One thing to keep in mind is that you can’t necessarily compare your at-home steak to a steakhouse since you may not be starting with the same kind of meat. A high-end steakhouse may be using meat which has been dry aged. That process will tenderize the meat and give it bold flavors that you won’t get in a fresh cut. The restaurant isn’t necessarily cooking it in a way that makes it taste that way. They are starting with a very tender and flavorful steak. All they have to do is char the outside and let the middle come up to temp and it’ll be one of the best steaks you’ve ever had. But if they started with a grocery store steak, then it’d probably end up about like your at-home steak.
Ah, that makes sense in all ways. Tender meat due to fat, along with more connective tissue to chew around, while the strip has less of both?
Good to know. This was hyper-local meat from a small farm, which I also imagine impacts flavor/structure/consistency from animal to animal.
I do reverse sear in my smoker at around 200 degrees for about an hour and then drop my cast iron right into the firebox with some butter and herbs for the finishing sear. Gives a great crust on the exterior and perfect medium rare inside with the added bonus of the wood smoke flavor.
This has already been said, but i typed it before reading those posts, and what i wrote is slightly more explicit. The meat of a rib eye IS more tender, but it also has bits of connective tissue in the cut. One ordinarily eats around the chunks of fat and bits of gristle in a rib eye, while enjoying the succulent meat.
That’s likely to be tougher but more flavorful than what’s at the supermarket.
This is what I was going to mention. Our favorite steakhouse dry-ages for (I can’t remember) … a long time! Anyway, even their filet mignon is flavorful and delicious. They also make a perfect baked potato (not everyone does).
Run it through a warm room.
One time I had to improvise grilling a steak and I ended up using a toaster oven. Normally I use a grill, but we ran out of gas. I don’t really have experience cooking steak with a pan or oven. This was a special occasion and we had gotten expensive, Wagyu steaks. I was worried that there were too many variables with a pan or oven that I’d have to figure out on the first try in order to not mess it up. I decided to try the broil setting of my toaster oven since I thought it might be similar to grilling and I’d have a lot of control over the process. I used a probe thermometer to watch the temp. It actually came out excellent. Pretty much as good as I could have done on the grill.
I learned this method from ATK:
On your grill make a hot zone and a cool zone. Get the hot zone a hot as possible.
Grill the steak 2-3 minutes per side (uncovered) on the hot zone, then move it to the cool zone for:
5-6 Minutes for Rare
6-7 Minutes for Medium Rare (Rare side)
7-8 Minutes for Medium Rare (Medium side)
8-9 Minutes for Medium
9-10 Minutes if you’re a monster.
Let it rest for about 5 minutes before you cut it. Unless you’ve cooked for ten minutes, then it wouldn’t have any juices anyway. “Enjoy” it with ketchup, you minster.
Gee, all that. I take my old cast iron frying pan. I cut off the excess fat, and put it in the pan, once it has melted a bit and the pan is hot, I put the steak in- having seasoned the “down side” first- with fresh ground black pepper and garlic powder. Then i season the “top” half with salt and pepper. Flip. When done, take out of the pan, let it sit for a minute, then enjoy.
I realize filets are a different beast than ribeyes but I have followed these directions to a “T” several times and my filets come out perfect:
Yeah, the basic idea is simple: you just want to sear the outside and bring the heat inside the steak evenly up to temp (easiest done at lower temperatures.) Any method that will satisfy those two points should work, in whatever order you prefer. You could probably do it with a high-wattage incandescent light bulb in an enclosed enough space and finish it with a blowtorch for fun. Hell, you could also probably just wrap it in foil and put it on some hot Phoenix blacktop in the middle to the day, and finish with a sear, too. (Heh…I’d like to try that now.) Just use that thermometer and you’re golden. Steaks aren’t rocket science.