Dennis - CurlyQ
New member
I made my first attempt at a reverse seared steak on my Genesis II e-310 last night. It was a huge fail. The only steak thicker than 1" I could find at the store on my way home from work was a semi-boneless chuck steak that was pretty fatty. I figured I'd give it a go, since I was doing baked potatoes anyways. Not a bad plan to also find something else to go with it that will take a while to cook. . Took it home, rinsed it, patted it dry and put on some rub, then back in the fridge. While that was steeping, I got the grill ready. I decided to use some hickory and apple in a smoke box. With the far burner on medium, I was able to get a nice thin blue smoke, and hold at about 255-260 degrees, so I went with that as my cooking temp. I put the steak on, and after an hour, it was at an IT of 115 degrees. This is perhaps where I went wrong. I decided to pull it and let it rest at that point. Perhaps I should have gone to 130 or so. For medical reasons I need pretty much all my meat well done. I can probably get away with steak at medium to medium well, but everything else needs to be well done. I over estimated how much the searing would increase the IT of the meat. The gasser isn't super great at searing, so I knew it would take a bit to get a good sear on it. I shuffled it around a lot to try and get a mostly complete sear. It didn't pick up as much IT as I thought it would during that. I eventually stopped at an IT of 135.
The result? The meat was really tough and chewy. Some parts were pretty much like chewing gum. It was also way less done that I thought it was. If it was cut (sorry no pic of that), it did have a nice pink center with only a ring of sear on the outside, so that looked pretty good. The meat just wasn't edible though. My wife is convinced that the meat was a really bad cut. I admit it was a particularly fatty one, but I think most of the problem was how I cooked it. What do you guys think? Started searing too early? Should I have waited until 130-135 to start searing if my target was 140?
The result? The meat was really tough and chewy. Some parts were pretty much like chewing gum. It was also way less done that I thought it was. If it was cut (sorry no pic of that), it did have a nice pink center with only a ring of sear on the outside, so that looked pretty good. The meat just wasn't edible though. My wife is convinced that the meat was a really bad cut. I admit it was a particularly fatty one, but I think most of the problem was how I cooked it. What do you guys think? Started searing too early? Should I have waited until 130-135 to start searing if my target was 140?