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Best Steak Cooking Equipment

Steak! It still conjures images of fine dining. Luxury restaurants specialize in them. Photos of steak flood Instagram. People grill them, smoke them, fry them, ruin them, or cook them to perfection. Either way, there are those who like a good steak and those who obsess over them. These connoisseurs know multiple ways of preparing a steak and even more ways not to mess them up. Having the Best Steak Cooking Equipment will certainly help.

I have had incredible steaks slow-roasted in a smoker. Delicious. However, most people look for intense heat and a brute-force approach to cooking a steak. One of the defining characteristics of a well-crafted steak is a crusty, caramelized surface, warmed through the middle and yielding your desired doneness. That’s medium rare by most people’s standards.

The problem is that many of the grills out there, particularly of the gas and pellet variety can’t generate enough heat that will do justice to a good cut of beef. We are talking more than “hot” here; we are talking about raging heat. And I know what many of you are thinking. There is more than one way to cook a good steak. I like the way you think, and I agree with you, but first, let’s get into some equipment.

These products aren’t selected because they well rounded performers, but on how well they cook steaks. Yes, these grills can do much more, but if you love steak, are you really thinking about those extras?

Best Steak Cooking Equipment

Your best bet for grilling a steak is over charcoal. With the right charcoal grill, you can hit crazy temperatures even with a $30 unit. While some gas grills can generate cooking temperatures around 500 degrees F., charcoal can get up to 1000 degrees F. Even in a small cheap charcoal grill; temperatures can reach 700 degrees F., or more. Precisely the intense searing heat you should take into consideration.

Weber Smokey Joe Standard

Weber Smokey Joe Portable Charcoal Grill

DO NOT buy the premium version of the Weber Smokey Joe. It costs about ten dollars more but does not perform as well as the standard version. For $35 plus a bag of charcoal, you can do some serious steak grilling in less than 20 minutes. Since it only weighs 10 pounds, you can cook those perfect steaks anywhere it is legal to have an open fire. Use fire starter cubes to get the charcoal burning and build a two-layer fire. That will give you all the heat you need.

Lodge Sportsman Grill

Lodge Sportsman Portable Charcoal Grill

Good searing and intense cooking can come from the heat source itself, but when you add something heavy to cook on, you will up your game. In this case, I’m talking about cast iron. The Lodge Sportsman Grill has remained a favorite of serious steak lovers for years. Though it is small and portable, it is 30 pounds of solid weight. Use a starter cube to get the fire going and fill it with charcoal. If you are cooking in the dark, the cast iron will glow hot. That thermal energy transfer rivals most grills costing thousands of dollars.

Lodge 12-Inch Cast Iron Skillet

Lodge 17-Inch Cast Iron Skillet

So if the secret to high-temperature cooking is heat and mass, then a good cast iron skillet will work wonders. One of my preferred methods is cooking a steak in a cast iron skillet. The trick is to get the cast iron raging hot. Heat it over a gas burner or set it directly into burning charcoal. Most gas grill side burners are weak, so unless you have one that can produce more than the standard 12,000 BTUs, I would suggest the charcoal solution. Be very careful, though. This level of heat will burn straight through most oven mitts.

Big Green Egg Mini Max

Big Green Egg Mini Max Charcoal Grill

Any good Kamado Grill can produce a perfectly cooked steak. Some of these units can hit nearly a thousand degrees (though 700 is more than enough). The Big Green Mini Max is designed for grilling the best steak. These high-end grills are primarily used in European restaurants, where they are fired up, and steaks are cooked to order. This little tabletop grill is efficient and possibly the best steak cooking machine ever made.

PK Grill plus GrillGrates

Portable Kitchen Cooker Charcoal Grill

Have you ever attended a steak cooking competition? To grill like one of the top performers, you need the PK Grill and a set of GrillGrates. The PK grill is a cast aluminum charcoal grill that hasn’t changed much since the 1950s. GrillGrates are anodized aluminum cooking grates capable of conducting heat at lightning speed. With this arrangement, you will render grill marks so beautiful it will bring a tear to your eye.

Solaire Anywhere Infrared Portable Gas Grill

Solaire Everywhere Portable Infrared Gas Grill

If you don’t want to deal with charcoal. There is another option. Infrared. I am not talking about the low-temperature Infrared of Char-Broil, but the intense infrared used by higher-end manufacturers. The Solare Anywhere Infrared grill is portable, powerful, and priced for less than $400. This little powerhouse produces cooking temperatures near 1,000 degrees F. and is perfect for grilling up to four steaks at a time.

TEC Sterling FR 44-Inch Gas Grill

TEC Sterling G3000 FR Built-in Gas Grill

If you want to take infrared as far as it will go, then you need to turn to TEC. These are the people who invented the infrared grill. Their latest technology converts 99% of gas burner energy to infrared while eliminating any potential flare-ups. The TEC Sterling produces incredible temperatures that sear like a dream. It can be built into a custom enclosure. At, this is the grill for the advanced steak cooker.

The Otto Wilde Grill

The Otto Wilde Grill

In professional kitchens, cooks place do not place the steak over a heat source, but under it. These broilers, called Salamanders, are like steak cooking blast furnaces. The Otto Wilde Grill, one of my favorite toys, can produce temperatures up to 1,500 degrees F. The cooking “shelf” raises or lowers to adjust the intensity. Voila! A perfect steak is ready in minutes. The heat is infrared and purely radiant. The surface of the meat is seared evenly, and the outer crust is unbelievable.

Sous Vide

There is one more trick up the steak cooking sleeve. Namely Sous Vide. Put a steak into a vacuum-sealed bag and then into a warm water bath. This allows you to bring the meat to a pre-set temperature, ensuring tenderness. Once the steak is close to the desired temperature, it is removed from the water bath. Now, all it needs is a hit of intense heat on each side; or the Reverse Sear method. Doing this will allow the steak to transform from dinner into a work of art.

Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker Nano
Anova Culinary Sous Vide Precision Cooker Nano
ChefSteps Joule Sous Vide
ChefSteps Joule Sous Vide
Sous Vide Supreme Water Oven
Sous Vide Supreme Water Oven

Finally

There are many ways to cook a steak. When it comes to tradition, however, it is the combination of meat quality and intense heat. A lot of money might go into purchasing the right steak cooking equipment, or very little. It isnโ€™t even a matter of dedication, but rather a method. After all, part of a great steak is in the presentation and the process. Imagine firing up any of these recommendations in front of your guests. You can grill to order, making everyone feel like they received something special. The biggest advantage of high-temperature grilling is that it is fast. This is one of the main reasons that famous steakhouses do it this way. They donโ€™t want to spend a lot of time per plate, and high heat is the fastest way to cook. When it comes to a great steak, heat is also the key to success.

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