TRex Striploin (Post Cook) question

Topo Gigio

Great method, juicy, tender, delicious. [p]Initial sear: When dome got to 750 I opened the egg and found flames almost touching the grill at its normal height. I seared the first side of the steak and left the dome opened. After 90 seconds I flipped the steak to see gorgeous grill marks. Oooo yeah! Salivating with excitement at this point. I noticed the flame was going down. After 90 seconds on the second side I removed the meat. The second side did not sear as well as the first. Is it better to close the dome to maintain higher heat/greater flame for a the second side? Was it because my initial heat/flame wasn't high enough? [p]Second question. After initial searing I put the meat to rest on a plate and tented foil over it. I brought the (Large) egg down to 400 degrees. It took me less than 20 minutes to stabilize at 400 (I think around 15 minutes). I decided to follow the directions and wait the full 20 minutes. When I went to get the steak there was lots of juice on the plate. Is this normal? Should the steak have retained its juices? Could I have put the steak on when my temp is ready if its less than 20 minutes.[p]As a note only change I made was not to put salt on the meat until after the 20 minute rest.

TRex

Topo Gigio,[p]Great questions. First of all, to get a good sear on the second side of the steak, make sure you use a new section of grill where the first side was not searing. In other words, sear on one side of the grill, flip and sear on the other. If you keep the steak in the same place when you flip it, the second sear won't be as good because the first side has cooled the metal of the grill. I always keep the dome open while searing and I never have problems with the flames dying down. Some people prefer to sear with the dome closed, but I think it smokes the steak too much - it's just a matter of preference, really, both searing methods are effective.[p]Regarding the 20 minute rest - first of all, I never tent with foil. I guess I'm not sure what it would do, except that perhaps it would steam the steak to some extent, which you do not want to do. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with all the juices coming out or not. The 20 minutes, though, is a guideline. I cannot remember if I said this in my writeup, but you should stop resting just before or at the time when you start seeing a bit of juice coming out of the steak. After several experiments, I found that 20 minutes was a good time on average. However, sometimes I'll do 15, sometimes 25 if I lose track of time or if I've had a view beverages. I usually try not to go over 20, but I'll definitely end the resting if I see juice on the plate, which usually doesn't occur until after at least 15 minutes. [p]You'll notice a difference from steak-to-steak as well.[p]Regarding the salt, this is really a matter of taste. If you use the mustard method, I think you'll find that the amount of salt is just about right. If you don't use the mustard, you'll have to back off some on the salt. The reason for this is that while searing some of the mustard falls off and pulls the salt with it. If I don't use mustard (and I rarely do anymore), I will back off a good bit on the salt. Again, it's just a matter of taste - my wife tends to like less salt than I do, so I season her steak accordingly.[p]Well, hope I didn't ramble on too much. Glad you like the results and brought up some good questions. [p]Cheers,[p]TRex