Cookin' on the road & cold smoked steaks

I haven't been posting much here lately as I've been spending more time on the road rather than at home. It does give me some chances to see new stuff, food and spices: Chicken Salt in Australia, Merkén in Santiago and now a really great butcher in Saskatoon. They sell cold-smoked (!) Ribeyes and New York Strip. I knew that booking a hotel with a grill was a good idea!

So I went off to the Bulk Cheese Warehouse (yep, they have butcher shop attached) to pick up some quality cow:



It looked like it was already seasoned on the outside with a Montreal type seasoning, so just a bit of regular salt was used on the non-smoked sides. This pic is a testament to how low their cold smoke temp is. You just don't see any cooking.



The hotel supplies Napoleon grills. I like 'em. They get really hot and perform well. I cranked mine up to warp 9 to burn off all the cruft left behind, gave it a good brush and it looked great. Turned it down to medium to cook the steak, as high was just too hot.



I usually use a thermopen, but I (obviously) don't have it with me. Time to resort to my old cooking methods. Came out rare, just like I like it. Really excellent flavor. Very happy I went with the cold smoked version.

blazinfire said:

So I assume cut that way with the seasoning on the edge.. they cold smoke the cut whole then slice into steaks? I'm assuming it had good smoke flavor then? Curious to know how long they cold smoke it for

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From what I can see, either the whole striploin or whole primal rib roast is seasoned, then the whole thing is cold smoked. Then they slice it into steaks. Smoke flavor was fantastic. I do this sometimes with my pellet grill, although it's truly not "cold smoked" when I do it at 180*. Very similar flavor though.

All I can say is that if you ever see a cold smoked steak, do NOT pass it up!

So, oddly enough, the day after I posted this, Cookshack posted a video on cold-smoked steaks. It's freakin' baader-meinhoff in action.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqoGcWokYbM

Visited a different butcher shop last night, Summit Meats. Apparently cold-smoked beef is a popular thing as they had it too. Opted for a ribeye this time. The CDN/kg price is a bit shocking when you are used to seeing USD/lb. Still cheaper than going to a steakhouse by a long shot...although The Keg is pretty good up here.







Sorry, ate it too fast to get any plate pics. Oops.