Help with steaks

stemc33

Steak fail. L-) Picked up a couple of grass finished sirloin steaks from the farmers market and thought I'd use my cast iron skillet to finish. Well, wife's steak came out perfect. I can cook shoe leather with the best of them. Mine on the other hand finished medium well, and I was shooting for med rare. Very edible with the med well, but I overshot and I did not get that seared crust on the outside.
I egged the steak at 400° raised direct for approximate 5-7 minutes. Pulled off raised grate at 125°. Placed cast iron with melted butter on standard grate. Flipped every two minutes. One mistake was not monitoring temp at flip intervals, but I was really trying to get a good seared outside.
Any suggestions (No sous vide suggestions)?
Should I just be cooking in the cast iron right from the start?
I will say the grass fed beef was more tender than I expected. I also, like the taste of the grass fed beef. The farmers market is open again on Thursday, so I'll pick up a better cut this week. Here's some pics. Keep in mind the pictures make the steak look rarer than what is was.

SGH

The food looks excellent to me. My guess would be that the CI was not hot enough if I had to say. That's usually the culprit when trying to sear but can't get a quick caramelization. I cook them indirect until within 10 degrees of my desired internal target temp. Pull the indirect piece and really crank up on the heat. When I'm sure that I'm blast furnace hot I add the steaks to the CI for about 60 seconds a side. This is usually more than sufficient time when the egg is up to blast furnace temps. All that said I still think yours looks par excellent. I reached my conclusion that the CI was not hot enough for a rapid sear by looking at the pic above of the steaks in the pan. There should be some visible smoke and spatter coming up. But again it looks excellent to me. Solid cook!

SGH

You asked should you be cooking on the cast iron from the start. It's not necessary at all. I cook indirect on a SS grid for the roasting part then use the heavy black iron for the sear once I know for sure that it is hot.

SGH

I keep looking at it and I just can't find any thing wrong with it at all. Looks excellent.

apinion

Too much carry over heat.  That searing CI really increased the temp....remember, you can always cook it more, never less. 

When is doubt, let blood pour out.

stemc33

Thanks @SGH‌ . The steak was really good, it's just not what I wanted to achieve. A coworker agreed with your theory about the cast iron not being hot enough. When is the right time or should say at what temp do I put the steak on the cast iron for med rare to medium?

johnmitchell

I know you are not happy with your result..But from my side of my Mac they look awesome..I am sure you will be satisfied next time.. <:-P

SGH

Everyone views medium rare a little different. But that being said I would pull at no higher than 120. Get the cast iron real hot. It should be starting to smoke some before the meat is added to be seared. I feel this will solve your dilemma my friend

SGH

I don't mean to sound like a broken record here, but I keep looking at the photos and don't see anything wrong with those steaks. Looks like a perfect medium rare with a great sear. I have a pretty good eye for things especially food and they look spot on to me.

JRWhitee

When searing with the cast iron do you keep it dry?

Phatchris

I usually sear at 700 on the CI grate after it hits 120 IT, but lately I've been lazy and just doing them at 500 on the CI grid for the whole cook... Very little difference with Prime ribeyes, not sure it's worth the effort of reverse sear or T rex for steaks that aren't monster thick.

Wolfpack

If you want medium rare try pulling at 110 and then letting cast iron pan warm up for 20 min or so. Then sear 45 seconds per side- depending on steak thickness you may need to pull earlier to get a good sear.

tarheelmatt

Appears your CI pan was not hot enough to get the crust you're looking for.  Temps increased from the pull and then with the CI pan with the amount of time you indicated is what caused the over shoot. 

Still, as others said, the steaks looked great. 

4Runner

I thought the steaks looked on the high side of med rare but still isn't a stretch to call them med rare.  Looked good.

 

What about @jrwhitee's question?   dry pan or wet with a CI sear?

jerryb78

If they're less than an inch in thickness, I would probably blast them on high right from the start flipping every couple minutes.

stemc33

JRWhitee said:

When searing with the cast iron do you keep it dry?

