Does Oklahoma Have a Favorite Way to Cook Steak?

Odds are, every single person in Oklahoma has a different method of cooking steak. And as if it couldn't get confusing enough, the metrics differ on everything from seasoning to cook temp, and no two are the same.

They say that when a man turns thirty, he has to either get way into WWII or grilling meats. I got into both. While I've left smoking meats until my forties, I've been experimenting with grills for the last decade. Over that time, I've had all sorts of steaks prepped and cooked differently, so I can confidently say--there is no single correct way to cook a proper steak.

It all depends on the cut and quality.

While I'm sure most people would just love to throw down any given weekend on some A5 Kobe Japanese wagyu, that's not the world we live in. Sometimes you can splurge for the prime cuts, but some choice cuts taste better.

Take ribeyes vs chuckeyes. The humble chuckeye was always called 'The Butcher's Ribeye' because it tastes exactly like a ribeye, but only cost $1.99/pound. Well, they used to be cheap, now they're as much as ribeyes which negates the purpose of buying them anyway.

Fatty cuts of meat do pretty well when you dry-brine them in the fridge for a few hours. A little salt and pepper, or your preferred pre-packaged steak seasoning sprinkled on, they let it sit and melt flavors in the icebox. By the time you pull that steak off the grill, it's beyond delicious.

As much as I love a good long dry-brine, it doesn't work for all steaks. Especially when there's not enough fat to liquefy dry salt. Leaner cuts need a little tenderizing, so wet-marinading it in Worcestershire or your preferred marinade for a few hours can do wonders for the overall taste.

What about the cook?

Your cook skills totally matter. You can prep five identical steaks the same way, but you'll get completely different tastes if you cook them five different ways.

Gas grills don't impart much flavor. Charcoal and pellet grills do. Some prefer cooking over an open fire, a waste of good meat, while others prefer a pan sear/oven finish. Same steak, different tastes.

I like to set my steaks out for at least an hour on the counter to warm up a bit. This not only means less time on the grill, but it's easier to get your desired end result. It also means you'll have a more tender steak since you won't be nuking the exterior trying to get the doneness you want inside.

Meat thermometers are a must, well, for me they are. I've watched Critter just poke around on a steak with his fingers and they come out pretty perfect every time... I don't have that skill, yet.

She thicc.

The thickness of your steak matters too. If you're used to cooking thin grocery store steaks all the time, when you do splurge on meat market/butcher shop cuts that push that thickness up to two inches, it's not going to cook the same way you're used to.

I bought some thick strip steaks for the Memorial Day weekend. After getting my sear on them, I had to move them to the top rack to basically bake themselves up to a medium doneness. Five minutes on the grill, ten minutes on the rack. It was strange, but they turned out amazing.

Had I chosen ribeyes for the weekend, I could have probably let them finish on the grill grates. There's just so much fat to render in those cuts, odds of burning are less.

All the same, I've cooked skirt steak directly on lump charcoal before, and it turned out amazing too.

How do you do it?

It was enough to make me curious how you like your steak. Do you always buy the same steaks at the grocers? Do you have it down to a science? Are you the grill-master of masters?

Share your secrets and pass them on to the next generation.