Perfect steaks

King-O-Coals

The Porterhouse T-bones were excellent,, but not perfect. I have discovered that flame impingment is detrimentle to acheiving the perfect steak. I have always believed that the hotter the fire, the better the steak. A hot bed of coals and fat dripping from prime steaks will produce a fire and flame high enough to impinge on the flesh of the steak. When this occurs, the meat will have a slightly bitter taste due to the scorched surface of the meat. Therefore, my next session with thick slabs of beef flesh will be with the daisy wheel slots open and the bottom damper wide open,, but not an open chimney as we did tonight. I have also came to the realization the Moore's marinate definately helps steaks. We used to use Dales, but due to the high salt content, have shifted to Moore's. Tonight we tried steaks with fresh ground pepper and a light salting with Steak Builder seasoning. Very good, but no cigar. But one success tonight was the timing. 2 minutes on one side, flip them over and do 4 minutes on the other. These were pitifully thin 1.25 inch thick steaks. They were perfect with varying stages of pink meat inside. We started them when they were at room temp.

Dr. Chicken

King-O-Coals,
What did I tell you about dem pitifully "thin" porterhouses? A porterhouse has got to be so thick, you'd swear one steak alone would feed an army! Then, it needs to be grilled with TLC, jest 'nough that when you stick a fork in it, it Moo's back at ya all! I kin see, I'm gona have ta come down der to help ya all grill a "steak" to purrrrrfection! I'll even bring me a "pocket full a rocks", so I kin fill my mouth wid rocks den you and da "Guru of Grease" kin understan me whens I talk! [p]Dr. Chicken[p]p.s.: dat's a trick I learned when I spoke at a siminar in Albany, GA. (da rocks, dat is!)[p]p.s./p.s.: The ribs were purrrrfecto! That 90 + mile drive home was pure ag-o-ny, I was so full!

Tim M

King-O-Coals,
What temp did you cook at? You said the top was off but never gave a temp. You say you want to do the next steak with Mrs Dasiy on the Egg. That will give you a max temp of about 400 deg - not high enough IMHO for good steak. If you have a slide/daisy top you can get 600 deg which is the min IMHO. Some porterhouse steaks have a load of fat on the edge and it may have been dripping when you were cooking them but at the temps I do mine at I think the fat burns up awful fast (unless I have several on the grid at once)and I don't see much flare-up problems. Now, at 700+ deg there are lots of flames anyway and they can reach my grid without any flare-up, but I like that char outside on my steaks. [p]Good luck with your next batch.[p]Tim

Nature Boy

Tim M,
I agree. The dripping fat is not an issue at all. When the fire is 700-1000, some direct flames will hit the meat. None caused by fat, just a raging fire. I have cooked them at lower temps as King o Coals mentioned, but I prefer them nicely seared. They seem to be much juicier and tender. Try 'em at 900.[p]
Never noticed a bitter flavor either. I am gonna go pull a big ol NY strip out of the freezer now for the Redskins game. Yeeeeee Ha![p]Good luck there King. Hope you get the results you are striving for![p]

Grumpa

King-O-Coals,[p]I have cooked many steaks on the egg and have yet to get anything but excellent results. Fill that fire box good and full with lump and start your fire. Let it burn until you get upwards of 900-1000* dome temp (this may take up to 30 minutes) flames should be shooting thru the uncapped dome top and the bottom vent should be wide open. Use porterhouse steaks no less than 1 1/2" thick with a little Kosher salt and pepper (or other dry seasoning). Carefully open the dome and toss those babys on the grill surface and close the dome for 2-3 minutes. Open the dome and flip them once, closing the dome back for another 2-3 minutes. After that, close the bottom vent and put your ceramic dome top on the chimney. Let the steaks sit in there about 5-10 minutes depending on how done you like them. I will sometime throw a handful of dry Misquite chips on the fire just before putting the steaks on for a hint of smoke flavor.[p]My steaks have always come out fork tender with a nice sear and juicy inside. I have had nothing but excellent compliments from family and friends who love a good steak and consider themselves steak experts. They tell me over and over that these are the best steaks they have ever eaten including those from the finest of restaurants in the Atlanta area. To this day, no one has ever requested steak sauce at my dinner table.[p]The secret is in getting the hottest fire possible. Just be careful dealing with these extreme temps or you will be posting some extremely amusing (or sad) experiences to this fourm as I have done in the past.

