robandstuff

In case anyone wants to know, this is how you make the perfect steak. (Thanks to Alton Brown, of course).

1) Turn off your grill, you won’t need it.

2) Pull some good steaks out of the fridge and let them warm up a little, maybe half an hour. Good steak can be of any variety, really. Sirloin, ribeye, t-bones… just good quality and thicker is better. This method work best with ribeye, thick cut sirloin, and a hearty t-bone, imo. I suppose no flank steak or cut roasts.

3) Put a cast iron skillet large enough to hold all your meat with at least an inch from each piece and the sides in the oven and set it to 475F. 

4) Coat the meat LIGHTLY with oil on both sides. Lightly! You’re not trying to fry the steak, just a way to “seal” the (textured) meat to the (smooth) cooking surface. Peanut if you have it, vegetable otherwise. No real difference in flavors, just the peanut oil will smoke less.

5) Sprinkle the meat with coarse salt and fresh ground black pepper. Don’t overdo it, but don’t be scared either. Both sides.

6) Once that is done, if your oven isn’t up to temp yet, get out a plate and put a nice big handfull of French’s Fried Onions (those crispy things your Mom puts on green bean casserole). The generic ones suck in my experience, this is one case where I go brand name. Note: I’ve not tried it, but I have a feeling that some roughly busted up potato chips might make a workable substitute. Not crushed just broken up, mind.

7) Now the oven should be at 475F, so turn a burner onto high and pull out the skillet.

8) Throw your meat on and leave it alone for one minute. If you like your meat with some extra char on it (personally, I do!) go for about 75 seconds. Longer cooking here can mean a slightly shorter cook time later, just keep that in mind. Don’t go less than one minute though.

9) Flip the meat and repeat. Adjust your time based on how the first side looked.

10) Turn off the stovetop, flip the meat, and put the whole thing back in the oven.

11) Leave the meat in there for 1 to 5 minutes. This part varies quite a bit based on how you want your steak cooked (medium-rare, medium, etc), the type of cut, overall size of the meat, and the thickness of the meat. Small, thinner, and more tender meat (as well as a desire for rare steak) will require shorter cook time. For reference, a large, 3/4+ inch thick t-bone hit medium rare (on the strip side, more medium on the thinner, more delicate fillet side, unfortunately) in about 3 minutes (per side).

(If you haven’t prepped your plate with the fired onions yet, do that now).

12) Pull the meat out and flip it over. Look at the meat (DO NOT CUT INTO IT) and determine how much longer it needs, then put it back in the oven. Remember that it will continue to cook AFTER you pull it out of the oven, plus you can always add more heat later, but you can never take it back. I typically go for 3 minutes on side one and 2 minutes on side two wich usually yields a medium or medium rare steak, unless the steak is very thick, in which case I might go 4 and 3, or sometimes 3 and 3. You just have to use your judgement.

13) Take the steak out of the oven and place it on your bed of fried onions. Cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest for FIVE MINUTES. DO NOT SKIP THIS PART.

14) Get your beverages ready, and stage whatever side dishes you’ve prepared onto your plate next to the steak.

15) Uncover, admire your work for a moment, then dig in. If you did this right you won’t need steak sauce. The salt and pepper mixed with the juices from the steak will make a delicious seasoning, and when all of that soaks into the fried onions it is better than any bottled sauce I’ve ever had.

Don’t think you can do it? Don’t worry. Go to the store, buy the nicest looking steaks you can find, call me up and come on over. I’ll be happy to show you how it’s done.

Lately it’s been getting to be 4:00 and I am just mentally checked out. I perk up again a couple hours later, but I am just bouncing off the cube walls to get out of here and have no idea how I will make it another 45 minutes.

Every time someone mentions the words the “me generation” or the “gimme generation” I am forced to think of the 50-something Boomers who sit in my office and say things like “but what’s in it for ME” and “where the advantage in this for ME” or “I won’t do it until the give ME more”.

I am soundly convinced of two things: first, the Boomers are the source of our economic troubles. They are incredibly selfish in both their concern for money and disregard for the environment, and they have been systematically labeling their kids and grandkids as greedy, lazily, and selfish because (much to their parents credit) American’s under 30 are open-minded, independent, critical thinking, consciences people - and they (the Boomers) are ashamed of everything they did from about 1975 to 1995 (that is to say, the hippies became yuppies).

First, props to Asher for pulling of a mad pimp hat his daddy couldn’t have managed.

Now, onto what’s going on. Had some Founder’s Double IPA tonight. 9.4% ABV and 86(?) IBUs (that is to say, super hoppy/bitter). Two of those, and now a double-deuce of my 7.4% hard cider. Hiyo!

Watched a roller derby reality show with Whit, who is not taking a bath, whilst I download the new(ish) MONKEY ISLAND game. Booya. Good times.

I love ZenniOptical! Ash got a hold of one of my pairs of glasses and gave ‘em a good bending. They held up, but after something like that glasses typically break relatively soon. I have a spare pair already, but rather than wait for these ones to break, I ordered two pairs from Zenni. For $27. Shipped. With anti-reflective coated polycarbonate lenses.