Philip A. Stephenson in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offers still more suggestions on cooking the perfect steak. He gives you tips on selecting a great cut of meat, and then gives some tips for preparing a great steak, without a grill. Here's a few:

• Take the meat out of the fridge in advance. Don't cook a cold steak. It will cook unpredictably.
• Oil the meat and not the pan. Put other seasoning on the steak, but don't salt it. He says salt leaches moisture from the cut. The time to put salt on, according to Stephenson, is just prior to serving.
• Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.
• Take a cast-iron skillet and put it on medium-high heat. He says:
  

Let it get hot enough that a drop of water doesn't sizzle, but instead skates and bounces over the surface of the pan. Then take your oiled, room-temperature and seasoned (just pepper is fine, actually, but spice rubs are good) steak, and place it in the pan. You might want to put it over to one side of the pan, so that when you turn it (45 seconds or so later) you have a fresh surface, which will not have been cooled by the cooking of the first side.

It is strongly recommended that you use tongs or a spatula to flip the meat. Don't pierce it with a fork. After flipping it the first time, let it sizzle for 20 seconds, then turn the heat to medium and let it sit another half-minute or so.

Then take the pan and place in your preheated oven on the center rack.

Leave it for 2 minutes, flip once more and cook for 3 minutes. Given a 11/2-inch thick cut, it should be medium.

A great sounding technique, just watch for smoke and be sure not to set off any alarms...