How To Cook The Perfect Steak

For Father's Day: The perfect steak

Sure, any good chef can grill a steak. Chefs have access to high-quality beef and super-hot restaurant equipment.

And most dads can grill a steak. They've got experience.

But what happens when it's Father's Day and the rest of us might like to cook our fathers a steak?

We asked three food professionals to put down the restaurant-quality ingredients and gear and tell us: How do you grill a steak at home?

Did they all agree? Of course not. They're all dads. And they all have their own ways to do it.

The experts

Walter Royal , executive chef at the Angus Barn in Raleigh. He grew up in Alabama, where his family had frequent cookouts on his grandparents' farm. His dad was a T-bone man, he says: "A big ol' piece of meat."

Robert Brener , chef-instructor at Johnson & Wales University Charlotte. Brener teachers New World Cuisine, which includes grilling. At home, he has a smoker and a small gas grill, but he really cooks over wood in his outdoor fireplace.

Vic Giroux , owner of the butcher shop What's Your Beef?, 14021 Conlan Circle in Charlotte's Ballantyne area. He's such a grilling fanatic, he has a combination gas and charcoal grill with a super-hot, infrared burner. "I grill all my meat, all year round. Up in Jersey, I grilled when it snowed."

Which steak?

Royal : "For me, on a personal note, it's the ribeye. The fillet is the most popular choice, for the fat content. The ribeye – it's meaty, it's flavorful, you can get it well-marbled."

Brener : Skirt steak. "Great flavor, very easy to cook, very versatile. It can be tough, but you cut it very thin and cook it really fast, smoking hot. I do it all the time on the (gas) grill as high as I can get it. I think it has better texture than the flank steak even, and I like flank a lot. Throw a vinaigrette on it when it comes off, a basic chimichurri. It's just fresh and awesome."

Giroux : Ribeye, bone-in or boneless. If there's no ribeye, "go for the porterhouse. A porterhouse is a full fillet with the strip (steak) and the bone around it. You're getting a two-for-one deal, yes you are. And definitely cook it on the bone."

Picking a good one

Royal : "Look at the color. You don't want anything that's sort of faded or not a good, rich red. And then you look at the marbling. You don't want big chunks of fat. You want little flecks of whiteness woven in the meat itself.

Cook the Perfect Steak: Salting, Searing and Poking Myths Debunked

If you look around for advice on how to cook a steak, you'll find many competing points of view on the fine details. To put to rest common points of contention, Serious Eats offers the results of some steak-cooking experiments and a scientific look at the cooking process.

Without ruining the reveal, in terms of salting: you need enough time to do it right. Regarding searing in butter versus oil: add both, but at different points. And, well, poking doesn't really do anything (except maybe give you a false impression).

Hit up the article below for lab results, gorgeous photos, and even a timelapse video of the salting process.

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