Char-Woody

Bob, you and I must eat at the same house..Have we met?? Hey, send me a e.mail sometime. I just revamped my computer and need your forwarding address. Boy have I got this 3D machine stomping this morning..whew..!! Got a Pork B'Butt running at 200 out there after dipping to 100. On at midnight last night..chow..C~W

King-O-Coals

Char-Woody, we always get excellent results, but we left the dome up, as we have done before during the 2 min. per side phase, then close it. But this time, there were 5 steaks on the grill and the fat drippings kept a roaring flame against the surface of the steaks. They were great, but there was a hint of bitter. OF COURSE, I MUST ADMIT ALSO THAT THE GURU OF GREASE COOKED THEM. He is trying so desperatly to become adaquate at cooking with coals. But no one can touch him in the frying department. Also, after sleeping off a batch of bad vodka, I notice I left out some cooking times on my main post on this subject. We do 2 min. per side with the dome open, then put a couple of steaks on top of one another just for those barbarians who like to see their cow still trembling when they eat it. We refer to it down here as "cut his horns off and wipe his but and serve it to me". I like just a nice pink color.

Dr. Chicken

King-O-Coals,
I take it that last snide remark was aimed at me!!![p]Just another Barbarian

King-O-Coals

Dr. Chicken, I'm not being judgmental. But I keep small children and pets away from people like you when you're hungry. Naah! I have eaten steaks with blud runnin, but still prefer pink. You're missin some good times. The wind was howling yesterday out of the north, so we had to move the egg to the front deck. Not bad there, view of the Gulf and sunburned faces.

King-O-Coals

Tim M, The temp was probably about 1500 degrees. Guru looks like a kemo patient this morning, void of facial hair, ears, nose, and fingers, with skin pealing off his face. He hung in there with them. He said he has now ventured into the jaws of death and returned. We did have a hot bed of coals before starting and with the dome closed and the daisy removed, we had a visible yellow, orange, and blue flame coming from the chimney. Looked like an F-16 in full afterburner. 5 big Porterhouses nearly completely covered the grilling surface. They were really great, but I seek, and can only tolerate, perfection. Guru will get it right next time,,, or I will not hang with him anymore!

King-O-Coals

Dr. Chicken, I think you may be right on the desired thickness of porterhouses. Our problem is with our "clean-up winches. They want their own steaks. If you try to cut them a nice piece off a huge steak, they feel cheated. They do a very good job of cleaning up, fetching, and other womanswork chores which are key in the performance of a good chef, and if you need an opinion about anything, they are always "johnny-on-the-spot". So we do individual steaks, and try to keep them about as uniform in size as possible to keep the "hers is bigger than mine" squabbling. See, cooking is more than just possessing vast amounts of ability at the Egg. You must be a phychologist too. Come on down and join in. We can use all the help we can get. Bring your clean-up woman too, we keep ours pretty busy. And learn to talk slow. You yankees can talk faster than us southerners can listen.

Tim M

King-O-Coals,
Keep working on him and slap him into shape.[p]
Tim M

Frozen Chosen

King-O-Coals, Flame Impingement! I'll have to think about that one.

King-O-Coals

I spoke with a man today that use to cook steaks for a living. Without any prompting, he stated that steaks have to be cooked at the highest heat possible, but without allowing the surface of the meat to become seared with direct flame contact. Very hot coals or convected heat is the ideal method. According to this ex-expert, flames fed from burning fat carry a bitter residue and deposite it back onto the meat, and direct flame contact to meat will also result in a trace of bitterness, so my skinny 1-1/4"ers were probably dripping fat into the inferno at a very high rate. I know the flames were going about a foot higher than Guru's head, but he never flinched. Liquid courage!

Char-Woody

King-O-Coals, All the talk about the perfect steak brings to mind one of the old ways of cooking the "perfect steak" was to build a big log fire..and really get it red hot with coals..then toss the steaks directly into the fire. Rotate and cook to your desired texture. Then scrape off the ashes and eat away. I never tried this but maybe some of the old timers in steak cooking will comment.
Seems the trail chuckwagon cooks made em this way during the trail drives over mesquite log fires.[p]Cheers..C~W[p]