I'll go first.

1 part soy sauce
1 part olive oil
Minced garlic
thyme
rosemary
black pepper

combine all ingredients and blend until mixture turns into a nice smooth, brown sauce.

Pour half of the marinade over the steaks and toss the steaks around so they are evenly covered and let sit as long as you like.

As the steaks are grilling, pour some of the left over marinade over the steaks if you like.

ketchup, just joking.

MURDERER!

Ahem...

I generally don't marinate steaks unless they're fairly low quality. Then, I have a nasty tendency to use store-bought stuff. Soy Vay Kosher Teriyaki is pretty good. We also use various rubs from Penzey's Spices.

That resembles my flank steak marinade -- which is the only steak I marninate. Everything else gets dry rubs, which sometimes consist only of salt and pepper.

My marinade is never the same twice. I use the following in different proportions (basically dashes and sloshes into a zip-lock bag):

My base always includes:
soy sauce
vegetable oil
red wine / port
garlic

optional components:
worcestershire sauce
rice wine vinegar
honey
pepper
crushed red pepper
chili powder
rosemary

My birthday flank steak was marinated for 24-hours in the following:

a few sloshes of soy sauce
a slosh of vegetable oil
a slosh of rice wine vinegar
a slosh of Warre's Warrior port
the dregs of my last bottle of worcestershire
a few drops of sesame oil
a tablespoon of honey
a teaspoon of minced garlic
a few dashes of cracked pepper
a couple dashes of crushed red pepper

I mixed all this in a ziploc bag and tasted it. It was a bit strong for a 24-hour marinade (I do like the flavor of beef), so I cut it with some water and then added the flank steak to the bag. I squeeze as much air out as possible and then seal. Then I beat the meat with the bottom of a metal ladle to tenderize it and allow for Maximum Flavor Penetration!

The next morning, I flip the bag over and whack the other side with a ladle. At dinner time, I slap the steak on a grill, then transfer all the marinade through a seive to a saucepan, where I boil it to kill the baddies, then simmer it to the desired consistency.

When the steak's done, I rest it then slice it, sauce it, and serve it.

Yummy!

Sounds delicious.

Hey pmbuko, you going to the DC101 chili cookoff? If you do, come by and have a taste of my chili. Look for the R & D International Chili team.

I'm pretty much with Peter on all the above. We do occasionally buy a Top Round and marinade that, though.

The only ingredients we like that haven't been mentioned yet are balsamic vinegar and lemon zest.

I may have missed it in the above recipes, but good 'ole beer & BBQ sauce is a nice treat once in a while. Doesn't get much easier than that either (and a good way to use up the "light" beer that party-goers occasionally leave behind!).

Anyone got one for beer and not bbq sauce? My wife is not fond of the stuff, but I once had a beer marinated steak that was truly wonderful... Never tried it myself. It seems wrong to use a $10 bottle of beer on a steak, and, well, that's all I buy...

Count me in with the dry rub crowd. I use Italian seasoning and SeasonAll. Occasionally I'll throw in some garlic salt.

Sear each side on high heat for about 2-3-minutes, then lower the heat to low-to-medium and keep turning every 2-3 minutes until at medium-rare to medium (on my grill, about 8-12 minutes total for boneless NY strip). This technique always keeps 'em juicy.

I rarely get steak at the local chain places anymore - what's the point when I could do it better at home? I will occasionally enjoy one at finer steak houses.

Interesting--most of the stuff I see says only turn it once, and if you turn it more often, you're a Communist.






Communist.