Thickness counts

Tim M

After many years of searing steaks on the Eggs, my wife brought home something new (to us). NY Strip steaks. OK, I have had them but these were totally trimmed and darn thin. 3/4" to maybe 1" but no more. I am use to 1.5" or more filets and so I knew it wouldn't take long to cook these. Some of us have had a thread going about the small egg and high temps it can reach. I decided to see what I could get the little guy up to. It goes to 550 easily and I do most steaks at this temp on the small, it slowly rose from there to 650-675 deg and I decided to toss on the meat.
3 min on side #1 - 2 min on side #2 and off it came. I went another minute on the other which may have been 1" thick. Thin steaks are tough to not over cook. There are also hot spots you must deal with so luck is playing a part. Some parts had a nice black sear and nice grill marks but some spots were certainly med/well and hardly any pink. They were quite good none-the-less.[p]Moral: use times as guides and not as a rule.
Tim

sprinter

Tim M,[p]About 3 months ago, maybe 4, I bought a whole NY strip and had it cut into 1 1/2 inch steaks and froze them. I've finally got to the last of them and each one of them has been extremely tough, no matter what I did to it. I tried to marinate it, slow cook it, sear it and dwell, no matter what I did it was a tough cut of meat. Maybe it was just a bad hunk of an old cow but I was not happy with any of the strips out of it. Flavor was always good but the steak itself was always tough.[p]Anyway, the reason for this post is to ask if the steak was tender or if it was tough? I'm wondering if I just had a bad cow or if strips in general are tough. I originally attributed it to the fact that they were so thick but have had tender ribeyes that were that thick. I'm leaning to a bad whole strip, just curious about the tenderness of the thinner ones.[p]Troy

Gordy

Tim M, I cooked a NY strip whole one time, best thing I've ever made on Humpty. Better than prime rib or a whole tenderloin, it was superb. Darn getting hungry already

GaDawg

sprinter,
I do NY strips for my wife frequently, and the
last 2 were terrible. I usually buy the angus stuff
from WalMart and have good luck, but these were the
pits. I think there is such a thing as lousy strips
and there aint much you can do with them.
Chuck

YB

sprinter,
It's time to buy another (Toy)...I mean cooking tool...This really works on a tought cut of meat.
Larry
[ul][li]Jaccard Meat Tenderizer[/ul]

Tim M

sprinter,[p]It came from a local company called Ukrops and they always have good beef. It was nice and tender, I just couldn't get the sear I wanted all over without over cooking it. [p]Tim

sprinter

GaDawg,[p]Thanks for the input. I've had some strips before that whole one that were pretty good as far as I can remember. It seems that no matter what I did to these they were just tough. Oh well, kinda turned me off of buying whole cuts of meat and having them sliced. Sounds good in theory and the price is right but when you get a tough whole cut of meat, there are a LOT of steaks that you have to eat. I think I'll stick to having them cut as I want them.[p]Troy

sprinter

Tim M,[p]I can imagine that a couple of strips would just about cover the grate of the small. I can get three on my medium and thats about all, even thats pushing it. On the small I would think that the centers of the steaks would get done real well and the ends or sides would be sitting above the ceramic on the fire ring. I cook my steaks a bit lower in temp, 350 or so, and I let the coals get orange all over, or as much as possible, and it seems to help but with big strips I can see where it would be tough to get even cooking on the smaller grate.[p]Troy

Tim M

sprinter,[p]They weren't that big or you think the small is smaller than it is. I could have easily fit 4 maybe 5 on but you are correct about some areas being done sooner. The center does create the biggest hotspot - makes sense as it rushes to the chimney. When you cook for just 3 min or less, you gotta move quick -- hardly a chance to fresh'n my adult beverage.
If I had done them at my normal 550 deg, they wouldn't have had as much sear but would have been just as done. I can easily eat anything from med to med/well and have been known to eat a good steak - even if over done to well (but not my choice of doneness at all).[p]Tim

sprinter

Tim M,[p]The strips that I had must have been pretty large. On my medium the ends of the strips were on the edge of the grill grate, just above the ceramic fire ring. I think the grate on my medium is 15 inches to that makes the steaks 13-14 inches long. Pretty big strips. I guess I could fit 4 on the grill but it makes for difficult turning and more uneven cooking than if I just cook a few. I'm generally only cooking 2 at a time anyway, thats plenty to feed the family and then some.[p]Troy

WessB

sprinter,
It doesn`t sound like any NY Strip I`ve ever had....unless...it was cut down the length of the whole thing rather than across...a typical strip I see is around maybe 8" long..but I`m sure they vary some...but "I aint never" seen no strip 15" long...possibly a mislabeled cut of beef????? sorry I can`t offer more definative advise..but sumpin dont add up here..and I have also had some that were less than perfect on the tenderness..but a strip is usually a fairly tender steak...my $.02[p]Wess

sprinter

WessB,[p]I agree that it seems big and thats what intrigued me about them to begin with. It looked like a real nice chunk of meat. It was definitely one of the larger whole NY strips in the case, thats why I picked it. That may have something to do with the tenderness (or lack thereof) of the meat. It was probably cut from some Rogue Bull that they had to put down cause it was bullying the rest of the herd. Who knows. I've had other strips that looked exactly the same, just smaller, these were definitely large strips. No tellin, its just turned me off of NY strips somewhat.[p]Troy