T-Rex's
"Perfect Steak" Technique.
This is reproduced with his permission.
You may click HERE to download this entire
page in Word .doc format.
I wrote this narrative for my dad shortly after he purchased his first BGE, and have added comments since then as my experience has broadened. Okay, so I may have gotten slightly carried away . . .
Still my favorite Egg dish, NY STRIPS:
CHOOSE YOUR MEAT WISELY (what to buy): Buy
top sirloin strip steaks--these tend to have the perfect combination of marble
(for taste) and tenderness. Always get the BEST stuff, usually about $9.99/lb.
Prime or Angus beef is good stuff. Don't let the butcher sell you Choice or
Select for a sale price. I experimented with buying cheaper meat or meat that
was on sale--I learned a big lesson: all you get when you carefully cook crappy
meat is cooked crappy meat--often tough, fatty, or not very juicy. I firmly
believe that 95% OF A GOOD STEAK DEPENDS ON THE MEAT YOU START WITH. Also, avoid
buying a display case steak. I always try to get the butcher to cut me one fresh
from the center of a large side of beef that he pulls out of a cryovac package
from the back refrigerator (Note, if the beef is in a cryovac package, it has
been “wet-aged.”); that way, the steak is cherry-red when it is handed to you
(it hasn’t “bloomed” yet). If possible, get the butcher to cut your steak 2"
thick--you certainly don't want it any thinner than 1.5”--if thicker, you'll
just have to add to the cooking time. Note: these steaks should have a nice
marble to them, no bone. Also note that the sooner you can cook a steak the
better—I usually try to cook the steak within a couple of hours of having bought
it, so I bring it home, set it on the counter (so it can start coming to near
room temperature), eat some chips and salsa for a while, then go fire up the
Egg.
THE RUB (what to buy): Simple is the key
here. You want to enhance the natural flavor of the beef, not add a lot to it.
So, first buy Kosher sea salt. I think there's a real coarse kind and a less
coarse kind--get the less coarse kind. You don't want to be pouring icecream
maker salt on your steak. Second, buy spicy brown porter-style mustard. Third,
buy coarse ground black pepper or use fresh peppercorns in your own pepper mill.
Fourth, buy olive oil, if you don’t already have some in your pantry.
THE SMOKE (what to buy): First of all, never
buy wood CHIPS!! Always buy wood CHUNKS. Chips just catch on fire and char
whatever you're cooking. I usually buy my wood chunks at Barbeques Galore here
in Houston--I can't remember what brand they are, but let me recommend that you
buy your wood chunks from a BBQ/grill store that sells the Egg, or just a store
that is dedicated to grills--i.e., don't get them from a grocery store. I bought
a really inexpensive bag of chunks at Kroger once but was very disappointed in
their performance--not very fragrant, very little smoke, and caught on fire
easily.
Now, I use Mesquite when I do steaks because it has a strong biting flavor that
goes great with grilled beef. Also, since the smoke is strong, this allows for
its flavor to be absorbed during the relatively short time the steaks will be
exposed to the smoke.
PREPARING THE CHUNKS—AN OVERRATED “ART”:
Chunks always last longer before catching fire if they have been soaked in water
for at least an hour. When I first had my Egg I would keep a sealed tupperware
container outside with wood chunks soaking in water. The only downside to this
method is that the chunks begin to smell like death (actually, the smell of
rotting wood and bacteria). Of course, 10 seconds on white-hot coals gets rid of
the death smell and bacteria, but I later discovered a method that helps me
avoid this stomach-turning experience. Well, you can just soak the chunks you
want to use an hour before you use them, or overnight if you know you will be
using the Egg the next day. But recently I have found that if you are cooking
just a steak, or a couple of pieces of chicken, or come burgers, you can line
the perimeter of your coals with three or four DRY chunks and put your meat in
the center of the grill. That way, if the chunks catch on fire, they won’t char
your meat b/c the meat will be in the center and the chunks will be burning on
the outside. And what I have found is that fist-sized dry chunks will smoke for
10 - 20 minutes at Egg temperatures between 300 – 375 F before they catch on
fire. This of course means that if you are cooking something that will take less
than 20 minutes, you really don’t need to soak your chunks. Some may argue that
you often don’t want more than 20 – 30 minutes of smoke anyway, so don’t ever
bother soaking your chunks. Note: I will discuss later WHEN to put the chunks on
the coals—this is important (e.g., if you put the chunks on the coals when the
Egg temperature is above 400 F, they probably won’t last 5 minutes before
catching on fire).
