Grilling the Perfect Steak

I've been on a quest for quite a while to grill the perfect steak. Notice I said, "quite a while." Each time I felt, "it's good... but maybe it needs a little more __." And that "more" could include a variety of things.

To me, the perfect steak has to be medium rare. I want that sucker red on the inside and scorched on the outside. I want juices... lots and lots of juices! And I want the slab of meat to be big and thick!

This past Saturday I got a hankerin' for a steak. I had been running errands when I got the idea, so I made a final stop at Tom Thumb to get the things I needed.

I actually purchased the last single steak. Now, it all begins with the choice of meat. For my Saturday night grilling experience, I "selected" a rib eye. There might be better pieces to choose from, but I was in a rush to get home and this was fine by my standards.

One thing I did differently was to marinade it. I had about 2 hours before I wanted to eat, so I was doing ok. Here's what my marinade consisted of:

6 oz Shiner Black Lager beer (12 oz would have been too much for 1 steak)
Black Pepper
Sea Salt
Thyme
Basil
Olive Oil
Minced Garlic
Lemon Juice

I whipped all of that up in a little container. I forked the steak on both sides, then placed the steak in Tupperware. I then poured the marinade over the steak and put the Tupperware lid on.... and placed it into the fridge.

An hour later I flipped the Tupperware over and closed the fridge. I started the grill to get the coals ready. About an hour later, I took the Tupperware out of the fridge and flipped it one more time. I then took the lid off so that it could warm up to room temperature for the last hour.

I grilled some other things while all of this was going on - sausage, burgers, etc. I then waited until the coals were very hot (they say 600 degrees is perfect... I didn't have a thermometer) and brought the steak out.

The plan was to cook it 5 minutes on one side, and 5 on the other. After 5 minutes after the first flipping, I realized it might need a little longer to cook as it was still a bit raw inside. I guess my coals weren't 600 degrees! So, I cooked it for a total of 10 minutes... the last 2 I opened up the lid so the flames would really work on the outside and make it almost "burnt."

Inside, I sauteed some onions in my skillet with beef broth, butter, and some cream. I then poured all of that over the top of my steak and opened up a bottle of Chianti.

Man oh man... all I can say is this steak was just about the most perfect steak I've ever grilled. It had so much flavor... it was cooked just long enough... and the topping was pretty darn good!

So was it perfect? Almost... I'd say it was the perfect rib eye. I'd like to try other cuts of meat to determine "the perfect" one. And... I might want to marinade it longer... like all day!

Anyway, I hope this was helpful to you and your future grillings!

Beef... it's what's for dinner!