How to Grill the Best Steak of Your Life
I used to hate cooking steak at home for one big reason: smoke. I rent an apartment in Brooklyn, which means I have to deal with smoke alarms that are close and sensitive. But even without the threat of a blaring siren, steak was always one of those “sometimes” foods that ended up being more of a mess than I wanted to clean up.
That is until the concept of reverse firing came into my life and changed everything. Now I can cook myself the perfect steak, and so can you.
What is reverse firing?
Searing is a classic way to cook steak: simply place it in a hot pan and sear until done. “Reverse sear” is a catchy phrase that means the steak is first cooked on low heat in a conventional oven and then thrown into a hot pan for just a few minutes to give it a nice color on the outside. The steak is cooked almost entirely in the oven; you fry it simply for the great browning and flavor that the process brings.
The restaurant’s kitchen has industrial fans and grease traps, so preparing food in minutes is a priority. This is a good place to quickly cook a steak in a skillet. But at home there are difficulties – in particular, burning, especially for beginners who are learning to cook steak at home. Burning fats and meats causes smoke to fill your kitchen. And while it’s mostly aesthetic, searing a steak over high heat will cook the protein fibers on the outside much faster, shrinking the outer layer and puffing up the middle, and this deforming of the meat makes it difficult to sear evenly. Roasting is intended primarily to impart flavor, so uneven roasting actually minimizes flavor.
Why Reverse Firing Completely Rules
When reverse searing, the meat is cooked gently, at about 250°F, and slowly, for 20 to 50 minutes, depending on how much you like your steak (and some parameters I’ll cover later). Slow cooking allows the meat to heat through and cook more evenly while maintaining a nice, flat shape. The best part if you ask me? No smoking. With this cooking method, the possibility of burning is eliminated. Well, not yet anyway. (You do toast it briefly at the end, but it’s not that long.)
What’s more, it reduces stress: cooking this way allows you to do other things in the kitchen while the steak cooks in the oven, and you can use a thermometer every 10 minutes or so to keep an eye on how it’s progressing. If you have a terrible habit of overcooking your steak, this method will almost guarantee that you won’t overcook it.
How to properly grill a steak
1. Preheat the oven
Set oven temperature to 250°F. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet. There won’t be many drips from the steak, but if the meat is lifted, warm air will flow around it from all sides.
2. Set the desired temperature and bake the steak.
Season the steak thoroughly and place it on the grill. You’re aiming for the core temperature to be 10 to 15 degrees below your target end temperature. Keep in mind that the steak will fry in a hot pan and will also leave behind cooking residue.
I like my steak somewhere between medium rare and medium rare, so if you look at the steak temperature chart from Omaha Steaks, medium rare is 140°F. I subtracted 15 degrees and aimed for 125°F. It took me 45 minutes to reach 122°F, with two temperature tests done after the first 25 minutes.
There are variables to keep in mind. How thick is your steak? Was it refrigerator temperature or room temperature? My ribeye was an inch and a half thick and was still cold from the refrigerator. After 25 minutes, it had just reached an internal temperature suitable for rare steak, about 102°F. My advice is to be mindful of the thickness of your steak and check it after 10 minutes if the steak is thin (about an inch thick) and after 20 or 25 minutes if the steak is thicker (an inch and a half or more). Once you have your initial readings, you can adjust the cooking time.
3. Fry in a hot frying pan.
Once the desired internal temperature has been reached, remove the steak from the oven. Heat the skillet over medium heat until very hot, which usually takes a few minutes. Sear the steak on all sides, about a minute on each side. Let the steak sit for at least five minutes before slicing.
If this is your first time reverse-frying, you may be dismayed by how ugly and gray your steak looks after the oven. Hang it there. Once you scorch it, you will understand what we are talking about. Reverse seared steak tastes great and looks beautiful. Even though you’re missing out on a few nice drops from the pan, for me the benefits outweigh the missing joy. So say goodbye to the sizzling taste and hello to a more relaxing and better steak.