TAKE YOUR TIME (as you well know, good cooking comes to those who
wait): If you can be patient enough, it is best to let
the meat come to near room temperature before doing any searing/cooking. What I
usually do is set the meat out for thirty minutes to an hour (if it's still
cold, it's not room temperature, unless you’re in a really cold room—you know
what I mean).
TO BUILD A FIRE—MAKING LAVA FOR THE SEAR:
Jack London died long before the Egg had gained popularity in the New World, but
man would he have appreciated this experience. Building a good fire took me a
couple of weeks of practice. I only met success once I learned the secret:
patience. As you might have perceived by now, cooking with the Egg is an
experience, a journey—not a quick 21st century mouse-click. It usually takes me
about 15-20 minutes before I have brought the Egg to life. What does this look
like? Hot, yellow glowing coals, or, as Cameron says, “glowing lava.” You don’t
want to see much black. Now, all 20 of these minutes are not spent standing by
the Egg (although, with a nice cold Corona, I highly recommend it). The last
5-10 you’re just letting the coals turn into lava.
Okay, so, how do you start? There are competing methods used to make a fire in
the Egg—the BGE forum suggests a few, and I’m sure your video suggests a method
as well. Feel free to use whatever method you like, but I’ll share with you the
method that’s been working well for me.
To start the fire, I’ve been using these self-striking starters which I buy at
Kroger. They appear to be wood particles held together by a paraffin binder. You
can get them at most grocery stores I believe. You can also use those lighter
cubes called Encendedores—they work well, but I would use two. The important
thing is not to use a huge starter piece that will take forever to burn away.
The self-striking starters (which are like 5”x2”x0.5”) work really nicely.
Before you light your starter piece, put two small, skinny long pieces of lump
on the bottom of your fire box. (The firebox should be clean and your grill
grate is off at this point.) You will essentially be making a bridge between
these two pieces with your starter piece—hence, they act as shims to let air
flow underneath your starter piece to help it burn more efficiently.
Now, make sure your bottom air vent is completely open. Light your starter piece
and hold it vertically (I use tongs) so that the fire climbs it and the entire
piece catches on fire. Now, make your little bridge across the two small pieces
of lump. Next, starting with large pieces of charcoal, make a pyramid on top of
the starter pieces—just 5 or 6 pieces. Let these get burning well, then start to
add more charcoal, 5 pieces or so at a time (more as the pieces get smaller),
taking care not to smother your flame. You can gradually use smaller pieces of
charcoal as you fill the firebox. Before each addition of charcoal, make sure
the previous pieces have started to catch somewhat and that you have a nice
flame to set the new pieces into. Continue this process until you have filled
your firebox just above the level of the air holes with charcoal. This sounds
like a long process, but it’s not. To facilitate your flame, you may want to
blow into the bottom vent (I use a small hand-held fan, I’ve heard of some
people using hair dryers, which add the extra bonus of preheating your air prior
to combustion). This can often cut your start-up time in half (I once brought my
Mini up to almost 900 F in under 5 minutes using a handheld fan). Once you have
a filled firebox with a good flame (not a smoldering mound of charcoal), you can
leave the bottom vent open, replace your grill grate, (put your skillet on the
grill grate if you’re going to sear in a skillet), close the Egg, leave the top
vent completely uncovered, and walk away. It usually takes me at least 10
minutes or so to get to this point. Now, you’re trying to get lava temperatures
in order to do your sear, so that is why you want maximum air flow. You may want
to go prep your meat at this time (see Prepping the Meat) or wait about 5
mintues and then go prep your meat. After about another 5-10 minutes after
closing the Egg, you should return to find glowing charcoal inside and probably
some flames shooting out of your chimney and a temp gage that is approaching
750F, which is about where you want it (higher is better) to do your sear. You
may at this point want to add more charcoal if your level has fallen below the
air holes (this is more important when you’re doing a long or high-temperature
cook, but less necessary for a short cook like steak). If you smell gasket
melting, you are ready to sear your steak (but prep it first!) IMPORTANT NOTE:
When running your Egg at these lava temperatures, it is very easy to get
flashback when you open the lid. “Burp” your lid several times before opening
and STAND BACK. Look at the Naked Whiz’s website for more details on flashback
(http://www.nakedwhiz.com/bge.htm).
