What is your secret to beautiful grill marks , grate sear marks etc?


 
V

VinceGal

New member
Just curious on your methods to cook a delicious steak with nice presentation ? Those are a few of mine . How do you cook yours ? 3 mins per flip ? Or do you cook then rotate sideways ?
 

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Make sure you have quality meat, cut to a proper thickness. Preheat the grill well until it's VERY stable. Use QUALITY grates. On one of my grills I have custom made RCPlanebuyer (Dave Santana) made grates (this is my Wolf). Very heavy with 3/8" rods and good tight spacing. My other grill (Genesis 3000) I have actual old Weber made 3/8" rod grates. Again very heavy with good spacing.
Once the grill is good and hot, I bring the temps DOWN not up. I am not a fan of insanely hot grilling. I use a more moderate heat. I make sure my meat is nice and dry, oil slightly, generous S&P, put them on and leave them alone for a bit. I than once they release do my 90 deg cross hatch and I get perfect presentation every time. Along with a great "crust" not just "marks" as marks do nothing for eating quality. But, yeah they look nice. I want more than looks. I want flavor and eating quality.
Look up my posts you'll see.
And you'll get others who will tell you you need a "crutch" "GrillGrates", Meh. Skill and quality are what matters more than anything. BTW I don't buy pre cut steaks anymore. Preferring to buy a primal and cut my own. I have found that helps
 
I would love to try one of Larry's steaks sometime but since that probably won't ever happen.... Maybe I'll try his methods sometime soon and see if I like the results better. For now I'm cooking my steaks on charcoal. I use a PK360 or a Kettle with vortex and don't worry about grill marks. I sear over high heat, develop the crust and finish over indirect. These are usually strip steaks 1.25" thick or so. Thicker steaks MIGHT benefit from reverse sear but I haven't had much luck with that (IMO it's harder to achieve target temperature). I also use a little oil and generous SPG.

I agree 110% on Larry's comments on grill grates. I went a little cheap on my current set of Genesis grill grates and bought Hongso brand from Amazon. It terms of material quality, they appear to be holding up after the first several cooks, but the rods are too far apart, and probably a little < 3/8" and my results really aren't what they should be.

Jon Tofte did an extensive write up on grill grates for everyone, if you are interested and haven't seen it yet, here it is
tvwbb.com

Stainless Steel Grate Throwdown Challenge Results

I am still hoping someday to make my first "This Old Grill" episode, but hurricane and family stuff make that unlikely for a while. So, I decided I should at least publish my findings here so that you all can review them and maybe ask some questions. I did a separate page on each set of grates...
tvwbb.com tvwbb.com
 
LMichaels said:
Make sure you have quality meat, cut to a proper thickness. Preheat the grill well until it's VERY stable. Use QUALITY grates. On one of my grills I have custom made RCPlanebuyer (Dave Santana) made grates (this is my Wolf). Very heavy with 3/8" rods and good tight spacing. My other grill (Genesis 3000) I have actual old Weber made 3/8" rod grates. Again very heavy with good spacing.
Once the grill is good and hot, I bring the temps DOWN not up. I am not a fan of insanely hot grilling. I use a more moderate heat. I make sure my meat is nice and dry, oil slightly, generous S&P, put them on and leave them alone for a bit. I than once they release do my 90 deg cross hatch and I get perfect presentation every time. Along with a great "crust" not just "marks" as marks do nothing for eating quality. But, yeah they look nice. I want more than looks. I want flavor and eating quality.
Look up my posts you'll see.
And you'll get others who will tell you you need a "crutch" "GrillGrates", Meh. Skill and quality are what matters more than anything. BTW I don't buy pre cut steaks anymore. Preferring to buy a primal and cut my own. I have found that helps
Click to expand...
Very Nice , I like to get top sirloin roast and cut up a few 12oz Sirloins nice thickness for rare to medium rare. Years ago I worked the grill at a steakhouse up here in Canada. Mesquite charcoal, cast iron oiled grates. It was fun cooking on a Saturday night lol.
 
With my Silver B and stainless steel grates. I could get pretty grill marks. With my new grill with cast iron and the sear station, I get a better overall sear and IMO, a much better taste.
 
Lots of YouTube videos of folks doing their SCA steak cooks. They all seem to be fairly similar. Malcolm Reed’s is good.

Charcoal. Front sear not reverse. Diamond grill marks not squares. 90-ish seconds per turn/flip. Target (including carry over) is medium, not MR. And they all use GrillGrates. Like ALL of them.

Personally, I like the edge to edge overall sear though. In which case you want to go minimal metal -- cheap thin metal grates that let the fire do its thing. Or maximum metal -- blazing cast iron skillet, flat top, flat side of the GGs. I go max metal in the belief that hot metal sears better than hot air.

But they are all good. More than one way to make a winning poker hand.

P.S. Steaks imo are always better with the dry salt brine, wire rack, 24 hours (or more) uncovered in the fridge.


howtobbqright.com

SCA Ribeye Steaks - How to cook a Ribeye for a Steak Contest

Recipe for cooking a Ribeye Steak for an SCA Steak Cookoff event. This recipe explains how to grill a winning Ribeye Steak.
howtobbqright.com howtobbqright.com
 
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each side of food gets 2 sears on a smoking hot grill over the cool side:

1. put fire on one side of the charcoal grate.
2. install cooking grate.
3. after it’s smoking hot, turn cooking grate 180* so it’s over the cool side of the grill.
4. place food onto smoking hot cooking grate on cool side of grill. install lid.
5. remove lid. turn cooking grate 180*.
6. flip food onto smoking hot cooking grate on cool side of grill. install lid.
7. remove lid. turn cooking grate 180*.
8. turn food to create cross hatch and flip onto smoking hot cooking grate on cool side of grill. install lid.
9. remove lid. turn cooking grate 180*.
10. turn food to create cross hatch and flip onto smoking hot cooking grate on cool side of grill. install lid.
11. remove lid. remove food. install lid. close vents.
12. eat.
 
The whole point (IMO) of cooking a steak on the grill is for grilled "flavor". Sticking it in a pan negates that. What's the point of the grill in the first place? Yeah I get the pan thing. I do it occasionally as well but it can't match or even come close to the pleasurable eating I get from one of my properly grilled steaks.
 
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