On steak.

I had an urge to feast on fresh meat today, possibly since I've been living off Subway footlongs for the past week.  And really, nothing satisfies that craving quite like a nice chunk of beef.

Of course, as a poor grad student, I can't exactly afford to go to a steakhouse on a whim.  Fortunately, it's not terribly difficult to make a decent steak.  There are a plethora of recipes and tips available online (Google "grilling steak" or "pan sear steak" for example).  Most of them boil down to the following tips:

1.  Pick a large enough pan.
2.  Let the steak warm up to room temperature before cooking.
3.  Season with salt and pepper a bit before cooking.
4.  Put the steak in when the pan or grill is very hot.
5.  Don't mess with the steak after putting it in, besides flipping it once.
6.  Let sit for 10 minutes or so before cutting.

Now, I don't really like to follow things to the letter.  The truth is, when it comes to cuisine, the variation in personal preference means getting it in the ballpark is generally good enough.  Finding a recipe for the "perfect" steak, then, sounds like a fool's pursuit.  Is the steak perfect for you, or someone else?  What if your tastes change?  What if the cut of meat you got is a little thicker than it's supposed to be?  What if you got a new grill?  What if you need to cook for someone else?  There are simply too many variables; to over-optimize your steak is to overfit your data.

Instead of offering you precise temperatures and times to cook a steak, then, I encourage you to experiment, with the following comments on the above tips:

1.  If you're pan searing, pick the right pan!  This is probably the most important part, especially if your stovetop burner isn't the greatest.  What you want is something with a high heat capacity and a decent thermal conductivity: Something that won't lose much temperature when you slap a chunk of cold meat on it, and can transfer heat to the meat pretty well.  This is the key to getting a good sear and a rich, crusty flavor as opposed to a flabby gray piece of meat.  High heat capacity is best achieved with a large enough pan, and the right pan material:


Specific heat capacities of common pan materials:
Stainless steel: 0.5 J/gK (http://www.lenntech.com/stainless-steel-304.htm)
Cast iron: 0.46 J/gK (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/specific-heat-metals-d_152.html)
Aluminum: 0.91 J/gK (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/specific-heat-metals-d_152.html)
Copper: 0.39 J/gK (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/specific-heat-metals-d_152.html)

Even though cast iron has a lower specific heat capacity than stainless steel or aluminum, in practice your cast iron pan will be much heavier (i.e. more mass), resulting in a higher heat capacity.  (Heat capacity = specific heat capacity * mass)

Looking at the thermal conductivities (http://www.engineeringtoolbox.com/thermal-conductivity-metals-d_858.html), cast iron also makes a good choice.  If you're using a stainless steel pan, make sure it has an aluminum and/or copper core.

Beware of non-stick pans, as the high temperatures desired for searing might ruin the non-stick coating (and possibly get it on your steak, which is probably not good).  Some non-stick materials these days may be able to handle high temperatures, but I'm not sure which ones.

2.  They say that some salt brings out the flavor in foods.  I'm a huge fan of black pepper as well, so I like to rub it on liberally.  Freshly cracked pepper beats pre-ground, since pepper tends to lose its flavor if not in an airtight container, and the skin of the peppercorn is a pretty good airtight container.  I also prefer to grind some sea salt onto the steak rather than use table salt, since I find it easier to get a more uniform layer when the salt doesn't dissolve so fast.

How much salt and pepper to put on is completely a matter of personal preference.  To experiment, I cooked up a cheap piece of chuck steak today with no salt or pepper at all (nothing but pan and meat), and it turned out quite edible.  The flavor of the beef was quite apparent, which is not surprising since chuck is a pretty flavorful cut.

3.  Letting the steak warm up to room temperature before cooking really does allow it to cook more evenly.  This makes a small but noticeable difference in my experience when pan searing.  Nevertheless, if you don't have time to let it warm up, you can compensate by searing both sides of the steak, then letting it cook at a lower heat for a while longer.  This way, the meat near the surface doesn't dry out from the prolonged exposure to intense heat.  While grilling, this does not seem to be as big of a problem - I've left the steak in for a bit longer on each side with the same high heat with no issues.

4.  You want a high temperature to get a nice, crusty sear.  The general wisdom is that the high temperature allows caramelization and the Maillard reaction (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Searing), which creates products that give a steak that nice flavor.  As Wikipedia points out as well, searing to seal in the juices is probably not true.  I've gotten good results with both cooking oil and butter.  Don't use too much; if you do, the pan either won't heat up enough or you'll get a smoky mess.  Higher smoking point oil is obviously better in this case, for you and your smoke alarm.

5.  The wisdom behind minimal manipulation of the steak, I think, lies in two factors:  One, you want to allow enough time on high heat for each side to get seared.  If you keep flipping, you're not letting the temperature get high enough, and thus not letting the reactions happen for long enough.  Two, it's much easier to judge how long you've been cooking on each side if you only flip once.

6.  Two things here as well:  One, letting the steak sit will let the internal temperatures normalize a bit.  The insides will keep cooking until the temperature does normalize, so cutting it and disrupting that process will probably get you some inconsistent results.  Two, and perhaps the most important, is that the juices in the steak will need to get reabsorbed into the tissue, and cutting too early will end up with all that rich flavor leaking out onto your plate.  See Serious Eats for evidence of this.

Finally, for an overview of different steak cuts, Wikipedia is always a good source of information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef#Cuts