Reverse searing experience

Reading through most of Meathead's book during the holidays, I gave a try of doing reverse searing the first time. What I got home from my butcher was a hungarian angus roast steak and another unidentified slice of beef which was pre-rubbed and wrapped in bacon.

Following Meathead's advices I dry rubbed the steak for 2 hours and cooked the meats pulled out right from the fridge. To reach some higher sear temps, with a sudden idea I had put the two Weber briqs holder on each other to elevate the heat source and get a bit closer to the grates. I was using 3/4 chimney of lump for this cook with some pecan chips. After bringing the cold meats gently to 120F on the indirect side, they were incredible soft and tender - I didn't experience this with other methods.

Now to the fun part. Meathead suggests searing right over radiant heat with the lid off, turning frequently and trying _not_ to get grill marks from the grates. I tried following all advices but I'm well.. unsure about the flames. It's about impossible to shoot a good action shoot in the dark with my phone but should it really look something like this? The steak was about constantly on fire with flames reaching 8" or so:



I kept going nevertheless, turning the meat in every 40-60 seconds, trying to move it around continuously - the steak got even torn along a strip of fat in the wild action.

A more peaceful shot from the other bacon wrapped one (I love this pic):



The whole searing took about 6-7 minutes or so.

The results were really outstanding, tasting better than probably anything I grilled before. The steak:





and the bacon wrapped one:



I assume the latter's having those gray areas are explained with the bacon passing more heat to the meat during the cook - just guessing though. What do you think?

Looks great - did you save us any leftovers??!!!

"What do you think?"

I think that's awesome!

Tim

Kristof you nailed that. It looks incredible.

Fantastic! It looks delicious.

Would love a plate of both. You nailed it. Pics are good also.

Steak looks outstanding, great cook Kristof.

Thanks guys for all the nice words, but I'd like to emphasise the question in the post because it really boggles my mind.

I remember being a child and often making campfire with the family, cooking bacon, sausage and onions on big skewers over the fire. Dad always warned me not to let flames touch my food as it will blacken it in a sec.. (But then, my family has a tradition to wet brine any meat before grilling which goes pretty much against Meathead's book as well as my personal experiences so maybe this argument shouldn't really count).

Besides, should I have seen a stranger a week ago grilling steak in those high flames for long minutes like I just did, I would have probably thought him being a village idiot. On the other side, based on his book I trust Meathead a lot and wanted to try this method and the results seem to speak for themselves.. I could use some confirmation though, so, when you do sear steaks with the lid off, do you do something about the flames or you just do what I did here?

To this topic, reading through the steak searing instructions of the Slow n Sear today, it says: "Beware of flareups, they can deposit soot instead of a delicious sear! Move the steak away from flareups promptly. GrillGrates are an excellent add-on item that helps reduce flare-ups.". Looks like I was plain lucky not to carbonize my steak then..

I've tried reverse searing a couple of times. I always overcooked the steaks...

Any fat dripping off the meat will cause flare ups. It's part of grilling. When flare ups occur, I quickly move the meat to another part of the grill until the flames die off. A few seconds of flames hitting the meat should be ok and will not blacken it.

Kristof,

First, I think you nailed it. As to your question, I think when you stacked the briquette holders, it causes the flames to easily reach the meat. Maybe try it another time without stacking and see if it's still hot enough to sear (I assume it will be) but gives you more control over the flames.

Henry L said:

I've tried reverse searing a couple of times. I always overcooked the steaks...

Any fat dripping off the meat will cause flare ups. It's part of grilling. When flare ups occur, I quickly move the meat to another part of the grill until the flames die off. A few seconds of flames hitting the meat should be ok and will not blacken it.

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I have had very good luck with reverse sear on a Weber gasser. I heat the steak over indirect heat until the internal temperature reaches 100 deg F. This takes about 20 minutes (10 minutes a side). Then I put the steak over the searing burner for a total of 4 minutes (two minutes per side, and rotating each side once). That is one minute, rotate it for 1 minute, flip it for 1 minute, and rotate for the last minute. I pull the steak off at 135 deg for medium rare, using a meat thermometer. Let the steak rest for 5 to 10 minutes before cutting.

I'm not sure if one needs to rotate the steak on the indirect side. Does it make a difference?

Kristof Jozsa said:

I'm not sure if one needs to rotate the steak on the indirect side. Does it make a difference?

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I am not sure if it makes a difference, but I flip the steak over (as opposed to rotate) about half way thru the indirect cook. About when the steak hits 70 degrees F internally, on the way to 100 deg F.

Try it again with out the bacon. The bacon is gonna cause the flare ups.

But Andy, bacon is good!
I get your point though.