Reading the American food thread and trying not to hijack it, I need to know how to cook a steak. Not just any steak though.
At an Outback Steakhouse in Orlando I had the second best steak that I’ve ever had. No doubt the meat was good, but what worked for me was the way that it was cooked. Here’s the description from the menu:
So, how do I cook a slow cooked steak in an oven at home? I’ve googled for it, but the answers that I get are less than satisfactory. I think we’re talking about 24 hours at a low temperature, but a precise recipe would be appreciated.
Btw, feel free to correct my impression that this is an American dish. I know that the Outback is an Aussie themed restaurant, but the best steak I ever had was on a stopover in the Houston Marriott and I think that it was cooked in the same manner.
One of the difficulties is that you really can’t slow cook one steak. Prime rib consists of the whole rib section being slow roasted, then sliced into portions. A Ribeye steak is essentially the same piece of meat, but sliced into steak thickness and then put on the grill. You can find a rib section at a real butcher which you can then roast in your oven. Although the differneces between baked and roasted get a little fuzzy. Also getting a technically ‘prime’ cut of rib is pretty expensive, but after slow cooking lesser cuts are pretty damn good because all the fat melts and spreads around making things petty tender.
Say you get a 7 pound rib section. You can roast at 450 for one hourish till medium rare, but injected with flavor juice and lots of basting for 4-5 hours at 250 is much better.
Dont forget the Yorkshire pudding to suck up all the yummy cow juice.
Wolfman had it right, in that you’re not looking to slow-cook a “steak”. You’re looking to cook a roast or a rib cut.
Steaks are along the lines of New York/Kansas City “strips”; Filet Mignogn (sp?), Porterhouse, etc. These are totally different from what you want to cook slowly.
As to slow cooked beef, stay with the roasts and cheaper cuts of beef. Specific cuts you can buy fresh, cook them right. I will have to hunt you down if you don’t.
For steaks, chefs insist on charcoal grills, gas if you’re lazy, or cast-iron if in a pinch and need to use a stove.
Simple rules.
Get it as hot as you can.
Sear both sides, only turning once (never more than 4 mins per side)
3.let it rest, as it will continue to cook inwards after removing from heat.
E-mail if you have any other questions. Can’t cite, but I’m really good at cooking.
Eschew the indoor oven, altogether. Get a proper barbecue setup (indirect smoke, not a grill). Now, get the largest rib roast you can (ribs still in)–straight from the butcher, no mere supermarket will do. If possible, you should have actually seen the cow walking around that same day. Take it home and give it a good dry rub, preferably store, well-wrapped, overnight in your spare refrigerator (aka “beer fridge”, “garage fridge”, “Hooser Caterer”, etc.). Alternatively, if you’ve got the know-how, dry age it for a while.
Then it’s time to fire up the barbecue and very slowly cook your slab-o-cow until not quite rare. At that point, cut into steaks and grill to finish.
Ok, here is where I get confused. Do I turn the heat down? I have a gas grill. Do I move the steak up to the second grilling tier, away from the heat. I’ve seen my friend do it where he heats the coals in his gas grill for like 30 minutes, then he turns the heat off. The meat is so moist and tender. When I cook it, it’s pink in the inside (like I like it) but the meat is no where near as moist or tender. We both shop at the same Safeway.
No, to “rest” the meat you put it on a plate away from the heat for a few minutes. Also, be sure to take the steaks out of the fridge a few minutes before you nomally do - you want them to get to almost room temperature before grilling - although for safety reasons you obviously don’t want them sitting out TOO long.
Also, do not salt your meat while cooking. You can put the salt on fatty sections of the meat, but not on the meat itself, as it will draw out moisture as it’s cooking.
Letting the meat stand for 15 minutes after roasting, besides letting the meat cook a little more, also lets it reabsorb its juices. So, for juicy tender meat, rememeber: no salt on the meat itself & give it time to rest.
Meat! Meat! Meat! - not for the faint-hearted. A collection of alarming photographs of meat from the Better Homes & Gardens Meat Cook Book, courtesy of James Lileks, author of the The Gallery of Regrettable Food.
I’m going to take a wild stab here and ask…are you thoroughly defrosting the meat before cooking. You will get much better results with a fridge temp or room temp steak than with a frozen or semi frozen one.
If not how long are you tending to freeze your meat, even well wrapped frozen foods lose significant moisture content in a few weeks.
Look for greater marbling in the cuts you select, it helps.
I get great steak results, especially on thick cuts, by broiling my steaks for a few minutes on each side then move them up to the oven @ about 250 for another 15 min or so to finish.
Here’s a trick I’ve been known to use from time to time. It’s messy, but it does help lock in the steak’s juices.
