Text and photography by Hudi Greenberger
Food and prop styling by Janine Kalesis

• 1½–2-inch (4–5-cm) bone-in rib steaks
• kosher salt
• coarse black pepper
• garlic
• fresh herbs (I love rosemary and thyme)

Follow the guidelines above for salting and prepping meat. I’m not going to tell you an exact time to leave the steaks on the grill because every thickness and weight will vary slightly. At this point you already know the drill — sear, cook, flip, sear, and cook. After that, there are only a few more tricks you need to know.

1. To get those great diamond-shaped grill marks, after each sear, turn the steak about 30 degrees before letting it sit for its cooking period.
2. Use the finger test to judge doneness of meat (arrange your fingers as shown in the illustrations. The meat will feel like your skin does in the area that you’re touching). Alternatively, you can use a meat thermometer. Just make sure to put it in before you start cooking the meat, not after it’s done, as this will poke a hole for all the juice to leak out!
3. Remember that the steak will continue to cook a few more degrees during the resting period even off the fire (this is known as residual cooking). Keep this in mind if you’re going for medium rare. Of course, if you’re aiming for well-done, you can put this article down and cook whatever and however you want.

(Originally featured in Family Table, Issue 548)