PREPPING THE MEAT: I usually prep the meat
about 5 minutes before throwing it on the Egg (if you prep too early, the salt
may remove too much juice from the meat). Your Egg should be roaring at
adiabatic flame temperatures right about now, so get out your Kosher sea salt,
spicy brown mustard, coarse ground pepper, and olive oil. GENEROUSLY shake an
evenly-dispersed coating of sea salt on one side of the steak. Okay, what does
this look like? Well, cover the surface of the steak but don’t pile salt on
salt. Does that make sense? Let’s put it this way, if you go, “Damn, that’s way
too much salt,” then you’ve probably done just the right amount. Remember, a lot
of this falls off during the searing process. Now, work the salt into the meat
with your fingers. I do this until I can no longer see any white in the salt.
Also, work some into the edge of the steak. Next, grind a generous amount of
black pepper onto the surface (not as much as the salt, but a decent amount—I
usually do about 20-30 turns of the pepper mill). Work the pepper into the meat
just as you did the salt. Flip the steak and repeat the salt and pepper. Now,
spread a thin coating of mustard on one side, followed by a light coating of
olive oil (I usually just dip my finger in the olive oil and run my finger
across the surface of the steak, but a lot of people pour olive oil into a spray
bottle and spray a nice mist of oil). Stand the steak on its edge (if you flip
it completely, the mustard will end up on the plate, not the steak) and repeat
the mustard and olive oil on the other side. Keep the steak on its edge and let
it sit for about 5 minutes. Then, you’re ready to sear.
TOOLS: Okay, you’re about to start handling
a hot steak over an even hotter grill. I learned the hard way that the tools you
use to handle the meat are very important. I’ll go ahead and tell you that, if I
can, I always handle the meat with my hands, even pulling it off of a hot
skillet or grill. But, if you have to use a tool, DON’T USE A TOOL THAT CAN
PUNCTURE THE MEAT. While spearing the meat is the easiest way to pick it up,
this creates holes in the meat from which priceless juices escape while cooking.
If I don’t use my hands, I use tongs or a spatula. I guess I prefer tongs since
the spatula tends to scrape the rub off the meat.
SEARING THE MEAT: Your meat should be about
room temperature now. If it’s still cool, that’s okay—you just don’t want it
cold and stiff. Now, I've tried searing on the grill grate in its normal
position, on the grill grate with the grate sitting basically on the coals, and
in a cast iron pan that has come up to lava temps with the Egg. If you're into
char crust, the skillet is your best bet. I didn't notice a big difference in
how close the grate was to the coals except that it is just plain easier to sear
on the grate in its normal position. If you do use a skillet, use a cast iron
skillet--don’t use a “nice” skillet. The first time I seared a steak I used our
$100 Caphalon skillet and ruined it converted it into my steak-searing skillet.
For searing in a skillet, you can put the skillet on the grill grate as you’re
waiting for the Egg to come up to lava temps, and the skillet will follow suit.
Open the Egg slowly, and throw the steak onto one side of the skillet. Let it
sizzle and smoke for at least a minute—I usually let it go 90 seconds. There
will be flames all over the steak, but don’t start to panic thinking that you’re
burning the crap out of your meat. It’s gonna sizzle and it’s gonna smoke like
hell, and the seared side WILL get black in spots, but this will form the tasty
crust of your perfect steak (if you don’t like the black crust, you can always
flake it off). After 90 seconds (if you’re brave), flip the meat (DON’T USE A
FORK TO FLIP!). If the skillet is big enough, sear the other side of the meat in
a different spot on the skillet so that you get a hot spot on the skillet. After
searing the second side, take your meat out of the skillet and set it on a
plate. When the smoke clears, you will see that you have a beautifully seared
steak. For searing directly on the grill grate (which is what I always do these
days), do the same thing, except substitute the words “grill grate” for
“skillet.”
HUNGRY YET? BE PATIENT!: Now, the second
most important step—letting the meat rest. I learned this important tidbit from
a friend of mine who has been a chef at several well-known steak houses,
including Pappas Bros. here in Houston. Meat is mostly muscle that will contract
and tighten during the searing process. For a tender, juicy steak, you must let
the muscle in the meat relax before you cook your steak at a lower temperature.
