The Perfect Steak

[TheFanatic]

Fanatic... I dont think posting your url would make anyone think you were trying to sell anything.. I will say I have my limits with the weather.... you are hard core dude

Maybe I'll add the URL at some point. The discussion is more important than people seeing my quasi neurotic grilling obsessed web site!?!?!

And I have limits with the weather too. The first time I did lamb, I did it inside. Dad and I do Guy Night every now and again. Guy night is usually steaks bigger than your foot, a really good bottle of red wine (some beer after that is gone) and a guy flick. You know, not a ton of plot but plenty of gun battles, car chases and explosions and possibly some gratuitous nudity.

Well, I decided to do lamb one night for this rather than a steak. It was all of about 8 degrees out that night. F that. My dad, a smoker, didn't even go outside for a smoke that night and he was at my place for about 3 hours. Cooked them on my Grill pan inside and baked them in the oven the rest of the way.

The next guy night is probably early Jan and I'm thinking Lamb again. This time it will be outside...

 

[Kingdaddy]

You might want to consider searing without direct flame.

Over cooking or burning is not as pleasant a flavor to most as a simple good sear, plus the burning is a carcinogen and very bad for your health. The idea behind searing is just to change the chemical composition of the surface and bring out the flavor and give a juxtaposition of texture between the soft chewy inner and slightly crusty outer.

 

[TheFanatic]

You might want to consider searing without direct flame.

Over cooking or burning is not as pleasant a flavor to most as a simple good sear, plus the burning is a carcinogen and very bad for your health. The idea behind searing is just to change the chemical composition of the surface and bring out the flavor and give a juxtaposition of texture between the soft chewy inner and slightly crusty outer.

Oh, I don't oversear. The flame lasts for 30-60 seconds and then it's just the high heat from the coals. It's my inner pyro that goes with the flame searing....I realize the picture isn't the greatest of the steak resting (I was shielding the light and didn't use a flash) but you can see in the initial post that the steak is not overly seared...

This is a better picture of a different steak. Looks over seared, but the only part that overly done is the fat along the edge of this NY Strip steak. The rest is just a nice sear:

 

[pacanis]

... trying to grill a steak inside on a cast iron grill pan in a NY apartment with no cross ventilation is qute a challenge when you have to explain to your vegetarian roomate why the whole place smells like beef eveytime she comes back from vacation.

 

[west coast smoker]

I have the solution to year round grilling

Hey Fanatic - I too grill year round, even in the rain if it holds off long enough to get the coals going. Any way the solution is to move to sunny Southern California. It may be expensive but I do not think it is to high a price to be able to grill all year long.

 

[TheFanatic]

Hey Fanatic - I too grill year round, even in the rain if it holds off long enough to get the coals going. Any way the solution is to move to sunny Southern California. It may be expensive but I do not think it is to high a price to be able to grill all year long.

I can grill all year long too here in St. Louis. But some times for me it's a bit painful!?!?!

 

[70chevelle]

Hey fanatic - you're really into your grilling! I've been a year round griller myself for years. I have a nice stainless JennAir natural gas right outside my kitchen. Beside that I have a Big Green Egg that I bought this past spring. It's an incredible smoker, grill and oven. I've been smoking Boston Butts & Chuck Roasts all summer, as well as grilling steaks, and roasting rib roasts and whole filets. On the patio below I built a fireplace with a wood fired oven on top to make pizza, bread, roasts, chicken, potatoes, jerky, etc. I baked 15# of bread before Thanksgiving in the rain. Kept warm with a fire in the fireplace below, and dry with an umbrella. The stereo system keeps me occupied also! I know what you mean about your 'inner pyro'. When I split 4-5 logs, stack them inside the oven which is 32"x36"x16" high and get it going, it's amazing. Temps get well over 1000*. The oven is ready for pizza when it turns white. (It's actually hot enough to burn the soot off the firebricks)

Back OT - I do my steaks & roasts the same way. I have a portable Ultra Sear Grill (I stores nicely in my JennAir) that I fire up. It has a ceramic sear burner that gets extremely hot, quickly. I throw the steaks/roasts on for a good sear and then I put them in the Egg at around 400*, indirect, until the internal gets to 125*. Or, if I fire up the WFO, I'll do the final bake in there. Let 'em rest and serve 'em up!

Here are some pics of my cooking gear. What are you cooking on?

I build the fire right in the oven on top. When baking bread, I shovel the ash to the fireplace and have a blazing fire in no time.

