How we cook steak at our house

Everybody has their own way of cooking steak, and this one is ours. You may not like it; my brother did this for some friends and they complained that the seasoning "masked the flavor of the meat". Well, whatever, this makes good steaks.

Ordinarily we cook nicely-marbled ribeyes. They're a bit more expensive, but it's worth it to have a quality piece of meat. However when I was digging through the freezer I ran across a package of these bacon-wrapped filet things (you know the ones) and I figured I might as well get them out of the freezer.

This is one of the few times I will actually recommend name-brand products.

You will need:

• Garlic salt
• meat tenderizer
• Lawry's Seasoned Salt
• A-1
• Heinz 57

Start out by thawing your steaks. Do not thaw them in the microwave; they'll get tough. Stick them in a bowl in the fridge and leave them overnight or so.

In the morning, take the steaks out and put them on a cookie sheet or other similar platter (in the pictures I've used a pizza pan). Apply the garlic salt, meat tenderizer and Seasoned Salt. Not too heavy, or the steaks will get salty. Next, pour on some Heinz 57 and then some A-1. Smear these all over the meat with a spoon.

Now flip them over and do the same thing to the other side. Now cover them with aluminum foil and leave them til the early evening. This gives the sauces and such time to kind of soak into the meat.

Fire up your grill and get it nice and hot, then reduce it to about a medium heat. Toss the steaks on and let them cook with the grill shut. For a good, thick ribeye (usually 3/4 to 1 inch thick) you want to give them eight minutes or so on a side, but not all at once. Go about three and a half to four minutes, then flip them, then another 3-4 minutes, then flip, and so forth. If you like your meat rarer, obviously take them off the grill sooner. If you go about eight minutes on medium flame, you should get a nice medium-well slightly-pink business going.

Now, obviously on cooking times your mileage may wildly vary depending on your grill, your flame, etc. etc. So you want to keep a knife and grilling fork on hand. When you think they might be ready, cut them open and look. If they're still too pink for you, let them cook longer. If you're worried about overcooking the outside, turn the flame down. Grilling itself is something of a trial-and-error procedure, but the sauce will never steer you wrong.

Just the steak. Didn't think about taking photos until after I'd done one side, hence the sauce all in the pan.


Here with the garlic salt/tenderizer/seasoned salt on.



Here with the A-1 and Heinz 57.


On the grill! Don't those look good?


And on the plate. Despite the flash, you can see that we had ours this evening with a baked potato and some Really Thin Garlic Toast (recipe previously posted).