Over-seasoning your steak

A truly excellent steak should be able to speak for itself; if you add too many conflicting flavors, the beef will be lost. There is absolutely nothing better than letting the natural flavors of the beef sing, in the words of Lachlan Graham, a fourth-generation cattle farmer from New South Wales, Australia (via Steak School). Once the steak has come out of the pan, add a little sprinkle of black pepper to the simple seasoning of olive oil and coarse salt. It might sound bold, but the LifeHacker gurus also advise separating the two seasonings that seem to go together without a hitch. Before and after cooking, seasoning the steak with salt and pepper prevents the meat from becoming bland and addresses the problem of the pepper burning in the hot skillet and turning bitter.

The Spruce Eats notes that adding pepper after the meat has been cooked creates a completely new issue because the pepper may fly off the surface of the meat. According to the source, you can avoid this issue by passing a pepper grinder around the table, but you can also season your steaks with pepper before cooking as long as you haven't previously observed a burnt flavor. In either case, avoid going beyond basic salt and pepper to avoid overpowering the flavor of the steak. Instead, repress the impulse to reach into the spice cabinet for other ingredients.