The Perfect Steak

Unknown

Love our new BGE, and have had major fun with turkey, and rack of lamb. Last evening we tried the Perfect Steak. We had a disappointing first try as the meat tasted of burnt oil. I know that I must have been experiencing excessive flare up. I was very anal about following the directions closely. The temp gauage read 650degrees when I began the searing part of the recipe. I followed up with a three minute grilling with vents shut. What went wrong? The steaks were large porterhouse cuts. Any ideas? Thanks and, EGG ON!

Gfw

Joe Nelson, Just remember there is no such thing as a mistake, it is only a learning experience.[p]Dome temp at 650-800 degrees - both vents WIDE open - sear steak on both sides for 3 minutes - close both vents and let sit for about 6-8 more minutes for rare/medium rare.[p]

[ul][li]Gfw's BBQ Site[/ul]

Nature Boy

Joe Nelson,
IMO, minimum searing temp of 700. Go for 900 for great steaks. Burnt oil flavor??? What did you use on the steak??

King-O-Coals

Joe Nelson, My experience with steaks is that if you close the dampers, your steak tastes like charcoal dust has been used as a marinade. I start with 1-1/4 inch thick Porter House T-bones. Use Moore's marinate for about an hour before cooking and allow the meat to come up to room temp for a couple of hours. Get your fire hot, but burned down from the initial fire as new charcoal starts to burn. You need an experienced fire, if you will. I leave my lid up, put on my proxmity entry suite (used for aircraft firefighting and rescue), throw the cow on, give it about 2 minutes on each side. This usually puts these thick cuts at just dunner than rare. Then, depending on how you like your beef, close the lid but leave the dampers open. If you are using a daisy wheel, open the little holes wide open but don't leave your egg dome open lidless. In about 5 minutes, 1-1/4 inch steaks will be pink in the middle (no blood) and if you were blindfolded you would think they were med-rare due to the tenderness and juicyness. The trick is not to starve your fire of oxygen. The resulting coal taste is a real turnoff. Bye the way,, you are not using the same coal that you use to heat your house with are you? JUST KIDDING!

Tim M

Joe Nelson,
Oily smoke taste is from fat flareup. Its the oily fat burning and one reason we sometimes use a drip pan. But for steaks it should not be necessary. I wonder if your steaks had a large amount of fat on them. How many did you have? I would urge you to use 650 as a minimum temp for grilling good steaks. A temp of 750-900 would be more to my liking so to really burn up those drips and sear that meat. K-O-C is right about closing up the Egg and getting a little more of a charcoal taste - some even add wood chips for more smoke taste at this point.[p]Sear them with a hotter fire and sear them up quicker and your problems will be over.[p]Tim[p]Tim

db

Joe Nelson, What did you use for a firestarter and was there any wood flaming up when you closed it down.