Grilling, Smoking, BBQ, etc. WAYCT (What Are You Cooking Today) Outdoor Edition
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Yeah you definitely don’t have to use a skillet or a griddle to get a crust, but it conducts heat better than air and I’ve personally found better, more consistent results and less work using surfaces than air to sear. And the physics certainly makes sense.
To get similar results in terms of minimal temperature gradient and not overcooking the meat while having uninterrupted crust on the surface with a grill, I’ve found I have to move the meat constantly so that the grill grate itself can do contact searing uninterrupted across the surface. At that point I realized I was just compensating for the comparatively weak thermal conductivity of air versus the grates, so why not just make it easy and use a surface?
Same reason I prefer griddled to grilled burgers! Well that and it’s hard to smash ground beef on a grate.
What I love about seasoned cast iron in particular is that it has a very smooth surface (again, maximizing the transfer of heat to the surface of the meat is my goal) and it is hydrophobic / nonstick. So my steak will go on there having been dry brined a couple of days with nothing on it but salt. If I’m doing reverse sear, after the rest the surface gets patted down. Very dry meat surface hits a very hot polymerized surface. You can leave each side completely undisturbed for a bit while the initial crust is formed, then optionally add fat and baste.
That said, I still love certain meats like pork and chicken with grill marks and do the quarter turn thing on those. Most steaks (pretty much anything but flank and skirt) are not among those meats for me anymore because I want every square millimeter to have a tasty crust and feel I’ve found an easy and reliable way to get that results I want: medium rare everywhere but the crust.
Think it, be it.
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@mclaincausey you’re 100% right about all of that, and physics certainly backs up your opinions. I just can’t be arsed to deal with a pan on the grill when I’m already running around dealing with the rest of the meal. I would prefer to use a cast iron pan on the stove for steaks, but we don’t have good ventilation in our kitchen, so cooking outside is the best option. It feels like an extra added step to haul a pan outside, but maybe I should just suck it up because it’s a far superior cooking method.
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@mclaincausey Awesome! Thank you for the info. My wife is really good at cooking steaks in a pan on the stove. She has done that method, I have never tried. And neither of us have experience with charcoal grilling. Being able to do that level of grilling a steak is our dream! Haha
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@Danimal506 If you ever happen to come across Jealous Devil charcoal briquettes or the hardwood,I highly recommend both. Their XLMax briquettes are the best. Home Depot carries them,as well as others.
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My go to kettle accessorie is the vortex. About to put some steaks on right now. I can go low and slow and then have a hot spot to sear. Biggest bonus is I don’t have to listen to my wife complaining about a cast iron skillet that is filthy, although the best steaks I’ve ever had came out of cast iron. These are 95% as good.
https://vortexbbq.com/which-size/
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128 after slow cook and sear. Resting will get a bit higher temp.
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Sliced and ready. I grew up eating meat grey, the way my parents cooked. Met my wife and every time I grilled for her family everything was overdone. Finally got a Thermapen and asked everyone what temp do you want. I’m a rare guy now.
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@Jett129 said in Grilling, Smoking, BBQ, etc. WAYCT (What Are You Cooking Today) Outdoor Edition:
@Danimal506 If you ever happen to come across Jealous Devil charcoal briquettes or the hardwood,I highly recommend both. Their XLMax briquettes are the best. Home Depot carries them,as well as others.
Agree fully.
And understand the “too much work” thing too @seawolf ; I am the same way about steak. Just don’t want to do them inside. I also don’t want to fire up my Komodo unless it’s a long cook. So what I was describing happens on my gas grill. Low and slow on the grill, then while I’m resting the steaks I turn it up all the way with a skillet on.
One of my favorite indoor methods I adapted from Serious Eats many years ago. Basically the idea is to heat your oven to 500F with a cast iron skillet in it and then cook the steak in that hot skillet. I can’t remember if he suggested this part of it I added it, but I would put the hot pan with the steak right under the broiler to impersonate a salamander for a couple of minutes each side. It worked well but was extraordinarily messy and fills the house with smoke because our hood is terrible.
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@Jett129 Rhank you for the tip, I will look for those!
This is what I used tonight. I liked them a lot. We made burgers. I ate them too fast to take a good picture lol I’m just happy they aren’t burnt…
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@Sage954 Ramsay himself couldn't cook a more perfect temp! Looks great.
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@Sage954 Love that cleaver! Steak looks perfect too!
I made this badboy (3kg dry aged Holstein ribeye) on sunday for my girlfriends coworkers get together.
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@Sage954 looks delicious!
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@seawolf yeahdawg I hope it’s delicious and know it will be
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It was lovely. I loved getting that nice crust and not smoking out the whole house with eau de boeuf.
“Good design is actually a lot harder to notice than poor design, in part because good designs fit our needs so well that the design is invisible” - Don Norman
@zeebeeleather
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@Tago-Mago And now I get to do it for fun!
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@seawolf What sort of mitt do you use for handling the skillet when it’s on the grill?
