Try This Special Tip for a Perfect Sear on Your Steak

If, like me, you don’t eat meat very often, but on the occasions when you do, you want it to be good quality and prepared really well, you still have plenty of options. A tender chicken, for example, or crispy fried babi pangang, or, as I only do every now and then: a little steak. And recently I read a great tip for grilled steak…

Because one of the things you aim for when frying or grilling a steak is that beautiful caramelized Maillard sear on the outside. And the chefs at a famous American cooking show, America’s Test Kitchen, happen to have an ultimate trick to perfect it down to the last detail!

Simple but effective

What they do is ‘marinate’ the steak for an hour in a mixture of salt and sugar, then sprinkle it with the mixture again just before grilling; that’s it. Apparently, this method originated at a historic steak restaurant in Denver, Colorado, so it’s a trick that has stood the test of time. It is important to get the sugar-to-salt ratio exactly right, though, because otherwise the sweetness can overpower everything or it can turn bitter, which isn’t tasty either.

Golden ratio

The extensively tested ratio that produces the most delicious result is 4 parts sugar to 3 parts salt. If you’re grilling two steaks or entrecotes of approximately 200 grams each, about 2 cm thick, a mixture of 4 level tablespoons of granulated sugar and 3 level tablespoons of fine table salt will be enough. You probably won’t need all of it, but making more halfway through is inconvenient when you’ve just had your fingers all over that steak…

How to make sugar steak

• Pat both sides of the 2 steaks dry with paper towels.
• Sprinkle 1.5 teaspoons of the sugar-salt mixture over each side of the meat.
• Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for at least 1 hour. You can also keep it in the refrigerator for up to 24 hours. If you do, take it out of the refrigerator an hour before cooking to let it come to room temperature.
• Prepare your gas or charcoal barbecue as hot as possible and grease the grate with neutral oil that can withstand high heat.
• Just before they go on the grill, sprinkle another teaspoon of the sugar-salt mixture over both sides of the steaks, and grind black pepper over them.
• Place them on the grate with tongs and grill for a few minutes; halfway through, rotate them a quarter turn for a beautiful diamond pattern and also to prevent burning.
• Turn them over with the tongs and grill for another few minutes (about five minutes for medium).
• Remove them from the BBQ, place them on a rack over a baking sheet or plate, cover with aluminum foil and let rest for five minutes.
• Slice against the grain and eat immediately. So goooood!

Read also:

• 6 common mistakes when cooking steak
• Cooking a frozen steak?
• Oops: man misreads the menu and orders a €360 steak