Before you put the steak on the grill, rub it down thoroughly with butter (not margarine). This works best on a room-temp steak. Then press freshly crushed garlic into the butter. Finish with a bit of fresh black pepper and grill. The butter helps keep the moisture inside the meat where it belongs.
Thanks guys. Always good to get steak cooking methods. I’d seen the no salt thing before, so it surprised me when I saw a Jamie Oliver recipe where you salt and pepper the steaks (although you also oil them, which might make up for it).
So far, wolfman is the closest, although that sounds suspiciously like our good old British roast beef . I should have mentioned that I knew that it was cooked as a joint before being cut into steaks. Either I’ll pig out on steak sandwiches afterwards or I’ll only cook it when there’s a bunch of people around. Also, unfortunately, I’m pretty much stuck with an indoor oven.
I think I overestimated the cooking time, but I do know that they did it overnight for at least 8-12 hours, possibly wrapped in foil. Anyone cooked them like that?
I figured that out early on (I used to eat steak 3 times/week). Admittedly, i get better results if I use room temp steak, fresh from the meat section. However, I do freeze it, and I try to let it thaw the night before in the fridge, and I let it sit around on the counter for like no more than 30 mins. I may need a better grill as I have a hand-me down from my old college roommate. If I leave it on for 4 mins, my steak will most definitely be rare (my steaks are usually around 1 1/2 inch thick). The problem is that if I cook it any longer to cook the middle, I’ll burn and toughen the outside. Then again, the settings on my grill are high and supernova.
A good marinade is red wine (3 parts, box wine will do), olive oil (1 part), and soy sauce (1 part) and spices to your liking. I also throw in a celery stick (call me crazy). Let it marinate at least 2 hours (I do it over night). I try to make as much marinade so that I don’t throw any out. If I have any left over, I use it on fish or chicken the next day.
Bromley the menu item is not steak, it is a prime rib roast. Not quite the same thing. The difference is mass. A steak has a very small mass, a prime rib has a huge mass. If you tried to cook a prime rib roast like a steak, you would wind up with a charred outside with a completely raw inside. If on the other hand you tried to cook a steak like a prime rib roast you will end up with shoe leather. It takes a hell of a lot longer to heat up 12 lbs of meat than it does 8 ozs.
OK with that said, here is a recommendation for cooking a prime rib roast, and three for steak.
I am a serious meatatarian, and I guarantee you that these recipes will make people consider you a God when it comes to cooking beef.
Prime Rib: Learn at the feet of the other perfect master, Alton Brown, grasshopper. This will produce a Prime rib that will kick the ass of the offerings from Outback around the block. Note this can also be done on a BBQ grill (assuming that you can hold the low temp of course)
Steak: Three basic recipes Two are very similar, one is backwards.
Basic killer steak recipe: Coat the steak with olive oil and season with your favorite rub. If you don’t have one may I recommend Cow lick steak rub from the Dizzy Pig BBQ Company. If you salt use kosher salt. Pre-heat grill to Chernobyl. I am not kidding, you want this sucker as hot as you can get it. In my case this is 750F+ If you have a gas grill do the best you can. Throw the steak on and let it sear for a short period of time, figure about 90 seconds for a 1" steak, 2 minutes for a 1.5" steak etc. Turn and sear the other side. Turn the BBQ off and leave the steak inside to rest and let it continue to cook. In another 5-7 minutes the steak will be done. After a couple of tries you will have this down pat.
Second basic recipe: The T-rex method detailed here. In a nutshell you sear the steak, then let it rest on a plate, before returning it to finish cooking. A lot of people at the BBQ website where I hang out swear by this method. I don’t find it to be much better than the method I listed above.
Third method: Rick’s bassackward smoked steak. OK I like steak, and I like smoked meat. Meat will only absorb smoke when it is cool. Trying to get smoke flavor into a steak during a traditional sear is just not going to happen. So one day I decided to turn the cooking process around, and here is what I came up with.
Rub the steak with olive oil, and season with a good rub. Place the steak back into the fridge. You want the steak to be cold at the start of the cook. heat BBQ to 200-250F (no more!) When ready to cook add wood chips on the fire for smoke production. Hickory, oak, or Jack Daniels wood chips are all good choices. Place the steak on with a remote thermometer. Cook until internal temp is 115F. No turning. Remove steak to a plate. At this point the steak will be a uniform shade of gray and won’t look very good. Not to worry. Now set grill to Chernobyl. As soon as the grill is mega hot toss the steak back on and sear both sides (times are similar to the first method) Prepare for steak heaven.
A couple of final notes. The above times are for medium rare. Adjust times a necessary for different doness levels. Any method is only as good as the meat you use. Crappy meat = crappy steaks. Also try and let meat rest for 5-10 minutes after cooking before carving. It will get juicer.
