The Soundtrack to Eating: Just the Classics
Written by Dylan Keesee
The Soundtrack to Eating is a series in which staff writers write about how food and music are intertwined.
Photo courtesy of Pixar
Cooking can be stressful — I get it. You have to buy groceries, cook said groceries, and then you can barely enjoy your hard-earned meal before it’s time for clean up. “Yikes, that sounds like a big commitment, and I’m just not looking for anything serious right now,” you say. But with the right soundtrack, you’ll learn to love the kitchen. For example, pair steak and classic rock — two things any suburban dad would enjoy — and it’s a guaranteed good time.
Start by grabbing all the materials:
A steak (preferably a one and a half inch thick, boneless ribeye)
Salt
Pepper
Garlic powder
Onion powder
Canola oil
A cast iron skillet
And of course:
A speaker
While getting all the ingredients together, play something light and enjoyable like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising.” Before starting anything, preheat the oven to 500°F and put in the cast iron skillet as it preheats. Your feel-good pregame song should be finishing up right about now, so it’s time to season the meat.
Because there are so few ingredients, the key to making this a tasty steak is to be generous with your seasoning. Remember, you have to season enough for one and a half inches of meat, so be confident when you sprinkle those spices on. I recommend listening to “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce during this to empower even the most reluctant of seasoners. Use the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to give a nice coating on either side of the steak. The oven should be almost done preheating, so listen to “Oye Como Va” by Santana for a nice interlude before the real work starts.
Once the oven reaches 500°F, take the pan out and put it on the stovetop for five more minutes on high heat. The actual cooking is about to finally start, so start playing “La Grange” by ZZ Top for some motivation. Drizzle a small amount of canola oil on each side of the steak and get ready for the main event.
Go ahead and place the steak in the pan, but before you do, just know, there will be so much smoke. Be ready: turn on the microwave fan. Open a window. Open the front door. But, most importantly, queue “Hocus Pocus - U.S. Single Version” by Focus and “Smokin’” by Boston. These two songs will convey the proper intensity needed for when you’re running around your home, desperately trying to waft the plume of smoke away from the smoke detector. Cook the steak for 30 seconds on each side on the stovetop, and then move it into the oven to cook for an additional two minutes on each side.
Remove the steak from the pan, and wrap it in foil to rest for two minutes while you let your heart rate return to normal. Listen to “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton to redirect the stress you just felt into love for your steak. The more love you put into your food, the better it will taste — this is science. The steak will indeed look “Wonderful Tonight” and you should let it know; after all, its love language is words of affirmation.
Unwrap the steak after the two minutes like a kid on Christmas morning and admire it for the beauty it is. It will truly be your pride and joy, which is incidentally the final song — Stevie Ray Vaughan’s “Pride and Joy.”