According to FabWeb the best way to grill a "good" steak is by the "sear in the rear" or "reverse sear" method, which is to low temp smoke roast the meat with the lid down then it over high heat with the lid up and darken the exterior quickly, flipping often, so it doesn’t build up energy and overcook the interior. A synopsis of their method is below. Date Night Doins also has a good description of the method and you could watch a video here.
They suggest the following cuts of meat (in order) for a balance of tenderness and fat (taste):-
ribeyes
porterhouses
T-bones
strip steaks
cuts from the tenderloin such as chateaubriand and filet mignon
sirloin, round, flank, chuck, and other cuts, but these muscles are not as tender.
Steaks should be of the highest affordable quality, around 35mm thick and about 350gm.
Time: 2 hours to dry brine, and about 45 minutes to cook
Ingredients
2 Steaks
3/4 tsp kosher salt (or half that if using table salt)
1/3 cup beef, duck or bacon fat, vegetable oil or clarified butter (not regular butter as it has water in it)
fresh cracked black pepper
Method
1) About 2 to 4 hours before cooking, trim off most of the external fat if your BBQ is prone to flare ups. Then sprinkle salt all over the meat.
2) The challenge is to get the interior the same color bumper to bumper. That color is usually bright red and the temperature around 54.5°C/130°F to 57°C/135°F internally, medium rare. At that temp steaks are the most tender and juicy. Rare meat, often on the purple side, can be stringy and medium, into the pink range, has begun to dry out and get tougher.
On a charcoal grill set up your grill for 2-zone cooking. You want one side scorching hot and the other side at about 107°C/225°F. I then put dry wood on the coals.
On a gas grill set up with 2-zones shooting for 107°C/225°F in the indirect zone. Start the meat on the indirect zone, put wood on the direct zone, and close the lid.
The trick is to get the meat as close to the cooking surface as possible, as close as 1″ below the meat.
For the first phase, cooking indirect, you want the meat to warm slowly. On a kettle, you may have to place the lid on slightly ajar to maintain temp. With the lid on tight, the steaks may get too hot too quickly and they get tough. You could leave the lid of and put a pan over just the meat depending on your grill and the weather.
After about 15 minutes start checking the interior temp keeping the probe away from any bone.
Flip the meat once or twice so it heats evenly on both sides. At this low temp, the exterior color should not go much beyond tan, if you added wood it might get a ruddy glow. At around the 30min mark, when the temp in the deepest part of the meat hits 43.5°C/110°F to 46°C/115°F, open the lid and leave it open.
3) The surface tastes best when high heat instigates caramelization. There are also fats on the surface, and they contribute a lot to the flavor of the meat.
You want the lid open for this step! You want the surface to get scorching hot so it will brown quickly without transferring heat to the center.
On a charcoal grill bunch the coals all together if necessary or add new hot coals. You can take the meat off the grill and add more coals and wait for them to get hot if necessary.
On a gas grill, crank up the burners on the direct side. You can take the meat off a while you wait for it to heat up. An alternative to open grilling is using a hot plate. A gas griller probably has a cast iron hot plate which will already be quite hot. If not, preheat a cast iron pan or a griddle in the hot zone, and sear by conduction. It goes fast and covers the entire surface.
Paint the meat with fat or oil and sprinkle on the black pepper. Gently press it into the surface so it doesn’t all fall off, but a lot will. Now move it to the hot side of the grill, as hot as possible, as close to the heat source as possible. The oil helps conduct heat to the meat, assists with browning by frying the surface, and adds flavor. Beware of flareups that can cause soot.
The surface should be close to 93°C/200°F and each side can be ready in as little as 3 minutes (6 mins toal)!
Flip the meat frequently, every minute. When you flip, try to place the meat on a virgin section of the grate that has not been cooled by contact with steak. After you flip, hit the top side with fat and freshly ground black pepper. There’s enough heat there to extract flavor. Check the color of that surface every flip and make sure you put the meat back down so the grates touch different parts of the surface. We want everything evenly dark. If a little of the edge fat blackens, that’s OK, but don’t blacken the muscle fibers.
Serve immediately. There is no need to rest the meat. It has been proven that this does nothing to improve juiciness.
When you have both exteriors perfect, the interior should be in the medium rare range, 54.5°C/130°F to 57°C/135°F . Err on the side of under cooking, you can always put a steak back on the grill, but if it is overcooked, you cannot bring it back to life.
A top range steak does not need garnishing but leaner cuts may. You could place a daub of butter on the surface to add unctuousness, an herbed butter or butter with shallots or mushrooms. Rich red wine sauce is a classic, as is horseradish cream sauce, or chimichurri. Caramelized onions, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, grilled red peppers, are also popular garnishes.
