British BBQ Society Forums

Everyone loves steak, well anyone who doesn't is just plain wrong yeah?

How do people like their steaks then? Favourite cuts, cooking method, doneness, seasonings, marinades etc.

I suspect the will be a real breadth of opinion here, some interesting opinions and it might give people ideas on different cuts, techniques etc.

Personally there's a lot of different steaks and prep methods I like but at the start of the thread I'm just going to stick my absolute all time favourite up.

But it's not BBQ'd A nice piece of aged fillet, seasoned with S&P or seasoned salt & pepper (I use my own recipe Naughty salt) pan fried, somewhere between blue and rare with some banana shallots in the pan. Then as it rests, deglaze the pan with marsala, a splash of cognac and some cream. For me, steak doesn't get better than that.

Always been a filet mignon(spelling?) fan, but tried a couple of mouthfuls of a prime rib steak that Lyndz had in San Diego and I have to say I'm hooked.

I'm a massive fan of a really good rump - so blue it still moo's! Nothing on it though usually, just seared with a pinch of salt. On a very rare occasion I mIght have a bit of anchovy butter, but not many places do it these days. My fav place for steak has to be the Hawksmoor over here or Ruth's Chris over the pond (I can't visit the south without a trip to Ruth's) - and wherever possible served with a side of shoestring fries!

I too am a prime rib fan, and like you Steve, Blue to rare for me seasoned with salt n pepper and sometimes a little smattering of English Mustard.

Adie

Any good steak with marbling, cut the hooves n horns off, run it passed a flame and serve it. Some restaurants, but very few, recognise the term "Black and Blue" in other words seared fat but just warm in the middle. The exception to this would be a thick cut rib-eye which I will have rare, as if served blue the centre fat is usually cold.
Interestingly in Germany a really rare steak is called "English" (at least in Nuremberg).

Oh and I'll eat Tartar but without the anchovies and raw egg (okay that's basically minced raw fillet )

What can I say a really good 21 day aged inch thick cut rib eye with just S&P and done on a Weber quick until Medium is amazing or maybe just cook a little less.

Gav

Yep I favour a rib eye, medium rare, S&P (although I do enjoy a rub and crust as well) . Either kettle BBQed with a bit of smoke (presumably that will be in the egg now, assuming it ever stops raining) or in a very hot pan, deglazed with port while the steak is "resting" (i.e. roasting) in a hot oven. The latter method is also really good for rump.

Having said that I have had more pleasure out of burgers recently, grinding up a mixture of sirloin, chuck and ox tail and loosely patting it into a reasonably flat burger and bbqing it, glazing it with BBQ sauce near the end. Why isn't there a "drooling" smiley on this forum!

WOW never thought of ox tail for burgers, great for flavour but I'd have had it pegged for long cooking not hot and quick. Congrats on the patience to bone the ox tail. Agreed we need a drooling and a well done smilie

Its a reasonably small amount of oxtail, and ground through with the rest doesn't need any slow cooking. Actually the meat that you cut off the bone is pretty tender, you kind of leave all the sinew etc behind.

The burgers I've been cooking recently are an order of magnitude better than they used to be - most of that is due to grinding my own meat and all the knowledge I have of that came from serious eats (the burger blog "a hamburger today" was rolled into it). I recommend a good read of all of his recipes and techniques.

http://aht.seriouseats.com/

No controversy - just eat what you like how you like! Friday night = steak night in our house. For me a steak meal is a little bit special - a highlight of the week. So since having the Kamado Joe we have tried quite a few variations.

The meat:
Mostly we buy rump - our butcher ages it for circa 20 days & the flavour is great & we've decided we prefer it compred to sirloin or fillet. But we do enjoy a T-bone every now and then. But it is hard to justify the extra cost over a simple rump cut.

For special occasions, we have tried rib roasts after having one in a restaurant that was very good - but you're talking £30+ for a 2 rib joint - albeit that will feed four with some left overs. We've only done 3 of these but each time they were great & our guests have really appreciated them.

Level of 'done-ness':
I actually like two levels. Either:
- my normal is a good char on the outside & then rare in the middle. Or:
- medium - well done.

How to cook:
[list=] - make sure the steak is out of the fridge for a few hours prior to cooking;
- a little salt & pepper right before cooking;
- For steaks under an inch in thickness, we get the Kamado as high as we can (600F or higher), & grill each side for between 30 seconds & a minute depending on temperature & thickness of the steak, remove & rest for 5-10 minutes in foil - experience has shown this gives us a good rare steak with some nice charing;
- For thicker steaks or rib joints, get the Kamado up high, sear each side to get the colour & flavour on the outside, then leave on the grill but shut down the vents & let it cook as you would in an oven. I have read recently that this can give you too much of a smokey flavour & what you should do is actually take the rib / steak off after the sear, get the Kamado to temperature (around 400F seems to be the consensus) & then put it back on & cook indirectly to the desired level of done-ness. I will try this method when I get my remote temperature probe as I don't like to keep opening the dome to test the temperature.[/list]

The only rubs I've tried on steak is Butt Rub & Dukka (a Jordanian pepper / coriander mix). Prefer just simple salt & pepper but Dukka is a close second.

Sauce? I do like a little ketchup But have also been trying the Stubbs range - really liking these especially as they have very little rubbish in them. A simple home-made pepper sauce is pretty hard to beat though.

We have a cast iron searing grid for use on the hob, but we much prefer the additional flavour that cooking over charcoal gives. I am going to get a small cast iron grid to see if it tastes even better cooking on this nearer to the charcoal.

As an aside, if anyone doubts why you should rest a steak, Heston's current series (How to cook like Heston - Series 1 Episode 1 - Beef) he gives a really good practical demonstration of why you should rest beef (a steak in this case) after cooking. You can still view this on Channel 4's website if you missed it.