How do you season your steak?

With summer and grilling season almost fully upon us, I wanted to solicit your methodology for seasoning a steak.

Personally, I am partial to great meat with kosher or lightly ground sea salt and fresh ground pepper. Pull out the steak an hour prior, salt, then pepper prior to tossing onto the grill. Sometimes I will lightly salt again right before putting onto the grill.

I always question how much salt though, what does it take to over-salt?

What else do you throw into the mix?

I do pretty much the same thing (though I don't usually re-salt it before it goes on the grill). I may add a touch more after it is cooked and sliced.

If I use a rub/spice mix, then (a) I'll skip the salt if the rub has salt in it; and (b) I'll add some fresh rub to the meat after it comes off the grill. Cooking alters the taste of most spice mixes, so I like to add a little refresher.

I like to coat it with olive oil, some fresh sliced garlic, and whole fresh rosemary sprigs letting it marinate in the fridge for about four hours before cooking. Salt and Pepper goes on right before it hits the grill.

well depends on the cut. If I grab strip steaks that were on sale at Dominics then I slice up some garlic very thin and put small slices in the steak and put the garlic in them. Then I make a marinade with worcheshire sauce, onion powder, pepper, salt, and a little ground coriander, let it sit for half hour and those Dominic steaks come off the grill tasting good

Salt, pepper, a light rub of olive oil and a pat of butter at the very end.. That's it. I like my garlic and such on the sides. I like to serve my steaks with horseradish as a side.

I too am just a salt and pepper man. However I am looking forward to trying a bit of smoked salt from the olive store on Clark in Andersonville. (City Olive? Can't recall.)
Went there for some Christmas stocking stuffers and they were tasting out their fancy salts. Normally I'm a bit skeptical about gourmet salt. But a couple of these were just tremendous. I gave them away and can't recall exactly which 2 I chose. I think there was an alderwood smoked salt. In any case, I think this would be well worth trying in a very simple prep. which would allow the salt to shine and to complement something else. at the same time.

the prime beef I buy requires very little seasoning. Season steak with kosher salt, and some fresh ground black pepper. Then onto the roaring hot grill for a few minutes on each side to get it cooked somewhere between rare, and medium rare. Served with a salt shaker at easy reach, just something about salt and beef that are a perfect match.

My favorite steaks are:

T-Bone or Porterhouse
Bone in Ribeye
Filet
Sirloin

All steaks cut handcut to order by thickness not weight at my local butcher shop, I wont buy meat at any supermarket, & that includes Whole Paycheck or Fox & Obel..

I also buy skirt steak, & flank steak, , but these are all put in a wet marinade before cooking. Typically served as taco filling.

jimswside wrote:...at my local butcher shop...

What is your local butcher shop? I am always on the lookout for a closer butcher than Paulina or a nicer butcher than Peoria or a butcher with better parking than Gepperth's.

As far as the original topic, most of my steaks only get a little bit of "french grey" sea salt prior to grilling, from the spice house.

jpeac2 wrote:I always question how much salt though, what does it take to over-salt?

Years ago i was at The Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe on business sitting alone at the chef's counter. It was not a particularly busy night. Mark Miller walked over to me and asked me what I would like for dinner. I replied, "Whatever you are serving chef" I expected enchiladas, something new mexico style. What i got was a Ribeye served Cowboy style which looks a lot like what some people call a Tomahawk cut. It is essentially a steak lollipop (If you watched the season finale of top Chef Chicago you know what i mean)

I asked Chef Miller how he seasons his steaks, he said "Kosher Salt, thats it" and he meant lots of it. I asked him how much salt was too much and he said that there was no such thing. He simply brushed the excess salt off the steak before it went on the grill. He proceeded to serve me the best steak I had ever tasted. I have tried his method of "oversalting" at home and have had varying degrees of success. i think the key is getting most of it off before the meat hits the grill so that you dont get an oversalted flavor. when done right the meat is just soooo tender.

iblock9 wrote:

jpeac2 wrote:I always question how much salt though, what does it take to over-salt?

