Labor Day steak dinner

[ponyo]

Publix had bone-in ribeye on sale for $7.99 /lb so I bought three. My steak weighed 2.5 lbs. The other two steaks weighed 1.75 lbs each. So about 6 lbs of steak for the three of us and our dog.

I loaded the Weber kettle with some Western lump charcoal and fired up my torch. Torch is the fastest and the easiest way to light the charcoals. I can have burning hot charcoal fire ready in less than 5 minutes. It's way faster than the chimney. And more fun too.

Seasoned the steaks with Montreal Steak Seasoning.

Seared the steaks over direct fire before moving it to the indirect side. I know reverse searing is all the rage these days but I still like to sear at the start of the cook while the charcoal fire is raging hot rather than at the end of the cook. Lump charcoal can burn out pretty fast.

Two thinner steaks on the right are finished but the my thick steak on the left still had ways to go.

My steak took extra 30 minutes since it was so thick. I did another final sear before removing it from the grill.

My wife's 1.75 lb steak

My 2.5 lb steak

Still working on it

Finished. It was slight struggle to finish it all but I enjoyed it from start to finish. The bone went to my dog.

Thanks for looking!

 

[UglyCasanova]

I still prefer the chimney, part of my ritual.

 

[ponyo]

I still prefer the chimney, part of my ritual.

I still use the chimney. I have both full size and half size chimneys. I use the half size chimney to start my Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. I like to prep the meat after lighting the chimney. But if I don't have lot of time and want to start cooking quick, I use the torch. Torch is blazing fast and even faster than gas grill. The main reason why people use gas grill is because of the speed and convenience of gas. But torch and charcoal is even faster.

Another advantage of using the torch vs chimney is when you use lump charcoal, you don't have to worry about all the small lump pieces burning up and falling from the chimney. It's not an issue if all you use is briquettes but if you like to use lump charcoal, torch is the way to go.

 

[Darwin333]

Very nice! That invite for dinner is still standing, right?

 

[UglyCasanova]

I still use the chimney. I have both full size and half size chimneys. I use the half size chimney to start my Weber Smokey Mountain smoker. I like to prep the meat after lighting the chimney. But if I don't have lot of time and want to start cooking quick, I use the torch. Torch is blazing fast and even faster than gas grill. The main reason why people use gas grill is because of the speed and convenience of gas. But torch and charcoal is even faster.

Another advantage of using the torch vs chimney is when you use lump charcoal, you don't have to worry about all the small lump pieces burning up and falling from the chimney. It's not an issue if all you use is briquettes but if you like to use lump charcoal, torch is the way to go.

Funny you mention that...

Started lump charcoal in a chimney that I set on the ground vs in the grill for some reason a couple months ago. I was barefoot, picked it up to dump in the grill and stepped on some that fell through that I didn’t pay attention to. Ended up at the walk-in clinic getting my feet bandaged up and could barely walk for a week or two, miserable stuff. My kids were in the backyard and saw me all the sudden curse and scream to get the hose

 

[ponyo]

Very nice! That invite for dinner is still standing, right?

anytime

Funny you mention that...

Started lump charcoal in a chimney that I set on the ground vs in the grill for some reason a couple months ago. I was barefoot, picked it up to dump in the grill and stepped on some that fell through that I didn’t pay attention to. Ended up at the walk-in clinic getting my feet bandaged up and could barely walk for a week or two, miserable stuff. My kids were in the backyard and saw me all the sudden curse and scream to get the hose

yep, you gotta be very careful with lump and small pieces. Even when I use the torch, I'm on guard because lump pieces like to spark and pop and small pieces can fly and hit me. If you're really unlucky, you could get hit in the eye with burning lump charcoal.

 

[brianmanahan]

not raw enough, OP is a dead man

 

[Zeze]

Yum. I wonder if it got dry because of prolonged cooking time. It looks great and all, but you def did not have enough coals. I would've gone with 3x much.

 

[UglyCasanova]

Yum. I wonder if it got dry because of prolonged cooking time. It looks great and all, but you def did not have enough coals. I would've gone with 3x much.

Wat? No. Indirect heat then final sear. For a little Weber you wouldn’t want more charcoal than that, especially the lump coal that burns hotter.

 

[Jeeebus]

haven't bought thick ribeye in a while (been grilling Costco ribeye cap steaks or doing picanha on the rotisserie), but I always got great results doing reverse sear on the kamado joe. that thing gets to 800 degrees pretty quick and if not careful you're searing eyebrows too.

haven't bothered with a chimney in years. just load up the kamado, light cube, walk away for 10 minutes. voila. fire. i can see where speed of the torch comes in handy though.

