it all depends on the meat. Personally, I think pan sear is superior to grilling, where a lot of the moisture, fat and blood will just drip into the fire. You know how done your steak is by the blood letting. As the protein fibers coagulate, the blood will be pushed out. Once you see a bit of blood, you're right at med rare and must take it off immediately. When blood has permeated, you're at about medium or med rare+. When blood envelops the steak, you're at medium well. Brown color change with no blood, you're at a medium.
This is going to be harder with a good sear on the pan, so you really must pay attention. You can press the meat sure, but you shouldn't HAVE to. Like I mentioned before, a strip is a very dense cut of meat, and is not going to change much in its feel until you get to medwell terriroty. Ribs are very tender, and will feel very tender until that medwell area; a lot of people think they have a good medium on a rib, and lo and behold, it's close to well done. My father and law is a professional chef and still has this issue.
I'm just annoyed at all of the Food Network "Rules" and "Tricks" people type and spout out without actual practice or knowledge. Are you sure your steak is supposed to rest? Are you sure the Olive Oil "Will Burn"? It doesn't and it wont. A rare steak that rests is going to cook too far into itself, and the protein hasn't even cooked long enough to release any blood or water (Muscle is predominately water, which is what encourages dry-aging), so why are you resting it? If you cook a perfect blue steak, sure, it can and may rest, but why?
I'm sure a lot of you have cooked a good or even great steak, but that doesn't mean you know how.
Culinary rules are for the most part just loose guidelines. Different cuts of meat react and respond differently to different levels of heat. Different pans and grills get hot in different spots. If you KNOW how to cook a good steak, you shouldn't have a guideline already set it place. You should be able to receive a cut of meat you're unfamiliar with in a pan you're uncomfortable with, and cook a proper medium. Most of what you call "med rare" is medium anyway.
My favorite cut is a NY Strip. I take a pan, get it smoking hot, add Olive Oil, sit for 10 seconds, add steak, sear to medium rare or medium rare+, let rest for maybe two minutes. When the steak is an entree or a large cut, I place it on a plate and wrap the plate in foil. Steak cooked to an internal temperature of, say, 135, is going to cook best with 135 degree temperature. That is going to take an awfully long time. Your body is made of the same amino acids and proteins that are in that steak; if you take a cold bath, you seize up. If you take a hot bath, you sweat and release moisture. If you take a bath at your body temperature, however, you are more incllined to absorb water. By "resting" as too many of you call it, you're taking a steak that you are cooking at 500 degrees for 4 minutes, and placing it on a plate in a 74 degree room. You're basically blanching the damn thing. By covering it and letting sit in a room of its own steam and exertion, that muscle will retain more of its water and blood rather than seize up. Keep in mind a lot of the people telling you to "rest" your meat are using heat lamps, hot plates and working in a 100 degree kitchen.
