tienshiao.org

A couple years back, we visited Argentina. And we ate a lot of steak. And the quality of the steak blew my mind. After I returned to the US, whenever I would have steak I would compare it to my memories of steaks in Argentina. And the flat out failed to compare. What was previously good was now a chewy flavorless lump of flesh (with too much butter). I have more/better steak in more recent outings, but I can’t tell if it is the memories of Argentine steak fading or better steak.

If you like steaks, you must visit Argentina (after the farmer’s strike). No matter where you go, you will have awesome steak. This is because steak is pretty much a cornerstone of Argentine culture. Anywhere you go, whether it is (was) a hidden gem like La Cabrera in Palermo Viejo in Buenos Aires (review, review), or some random buffet, you’ll get awesome steak (at least my American standards). That’s because the guy grilling your steak has probably had decades of experience grilling steaks and a lifetime of experience eating steak. Not to mention, the cattle farmer responsible probably has generations of experience raising cattle and another lifetime of experience eating steak as well.

I certainly don’t have that kind of experience, but I’ve been working on it. Unfortunately my audience pretty much consists of me, my girlfriend, and our dog (and the dog thinks veggies and random stuff off the sidewalk taste great) so the audience is a little biased. Every time my girlfriend’s parents vist, they come with gifts usually in the form of food. One trip they brought a ton of beef (mostly ribeye). It sat in our freezer a little bit and took up a lot of space. Eventually this became annoying, and I took it upon myself to start eating more beef. I figured this would be a good opportunity to pursue those memories of Argentine steak. I did a little research online and in recipe books to find out what went into an Argentine steak. Turns out, not much. Some (sea) salt and maybe some garlic powder, which I guess leaves the skill and beef quality as the only real variables affecting the end result. After much trial and error, I much happier with the results now. I can’t say if they compare (I think my memories may also be clouded by the Argentine wine, nostalgia, and the plain good time I had) but they’re pretty good.

The big secret to grilling that I have been trying to convey in the last two paragraphs is: practice. Sad, but true. Consider it bonding with your grill. As a handy guide, I’d say you would need to go through at least a tank of propane to get to know your grill.

I’ll provide some specifics which may work as a starting point. I have no “formal” culinary experience and some steps probably aren’t necessary (just consider it part of my grilling ritual).

1. Make sure the meat is as close to room temperature as possible. Pulling it out of the refrigerator right beforehand is fine for me. Pulling it out of the freezer is not advised. If your meat is frozen, stick it in the refrigerator 24 hours beforehand.
2. Fire up the grill and let it preheat closed.
3. Prep the meat. I use salt and Lawry’s Garlic Salt. I season both sides and rub it in a little. I put a little extra on the fatty areas. I figure no one will eat those, so no one will realize if those parts are too salty. How much salt? That comes from experience, and personal taste. Since we aren’t baking there is some leeway anyways. I’ve tried sea salt, but I prefer normal table salt.
4. Turn down the grill to medium-low. I can’t tell you want temperature that is, because I just turn it down to somewhere between low and high (but closer to low) on my grill. Once again, we’re not baking so we don’t really need that level of precision.
5. Throw the meat down on it. Close the grill. And then I set my iPhone timer to 3 minutes. I grill with the grill closed because my patio is windy and if I were to grill with it open, it would take much too long. On non-windy days, I do notice things cooking a slightly more than usual.
6. Some time after my timer goes off, I wander over to the grill and I flip the steak and close the grill. Once again, I set my iPhone timer to 3 minutes. I ascribe to the “only flip” one philosophy. I suspect the gauchos in Argentina don’t care.
7. After the timer goes off again, the steak is done. Again precision is not super important, a couple seconds here and there or a couple degrees here and there isn’t going to matter too much. If the steak is thicker than normal or I’m looking to make it well done, I’ll move a little more slowly.

Cooking times I’ve been using at “medium-low”:

• steak: 3-4 minutes per side
• chicken thighs: 4 minutes per side
• corn on the cob with leaves still on: 24 minutes, flip a couple of times – 24 minutes is divisible by both 6 (steak) and 8 (chicken) thighs, so I can just use one timer. Warning, easy to burn, especially if the leaves/husks/whatever aren’t completely covering the kernels.

Beef quality obviously varies. I’ve been favoring ribeye and New York cuts, though I must confess I haven’t played too much with the other cuts. I prefer no bone-in. The bone seems to absorb some heat and makes it difficult to evenly cook the meat. Nob Hill has “Black Angus” branded beef and these are USDA Choice. They seem roughly comparable to Safeway’s “Rancher’s Reserve” though these have not been certified by the USDA. I compared recently, and the Nob Hill steak seemed better but that might just be a placebo effect from knowing that is suppose to be USDA Choice. Ranch 99 meat seems to be a step down from the previous two. I’ll have to explore cuts from places like Whole Foods and Trade Joe’s and specialty butchers. I haven’t tried the butcher counters at the grocery stores because I guess I usually shop too late. I don’t even know if they have USDA Prime cuts behind the counters.

And even if none of the above works well for you, grilling a couple times a week can’t help but improve your grilling skills .

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 25th, 2008 at 1:24 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.