Rub for London Broil / Flank Steak

Theophan

I tried a new rub for flank steak this evening, and it wasn't knock your socks off spectacular, but it was really good.  Only the second time I've cooked flank without marinating it, and it was plenty tender.  I got a bit of it a little more rare than I usually go (medium rare is my usual preference) but I have to say it was all delicious.

I put the rub on, put it in the fridge for a few hours.  Here's what it looked like without a re-apply, on the Egg:




The recipe wanted you to cook it indirect, and I didn't want to, but I was a little worried that if they guy made the rub for indirect, maybe the sugar in it might burn if I cooked it direct as hot as I usually do, so I cooked it a little lower dome temp (around 400, I think, wasn't sure), flipping every couple of minutes, so it didn't get quite as dark a sear as I usually like, but it was till tasty.



That's a recipe for beans and rice that I'd never tried before, had bacon in it, and it was really good.

RRP

looks tasty! Today I prepped a flank steak for a 48+ hour rest before egging Monday evening. I JACCARDed it to assure tenderness and then the wet concoction I worked into the meat will work wonders during the 48+ hour rest.

Theophan

RRP said:

looks tasty! Today I prepped a flank steak for a 48+ hour rest before egging Monday evening. I JACCARDed it to assure tenderness and then the wet concoction I worked into the meat will work wonders during the 48+ hour rest.

Thanks!

I love the idea of the Jaccard thing, and I bet it works like a champ in all of the ways you suggest.  I lean pretty hard toward the paranoid, sometimes, though, and I read, once, that "blade tenderizing," which apparently is done by some supermarket meat departments on some cuts, takes the potentially scary bacteria that are on the surface, which will get killed by grilling, into the interior of the meat, where it WON'T get killed by grilling.  And it just gave me the heebie-jeebies.  Rationally, I know that lots of people like you have been doing this for years and presumably have never gotten sick, so it must be a really low risk, but I think I'll leave it alone for myself.  I thought the steak was plenty tender enough last night.

It occurred to me after I posted that maybe the Forum people get twitchy about linking to recipes on other sites, and maybe I should have pasted the recipe in addition to the link.  So here's Sam Sifton's rub for London Broil.  Again, it was really good.  I think another time I might even re-apply it before grilling.

½ cup paprika, or 1/3 cup smoked paprika
¼ cup kosher salt
¼ cup freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup brown sugar
¼ cup chile powder
3 tablespoons ground cumin
2 tablespoons ground coriander
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper, or to taste

johnmitchell

WOW !!! Great looking meal.. Love the cutting board pic.. Great post..