How do you prepare and season steak? The best way to season steak is to add a generous amount of salt to both sides about 45 minutes before cooking. Then, just before cooking, add your other spices, like black pepper and garlic powder, ensuring that you cover both sides of the steak.
For the ultimate chef's steak preparation, if you don't have this steak seasoning, marinade your steak with a pink of sea salt, coarse ground black pepper, and minced garlic – this combo gives your chef's steak the ultimate caramelization and nice thick crust that we all love so much. Then, let it rest.
Pat your steak dry with a paper towel then massage in a tablespoon of high smoke point oil like Avocado Oil or Tallow. Season very generously on all sides with a good Kosher Salt, Sea Salt, or Himalayan Pink Salt plus freshly ground Black Pepper mix.
Make the steak dry rub by combining the chili powder, ground coffee, brown sugar, paprika, cumin, oregano, onion powder, salt, and black pepper in a mortar and pestle. Season steaks with a dry rub. Sear on all sides. Add butter, cloves of garlic, rosemary, and thyme to the pan and baste the steaks until medium rare.
Season the Steak: Steaks don't need much to make them great. Just before grilling, brush them lightly on both sides with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. If you want to get fancy, you can add spices like chili powder, paprika, or garlic powder to the rub.
However, every great steakhouse seasons the steaks they cook. Typically a steak is seasoned with coarse ground black pepper, sea or kosher salt, garlic, and some type of signature spice. In addition to the seasoning most steakhouse's use a marinade, butter, or some type of baste or finishing liquid.
Rest the meat
If you cut into those tight muscle fibers as soon as it's off the heat, all the juices pour out. That's why resting meat for 5-10 minutes is the secret for preparing a juicy and tender steak. This resting time allows the muscles to relax and release their juices evenly into the meat.
On seasoning:
There's nothing better than to let the natural flavours of the meat sing. I keep it simple by first coating the meat with a bit of olive oil and then adding lots of coarse salt just before cooking so it doesn't dissolve, as this helps to create a nice surface texture.
Before grilling, season your steaks (or other meat) with a generous amount of steak seasoning on both sides. Rub the seasoning into the meat so the steaks absorb the rub.
Some people like to season steak ahead of time (way ahead—up to a day before cooking). Others prefer to season it just before cooking. And some cooks fall somewhere in the middle and do it a few hours ahead of time. Here's what you need to know: salt pulls water out of everything it touches.
Coat both sides of the steak, and its sides, with salt and freshly ground black pepper, so a visible layer of seasoning exists on every surface. The salt shouldn't pile up, but it should coat the meat.
The number one spot goes to grilling, the classic method for cooking your steak. While great grilling isn't quite as precise as sous-vide, it leads to the best, purest-tasting steaks out of non-sous vide methods. This is because grilling uses the steak's natural fats and juices for flavor.
Salt is a must when seasoning steak. It not only adds flavor to your meat, but it also helps make steak juicy and tender. When you salt your steak before you cook it, the salt sits on the meat and draws moisture to the surface. But, the removal of this moisture doesn't make the steak less juicy.
Season it on both sides with salt and pepper, then place it uncovered on a plate in the fridge. Let air dry in the fridge for 12 hours, then flip and let sit for about 12 hours more. 4.5 hours before you want to eat, remove the steak from the fridge. Set somewhere safe at room temperature for about 4 hours.
Most fine restaurants age their beef to intensify the flavor and improve the tenderness of the cut. Aging is done by letting the meat sit (in very controlled conditions) for several days or weeks.
WHICH IS BEST FOR COOKING STEAK: BUTTER OR OIL? Unlike butter, many oils have higher smoke points, making them the better option for cooking steak. Furthermore, there are some oils e.g. olive oil or grape seed oil that are healthier alternatives to butter.
Steaks should always be cooked on high temperatures to sear the outside and trap the juices and flavor inside. Steaks should almost always be cooked on a grill or in a pan on high heat: all cooking guidelines below are for one-inch thick steaks. Rest your steak for five minutes under aluminum foil before eating.
But the reality is that flipping a steak repeatedly during cooking—as often as every 30 seconds or so—will produce a crust that is just as good (provided you start with meat with a good, dry surface, as you always should), give you a more evenly cooked interior, and cook in about 30% less time to boot!
Leave it at room temperature until cooking. Brush each side with 1 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil. Place the steaks on a hot grill and sear for 4-6 minutes, rotating 90° once to create criss-cross grill marks. For a rare or medium finish, turn the steak over and finish cooking to the right temperature.