Cooking The Perfect Steak with Pat LaFrieda

Having trouble buying, prepping and searing great steaks at home? Here are some of my most important tips and tricks for getting that restaurant quality feel to meat prepared at home: 

--Visit your butcher and have a conversation with him or her; Your butcher can help you get better-quality meat than a blind trip to a supermarket can. Talk to your butcher and get educated on the cuts of meat with the flavor profiles that you are looking for. 

--Avoid buying frozen meat. When you freeze meat, you break the muscle cells and when you ultimately defrost it, you lose a lot of the moisture and the flavor. 

--Smell the meat that you are buying. If meat has gone bad, the tell-tale sign is if the meat has a bad smell to it. As obvious as that may sound, meat of any variety should have almost no odor at all. 

--When it comes to beef, you want the animal to be harvested at 24 months or less. Anything older than that, it gets older and it's harder to cook. There's less marbling and it's a lot tougher.

--Before cooking, only salt the meat, then add pepper before serving. Under high temperatures, the pepper could turn bitter and it makes a huge difference.

--If you're grilling outdoors, start your fire at least a half hour before you start cooking to make sure you reach the temperature you need to get a good sear.

For more tips and tricks, you can buy my book "Meat: Everything You Need To Know" here (Atria Books).