Grilled steaks - how to season/make tender

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zubby01

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Ya'll have helped me a great deal in previous posts and I have a pretty simple question here.

I've got family coming in for the holidays and one of the meals I'm going to make is grilled steaks - on Christmas day. I do an OK job with steaks but I usually love rib-eyes. But, New York strips were on sale.

I have seasoned before with salt and pepper or Montreal steak seasoning. Is there a way to make steaks 'over the top'? I really want these to be tender but there is not a lot of fat in them. I've tenderized steaks before but don't notice how much it helps. Maybe I'm not tenderizing them long enough.

1. How can I get New York strips tender?
2. Do you tenderize and how long before you cook them do you tenderize?
3. Seasoned or unseasoned tenderizer?
4. Sprinkle it on or poke holes w/ a fork first?
5. Salt and pepper as seasoning or other?
6. Olive oil before seasoning or not?

Thanks to all.
 
Usually when a strip goes on sale it's Select grade and won't be the most tender. You can mechanically tenderize the steak with needles ( I forget what they call the thing with needles you press into meat..a Jacarter?). Keeping the steaks closer to rare helps. Marinating with something acidic can help to a certain extent.
 
A good cut of meat NEVER needs to be tenderized. If your steaks are USDA Choice or Prime, that's half the battle as no amount of seasoning or perfect cooking can fix a tough sub-grade piece of meat.

As far as seasoning goes, whatever suits your taste. I've been using Lawry's and seasoned pepper of late, but just plain sea salt and coarse ground black pepper always works beautifully. You don't have to use olive oil, although I use just a bit to help the seasoning stick to the meat.

At this point, it really boils down to how you cook the steaks - if they are over 1.5 inches thick, then I'd do a reverse sear, otherwise cook them over very high heat, and pull the meat when the internal temp reaches 125 if you like medium rare, let rest 5 minutes and enjoy!

More info on the reverse sear if you need it:

http://www.bbq-brethren.com/forum/showthread.php?t=136959
 
I take about a 1/2 tsp of kosher salt and sprinkle on each side of the steak-1 tsp total per steak. Of an inch thick I let it rest for an hour and add 15 min per 1/4 inch. When done I rinse well and pat dry. Then spread some olive oil and add fresh black pepper. I grill at about 600 degrees which puts on a good seat and keeps the juices in the meat. The salt breaks down the proteins and tenderizes the meat. Makes choice seem like prime. Ron_L has a post on this and a link to using the salt. Good luck
 
I usually just use S+P with a little garlic powder on my NY strip. IMO it is always plenty tender and is my favorite cut of steak. Some cuts are more tender but the NY strip is plenty tender and has great flavor.
 
I'm a straight salt and pepper guy when it comes to pre-seasoning. If I want more flavor I'll add caramelized onions and/or sautéed mushrooms on the plate. A pat of compound butter can do wonders.
 
No amount of special seasoning, marinading, poking with needles is going to make a poor grade of steak(less than choice or prime) into a better cut of meat. You should have picked out each steak you were going to buy and checked that they had a good amount of marbling and good color(meat and fat). Don't over cook them. Med-rare to med at most.

JWWFM-YMMV
 
I think aging has a lot to do with tenderness regardless of grade. Let the enzymes tenderize it for you. Cooking a steak the same day as bringing it home from the store rarely works.
 
SDAR said:
I think aging has a lot to do with tenderness regardless of grade. Let the enzymes tenderize it for you. Cooking a steak the same day as bringing it home from the store rarely works.
Click to expand...

Agree 100%. For tenderness I'll take an aged (dry or wet) choice steak over a non-aged prime steak.

I also think it's important to salt a steak well ahead of time. I like to salt mine at least 12 hours before cooking. Lots and lots of kosher salt. More than the meat can absorb. Then just take the meat out of the fridge at least 1 hour before cooking and rinse it off. Pat dry with a paper towel and let it hang out on the counter and come to room temp before cooking. The meat and salt will find a balance and your meat will NOT be too salty. Before cooking you can sprinkle on just a little more salt if you want but don't overdo it.
 
When I end up with steaks that are on sale, I use the method in the link below...

http://steamykitchen.com/163-how-to-turn-cheap-choice-steaks-into-gucci-prime-steaks.html

Basically, you salt the steaks heavily and let them sit on the counter for and hour for every inch of thickness, then rinse thoroughly, dry and season with fresh cracked pepper and grill to medium rare. I also don't bother with steaks that are less than 1" thick and prefer 1 1/2 inches thick. We'll typically eat half of the steak and use the other half on a salad later in the week.
 
We used to sell crate loads of cheap steaks every year as part of our Church Bazaar, and what we did was use rock salt, and salt pack the steaks for a couple of hours prior to the actual cooking. A 1" steak can be done in less time, in fact, using a finer salt, the guy in charge believed in the rock salt though. We also did this with chicken.

You end up with a tasty steak, that is more tender than what you otherwise get from supermarket steaks. We also claimed to soak the steaks in beer, but, I am certain that did nothing, other than provide us beer.
 
Ok. I went ahead and froze the steaks for another time. I went out and bout some prime cuts which I haver never done before. But since it was for Christmas so I splurged.
I also bought some steak seasoning but after coming back here and reading you alls advice I think I'll salt to season and tenderize and maybe add some pepper. I'll also read the links you provided.

Thank you all very much for the information and taking the time to respond. It is very helpful. Have a great Christmas
 
I happen to love Montreal Steak Seasoning
 
A good steak does not need a tenderizer. Just salt and pepper. It depends on the cut and size when to season. For large cuts, like london broil and roasts I will season 24-28 hours ahead. For steaks, I usually get 1.5 " or thicker and will season an hour before. I think with guests, you will want to know how they generally like their steaks. If unknown I usually shoot for medium-rare to medium. I really like doing reverse sear now as it is easier to be consistent.
 
Recently, I've become a huge fan of SM Peppered Cow on steaks.
 
landarc said:
I happen to love Montreal Steak Seasoning
Click to expand...

Me too. Also, Weber's Chicago Steak Seasoning is similar and very good.

LYU370 said:
Recently, I've become a huge fan of SM Peppered Cow on steaks.
Click to expand...

Peppered Cow is also very good :thumb:

Tatonka Dust from Owens BBQ is also excellent on steaks.
 
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