Paul Prudhomme Flank Steak

Theophan · May 2015

I've made a few things by Paul Prudhomme and loved them (though there was one I didn't care for, much, I have to admit), so when I saw a recipe of his for flank steak I figured it'd be worth a shot. It seemed a bit odd in that there was a lot of sweet spice (cardamom and cloves) in it, but somehow they weren't very prominent at all when it was done. It was really good, and my wife and I both liked it a lot, but I was hoping it would be spectacularly good, and we weren't sure it was that. We both like the pretty standard soy sauce, ginger, honey, dry mustard garlic marinade that a girl taught me back in 1969, I think it was, at least as well, probably better. It was a nice change, though.

I cooked it at about 500 or so, and I was surprised that it was a little too hot for what hadn't seemed like a very thick steak, but the outside got just a little over-charred, and the medium-rare part would have been larger if I'd done it slower. I had been craving a good char, which is why I wanted the fire cranked up. Maybe I should have gone more T-rex. I'm still leery of the reverse sear that seems so popular these days. I've never tried it, but it just seems backward to me in that the crucial final cooking gets is done at high heat, so seconds can make a big difference in the internal temp, whereas searing it first and then bringing it to temp slowly seems like it would have to give you more control. I don't know. I just wasn't in the mood to mess with either of them, and cooked it about 5 minutes on a side, at what turned out to have been too high a fire. It was still really tasty, but I'll try to learn from this.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/1h/cgmnepmlokir.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5017260/uploads/editor/2a/ckt9gzs46vvz.jpg

Theo

SGH · May 2015

Looks like a winner to me brother. I would devour it!! I'm a huge fan of brother Paul myself. I actually have a autographed book by him. Again, great looking grub.

stemc33 · May 2015

Looks great @Theophan.
The fun part of eggin' is tweaking stuff on future cooks in search of perfection. Don't be too hard on yourself though, if it's not ruined it's all good.
Lots of ways to get what your looking for in your personal what tastes best steak. Like the saying "there's more than one way to skin a cat" (hope your not a cat lover), there's more than one way to cook a steak. Everybody thinks their methods best. After I read your post, I thought of the thread @tarheelmatt posted recently. See the link to his thread below. It's another method to put in your bag of tricks. Works well. You too, might become a flipper.

http://eggheadforum.com/discussion/1180207/flip-it-more-boys

Theophan · May 2015

@SGH: I have several of Prudhomme's cookbooks, though so far I've only cooked a handful or so of his recipes. "Atchafalaya Roast Boneless Chicken" is a favorite of mine, for example, though I don't mess with his fancy presentation. I've never tried it in the Egg, but I bet it'd be even better. The only thing I was shocked by being disappointed in was a recipe of his for Lobster Newburg. I thought it would be amazing, but it wasn't. This recipe was really good, not a big disappointment, but it was really good, not amazing. I'll probably make it again, but as a nice change once in a while.

@stemc33: I've read about constantly flipping steaks, somehow just never really believed, I guess, that I'd get the char I like that way, but the photos in the link you sent made it look like the char's the same. Maybe I'll try it some time. Thanks!

Theo

Paul Prudhomme Flank Steak

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