8 Tips to Grill the Perfect Ribeye Steak
by Josh Ozersky
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that you, or someone like you, is planning on doing some grilling this weekend. If you haven't broken out the tongs yet, this would obviously be the time to do so, particularly those of you who, like me, live in the gray and frigid northeast. I am figuring on cooking on Sunday for the first time since the weather broke. And on an occasion like that, nothing will do but a bone-on rib steak.
Of course, you don't need me to tell you to eat a rib steak. You were born with the urge to do that. But I am here to give you a few pointers. A great bone-on rib steak doesn't just grill itself. So, while I trust that Eat Like a Man's readers know the basics of how to cook outdoors - and if you don't, read this - I will skip over the fundamentals and jump right into the your executive summary-style bullet points.
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Not all rib steaks are created equal; pay less attention to whether the meat is dry aged, organic, or marked "prime" than to the telltale white-on-red pattern of its intramuscular fat. Visually speaking, multitudinous little streams and rivulets are better than thick rivers; the best meat has an almost snowflake-like intricacy to its marbling.
Even within a beef rib primal, not all the steaks are created equal. A steer is not a length of pipe; a lot of things happen inside an animal, and many are invisible from the outside. So: ask for ribs five and six, the ones closet to the shoulder. They have the biggest "cap" muscle, the delicious crescent of tender, rich beef that crowns the steak.
The bone is good. Don't cut off the bone. It keeps the meat from overcooking. Also it is good to gnaw on, or for a dog to gnaw on.
It goes without saying that all beef should be liberally salted before grilling, but it has to be kosher salt. You can't cheat and use table salt (which will melt and mummify your steak) or sea salt (whose crunchy kernels are hard and gnarly.) If you don't have kosher salt, go to the store and get some. Every supermarket has it.
Rib steaks should be thick enough to sear without cooking through, but not so thick that you are essentially grilling a roast beef. The ideal rib steak is about as thick as a bar of Dial soap.
Cook hot, over live coals, and mostly on one side. There is a school of thought that says you should be constantly flipping it. But I don't belong to that school of thought. Sear it up until it's very crusty and brown and beautiful, and then turn it over long enough for it to start cooking, about two or three minutes. Then move it over to the cold side and close the top for a couple of minutes.
When it's done, let it sit, and when you are ready to serve it, separate the cap. It's only connected by a now-melted fat seam, so you can do it with a spoon. Seriously. Serve it separately than the eye.
Have somebody bring a salad and somebody else bring beer. You are now good to go. Summer has arrived.
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