certainly aren't bad, but you're not tasting as much of the actual steak that way.

With a strip or skirt steak, I like ground sea salt, black pepper and a little bit of onion and garlic powder.

[aalryn]

I'm in the good-quality-meat-plus-salt-and-pepper group. Rubs and marinades certainly aren't bad, but you're not tasting as much of the actual steak that way.

With a strip or skirt steak, I like ground sea salt, black pepper and a little bit of onion and garlic powder.

Oh don't get me wrong. I'm a sucker for a good Caribbean jerked ribeye too!

[Miroku_Asura]

To restate what so many have said,

it's a crime to use anything but salt and pepper, or cook beyond medium-rare.

Here's some general stuff I do:
Take your meat out at least 30 min to an hour before you're going to cook it. Room temperature meat cooks much better than cold meat.

Remember to pat your steaks dry before you season them- wet steaks on a grill don't turn out as well as a dryish one.

I tend to do one of two things with my steaks depending on my mood; I'll either have them straight up, seasoned only with S/P, or if I want to go over the top, I'll either make an herb butter, a Bearnaise, or I'll sear the steaks in a skillet and make them au poivre with a shallot cognac/sherry glaze that's fucking incredible. The herb butter is the easiest to do if you're crunched for time because you were busy jacking off instead of remembering its your anniversary with your significant other.

Herb Butter

1 Stick of unsalted butter at room temp
1 clove of garlic- finely chopped
1 Tbs of capers (nice flavor but don't worry if you don't have them on hand)
2 Tbs minced chives*
1 tsp fresh Thyme*
1 tsp Lemon zest
1/2 tsp Black Pepper
*** You can use any herbs you want tbh, just make sure that you chop the stuff super fine. Italian parsley is really good in here, so is rosemary, and fresh marjoram.


Put everything but the butter in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse a few times till it looks relatively the same size. Add the butter. Pulse a few times to combine.

Place the butter on a piece of wax paper and roll it up into a log- *think tootsie roll*. Pop it in the fridge/freezer and you have instant sauce for just about anything... This is nice on pork chops, chicken, veggies... you name it. I'm not a fish person, but judging by the present flavors, I would assume this would be acceptable with a white fish like cod. Could maybe melt it down and have it with shell fish too.

The concept behind this is really nice for other meals too- I make a really good cinnamon maple butter that I put on pancakes and french toast that's very similar structure wise- just need to be careful with the maple syrup though as it can make the butter too thin.

Hope this helps!

[Korietsu]

Lowry's Seasoning Salt right before the grill. Don't need much more. Cook to medium rare. Pour beer over steak/coals after initial high heat cooking.

[Raiko]

I'm actually still laughing out loud at Vagus' comment. Has to be the most retarded thing I've ever heard haha