tips on grilling steak for a crowd?


 
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Phillip Moore

TVWBB Member
I'm going to see my parents this weekend. All my brothers and their family is coming. My dad said he was going to get some really nice steaks and grill them on Saturday. Turns out he meant he's buying steaks FOR ME TO COOK on his grill!

He's got a 22" Weber OTG. Now, I've made some good steak on mine, and I think that is why he wants me to do it. But i've never cooked steak for 15 or so people.

Normally, I like to keep one side of the grill without fire, so if I get into a bind I can move food over there. I'm pretty sure I'll not be able to cook them all at once on the 22".

Any suggestions or thoughts?
 
Do it the way you know how, they just won't all be ready at the same time but you know they will be right.
 
I recently fit 12 nice NY strips on at once. Edge to edge to start. I took doneness orders and tappered my bed of coal to give me uneven heat. If you get a few who want ruined, I mean well done, and few who want rare, you may pull it off in one batch.
 
if they want ruined (well done), just very politely ask them to leave.
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<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Len Dennis:
if they want ruined (well done), just very politely ask them to leave.
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</div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yeah, and those who put ketchup on it. This one is one in the same. My FIL.

I did get a chuckle when I heard he picked out all the bark pieces from the PP for himself becuase they were the "burnt pieces"
 
I know I am late to the party but this might help others. When I do steaks for a crowd I like to low and slow heat them to about 110* in my WSM, the same can be done in an oven. Take them out and lest rest while I build a monster fire in my kettle, then just brown the outside for a minute or two each side until done. Gives the steak a more tender texture IMO, also a little presmoke can only enhance the flavor. Think of this as a modified sou vid cooking or reverse sear, the steak will be the same color all the way through with a great crust on the outside.
 
Well, this was quite the ordeal! Summary, I was frazzled, but people ate the steaks, and no one complained (to me at least).

This was quite the comedy really. My parents house is 7 hours from me. I brought a few of my own tools, my heat proof gloves, and my Thermapen thermometer. My dad had a 22" weber OTG and the crappiest tongs I have ever used in my life.

Instead of boring with narrative, I'll just list out the issues I faced.

It was raining, I had to grill in the detached garage
Power went out, so my circulating fan was no use.
I had to fire up his old crappy grill to finish the 15 baked potatoes
Steaks were really nicely marbled 1.5" ribeyes.
Many people wanted medium well, which was difficult to achieve with such a thick steak cooking such quantity.
I had a hard time keeping track of which steaks were supposed to be cooked which way. If I had to do this again, at my own house, I would find some way to mark each steak's final destination.
My dad's tongs were so weak they couldn't flip the big ribeyes.

I setup a ramped fire, with one side being no fire at all, middle medium fire, and one side ramped with a lot of coals.

I basically started cooking the steaks I wanted the most done first, seared them, then moved to middle. Put on a new batch of steaks and put lid on a bit. Then flipped them, cooked some more and kept moving everything towards the cool side. Eventually i had a bunch of steaks stacked up on each other on the cool side. Just left the lid on and checked to see how done each one was getting.

Taking them off onto a platter, I tried to keep them organized as to doneness, but it eventually got pretty mixed up.


I was a sweaty stressball by the end. My steak was delicious though. I had brought some steak sprinkle seasoning from TexasBBQRub.com, and that was pretty delicious. People seemed to like the flavor of the steaks.

Thanks for tips and suggestions. It worked out, but I'm not sure if I'd want to do this again for a while.
 
Hey, they all ate steak right?
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When I cooked 12 last time, the majority were done to medium, but for the rest I used toothpicks to mark them. One persons had one, a couple more got two, and one had three in it. Almost worked, except for those that didn't follow the directions.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brian Merz:
I know I am late to the party but this might help others. When I do steaks for a crowd I like to low and slow heat them to about 110* in my WSM, the same can be done in an oven. Take them out and lest rest while I build a monster fire in my kettle, then just brown the outside for a minute or two each side until done. Gives the steak a more tender texture IMO, also a little presmoke can only enhance the flavor. Think of this as a modified sou vid cooking or reverse sear, the steak will be the same color all the way through with a great crust on the outside. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This is a great idea!, applicable to just about any bulk cooking of steak, chicken, etc. I could be mistaken but I believe that caterers have to do something close to this when cooking for large crowds.
 
I know I'm a little late to the party, but I would try to do a whole piece of beef. A whole filet or ribeye would be a lot easier if you don't have the grill space to do all of the steaks at once.
 
Hey Phillip, they actually make mini thermometers for steaks so you can tell the temp for big grilling sessions or if you want to put them in chicken breast pieces. They sell them on amazon, at Walmart, and crate and barrel just to name a few places. Do a google search for mini steak thermometers. Sorry I did not think of this before for you.
 
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