How to Make the Best Steak on your Wood Deck Stained With One TIME®.

Your deck is a great place to hang out with friends, family and loved ones. It’s wonderful to enjoy a pleasant afternoon or evening with the people you care about and enjoy the company of. If you’ve got a grill on your deck, that’s even better, allowing you to enjoy some delicious food with the great company. Here’s how you can make a great grilled steak right on your very own deck.

Choose the Ideal Cut of Meat

Everybody loves sinking their teeth into a tender steak right off the hot grill. But before you can get around to cooking your meat, you have to decide what cut to use. You could go for a porterhouse, the ‘king’ when it comes to steaks, a thick cut, combining two different cuts of meat in one, a New York strip on one side, a fairly big filet mignon on the other. Or you could choose a T-bone, similar to the porterhouse, its portion of filet mignon smaller, slower to cook, but extremely delicious. Then again you can opt for the top sirloin, a comparatively lean cut. Then there’s the tri-tip, also called the ‘Santa Maria steak,’ full of flavor, possessing outstanding marbling, low in fat content, a relatively cheap and tender cut. There’s also the flank, a cut of beef that’s vastly popular, containing lots of connective tissue, making it immensely flavorful, if a little less tender. You could try the New York strap, a classic cut of meat, possessing excellent marbling, tender and flavorful. And then you have the filet mignon, the tenderest cut out there, not as flavorful as the cuts with bone, but delicious nonetheless. And of course, there’s the rib-eye, a favorite amongst lovers of steak around the world, a boneless cut, lusciously marbled, tender and juicy. There is the hangar, not the tenderest cut out there, but immensely flavorful. Last but not least, you have the flat iron, wonderfully marbled, the top blade cut, widely considered the finest beef cut available.

How to Cook the Steak

Once you have chosen your cut, you are ready to start cooking. Make sure you take the steak out of the fridge at least around 20 minutes prior to grilling. Cover the steak and let it sit at room temperature, warming it up, preparing it to be cooked. If you don’t do this, and try to cook your steak straight out of the refrigerator, it will probably not cook properly, remaining raw in the center.
Heat up your grill to a high temperature, depending on the doneness you want to achieve on your cut. Brush both sides of the steak with oil, olive oil may be your best bet. Season both sides liberally using salt and pepper. Steak cuts are usually thick and require liberal seasoning. Plus, some of the seasoning will fall off from the steak during the grilling process, so you will want to apply plenty of it. You may wish to season with salt only, as the pepper can grow a little bitter while being grilled. You can also use a spice rub for seasoning your steak, but most people prefer being minimalistic with their seasoning, letting the meat be the star of the show.
Put the steaks on the hot grill that you have on your deck. You should hear a sizzling sound when you put the steaks on the grill. This is a good sign, meaning that your grill is sufficiently hot. If you don’t hear the sizzling, you may want to remove the steaks quickly and wait for your grill to hear up some more. Once your steaks are on the grill let them cook. Some people keep turning their steaks over and over again. It is best to flip your steak only once. Cook the steaks from three to four to five minutes on one side, until the steak takes on a golden-brown color and is a little charred. Flip the steak and cook for a further three to five minutes on the other side as well. For a medium rare steak, you will need the steak to have an internal temperature measuring 135° F, 140° F for medium and 150° for medium well.

You will want to rest your steak for around the same time as you cooked it, allowing the juices to settle. After that, your steak is ready to serve. You can have it along with some salad or fried as sides. Enjoy!