First attempt caveman steak on the MM @ 700 degrees (and corn)

unoriginalusername

ok so I had the minimax up just shy of 700 and since the wife is out of town and there were no witnesses to give me grief I thought I would try the caveman method for a last minute ny strip I grabbed from the grocery store on the way home.

gave it about one min per side but I was surprised how grey the sear was vs how burnt the fat was getting so after doing each side in the hot coals for about a min each I pulled it off and put the grid in and seared for 30 seconds in each direction before roasting a few cons of corn 

i thought at 700 the sear colour would be better. Any tips?  Enclosed are some pics 

dmchicago

I thought caveman was employed after a reverse sear.

unoriginalusername

dmchicago said:

I thought caveman was employed after a reverse sear.

Maybe, don’t know as I haven’t done it before but as it’s a thinner steak I didn’t want to over cook it. After one min a crust was clearly not happening so I cut bait and went with the cast iron grid. 

Doneness and flavour was great. Crust needs some TLC 

SonVolt

Perdonally I think it’s a gimmick. 

unoriginalusername

SonVolt said:

Perdonally I think it’s a gimmick. 

Might be with you. Cast iron pan or any normal sear on the egg produces a much better crust than this did. 

hoosier_egger

A couple things to improve your caveman sear. First off, by the look of your coals they were plenty hot. 2ns,Try leveling out the coals to get more surface area in direct contact with said coals. And perhaps the most important  make sure the meat is dry when you put it on. A steak like that should be 90 seconds/side or so

unoriginalusername

ColtsFan said:

A couple things to improve your caveman sear. First off, by the look of your coals they were plenty hot. 2ns,Try leveling out the coals to get more surface area in direct contact with said coals. And perhaps the most important  make sure the meat is dry when you put it on. A steak like that should be 90 seconds/side or so

Thanks for the suggestions. Will try that and see if I get a better result. 

I did salt them for about an hour beforehand so there was some surface moisture when I put them on

lousubcap

The only other thing I would add is (if possible) when you flip aim for a new section of lump to get the maximum heat transfer.  

unoriginalusername

lousubcap said:

The only other thing I would add is (if possible) when you flip aim for a new section of lump to get the maximum heat transfer.  

Thanks I did try that and was able to with doing just one steak but you realize quickly how small the MM coal basket is when you start looking around for a NY strip sized section of hot coals for two sides 

dharley

You can't caveman a 1" steak as you need to leave it on those coals for three or four minutes. The technique is for much thicker steaks, or better a try-tip. The meat needs to stay in the fire for a minimum of three minutes to sear. If the protein isn't thick enough it'll cook through and burn before it ever sears.

Eggcelsior

I agree that it's a gimmick. Good for a viewing party but I get a much better sear with a grid near the coals. Even crust without burnt spots.