They suggest the following cuts of meat (in order) for a balance of tenderness and fat (taste):-
ribeyes
porterhouses
T-bones
strip steaks
cuts from the tenderloin such as chateaubriand and filet mignon
sirloin, round, flank, chuck, and other cuts, but these muscles are not as tender.
Steaks should be of the highest affordable quality, around 35mm thick and about 350gm.
Time: 2 hours to dry brine, and about 45 minutes to cook
Ingredients
2 Steaks
3/4 tsp kosher salt (or half that if using table salt)
1/3 cup beef, duck or bacon fat, vegetable oil or clarified butter (not regular butter as it has water in it)
fresh cracked black pepper
Method
1) About 2 to 4 hours before cooking, trim off most of the external fat if your BBQ is prone to flare ups. Then sprinkle salt all over the meat.
2) The challenge is to get the interior the same color bumper to bumper. That color is usually bright red and the temperature around 54.5°C/130°F to 57°C/135°F internally, medium rare. At that temp steaks are the most tender and juicy. Rare meat, often on the purple side, can be stringy and medium, into the pink range, has begun to dry out and get tougher.
On a charcoal grill set up your grill for 2-zone cooking. You want one side scorching hot and the other side at about 107°C/225°F. I then put dry wood on the coals.
On a gas grill set up with 2-zones shooting for 107°C/225°F in the indirect zone. Start the meat on the indirect zone, put wood on the direct zone, and close the lid.
The trick is to get the meat as close to the cooking surface as possible, as close as 1″ below the meat.
For the first phase, cooking indirect, you want the meat to warm slowly. On a kettle, you may have to place the lid on slightly ajar to maintain temp. With the lid on tight, the steaks may get too hot too quickly and they get tough. You could leave the lid of and put a pan over just the meat depending on your grill and the weather.
After about 15 minutes start checking the interior temp keeping the probe away from any bone.
Flip the meat once or twice so it heats evenly on both sides. At this low temp, the exterior color should not go much beyond tan, if you added wood it might get a ruddy glow. At around the 30min mark, when the temp in the deepest part of the meat hits 43.5°C/110°F to 46°C/115°F, open the lid and leave it open.
3) The surface tastes best when high heat instigates caramelization. There are also fats on the surface, and they contribute a lot to the flavor of the meat.
You want the lid open for this step! You want the surface to get scorching hot so it will brown quickly without transferring heat to the center.
On a charcoal grill bunch the coals all together if necessary or add new hot coals. You can take the meat off the grill and add more coals and wait for them to get hot if necessary.
On a gas grill, crank up the burners on the direct side. You can take the meat off a while you wait for it to heat up. An alternative to open grilling is using a hot plate. A gas griller probably has a cast iron hot plate which will already be quite hot. If not, preheat a cast iron pan or a griddle in the hot zone, and sear by conduction. It goes fast and covers the entire surface.
Paint the meat with fat or oil and sprinkle on the black pepper. Gently press it into the surface so it doesn’t all fall off, but a lot will. Now move it to the hot side of the grill, as hot as possible, as close to the heat source as possible. The oil helps conduct heat to the meat, assists with browning by frying the surface, and adds flavor. Beware of flareups that can cause soot.
The surface should be close to 93°C/200°F and each side can be ready in as little as 3 minutes (6 mins toal)!
Flip the meat frequently, every minute. When you flip, try to place the meat on a virgin section of the grate that has not been cooled by contact with steak. After you flip, hit the top side with fat and freshly ground black pepper. There’s enough heat there to extract flavor. Check the color of that surface every flip and make sure you put the meat back down so the grates touch different parts of the surface. We want everything evenly dark. If a little of the edge fat blackens, that’s OK, but don’t blacken the muscle fibers.
Serve immediately. There is no need to rest the meat. It has been proven that this does nothing to improve juiciness.
When you have both exteriors perfect, the interior should be in the medium rare range, 54.5°C/130°F to 57°C/135°F . Err on the side of under cooking, you can always put a steak back on the grill, but if it is overcooked, you cannot bring it back to life.
There is no need to rest the meat. It has been proven that this does nothing to improve juiciness. Don’t let it cool off and lose its crust. Serve it hot.
A top range steak does not need garnishing but leaner cuts may. You could place a daub of butter on the surface to add unctuousness, an herbed butter or butter with shallots or mushrooms. Rich red wine sauce is a classic, as is horseradish cream sauce, or chimichurri. Caramelized onions, grilled onions, grilled mushrooms, grilled red peppers, are also popular garnishes.
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