You know, now that I look through Google, I think it is the oil. Any recipes I’ve seen that do include salt for roasts have you coating it entirely in oil before roasting. Man, that prime rib recipe Rick linked to sounds awesome. I just don’t know if I have the patience to wait three days before actually eating it.
Let’s see if I can have this make more sence now that I’m sober enough to not forget the details.
Many restauraunts have a nifty Alto-Shaam oven or other similar fancy-schancy piece of cooking equipment that allows the rib to be placed in it 24 hours ahead of time and be progammed to cook and hold it perfectly. On the otherhand with a household oven about the slowest you will be able to cook it, and still have good rareness is 6-8 hours at 225-250. It is very much like a standard roast beef cooking, but it is a better piece of meat than most normal roasts. And the slow cooking allows the structure to break down slowly and completely resulting in a perfectly tender piece of meat. You usually coat the outside with something. and you can use a needle to inject extra flavor iside the meat.
I’m assuming Outback uses true prime meat for the rib. You figure they cut 8 good pieces for 16 bucks each, and they are making $ 120 which means they are probably paying 50-70(pulled out of the air) bucks for the section in the first place. That a pretty hefty investment for most people, so they get a rib section that is less than prime so it is much cheaper. But the slow roasting method makes it pretty good and tender anyway.
So because your oven isn’t as good, your meat probably won’t be as good, and your technique isn’t as honed, it won’t be as good as a steakhouses Prime Rib, but it can still be damn good.
And if money isn’t an object they do sell sizes of Alto-shaams for home use.
I’ve never had Prime rib at Outback so you might be right. Everytime I go to Outback I get the Lamb chops. It’s sad how few places serve lamb for less than 30 bucks anymore. I wish I had a good cheep Basque restauraunt around.
By the way I see you are a true devotee of steak cooking. So I have very little to add. My favorite simple method is much like your first method. Except I prefer Sesame oil for a slightly nutty flavor, and Chipoltle seasoning. It doesn’t make it spicy hot, but adds more smoky flavor.
Have you ever tried rigging up a cold smoker? I have a couple times at it works okay, but not quite what I was hoping for. Basically I put a bunch off wood chips soaked, emptied and put in tuna cans in the grill. Hooked a piece of ductwork through the rotisserie hole. Then I ran the hose though an Ice water bath, to a bucket sitting over my steaks which I propped up sitting on a cookie sheet. I put a little battery fan to try to draw the smoke through the hose. Wasted a lot of propane and a lot of elbow grease, but did get a bit of extra smoky flavor.
You see, this is what happens when you turn a clueless Brit loose on an American tradition like steak. So when I said “steak”, I was thinking of a piece of meat 1/4" (Brit, remember) to 1" thick on my plate. Whereas steak actually refers to, essentially, a piece of meat that isn’t sliced after cooking.
I take it from Rick’s comment about Outback and prime meat that I could have better. I’ve been suckered into a Disney Christmas, so I can revisit the Outback whilst I’m in Orlando. Does anyone have an Orlando restaurant or steakhouse chain recommendation for me where I can get a good prime rib roast? Given that I spent last night salivating and searching the web in vain for a London prime rib restaurant recommendation, any London recommendations would put me out of my misery.
Thanks to wolfman for setting me straight on how to reproduce this at home.
Thanks to Rick for the recipes. For anyone else confused about why people would care about kosher salt without insisting on kosher meat, it seems that kosher salt is flaky. The nearest commonly available analogue in the UK might be coarse sea salt. Not too sure why the big flakes are necessary, but it seems that connoisseurs on both sides of the pond prefer the bigger, flakier salts for this sort of thing.
I will have to buy some Sesame oil and try that. I love Chipoltle and use it in many things, that too will have to go on a steak.
No I have never done any cold smoking, perhaps when I get the time, I will give it a shot. Alton Brown did a real interesting show where he cold smoked salmon using a large carboard box, an electric hot plate, a small pan, and a couple of wood dowels. Looked like fun.
Bromley Orlando has many many good places for steak. One of the guys in my department is headquarted there, I will ask him for a recomondation. How much do you want to spend? This will help narrow down the quest.
Kosher salt (sea salt is also fine) is used becasue the flakes tend to stick to the meat, the granules from regular tend to roll off. Also some people maintain that the iodine in reqular salt imparts an unwanted flavor.
. I should have mentioned that I knew that it was cooked as a joint before being cut into steaks. Either I’ll pig out on steak sandwiches afterwards or I’ll only cook it when there’s a bunch of people around. Also, unfortunately, I’m pretty much stuck with an indoor oven.