Help Needed: Grilling A Steak Right....

cayenne · Oct 31, 2016

Ok, I dunno what has happened to me. When younger, I was pretty darned good at cooking a good medium rare steak on the grill. I'd usually just use the "poke" method to see how the steak felt.

But these days, even with using a Thermopen, and everything I can try...I can't seem to get a steak evenly cooked and medium rare any more.

Most of the time they are overcooked.

One thing that dawned on me, I used to cook thinner steaks in my youth...so, maybe a bit easier to judge.

I'm springing lately for prime grade steaks that are no less than 1.5 inches or thicker.

So, I'm hoping for a primer if someone could help me.

I have a Big Green Egg XL.
I have what I believe to be an accurate Thermopen thermometer.

I've tried variations...going "steak house" heat with quick grilling at 800F or more high temps, with varied success.

I've lately been trying to do in the 450 range or so. I have heavy cast iron grates for good sear marks.

I've been leaving the center a little cold from the fridge to give me some wiggle room I thought.

I've been pulling steaks when the center is about 120F..thinking that would be right for carryover heat.

But I seem to consistently get ends (especially on NY strips) that are well done...and only one section in the dead center that are at best medium to medium well.

Last time I did about 3 minutes one side, flip, 3 minutes flip and turn to start crosshatch grill marks...3 min more roughly and off the grill...dead center temp was about 120F...outer part overdone.

So, right now, I have a 2.34LB prime grade, nicely marbled, bone-in rib eye steak. It appears to be about 1.75 inches thick.

Please, someone give me some pointers on how to get this thing cooked properly to medium rare throughout on my BGE XL. I've reached the point where I know I need help...
[hangs head in shame]

Thanks in advance!!

Cayenne

4ever3 · Oct 31, 2016

Check this out...

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=akO6D_tc0lo[/ame]

It's the way I do them in Waylon. Replace the oven with your BGE and the skillet with blazing hot coals, but the skillet will work great too!

m-fine · Oct 31, 2016

Try a reverse sear.

Cook the steak at a lower temperature until about 10-15 degrees or so below your desired doneness. The lower temp, longer cook allows a more even heating to avoid over cooking the ends and thinner sections. The ultimate is a souse vide, but you can also cook the steak at 275 on the Egg and add some smoke flavor. Starting with a cold steak is actually hurting you, so try to give it some time at room temp before cooking as well.

When the steak is at the desired temp, take it off and let the outside cool a bit while you prepare for the sear. I put it in the fridge, or on ice if the time to sear is going to be brief, just sitting on the counter works if your fire needs more time. Open the vents on the BGE to get it blazing, or you can build a fire in a charcoal chimney. Either way, as the steak cools get the fire HOT.

Ditch the cast iron grate. They are great for making grill marks, but with a steak you want to sear the entire surface if you can. Use a thinner grate with more gap and less bar. Place the grate close to the fire, such as lowered into the bowl of the BGE on a Spider or set it right on top of the charcoal chimney. If the fire is hot and you are close, it will sear the outside quickly without over cooking the inside, even on the thinner sections.

The exact temperature you will need to take the steaks off the slow cook will vary with how you sear and how and how long you let it cool pre-sear. Try to be deliberate and consistent and take notes so you know how to adjust if you over or undershoot on your first try.

jwtseng · Oct 31, 2016

If grillmarks are important to you, I think picking up a good reverse sear method might be your thing.

Otherwise, let the steak come to room temp on the countertop before you cook it. Use this time to season with salt and let the salt dissolve into the uncooked steak. You'll get a more evenly cooked steak this way.

Once you put the steaks on the hot grill...don't be afraid to pull it off if it is getting engulfed in flames or seems to be cooking too "hot". Don't leave the steak hanging out on the cooler side of the grill...take it completely off and onto a resting wire rack. Let the steak cool off before you return it to the grill and repeat the process. This will let the heat transfer to the inside of the steak little by little and also not let too much of the outside edge overcook. If you want to help the steak cool off faster, you can baste it with flavored oil after you pull it off the grill to rest...it's like letting sweat evaporate on your neck.

I like to call this method "slow-grilling" and it works for me. This was last night...

scp · Oct 31, 2016

I am never 100% using the thermopen either...went back to the feel method...most of the time I can get close. But for 100% fool proof....sous vide then sear on a super hot fire or cast iron. It's like cheating...edge to edge goodness with black seared crust.

https://www.sousvidesupreme.com/

Smoking Piney · Oct 31, 2016

I like cooking steaks reverse sear on my BGE. I'll put them on at 250 indirect until they hit an IT of 110. I pull the steaks off and loosely tent them for about a 20 minute rest while I pull the plate setter and get the Egg to around 550 degrees.