I asked Chef Miller how he seasons his steaks, he said "Kosher Salt, thats it" and he meant lots of it. I asked him how much salt was too much and he said that there was no such thing. He simply brushed the excess salt off the steak before it went on the grill. He proceeded to serve me the best steak I had ever tasted. I have tried his method of "oversalting" at home and have had varying degrees of success. i think the key is getting most of it off before the meat hits the grill so that you dont get an oversalted flavor. when done right the meat is just soooo tender.

That reminded me of this blog post. I read it a while back, and was intrigued, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Maybe I will now that grilling season is upon us once again.

cybermud wrote:

jimswside wrote:...at my local butcher shop...

What is your local butcher shop? I am always on the lookout for a closer butcher than Paulina or a nicer butcher than Peoria or a butcher with better parking than Gepperth's.

As far as the original topic, most of my steaks only get a little bit of "french grey" sea salt prior to grilling, from the spice house.

My local butcher shop is in Ottawa, IL. A small family owned shop out near where I live. Probably nowhere close to where you wanted.

This does work great I have used it for years. I also like to use garlic salt and an herb wrap to if I am feeling a bit randy. mmmmmmmmmmmm steak!

Miss Mimi wrote:

iblock9 wrote:

jpeac2 wrote:I always question how much salt though, what does it take to over-salt?

I asked Chef Miller how he seasons his steaks, he said "Kosher Salt, thats it" and he meant lots of it. I asked him how much salt was too much and he said that there was no such thing. He simply brushed the excess salt off the steak before it went on the grill. He proceeded to serve me the best steak I had ever tasted. I have tried his method of "oversalting" at home and have had varying degrees of success. i think the key is getting most of it off before the meat hits the grill so that you dont get an oversalted flavor. when done right the meat is just soooo tender.

That reminded me of this blog post. I read it a while back, and was intrigued, but haven't had a chance to try it yet. Maybe I will now that grilling season is upon us once again.

After a round of Passover shopping on Monday (more for interesting gluten-free items than for religious reasons), we stopped at City Market on Devon. They had some choice ribeyes on sale. We don't normally like ribeyes because of the intensive fat. Sure, it tastes like heaven, but neither of us like to eat a lot of fat, so we spend so much time removing it that we don't do much eating. For some reason, I thought I'd buy them.

I started to salt them and had a temporary memory loss - salt and sit? or salt and cook immediately?

Of course, I came to LTH (I did make a stop at Cook's Illustrated on the way) and found this thread. The blog listed above made salting sound so much fun, I had to try it. I salted, we went for a walk, came home, rinsed, and threw them on the grill.

Wowsa! They were great. The taste was superb and Mr. Views loved the salty taste. To me is seemed quite different from a brine, as the saltiness wasn't throughout (they were 2" thick steaks) and seemed somehow more intense and meatier tasting where it was deposited. They were heavily marbled with a thick core of fat that wasn't too hard to spot and remove; as to be expected with such marbling, the steaks were very tender, full of flavor, and were very juicy. I removed the core of fat first, then sat there nibbling at the steak left on the edges, as one sometimes does with a bone. When finished, my face was greasy along with my hands and shirt and I was extraordinarily satisfied.

I will definitely do this again.

I favor a blend called Quebec Beef spice from The Spice House. (okay it is my store, but I would use it even if I had to buy it at the grocery) Even if you are "just a salt and pepper" guy, this blend will not lead you too far astray. The main ingredients are cracked black pepper, Kosher salt, but also a bit of sugar for carmelizing, garlic, coriander and white pepper. I just rub it into both sides of the steak, very heavy, and they are good to go on the grill. If I have more time, I put raw steaks into a bowl with red wine and season with the Quebec spice. The Kosher salt draws some of the blood into the wine marinade. Take the steaks out after half an hour, season again, put them on the grill. Take the red wine, add some shallots, some butter and a little demi glace stock and you have the most marvelous au jus to go with the steaks. My husband drinks it like a beverage if I am not watching him in the kitchen! Hmm, I think I know what's for dinner tonight!