the lack od reading comprehension on this site is truly alarming. The original poster didn't ask "How to cook a steak?" or even how to cook a steak in a cast iron pan. He asked "How to cook a steak in a grill pan" which appaerntly is something most ofyou have never seen even though you can buy one any day of the week at walmart.



Cooking a steak in a grill pan is totally different than cooking in a fry pan. To cut to the chase, turn the heat all the way up and cook it on one side and then cook it on the other side. On my stove 4 minutes a side is way too much and will set off the smoke alarm. Under no circumstances use any oil, enogh of the meat gets burned without also burning oil. If cross marks are really important to you, turn the heat down to about medium high.



But for a really good steak, let the pan heat up, and it takes almost an hout to get a grill pan uniformaly hot, salt the good side of a steak that has also been sitting out for at least an hour,open the windows, and if you have a fan option on your heat/ac turn it on, and throw the steak on (good side down) and set the timer for three minutes and flip it for another three minutes and then if you can still see the steak through all the smoke, pepper the good side which will now be up.



when done, I never wash my grill pan. I put it away dirty. Before I use it, I have a brush I use to get it clean under hot water, and never dry it off, just put it on the high heat for it's next endeavor.



A grill pan used exclusively for high heat steaks will never look seasoned and will ususally be rusty due to the fact that the high heat burns off all the seasoning. One of the nice things about grill pans is you can use it for other lower heat applications which require tomatoe based sauces which gunks up a pan, and that is something I would never do with my seasoned flat cast iron fryyng pan.