Top Round / London Broil - Grilling Temp

[Brian B.]

I'm doing my first "London Broil" this week on a 1.7lb cut of top round that we picked up from the butcher. After reading numerous recipes, I'm torn between cooking indirect or going HH. I'm going to be doing this on my 3 burner Weber gasser, so what would you all do? We normally eat our steak medium rare, so I'm leaning toward the HH.

I'm planning to use this marinade:

ingredients
2 medium-size lemons
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 medium-size onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 bay leaves, crumbled
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 flank steak or piece of sirloin or top or bottom round steak (1 1/2 to 1 3/4 pounds; see Note below)
preparation

1. Rinse the lemons. Cut each in half and squeeze out the juice with a citrus press. Place the lemon juice in a large nonreactive mixing bowl. Cut the rind of 1 lemon into 1/4-inch dice and add it to the juice. Add the soy sauce, vinegar, oil, onion, garlic, bay leaves, coriander seed, and pepper and whisk to mix. Set aside half of the lemon juice mixture to use as a sauce.

2. If using flank steak, score it on both sides in a crosshatch pattern, making shallow cuts on the diagonal no deeper than 1/8 inch and about 1/4 inch apart. This will keep the flank steak from curling as it cooks; you don't have to score sirloin or top or bottom round.

3. Spread half of the remaining lemon juice mixture in the bottom of a nonreactive baking dish just large enough to hold the meat. Place the meat on top and spread the other half of the lemon juice mixture over it. Let the steak marinate for at least 6 hours, ideally overnight. The beef can also be marinated in a resealable plastic bag.

4. When ready to cook, drain the meat, scraping off most of the marinade with a rubber spatula. Cook the beef, following the instructions below for any of the grills, until cooked to taste.

 

[GGross]

I do London Broil a good bit typically do 4-5 minute a side direct high heat and an additional 4-5 indirect this is for pretty thick cut because you want sirloin medium rare for flavor and tenderness

 

[Bob H.]

I usually do them like I am grilling a steak. But I find they are somewhat like a tri tip in that they get tough and lose flavor anywhere past medium doneness.

 

[Brian B.]

So it went fairly well and I learned a few lessons. The temp outside was below 20, so it made judging the cook time a bit tricky.

For us this is a HH only cook and for our sub 2lb piece it should have been done in about 8 minutes on direct high. When I went to flip at 5 and realized it was further along, went down to M/M/M to finish it out in about 8-9 minutes. I should have taken pictures because it was definitely pretty when sliced.

I did an overnight marinade, but we did note that any of the pieces that weren't sliced super-thin had somewhat more chew than we would prefer. We don't eat many sirlion or round style steaks like this, so is that typical? The flavor was great and the meat quality was very high, so I'd like to be able to do this a little bit better next time. No one orders this cut from our meat place, so I'm always able to get it fairly easily.

 

[TommyA]

My favorite marinade for london broil is italian salad dressing marinated overnight in a zip lock bag. Direct heat between medium and high so you get a 1/8 to 3/16 done area on the outside of both sides. Watch for flair ups and don't walk away. Cut across the grain diagonally.

 

[DaveW]

Yeah, any of the "round" cuts will have some chew when thick sliced and/or not done against the grain. As TommyA said, cut across the grain and on the diagonal. As to the cook, you might try indirect next time then finish off with a reverse sear.