After much experimentation, I have found that the optimum resting time for a
steak is 20 minutes. Any longer than this and the juices start to run out of the
meat. So leave the steak on a plate in your kitchen and walk away (if you have a
dog, you may not want to walk away) .
QUELLING THE FIRE—PREPARING FOR THE MAIN COOK:
After having seared your steak and while your meat is resting, you need to start
bringing the Egg down to cooking temperatures. Close the bottom vent until it’s
open about 1.5”. Close the top of the Egg and move your daisy wheel until about
0.5” of the top opening is exposed. Also, fine-tune the shutters on the wheel to
about 50% open. Wait a few minutes and the temperature should begin to fall.
Your target temperature is going to be 400 F. This is the part that takes
practice. You shouldn’t have to adjust the bottom vent, but you may have to play
around with the daisy wheel to get your temperature stabilized where you want
it. The only time I would adjust the bottom vent is to open it up and blow air
in if my temperature has dropped below 250 F and fails to recover, or to close
it off if my wood chunks have caught on fire or I’m having flame-ups.
Hopefully during the 20 minutes your steak has been resting you have stabilized
the Egg at around 400 F. Once there, pick out three fist-sized mesquite wood
chunks. Have them handy. When you’ve approached the 20th minute of your resting
time, open the Egg, remove the grill grate CAREFULLY using tongs, place your
wood chunks on the perimeter of the coals (not in the middle), and put your
grate back on. Close the Egg. You will notice now that your temperature has
dropped probably below 350 F, but it will recover once the lid is closed. If it
struggles to recover, open the bottom vent and blow some air in. You may also
need to adjust your daisy wheel at this time (it moves just about every time you
open the lid). Let the Egg stabilize at 400 F. Shortly thereafter, you should
start getting a nice billow of smoke out of the top vent. YOU’RE READY TO COOK!
COOKING—THE PACE QUICKENS: Now the fun part.
Just before doing the main cook on the steak, I usually reseason with the salt
(lightly this time) and ground pepper on both sides. After reseasoning, take
your steak outside. If your Egg is around 400 F and billowing smoke, you’re
ready. Open the lid quickly, throw on your steak, and close the lid quickly.
Your temperature should stabilize back around 400 F, but if it goes a bit lower,
don’t be too concerned—you’re cooking direct by radiant heat from the coals;
dome temp is not as critical, but just acts as a good gauge of how much radiant
heat your coals are providing. Now, here’s where you have to experiment to your
liking. I like my steaks medium-rare—that’s pretty red in the center. To
accomplish this, I cook a 2” steak at 400 F dome temp for about 4 - 5
minutes/side (for medium, try 5 - 6 minutes a side). So, wait about 4 minutes,
then open the lid quickly and flip your steak, close the lid. Remember, use your
hands or tongs to flip the steak if you can—don’t puncture the meat. After 4
more minutes, the steak should be “done.” I’ve never used an instant read
thermometer to see at what internal temp I’m removing the steak, but 145 F I
think is about the cutoff for medium rare (sometimes this is more medium than
medium-rare). Of course, you would want to remove the steak at a temperature
below 145, because the temperature will rise probably 10 degrees or so from the
time you take it off the grill to the time you cut your first slice. But whether
you cook by time or temperature, remember it’s always better to go too rare,
because you can always throw the steak back on the Egg and cook it longer. So,
start at about 4 minutes per side for a 2” steak, then experiment to your
liking. (I should insert a comment here—I cook on a Medium Egg, but this past
weekend I cooked 4 fillets and 4 strips on my dad’s Large Egg, and found that
the time is a little bit different for his larger Egg. You may need to
experiment here with time—but once you get it right the first time, you should
be able to duplicate your efforts, provided you are consistent with your steak
thickness and grill temperature. When cooking several steaks for large groups, I
would suggest investing in an instant-read thermometer (I wish I had had one
this past weekend). When using most of the grill space, you’ll inevitably have
some spots that are hotter than others (this is what happened to me), so a quick
prick with an instant-read probe is your sure-fire bet to pleasing your guests.)
THE MOMENT YOU’VE BEEN WAITING FOR:
Remove your steak from the Egg, let it sit for about 2 – 3 minutes to
redistribute the juices internally, then slice it thinly and enjoy. You should
experience the best home-cooked steak of your life, and probably a steak that is
better than what you can get at most nice steak houses. ENJOY!