Then I lowered the grate directly above the coals to cook the exterior of the steaks—a couple minutes per side—to a savory, dark brown crust. I pulled them at an internal temperature of 130 degrees.
The last step was to rest the steaks on a wire rack over a sheet pan for 3 minutes—to “relax” the meat. (A steak hot off the grill will taste dry. A rested steak will be tender and juicy.) The carryover heat brought the internal temperature to 135 degrees—a textbook medium-rare.
The meat smelled of wood smoke. I smelled of wood smoke. My family devoured the steaks and fought over the bones. We washed the meat down with a Tennat, red wine from Uruguay, and left the table in excellent spirits.
Reverse Searing
But what happens if you don’t have a wood burner or a grill with a raisable grate? You use a method you may be familiar with already: reverse searing. It works on a conventional charcoal kettle grill. You can even do it on a gas grill.
In a nutshell, you “barbecue” the steaks—that is cook them low and slow until the internal temperature reaches 110 degrees. Then you crank up the heat and finish searing the steaks over a hot fire until both sides are sizzling and darkly browned and the internal temperature reaches 125 degrees for rare; 135 degrees for medium-rare.
Charcoal Grill
For the first phase, you rake the coals to one side of the grill and do the grilling on the other side. In other words, classic indirect grilling. But use fewer coals, so you can keep the temperature of the grill around 225 to 250 degrees. Place a hardwood chunk or two on the coals to generate woodsmoke. The low and slow phase of cooking the steaks takes 40 to 50 minutes, depending on the size and number of steaks.
At that point, transfer the steaks to your wire rack to rest. Add more coals and let them ignite (grill lid off) to make a hot fire.
For phase 2, return your steaks to the grill and sear the exterior, turning often, until the top and bottle are sizzling and dark brown and the center has reached the desired degree of doneness. The internal temperature should be around 130 to 135 degrees for medium-rare.
Gas Grill
On a gas grill, light the burner(s) on one side and cook the steaks on the other. For smoke flavor, you can place a couple wood chunks under the grate directly over the burners.
Reverse searing has several advantages, not least of which is enabling you to dial in the exact degree of doneness. The low and slow stage cooks the steak evenly, so you get a uniform color from top to bottom. No “bullseye” of grey top and bottom darkening to a purple red undercooked bullseye in the middle.
The second advantage is that you get to smoke the steak, which is always a flavor benefit in my book.
The third benefit is that reverse searing eliminates the anxiety of split-second timing. You can take your time cooking the steak most of the way. You can even do it an hour ahead of time. Then you flash sear the exterior at the end. You don’t need to rest the steak (it rested while you were raising the heat of the grill). You can serve it hot off the grill and take pride that you’ve achieved the perfect degree of doneness.
High-grate grilling or reverse-searing. It’s your choice. But either way, you now know how to cook monster thick steaks to perfection.
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