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It could be said of me that I share the same traits as all true men.   I have a desire and a love for only three things.  Meat, Sex and Sleep.  You may be thinking to yourself that money should be upon that list.  Money however is impure.  Its only a means for aquiring those three truest desires.  As it happens I have a nose not unlike a dog.  I have a powerfull sense of smell though I don’t enjoy the smell of things that most people might.  Perfuum and cologne actually give me a headache.  The combination of these two traits oft have me salavating upon passing by a steakhouse or a neighbors backyard outing.

The point I’m getting to here is that there is a unique smell that develops with the grilling of a great steak.  This smell is unlike anthing else in the world and it drives me to hunger upon but one wiff of it.  I’ve tasted such a steak several times at finer establishments.  I’ve never been able to replicate or even approach it on my own though.  Over the years I’ve cooked hundreds of steaks trying different things with each attempt.  I can impart some of the wisdom of what it takes to make a really good tasting steak, but I can’t seem to get that magical smell. 

As you look over the cuts of meat at the market you will undoubtedly see there are very fatty steaks, there are lean cuts, and there are variations of every grade inbetween.  When I first started my quest for the perfect home cooked steak dinner I went to the store and picked out the piece of meat that was the most brilliant red color.  Surely the brighter red the fresher the meat and the better the steak right?  This was a hard lesson to learn as I couldn’t initially get past the idea of fresher meat meaning better taste.    I wouldn’t suggest you go find a green piece of meat, but here’s the secret to choosing a good cut.  Its called marbelization. 

If you look at the meat and it has tons of fat, but all the fat is along one edge or one vein down the center of the cut the meat will be hard.  If you find the meat is bright red with virtually no white fat in it, the meat will be tough as rocks.  What you want to find is the fat evenly distributed throuought the meat in tiny white spots.  The more white spots the better the meat will be.  The reason is simple, as the meat cooks the fat dissolves into the meat and becomes the juices.  if there is no fat the meat just gets hard.  if all the fat is in one place then it doesn’t absorb into the meat thouroughly.

Lots of people have a preference to the way their steak is cooked.  Rare, Medium, Well done, ect.  Nowdays I wonder where that preference really comes from.  You see this was the second major mistake I made in finding the perfect steak.  At the beginning I often found myself chewing through tough pieces of meat with virtually no fat.  I knew the steak was hard and I didn’t know why.  I tried tenderizing the meat, but all that did was make it less like steak and more like hambuger.  In my quest to make the meat softer I developed a belief that rare or medium rare meat was a better steak because it was softer.  Less cooking means less time for the meat to harden up.

The truth is that meat tastes better when fully cooked and I had mislead myself.  While I used to always order my steaks medum rare, I’ve found that a well done steak is just as good or rather it is better.  The trick here is that you need to find a place that does a good job to get a great peace of steak.  Taking a poor cut of meat and cooking it less doesn’t make it any better.  It also doesn’t make the meat any more juicy.   It just masks the fact that its a bad steak by it still bleading inside.

With these two tips you should be able to find and cook a great tasting juicy piece of meat.  This however is where I’ve hit the brick wall.  No matter what I try I seem to be able to make the meat taste good but it never gets that mouthwatering smell.  You know the one that makes the neighbors climb over the fence to see what you are doing…  Truth be told I get the same flavor and almost the same smell whether I cook it in cast iron on the kitchen stove or on briquettes or even the new propane grill.   I get the trademark sear marks using the grill, so thats the avenue I’m following but the meat never smells right. 

I guess it doesn’t help any that I’m going it alone.  I plan to try some marinades to see what that changes, but since the steak flavor is already near perfect I fear they will hurt more than help in my quest.  Still today my quest is a failure.  How about all of you out there.  Anyone care to share a tale of thier quest for a perfect home cooked steak, and perhaps the tricks they’ve learned along the way?