first reverse sear steak

  • I have no idea why I've never done this before, except maybe that I usually don't buy steaks thick enough to really benefit from it?

    Anyway, I have a porterhouse that is 35mm thick with plenty of marbling (from costco) and I really think it needs better care than my usual steak technique (really hot 2 - 3 mins per side...)

    There's plenty of info online about how to do it, including the recipe page on the Urban griller website, but I'm not sure what cook time I should expect. I will cook to temp of course, but I'm trying to roughly estimate when to start the cook to be able to eat at a particular time.

    So if I'm going to cook a 35mm steak until 7 degrees less than medium rare (54-7... 45 degrees) and the temp in the kamado is about 120 degrees C, approximately how long should it take to get to that 45 degrees? Just roughly - 30 mins maybe? Also, just an advice check: is 120C/250F about right?

    I'll put pics up on how it turns out tonight, of course.

  • Salt, pepper and I didn't have a proper rub so I used some cajun spice mix that was in the cupboard.

    I went with the 30 min theory and got lucky. I took it slightly further than intended and it came off the slow cook at 50 degrees. 1 lump of cherry in the bottom, and I used all new charcoal (the last cook was pretty messy for oil/marinade and I think it would have smoked hard the whole cook as sometimes happens when reusing charcoal).


    5 or so minutes later with the vents wide open it was hot enough to be unpleasant standing in front of it, so I put it back on, turning it every 30 seconds, but for a bit longer than intended - 4 mins total.


    I almost forgot to take a final pic. Honestly, it wasn't as pink in reality as this photo suggests (Samsung seems to default to a very warm white balance).

    Reality was medium-well, maybe closer to well, but still juicy and it cut like butter. Not a fan of the cherry smoke for this cook though.

    So lesson learned for next time: get it off maybe 3-4 degrees sooner, and get a less fruity smoking wood. Also turn it halfway through the roasting phase as it wasn't quite even.

    But it's very easy to do so I'm glad I've finally done it - also that time wise it's viable midweek.

  • Looks great, the marbling in the first pic makes me want some.. I take mine off at 48 usually.

    As for time, those cheap vac sealed rumps you can get that are 1 - 1.2kg usually take an hour to get to temp, so 30min for yours sounds about right.



    Traeger - Weber Family Q - Ziggy Twin Burner - Charcoal Grill - Akorn Kamado - Hark Tri Fire - Jumbuck Pizza Oven - Go Anywhere - Asmoke Pellet Grill - Hibachi Grill - Anova Sous Vide x 2

  • My advice would be to get a leave in thermometer, you can dirt cheap ones for under $20 bucks or a multi probe for a bit more. That way you won't have to worry about timing for temp checking, it will alert you when it's reached the desired temp.

    Dragon Kamado - Fornetto Razzo 18" - Akorn Jr - Pro-Smoke Offset

  • So if I'm going to cook a 35mm steak until 7 degrees less than medium rare (54-7... 45 degrees) and the temp in the kamado is about 120 degrees C, approximately how long should it take to get to that 45 degrees? Just roughly - 30 mins maybe? Also, just an advice check: is 120C/250F about right?

    The first time I did a reverse sear, I stuck a probe in the steak and went by the numbers. I pulled it off at a slightly higher temp than I was aiming for, just because it felt RARE to the touch. When I took it off to rest, it was clearly waaaay underdone, so I trusted my gut, stuck it back on until it felt rare/med-rare to the touch, and it came out absolutely perfectly.

    IDK whether I slid the probe in on an angle and the tip was too close to the meat surface, or some other reason, but I've done them all by feel since then with no probs (and have just guaranteed that the next time I do one, it's going to be either blue or super-well-done or I'll drop it on the ground on the way from the BBQ to the house lol).

  • I take mine off about 5 degrees f under what internal temp I want knowing it will increase by that prior to eating. The Akorn is a great grill no reason a ceramic would cook any better. I use a leave in thermometer for the initial “reverse” bit. For the searing I just use a thermapen and check fairly frequently as I know from experience how quickly you can miss the sweet spot temp wise. Test is different parts of the protein as well. Looks like n this one you nailed it apart from just missing the sweet spot of internal temp you wanted.

    Enjoy your "Q"
    James

    Primo XL, GMG Davy Crockett, Char-Broil Grill2go, Akorn Jr and Weber Baby Q.

  • Second attempt. Slightly pinker this time.

    My wife took over at one point and brushed some home made chilli oil over the corn while it was mid-cook, something that never occurred to me before. Wow, yum.

    Chilli oil was made with lao gan ma, mushroom xo, chilli, spring onions and garlic. All in a bowl and then about 1/3 cup of hot vege oil slowly poured over it (which kind of flash cooks the fresh ingredients). She originally made it for dumplings but we had quite a bit of the oil left over.

    Turns out it belongs on bbqed veges hehe.

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