O.K. meaty jellies, how do you cook the perfect steak?

I was a vegetarian for many, many years and have started eating meat again the last several years. It was a little difficult to learn to cook meat again but I’ve gotten the hang of it for the most part.

However, I am having a lot of trouble getting my steaks right and I’m finding, in my research, that cooking steaks and religion share a number of characteristics. At its most basic, cooking is science, right? There should be just one truth, yes? Among steak cookers, there seem to be many who claim to have the one true gospel of steak cooking, but all of the “one true gospels” seem to be different, even contradictory: Salt the steak first, absolutely don’t salt first, it will ruin them, cook them only after letting them reach room temperature, no, it doesn’t matter, you must pat them dry first, no, that doesn’t matter, pan sear, broil …

…. it’s making my head spin.

If it matters, when I treat myself to a steak, I like a Porterhouse or a Ribeye, and I like my steaks pretty rare. I got a very nice Ribeye the other night and overcooked it. I was really looking forward to it and it was a $9.00 piece of meat. I was very upset.

Also, I’m done with the grill for the year so I’m looking for how to cook the steak either in my oven/broiler or on top of the stove. I have a natural gas stove.