The Soundtrack to Eating: Just the Classics
If you’re tired of those quiet nights eating Trader Joe’s frozen meals in the dark, look no further than this recipe-playlist combination that will have you jamming from sauté to sit-down.
The Soundtrack to Eating is a series in which staff writers write about how food and music are intertwined.
Written and illustrated by Dylan Keesee
Cooking can be stressful — I get it. You have to buy the groceries, cook them, and then you can barely enjoy your hard-earned meal before it’s time to 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 your 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 gathering all the ingredients together, play something light and enjoyable, like Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising,” and jam from cabinet to cabinet. Before starting anything else, place your cast iron skillet in the oven as you preheat it to 500°F to ensure it’s as hot as can be. Your feel-good pregame song should be finishing up right about now, so it’s time to season the meat.
The key to making 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. “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” by Jim Croce will empower even the most reluctant of seasoners to up their flavor game. Use the salt, pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder to create a nice coating on every side of the steak. As the oven finishes preheating, 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. ZZ Top’s guitar riffs in “La Grange” will fire you up to finally put the meat on the scorching hot pan. 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. Turn the bathroom fan on, if that helps. But, most importantly, queue “Hocus Pocus - U.S. Single Version” by Focus and “Smokin’” by Boston. These two songs will intensely accompany you 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, and then move it into the oven to cook for an additional four minutes, flipping the steak halfway through.
Remove the steak from the pan, and wrap it in foil to rest for two minutes while your heart rate returns to normal. Listen to “Wonderful Tonight” by Eric Clapton to transform your anxieties about the fire sprinkler 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 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.”