Butter

stemc33

@4Runner‌ , the pics show more pink than the actual steak. Don't know how that happened, but it really was medium well. No doubt it was a good steak though. Better than anything I've eaten in a restaurant lately. Just trying to figure out how to get it super seared, but still med to med rare.

Will definitely try going with the hotter pan that everyone's mentioned. I guess it just takes practice.

More practice = more steaks. Mmm.

SmokeyPitt

Did you keep the dome closed while searing?  Just my $.02, but I think it is best to keep the dome open during the sear portion of a reverse sear.  Get the CI screaming hot, and you should only need to go about 1 minute per side for a nice crust.  When you close the dome you basically have the steak in a 500-600 degree oven so you have heat transfer from all sides.  With the dome open it is more like the skillet is on a big burner and most of the heat is transferring through the CI, so you get more crust with less internal temp rise. 

fishlessman

when you took the steak off the raised grate at 125 internal the steak was done, from then on you were overcooking it for medium rare, seems especially true for sirloin cuts verses a ribeye or fillet where i can go a few degrees higher with the internal temps. the hot tub method will do what you want with those steaks and before they go on for the cast iron sear pat them dry, wet steaks dont sear as well as dry when searing quickly

Skiddymarker

Agree with some here, they look good to me, we don't like blackened crust. 

IMHO, set up can be grid on the fire ring, CI pan acting like a setter on the grid. Another grid raised to the felt line or if you don't have an extender grid just sit the second grid on the CI pan. Do your low part of the cook to within 10º of final temp. I put SWMBO's steak on at least 10-15 minutes before mine as she also enjoys eating her Prada's. Pull the steaks, rest on a rack with a light foil tent, open the egg to further heat the already very hot CI pan. If you drop butter into this pan it will instantly burn and vaporize if it is hot enough, suggest you don't do it. Dry the surface of the steak with a paper towel, dab do not wipe. Drop the dry steaks into the dry pan, close the dome and watch the smoke. I flip after 45-60 seconds and brush butter onto the cooked side of the steak. Remove and serve. no rest needed. 

JRWhitee

stemc33 said:

When searing with the cast iron do you keep it dry?

Butter

Thanks, I was thinking Gee.

fljoemon

JRWhitee said:

Thanks, I was thinking Gee.

I use this too .. available at my local Indian grocery store ...

Skiddymarker

Ghee has a smoke point of around 500ºF, at least 100ºF higher than most vegetable oils. It is great for high temp frying no doubt about it. I tried it a couple of times in the CI skillet when searing, but it still burned. Only because I don't know any better, the dry steak in the dry pan provides the best result for me. 

Dressed with butter or a compound butter after the sear works to add a different flavour if that's what you are after. 

MJH

I don't see how anyone can get a real medium rare on a reverse sear.

I just crank that bastard up to about 800 and get it on and off in a hurry, depending on thickness. One inch is usually 4 minutes a side with a single flip (each side sees the CI grate once - I don't use a CI skillet) and let it rest under HDAF for 10 minutes.

For a special treat, I recommend letting your steaks rest in a marinade of bourbon and low sodium soy sauce (50/50) with a few smashed cloves of garlic, gently warmed on the stove, while the Egg gets up to temp. 10-15 minutes will do just fine and give your Egg time to crank up. It tastes better than butter to me and doesn't compromise the integrity of the beef whatsoever.

anzyegg

They may not have a perfect sear but they look excellent to me....

lousubcap

I believe you have the answer in your original post- "One mistake was not monitoring temp at flip intervals,".  Finish temperature is the target and while the sear may be a goal, the meat temperature won't wait for the sear to develop.   Just an opinion...

stemc33

So many great ideas. Thanks to all that added comments and suggestions.
@JRWhitee‌ , I've never heard of ghee before, but it looks like it definitely could have some advantages with some cooks. I think I'm gonna try searing them dry and adding butter after the sear like @Skiddymarker‌ suggested.

SGH

For the ultimate sear dry is best. The pan should be omitting smoke before you drop the meat.