I'll put the steaks back on and sear for a minute and change a side looking for 125-130 IT.

I don't worry about grill marks. I just want the steaks cooked right.

Big_kat · Oct 31, 2016

the reverse sear method is definitely the way to go if cooking any kind of meat that is over an inch or inch and a half thick. I set my Big Joe up with a half moon heat shield on one side and open fire on the other side. This allows me to somewhat smoke the steaks for about 20 min or when the internal is close to 110*. I then pull them off the grill and open everything up all the way to get the temps in the 900* range and pat the meat dry before placing on the meat directly over the fire and give it about 2 min per side to sear it. Steaks turn out perfect more often than not. Crust ->medium rare ->crust. No gray overcooked meat at all.

brimclau · Oct 31, 2016

+1 for Sousvide if you want to make it fool proof

cayenne · Oct 31, 2016

Big_kat said:
the reverse sear method is definitely the way to go if cooking any kind of meat that is over an inch or inch and a half thick. I set my Big Joe up with a half moon heat shield on one side and open fire on the other side. This allows me to somewhat smoke the steaks for about 20 min or when the internal is close to 110*. I then pull them off the grill and open everything up all the way to get the temps in the 900* range and pat the meat dry before placing on the meat directly over the fire and give it about 2 min per side to sear it. Steaks turn out perfect more often than not. Crust ->medium rare ->crust. No gray overcooked meat at all.

Thank you and EVERYONE for all the great suggestions!!

The reverse sear seems to be the way to go, so I'll try that this evening.
I've salted my meat and put in fridge now...but will pull the steak for about a hour before it hits the heat.

I'll shoot for setting up a two level fire with a half moon ceramic over one half of the BGE XL and likely will use my fire pit brackets to make most of the coals under the open side of the grill set up.

I'll throw it on the cooler, indirect side, till about 110F-115F..then, remove to rest for about 20 min.

I'll open up the vents to get it blazing on the open side and do the quick sear/grill on the open side of the grill for about 1 min each side and see how it goes.....

Does that sound like a plan?

Thank you EVERYONE for the great advice and images!!

I'm now starving!!!

cayenne

Smoking Piney · Oct 31, 2016

Your plan sounds good. Enjoy! :-D

4ever3 · Oct 31, 2016

Now your talkin!

sparctek · Oct 31, 2016

Cayenne, I have a Kamado Joe I just picked up a couple of weeks ago and have been cooking steaks on it successfully using the two level direct/indirect set up. I let the cooker come up to 500/550 and sear the steaks over the lower, direct fire for about 1 minute on each side with the top closed. Then I move the steaks to the higher-indirect side and cook to an internal of 125. I use a Thermapen to check temp. The steaks I cook are also ~1.5 inch thick and they have come out perfect every time. I've done rib eyes, bone in and boneless, and NY strip.

Here is the first one I did, this one was a little thinner than 1.5", but I followed the same method:

yakdung · Oct 31, 2016

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LaW6h95hvbo"]How to Grill a Ribeye Steak on Cast Iron - YouTube[/ame]

Fwismoker · Oct 31, 2016

For me steaks it just depends on how thick and what kind of steak it is, It's most definitely a moving target.

m-fine · Oct 31, 2016

cayenne said:
Thank you and EVERYONE for all the great suggestions!!

The reverse sear seems to be the way to go, so I'll try that this evening.
I've salted my meat and put in fridge now...but will pull the steak for about a hour before it hits the heat.

I'll shoot for setting up a two level fire with a half moon ceramic over one half of the BGE XL and likely will use my fire pit brackets to make most of the coals under the open side of the grill set up.

I'll throw it on the cooler, indirect side, till about 110F-115F..then, remove to rest for about 20 min.

I'll open up the vents to get it blazing on the open side and do the quick sear/grill on the open side of the grill for about 1 min each side and see how it goes.....

Does that sound like a plan?

Thank you EVERYONE for the great advice and images!!

I'm now starving!!!

cayenne

Your plan looks good.

One last thing...

If slicing and serving, rest the meat for 10-15 minutes after the sear so it doesn't lose too much juice to the cutting board. If serving whole and cutting on the plate, serve as soon as it come off the flame. The crust is better and the plate will hold the juices for you.

newtwoq · Nov 1, 2016

I do something completely differently than the above, but it might be that I'm cooking on a kettle and not a ceramic, so it really might be a YMMV kind of thing.

I cook our steaks on a 18.5" Weber kettle.

I get the steaks out (1-1.5" ribeyes x 2) of the fridge and put a little Olive Oil on them and season them about 45mins before I'm ready to cook.

