Grilling Steaks

domcof

Hi Guys,

I’ve had my egg a couple years now and all the cooks I’ve done are “low and slow” smokes. Ribs, briskets, butts, etc. 

I’m asking for tips on grilling steaks or chops. 

Things like desired temp. Open dome or closed’
Smoking wood with lump? 
Any and all ideas please. 

Thanks in advance for for your help. 

DOMCOF
(dirty old man crotchety old fart)

WeberWho

This is kind of like saying Chevrolet is better than Ford or vise versa. Everyone has their preference. Here's a good write up on my favorite way to cook a steak:

http://www.nakedwhiz.com/trexsteak.htm

northGAcock

Love the T-Rex method also. You want a nice thick steak for this. Hard to do the first time out of fear of ruining a nice piece of meat. Just jump in....you will find much joy!

Legume

Search ‘reverse sear’ and ‘caveman’ in the forum and you’ll find other popular options for steaks.  Lots of opinions on methods and lots of pics of perfectly cooked steaks from any of the methods.

jeffwit

Many good ways to cook a steak.  If you're familiar with grilling steaks on other cookers, just get your egg stabilized at 500ish, and grill them like you did on your previous cookers. Keep the lid closed between flips.
After you do it that way, then you can branch out into other methods.

Theophan

I used to love the T-rex method, and thought the reverse sear method was stupid because it seemed so obvious to me that if you're doing a slow phase and a fast phase, surely you'd want to be controlling the internal temperature on the slow phase, so that should be last.

But then I finally tried a reverse sear, and I felt like an idiot for not trying it before!  Here's the reason: The BGE is a really heavy hunk of ceramic, and once it gets super hot, it takes FOREVER for all of that ceramic to cool back down to a low-and-slow temperature.  And that's the pain in the neck with the T-rex.  You sear the steaks, then take them out and either wait a looooong time for the Egg to cool down, or more likely, put the steaks back in when the Egg is still too hot to really do a great job on the low-and-slow part, and you wind up with a gray ring of overcooked meat around the outside.

The solution to the reverse sear issue, in my opinion, is this: make the sear phase so very hot that it only takes a minute per side.  That way the searing phase really doesn't increase the internal temperature of the steak much at all!

So here's what I do:

1. At around 250° dome temp (ideally indirect, though I don't always), cook the steaks until they reach your target internal temp, which for me is usually around 120°.
2. Take them out of the Egg, take off the top vent, open the bottom vent WIDE, crank the Egg up to 600°-650°. This really doesn't take very long.
3. Put the steaks back in, sear 1 minute per side.  This is the result:

deanb1234

I am also a fan of the reverse sear. But in a time crunch 700 degrees, sear both sides for a minute rotating them 90 degrees after 30 seconds, then close the grill down for about 4 minutes and you will have a perfect medium-rare to medium depending on the thickness of your steak.  Here's two ribeye I did on Grill grates for the wife and I this week  

bluebird66

I use the reverse sear.

abtaylor260

Reverse sear, but I will only do it if the steak is 1.5+ inches thick. for less than that I blast at 600-650 1.5-2 minutes per side, flip again for another minute or so away from the direct flame. Always end up with a nice medium rare steak. 

domcof

Thanks guys. Great info. 

smbishop

Agree with what @Theophan said.  However, I also will do this:
28 oz. Porterhouse. Salt and pepper, seared at 500, 3 minutes a side, then basted with Dizzy Pig Seasonings Raising The Steaks and butter 2 minutes a side.  Made This Friday night:

domcof

Looks great!