 

[UglyCasanova]

I’d like to try cooking on one of those

 

[ponyo]

haven't bought thick ribeye in a while (been grilling Costco ribeye cap steaks or doing picanha on the rotisserie), but I always got great results doing reverse sear on the kamado joe. that thing gets to 800 degrees pretty quick and if not careful you're searing eyebrows too.

haven't bothered with a chimney in years. just load up the kamado, light cube, walk away for 10 minutes. voila. fire. i can see where speed of the torch comes in handy though.

I've been neglecting my Big Joe and Joe Jr. I've been on Weber kettle and WSM kick the past couple of months and been using both for everything. It got so bad that both the Big Joe and Joe Jr. developed mold inside from lack of use. So on Saturday I fired up the torch and burned off all the mold on the inside ceramic and the grates.

I used the Big Joe to smoke some pork butt yesterday. Tomorrow I'm going to use the Joe Jr. to cook rack of pork. I'm going to have to make sure I keep all the cookers on rotation and not just use one or two all the time.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

That looks great. How long you leave it on indirect heat?

 

[ponyo]

That looks great. How long you leave it on indirect heat?

Since I seared first, I left it on the indirect heat until the steak internal temp read around 132-135 F. I opened the lid and checked the steak temperature with Thermapen every 5 minutes or so until it read that temperature. My steak was probably left on the indirect for more than 45-50 minutes.

 

[clamum]

Dang, those are some big steaks! I guess I'm too pansy, a pound would be plenty for me (plus I like baked potato, vegetable, etc).

But great job cooking them! They look excellent.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Beautiful. Your food porn is the best ponyo.

 

[snoopy7548]

When are you inviting all of us over for a BBQ? I'll bring the beer!

 

[Perknose]

not raw enough, OP is a dead man

Like you have ever even fired up a grille, or for that matter, ever bought ribeye.

Now hurry up and finish your Happy Meal so you can unwrap that plastic propeller toy.

And, ummmm, thanks for you link to the icons.

 

[ultimatebob]

That is a mighty fine looking steak, Ponyo! I'm going to award it a Coolcoin!

Send me a PM if you want to collect it... and think about sharing with the rest of us next time. That looked much better than the burgers I grilled yesterday!

 

[brianmanahan]

Like you have ever even fired up a grille, or for that matter, ever bought ribeye.

of course not, i don't want to literally eat cancer!

 

[Jeeebus]

Since I seared first, I left it on the indirect heat until the steak internal temp read around 132-135 F. I opened the lid and checked the steak temperature with Thermapen every 5 minutes or so until it read that temperature. My steak was probably left on the indirect for more than 45-50 minutes.

hmm 135 seems far past where I would go for medium rare. I usually stop a thick ribeye around 120 to achieve good results. that said, yours looks right so no complaints.

 

[ponyo]

Dang, those are some big steaks! I guess I'm too pansy, a pound would be plenty for me (plus I like baked potato, vegetable, etc).

But great job cooking them! They look excellent.

Thanks! I have pretty big appetite. I do like traditional steak restaurant sides like baked potato, cream spinach, mac & cheese, asparagus, etc but I don't cook those that often at home. It's just too heavy and rich when combined with rich and fatty meat like ribeye. Yesterday, I had bowl of white rice, cucumber kimchi made with cucumbers and garlic chives, rice wine vinegar and soy sauced pickled onions and baby radish, romaine lettuce, and fresh cucumbers with gochujang hot pepper paste as sides to go with the ribeye steak. Not your typical steak restaurant sides.

Beautiful. Your food porn is the best ponyo.

You're too kind.

That is a mighty fine looking steak, Ponyo! I'm going to award it a Coolcoin!

Send me a PM if you want to collect it... and think about sharing with the rest of us next time. That looked much better than the burgers I grilled yesterday!

Thank you. I wasn't expecting that!

hmm 135 seems far past where I would go for medium rare. I usually stop a thick ribeye around 120 to achieve good results. that said, yours looks right so no complaints.

If I reverse sear, I usually take it to around 120-125 F so I can do the final sear for couple of minutes which can add another 10 degrees. But since I had already seared at the start of the cook, I elected to take it off at higher temp. I think the thickest part read around 128F or so and most other places read around 132 with the edge around 135. The carryover temp probably added another 5 degrees or so but I made very loose foil tent to minimize the carryover temp.