For The Best NY Strip Steak, Take A Page From Ina Garten's Book And Use This Breakfast Staple In Your Rub

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For as simple as an excellent steak can be — salt, pepper, fat, fire — we never run out of ways to try and cook it a little more precisely, imbue it with all manner of alliums and aromatics, or just bring out its own true essence. We studiously select optimal cuts, score steaks for peak flavor, and carefully calibrate ideal beef marinades. And the food world luminary Ina Garten, of course, has another meaty tip that borrows from your morning brew for a superior dinner.

In the recipe for grilled New York strip steaks in "Make it Ahead: A Barefoot Contessa Cookbook," Garten incorporates a few teaspoons of ground coffee into her spice mix. It's blended with the standard salt and pepper, plus some brown sugar, dried granulated garlic, chipotle chili powder, and crushed red pepper flakes. Garten credits the eye-opening rub — though she says that regular or decaf is fine — to Mark Lobel of Lobel's of New York, a luxe butcher shop on Manhattan's Madison Avenue now in its sixth generation. Since a Lobel's bone-in strip starts at about $70, it's fair to assume that its proprietor is advising clients like Garten with care. And you can recreate the flavorful blend on your own.

For the optimal effect, you might want to grind your coffee beans à la minute to maximize the grounds' potential flavor-enhancing effect. The intent here is not for your steak to taste like coffee, but starting with the freshest possible product will still let the coffee perform the way you do want it to, by bringing out the steak's deep, rich, umami notes. A fine, powdery grind will help the coffee better combine with the other ingredients and ultimately stick to the meat.

You also want to be sure to give it all a good, thorough stir before introducing the rub to the steak to avoid uneven coverage. Garten pats her steaks dry and rubs with olive oil before she covers them in the blend. She then covers and refrigerates for at least two hours before grilling to let it all sink in. That's more than enough time to whip up Ina Garten's favorite arugula salad, which happens to be the perfect pairing for your new favorite steak.