A brief caveman pic tutorial

lousubcap

For those on the reverse sear/caveman fence, this may or may not seal the deal; (all temps *F on the dome)
Low and Slow around 250*F to around 7-8 *F below your desired finish temp. (Expect this step to run around 45 minutes for 1 1/2" and reasonably up steaks-half inch excluded  )

Now time for the hot and fast:  Open the dome and shut the lower vent-let the fire produce a hot lava bed across the coals,

Time for some long tongs and nimble-flip at around 60-90 seconds and pull when your finish temp is there.

You will be justly rewarded.  Add to your arsenal.
Stay healthy and safe out there- (Same steak for the whole show!)

bubbajack

I totally agree with all of the above! My beautiful wife tells me all the time " I want it crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside" Cap, you dailed that cook in to perfection!

lkapigian

Beauty !

YukonRon

I have a nice porterhouse I am going to try that with. 

Very nice presentation, thank you for sharing.

JohnInCarolina

Beautiful Frank.  My only question is what was your desired finish temp on this one?  I'm guessing around 130F ?  

lousubcap

I was aiming for 125*F-the great majority was there but the slightly thinner end of the strip side was closer to 130*F-good eye.

Florida Grillin Girl

That's the way to get it done. Looks great!

paqman

The neighbor does caveman style with a variation.  He places the meat on the coals and then drops a chimney of hot coals on top of the meat.  Sears all sides at once and prevents flare ups from the fats on the meat.  I am not equipped to try it but kinda makes sense and tastes great based on the samples i’ve tried.

4TheGrillOfIt

Very impressive, Cap.  I must admit the stress of wondering if I’m overcooking has kept me from attempting this.  I have recently starting using my CGS spider and my 13 inch grate on my Large to get close to the coals for final step of the reverse sear.  Baby steps…

paqman

4TheGrillOfIt said:

Very impressive, Cap.  I must admit the stress of wondering if I’m overcooking has kept me from attempting this.  I have recently starting using my CGS spider and my 13 inch grate on my Large to get close to the coals for final step of the reverse sear.  Baby steps…

@4TheGrillOfIt that’s how I started too but the CI grate is gathering dust in the shed ever since I tried caveman.  Go for it!

lousubcap

@4TheGrillOfIt I know there is an upper limit on the quality and cost/lb where I will not go there-true Japanese A5 rib eye is at that point.  Of course that is truly a one-off buy.  Short of that, just have long tongs and a reliable instant read to bring it home.  Onward and upward.  
I would not recommend heavy (key word) day drinking as courage juice consumption for the first time but it is actually a straight forward cook as long as you can easily remove the low & slow hardware.  FWIW-

stv8r

Exactly!  I do the same with amazing results. Someone once questioned why I had grill marks on my caveman style steak(cast iron grate)....this is why !

northGAcock

Man that looks great. I usually just go all in on mine. Looking forward to retired life so I can sit back with Frank. 

Botch

stv8r said:

Someone once questioned why I had grill marks on my caveman style steak(cast iron grate)....this is why !

I just told my guests that my lump was center-cut and precision-fluted...

dmchicago

GrateEggspectations

Great looking result and corresponding documentation, Frank. Am I right that you should be blowing away the ash before throwing the hunk of meat down on those coals? Also, do you perform any post-seating cleanup on the meat itself?

Will have to give this a try one of these days. 

caliking

Good gawd... That's a fine looking steak, Cap. 

lousubcap

@GrateEggspectations - As long as the lump is ripping along there is no need to for any pre-cleaning before the toss.  Also no post extraction cleanup needed unless you have a pice of lump remain attached (that is an infrequent occurrence).  Give it a go sometime.  The best way to get the crust for me.  

paqman

GrateEggspectations said:

Great looking result and corresponding documentation, Frank. Am I right that you should be blowing away the ash before throwing the hunk of meat down on those coals? Also, do you perform any post-seating cleanup on the meat itself?

Will have to give this a try one of these days. 

I know it is counterintuitive/scary but ash doesn’t stick to the meat, as @lousubcap indicated, there will be an occasional smaller piece of charcoal that sticks to the meat but you just take it out and that’s it.  There is a wow factor to it and the flavor is there too so win win.

GrateEggspectations

I guess the coals are so hot that they evaporate all surface liquid, leaving very little for the coals to stick to. That’s my highly scientific theory, anyway. 

HeavyG

GrateEggspectations said:

I guess the coals are so hot that they evaporate all surface liquid, leaving very little for the coals to stick to. That’s my highly scientific theory, anyway. 

I think it is more likely that the bits of coals that is in contact with the meat gets extinguished (being starved of oxygen will do that) and don't really burn long enough on that contact point to stick/remain stuck.

blind99

One Friday Night Forum I was cooking a steak. Some people mocked me for using a chimney starter to start my egg. Frank told me to throw the steak right on the coals. Everyone was right and the steak was delicious. Listen to Frank. 

JohnInCarolina

blind99 said:

One Friday Night Forum I was cooking a steak. Some people mocked me for using a chimney starter to start my egg. Frank told me to throw the steak right on the coals. Everyone was right and the steak was delicious. Listen to Frank. 

In Frank we trust!

RajunCajun

Nicely done!  I wanna be like you when I grow up.  

lousubcap

@RajunCajun - You definitely need to reconsider your near-term objective.