Grilled steak is a great, great thing, particularly as the season starts to wane and you’re feeling like easy-easy cooking. And you need just two ingredients to make your family or guests sit up and say “YOWZA, what did you do to this steak?!” Those two ingredients are a good steak, and a jar of Rocklands Malt Salt. As Kim Snedden says, “Rocklands Malt Salt is the pixie dust of the protein world.”
Get your steak from a source you trust, and aim for a steak that’s not too thick. We like 1 to 1-1/4 inches. Marbling is your friend — those lines of fat that melt through your meat while it cooks — but you can cook a lean cut or variety this way too. Here’s what you do:
- About 45 minutes before you’re ready to grill, take the meat out of the fridge. If there are any, trim off the large pieces of fat — that will help prevent flare-ups. Pat the steak dry, then sprinkle liberally with Malt Salt (both sides) and press the salt into the meat.
- Start your fire, get it good and hot. If you have not already, scrub the cooking grill clean with a wire brush — this helps prevent sticking. (You can close the grill lid, heat up the cooking grill, then easily scrape off all the charcoaly bits.)
- Put the steak on the grill and DO NOT TOUCH IT for two minutes. This means no jiggling, no repositioning, no “I just want to fiddle with this because I’m holding the tongs.” This will help your steak not stick. After that, you can flip to your heart’s content, or let it sit there and cook for about 5 to 6 minutes total on the first side for medium, then flip, and cook for 3 to 4 minutes on the other side.
- Sure-fire way to know where you are is to test the meat for done-ness by thermometer — 130 degrees for medium rare, 140 degrees for medium. We also like the cut-and-peek technique, but only if you’re pretty close: You want to cut just once, not hack at the meat several times. Little cut, take a look; you want it one level of doneness down from your goal. So for medium on the plate, it should still look medium-rare when you test. (And pay attention to look and feel when you take the steak off; over the years, this muscle-memory will become your best way to judge if your steak is done.)
- Remove the steak to a platter and cover it snugly with aluminum foil for 10 minutes. Refresh your summer adult beverage, play another round of Settlers of Catan, chase the dog out of the garden. The steak will keep cooking just a bit, and voila! you will be happy when you eat.
Rocklands Malt Salt is available at your favorite Rocklands location.