T-Bone Steak with Whiskey Peppercorn Butter

It’s summer in North Carolina, and chances are, it’s blisteringly hot. I don’t know about you, but for me, sometimes it’s just too hot outside for the grill. On really hot days, I stay inside my air-conditioned house and turn to my grill pan. I can get grill marks and some intense Maillard reactions without breaking a sweat.

The risk you run with cooking any thick steak 100% on the grill or stove top is that you’ll burn the outside before the inside is done. If these steaks were a bit thicker, I might be tempted to employ a two-stage cooking procedure like the reverse sear or a reasonably fast pan sear/roast, but since it’s hot outside, why heat up the oven?

The trick to cooking these T-Bones, or any other cuts of roughly the same thickness, is to make sure the steaks are at room temperature before cooking. Most refrigerators run between 38 and 40 F–no higher than 40F for food safety reasons. That means expecting the temperature at the center of the meat to rise almost 100F (for medium rare) without letting the outside burn. That’s a pretty tall order.

Here is how I suggest you cook these T-Bones in a grill pan so they’re beautifully medium-rare in the center with a perfect sear on the crust.

• Allow steaks to sit out at room temperature for about an 1 1/2 hours.
• 45 minutes before cooking, season liberally with The Butcher’s Market House Seasoning.
• 10 minutes before cooking, preheat a well-seasoned grill pan over medium-high heat.
• Once the pan is hot from edge to edge, cook on one side for 2 ½ minutes. Give the meat a 90-degree turn and grill an additional 2 ½ minutes.
• Turn the heat down to medium and repeat the same process on the other side for a total cooking time of 10 minutes for medium rare.
• Wrap in foil and let rest 10 minutes before slicing and serving.
• Spread a bit of the whiskey butter on each serving and allow to melt.
• This same method can be followed of a medium-high heat grill.

Don’t forget to pick up our tasty ready-to-cook sides. Pictured here are our house-marinated vegetable medley and famous twice-baked potatoes. You can cook the vegetables in the grill pan while your T-Bone is resting. Heat the potatoes in the toaster oven for 20 minutes at 350F and then finish with a couple of minutes under the broiler.