Then fill up one chimney of RO lump and get it going. Once all is lit, I put it on one side of the kettle and leave both top and bottom vents wide open.

Place the steaks on the hot side directly over the flame, let them sit there for about a min, then flip. Once flipped close the top vent down to about half open. (not sure if it makes any difference, but I always have the vent on the opposite side of the grill as the fire)

From here I flip every 45 seconds and have found that this gives a very even cook without having too much "well done" on the outside of the steak. Cooking over direct coals gives me the sear and crust on the outside that I'm looking for.

I pull them at about 119F IT and rest them for about 10 mins before slicing. This allows them to come up to just under medium rare where my wife and I like them.

cayenne · Nov 1, 2016

Ok...some success!!`

Well this came off MUCH Better than my previous failures.

When I first cut into it, I thought it was overcooked again...but after it *bloomed* after being cut, it appears to be on the medium side....I would like a bit more medium rare.

I had basically done this:

1. I salted it with garlic salt in the morning and it sat in fridge all day

2. I took it out of fridge about 3:30pm

3. I fired up the BGE, with coals on one side, virtually none under the other side with ceramic half moon blocker.

4. During reverse sear slow cooking, the units temperature hung about 225-250 for the whole time.

5. The steak had a probe in it the whole time, at about 116F I removed the steak and brought indoors. This steak sat a bit longer than I intended, due to trying to time it to server with some air fryer sweet potato fries.

6. Steak was resting from initial cook for approx 20 minutes or slightly more. The temp probe said it went from about 118F when I sat it down to a high of about 125F with carryover heat.

7. I cranked the heat up full as I could on the BGE XL, I didn't reconfigure anything, so it was just the original side with coals....but temps at top of dome reported just shy of 500F. It was flaming red and flames occasionally licking the grates. I did use the cast iron grates.

8. Here's where I was a little confused. I'd seen many things saying to just sear at high heat for 1 minute a side. But I had let the steak rest longer than usual. I also had the thermometer probe still in it, reporting starting temp about 119F-120F....this barely moved and I wasn't sure what it should be at....since cooking was interrupted.

9. I did the steak on side 1 for 1 minute, decent grill marks, but didn't look as browned as I'd like. I flipped first time and did side #1 for a minute. I flipped back to side one and angled for crosshatch marks..and did this side for about 2 min. When I flipped, to side 2 for second time...side one looked perfect, temp was about 124F.

10. I only wanted to leave side #2 down for second time for a short time, as that I pressed the steak and it was starting to feel firm...so this last time was maybe a minute or just over.

11. I brought in steak...it rested only a short time, since that I'd heard, and read that if it rested from earlier cooking and was just reheated slightly for sear, you didn't need to rest again.

This last part seemed true..it held its juices just fine.

So, I'm still wondering about how long to sear...and what temps should look like on the sear stage...

But this is something I'll work with and vary as I go. I did NOT ruin a $30 steak like I have previously....so, I'm happy about that.

Thanks to all.....and after reading my report you have suggestions, please let me know and I'll try this next time!!

Cayenne

rober · Nov 1, 2016

on America's test kitchen they put wrapped some thicker (1 1/2"+) steaks in foil & put them in the oven @275* for 20-30 minutes to warm the middle & seared them on the grill. I did some thinner 3/4" steaks that way but reduced the oven time to 15 minutes. the steaks came out perfect. I like mine on the rare side. my granddad's idea of well done beef was to put a cow out in direct sunlight.

rwalters · Nov 1, 2016

That $ shot looks OUTSTANDING from here

m-fine · Nov 1, 2016

If you want it a little less done, you have three options.

1) Take it off the initial cook before an IT of 116, perhaps 110. (step 5)

2) In step 6, put it in the fridge or on ice to chill the outside and keep the IT from rising all the way to 120-125.

3) Sear hotter, closer to the fire, for less time (and ditch the CI grate).

My suggestion would be to try pulling at 110 next time and get a hotter searing fire. The CI grate is over searing on the grill marks, and most of the rest looks under seared even though it took longer to get there than it should have.

Searing in a CI pan works because it is a flat even surface and it helps store the heat, especially from an under-powered stove burner, and then applies it quickly to the entire surface. A cast iron grate on a grill produces an uneven sear, blocking heat from most of the meat and focusing it on the lines. This is desirable if you want to add grill marks, especially on more delicate items, but is not good if you want to apply a full surface sear to maximize flavor on a steak. Try a lighter thinner grate, get it as close to a hot fire as you can, and minimize the time the steak is being seared.

Another technique mentioned above is to flip more often. This helps keep the overall internal temp more even, but if the searing fire is hot enough and close enough, you shouldn't need much time per side anyway.

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