Coffee on a steak? Actual coffee grounds? I know it sounds a little nuts, but trust me, it’s outstanding. First off, I want to point out what cut of steak that is. It’s a teres major. What is a teres major steak? Other than awesome? It’s from a little used muscle in the shoulder of the cow and is the second most tender cut of beef other than the tenderloin. If you are familar with the flat iron, which is also extremely tender, you will know that the flat iron is a steak comprised of two muscles combined by some connective tissue. One of those muscles is the teres minor.
Not only is the teres major extremely tender, it’s also cheap. Like $8/pound at
Kenrick’s where these came from. Don’t look for them at your local grocer. Every now and again, they might carry it under the name petite tender or shoulder tender, but for the most part, they won’t have any idea what you’re talking about. You have to go to a full service butcher shop like
Kenrick’s here in St. Louis who carries them all the time, although you better get there before my dad does. When he goes, he buys them out. He has good reason to, it may be my favorite steak, it’s that good.
I go into the teres major a little more here.
Now let’s get to the recipe for the coffee steak.
Ingredients:
4 steaks (you don’t have to use teres majors for this)
1/2 cup finely ground coffee (I used a decaf hazelnut blend that I ground myself a couple days before at my local grocery store. Decaf is not a necessity.)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp white pepper
Salt to coat the steaks
That’s not a teres major steak. I made this rub three days in a row. I was just as leery as you are about making a steak with coffee on it. I thought there would be a 50/50 chance it would be any good. The first night I made it, I put it on the tiniest filet you’ve ever seen to see if it was any good. It was outstanding so I decided it was website worthy. The next night, I decided to try it on a salmon filet and take some pics of the ingredients. The third night, I made the steak you will see below for dad to try.
Combine all the ingredients except the salt, I did this ever so appropriately in a coffee cup:
Coat each side of the steak with coarse salt and then cover with the rub and let it come to room temperature:
Here’s a picture of the teres major covered with the rub next to two other teres majors that were getting a coating of jerk that night:
This is my standard method for grilling a steak. While the steaks are coming up to room temp, I set up the grill for two zone grilling with an incredibly hot fire on one side and nothing on the other:
The steak goes over the hot side of the grill for about 90 seconds to sear, is rotated 45 degrees and seared another 90 seconds, flipped and repeated, and then put on the side of the grill with no heat and the lid put on to bake the steak to desired doneness. Times vary depending on the heat of the fire.
I want to warn you that with the brown sugar in the rub, the steak is going to look like it’s burnt:
That looks like it’s more charcoal than steak, but it’s fine. Trust me.
After it bakes on the side with no heat for a few minutes, it was pulled and allowed to rest:
Notice how thick it is? The teres major does something very cool. It puffs up as it cooks. By the time you pull it from the grill, it will be almost twice as thick as it was when you put it on.
And here it is sliced:
And here’s an extra money shot of a piece right before dad devoured it:
What did we drink with the coffee steak? You can’t go with something mild. This 2002 Pax Syrah from Dad’s buddy Don H. did the job nicely:
And this rub is excellent on salmon as well. Here are a couple shots I took when I put it on salmon:
The only thing I would’ve done differently with the salmon is that I would’ve put it on a maple plank next time. I think the maple smoke and coffee would make for a dynamite combo.