 

[TheFanatic]

Hey fanatic - you're really into your grilling! I've been a year round griller myself for years. I have a nice stainless JennAir natural gas right outside my kitchen. Beside that I have a Big Green Egg that I bought this past spring. It's an incredible smoker, grill and oven. I've been smoking Boston Butts & Chuck Roasts all summer, as well as grilling steaks, and roasting rib roasts and whole filets. On the patio below I built a fireplace with a wood fired oven on top to make pizza, bread, roasts, chicken, potatoes, jerky, etc. I baked 15# of bread before Thanksgiving in the rain. Kept warm with a fire in the fireplace below, and dry with an umbrella. The stereo system keeps me occupied also! I know what you mean about your 'inner pyro'. When I split 4-5 logs, stack them inside the oven which is 32"x36"x16" high and get it going, it's amazing. Temps get well over 1000*. The oven is ready for pizza when it turns white. (It's actually hot enough to burn the soot off the firebricks)

Back OT - I do my steaks & roasts the same way. I have a portable Ultra Sear Grill (I stores nicely in my JennAir) that I fire up. It has a ceramic sear burner that gets extremely hot, quickly. I throw the steaks/roasts on for a good sear and then I put them in the Egg at around 400*, indirect, until the internal gets to 125*. Or, if I fire up the WFO, I'll do the final bake in there. Let 'em rest and serve 'em up!

Here are some pics of my cooking gear. What are you cooking on?

I build the fire right in the oven on top. When baking bread, I shovel the ash to the fireplace and have a blazing fire in no time.

HOLY CRAP!!!! You have my dream backyard!?!?! LOVE THAT FIREPIT!!!! What a view!!!

I do my grillin on 3 grills. 1 horizontal offset smoker that also has a rotisserie attachment. And two 22 inch Weber kettles. One is about 25 years old. The other is a brand new One Touch Gold that my 2 month old son bought me for father's day. Not sure what he does to earn an allowance to afford one of those, but I love it. First thing I put on that grill? How bout a little shrimp on the Barbie?!?!

 

[love2"Q"]

looks great .. thats a nice hunk of meat ..

 

[LadyCook61]

sure looks inviting to eat.

 

[Bacardi]

Everything looks great, steaks and back yard setups!

To piggyback off of what three of you said...Kingdaddy's anit-direct flame, Panchohambre cast iron skillet and 70chevelle's ultrasear grill comments...

My favorite way of cooking steak is with a cast iron fajita pan over the IR ultrasear grill! This method yields a great crust like many steakhouses. There is zero charring or flame taste, which I'm ok with, but understand some crave it. I throw on a course-salt-heavy spice rub on the steak, wrap the steak in foil and let it sit out for an hour or two. Rub some oil onto the cast iron pan, fire up the ultra sear grill and it gets the pan up to temp in about 5mins. Put the steak on approx 1-2mins a side depending on size and thickness...It's usually done unless it's small and very thick, then it needs to be finished indirectly...

 

[PanchoHambre]

I just joined, so I wanted to show what TheFanatic can do on the grill. TheFanatic is a Grillin Fool....

So here is a massive bone in ribeye. My celly is there for perspective:

More perspective:

That bad boy is between 24 and 26 glorious ounces.

All I did was add a little coarse salt and fresh cracked black pepper to this bad boy. To some this is all one needs. Normally I marinade my steaks, even filets. The key is using the right kind of marinade for the right kind of cut. But for this one, and for my first demonstration here I went with a simple, almost pure steak.

The cooking process is this, flame sear that bad boy over the coals on one side of the grill. Then pull it to the other side where there are no coals and bake it to the desired doneness. For me that is usually about 3 minutes of baking as I like it no more than medium rare and closer to rare if at all possible. Then let rest for the juices to settle down before slicing open and enjoying all that cholesterol filled goodness.

And when I say sear, I really mean sear. I don't jerk around with searing. I get the coals flaming hot and then I pour on some sort of veggie oil and flame sear my steaks.

For some perspective, this is a pic from another thread but it gives one some idea of how seriously I take flame searing. This is me last summer flame searing some steaks at my folks.

And now to the resting process:

Yes that is a standard size dinner plate. What am I having with my massive steak? A side of more delicious steak!?!? Who needs a side dish when you have this much beef!?!?!

Those of you who are not fans of rare or medium rare steaks usually get to this point and assume that the blood and juice is going to leak all over the plate when I slice it open. I will prove you wrong with what I like to call the money shot:

And a nice closeup of that lovely red flavor bonanza:

beautiful steak man thanks for sharing

 

[sketch182]

beautiful steak man thanks for sharing

I looked at the photos and my mouth was watering! I'm doing steak tonight and I hope they look like yours does.

 

[Palomino_Sun]

Extreme Grilling

The talk about grilling year round brings back memories to an experience I had about 8 years ago. It was my wife's 40th birthday. We decide to have a big a## party. If you are going to have a party it might as well be big a##. We purchased 40 strip steaks, a huge tent, and invite 50 people under the premise, you bring the wine, and we’ll supply the steak [FONT=&quot] and baked potatoes[/FONT].

The day arrives and a hurricane is off the coast of NC blowing in tropical rains and wind. I have 40+ people at my house, 40 steaks to grill, sheets of rain coming down, and a big catering tent in my back yard. What the heck lets party.

I covered the grids with aluminum foil, on this long rented grill, to get the charcoal started. Once started, pulled off the foil, and threw all the steaks on. Sheets of rain still coming down. Once the fat started flowing, the steaks came out great.

The big gag at the party was, if you a little too close to the edge of the tent, someone would push up the puddle of water collected in the edge of the tent to give you a shower. With friends like that, one only needs more drinks.