Signs you're a wannabe copywriter

No I don't want to sell it to you.

I'm an attorney. My transaction size for each client is $x,xxx - xxx,xxx.

Selling steak recipes would be a waste of my time. I do plan on doing a food blog, and putting it there. But I won't try to sell it it'll be free on the site. It's a hobby blog. Might be good exercise though, but no I won't be doing any of that.

Like I said, I didn't invent it. After testing many different methods, I found two separate ones, combined them one day and voila, damn good steak.

It's basically a pre-salt and a reverse sear.

You can google either of those to find out more (or PM me, I have a word document of what I wrote to a list serve of 3,000 lawyers).

Basically pre-salt. Salt your steaks 1 hr before cooking. If you watch your steak, the salt will draw moisture out, your steak will get wet, then ... magically ... the meat draws the moisture back in. But this time, the moisture is full of salt. So you change the phsyical nature of the meat fibers, and introduce a little salt to the inside. Thick bland steaks all of a sudden are now seasoned almost to the middle.

Set up a timelapse on a steak and set it for an hour and watch it.

Second, is a reverse sear. You dry the steak thoroughly with a paper towel, then cook in an oven at 250-275F until a probe inserted in the middle reaches 95F (for medium rare, and if you cook it past medium rare I don't know you ... j/k my wife likes her steaks medium too).

While it is about to hit 95F get a nice cast iron or stainless steel skillet. It needs to be heavy none of that steel super thin crap you can almost bend in the middle. Aluminum, copper or cast iron please. Nonstick surface is ok.

Put it on your range to medium to medium hot. I tend to the hot side, but not too hot. This is where only you will know what to set it to depending on your pan, your stove. This probably the only variable here because my range/flame/skillet is different than yours. You'll get a great steak regardless, but once you fine tune this, you'll get excellent steaks.

You'll notice when pulling the steak out of the oven it should look dry like a desert. That's a good thing.

Ok, heat the pan up, for a minimum of 5 minutes (even if non-stick but watch the nonstick pans much closer due to the breakdown of the surface at high temps). In the case of cast iron or alu-clad, you can heat longer. once your the probe in the steak in the oven hits 95F immediately pull it out and drop it into the pan. 1.5 minutes each side. Depending on what steak you use* a little oil may be necessary (strips and filet mignons may require oil, ribeyes probably not ... those are the only three steaks I cook usually, no top sirloins etc., but tri-tips, skirts and flat irons are ok to eat, but not cook this way).

I repeat, once you hit 95F in the steak, you pull it out, put it in a medium hot pan, and you cook for 1.5 minutes each side.

Let it rest for 5-10 minutes (closer to 10) and that's it.

Why go through all of this trouble? Sure i cook steaks 4 minutes over high heat, then move to low heat to finish cooking. It works. But, it's not great. Next time you do that, look at the steak when you cut it and I can almost guarantee you will have a narrow (or thick) band of gray matter between the surface and the center. That stuff is tough. My method, minimizes and almost eliminates this gray matter. It also does a ton of other stuff but that's food chemistry at that point.

Warriorforum is all about proof, right?



I need to take a better picture next time. Any photographers will know my white balance was messed up with that one, the steak is actually a little more red than that, not pink. But that's the method!

Whoever tries it, enjoy!

Yes you can use that. Many copywriters such as the great Gary Bencivenga have used testimonials as headlines with stunning results.

Then you can start off your copy telling the story of the man in the testimonial, how he was searching for the perfect steak, found your recipe, the phenomenal results. Then talk about your credibility and expertise, the USP, and benefits of your recipe. Then you can compare and contrast the value of the steak vs a 5 star restaurant in new york, ask them what it is worth to them to have a perfect steak every time.

Then finally close.