Kristof Jozsa
TVWBB Fan
I might be among the last ones on Earth learning about this, but in any case, I'll share this with you, as this turned out to be a game changer in how I prep steaks on the grill.
I was about to cook steaks last night (2 sirloin steaks and 2 chuck roast) and I tried out the so called cold grate technique (coined by David of Adrenaline BBQ Company, as far as I know). This method promises having no grill marks and ending up with a completely even brownish surface on both sides of the meat.
It starts as a simple reverse searing, heating the dry brined, fridge cool meat indirectly up to a 115-120F core temperature, getting there slow as possible. Reaching this point, one removes the cooking grate from the kettle and lets it cool. Meanwhile a thin layer of oil and fresh pepper is applied on the steaks (I used only salt at the start). While the grate gets cool being out of the kettle, I heat up the kettle itself (I simply poured fresh lump over the hot ones). In about 20 minutes I have a roaring sear zone and a cool grate to start with and that's where the fun begins.
I put the grate inside the kettle and start searing the meat over it. In about every minute, I rotate the grate quarterly (90 degrees) and place back the steaks to the sear zone rotating. This is how it looked after rotating them twice:
A short vid of some of the wildest action at the end: here
Searing 2-2 minutes each side this way while rotating the grate around gets the meat an even dark golden brown color on the outside without having grill marks at all, as the grate itself isn't hot enough to burn the marks and on the meat.. The late photos from yesterday are pretty bad due to lack of light but the results were very different from a simple searing and tasted really astonishing!
Mmmm juicy..
(Note that this piece of sirloin on the left got slightly overcooked but that's a common problem with the reverse searing approach as one has to guess the right temp for the start of the sear.. Luckily, one of my guests preferred it that way, so it did not ruin the night
)
I was about to cook steaks last night (2 sirloin steaks and 2 chuck roast) and I tried out the so called cold grate technique (coined by David of Adrenaline BBQ Company, as far as I know). This method promises having no grill marks and ending up with a completely even brownish surface on both sides of the meat.
It starts as a simple reverse searing, heating the dry brined, fridge cool meat indirectly up to a 115-120F core temperature, getting there slow as possible. Reaching this point, one removes the cooking grate from the kettle and lets it cool. Meanwhile a thin layer of oil and fresh pepper is applied on the steaks (I used only salt at the start). While the grate gets cool being out of the kettle, I heat up the kettle itself (I simply poured fresh lump over the hot ones). In about 20 minutes I have a roaring sear zone and a cool grate to start with and that's where the fun begins.
I put the grate inside the kettle and start searing the meat over it. In about every minute, I rotate the grate quarterly (90 degrees) and place back the steaks to the sear zone rotating. This is how it looked after rotating them twice:
A short vid of some of the wildest action at the end: here
Searing 2-2 minutes each side this way while rotating the grate around gets the meat an even dark golden brown color on the outside without having grill marks at all, as the grate itself isn't hot enough to burn the marks and on the meat.. The late photos from yesterday are pretty bad due to lack of light but the results were very different from a simple searing and tasted really astonishing!
Mmmm juicy..
(Note that this piece of sirloin on the left got slightly overcooked but that's a common problem with the reverse searing approach as one has to guess the right temp for the start of the sear.. Luckily, one of my guests preferred it that way, so it did not ruin the night
)
