Can you say Porterhouse?

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1948/1000101u.jpg

This entire region is so culinarily dead you can't buy a "Porterhouse" steak here. They are all called T-bone. The only descriptor the local bone heads can relate to. While they are all grabbing the T-bones (often with some of the tenderloin removed) I'm grabbing those weird looking Porterhouse steaks.
It's been a good summer for steaks here. The high enders are regularly on sale for $6/lb and this week NY strip is $5/lb. Life can be tough. :rant:

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Originally Posted by kc7jty

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1948/1000101u.jpg

This entire region is so culinarily dead you can't buy a "Porterhouse" steak here. They are all called T-bone. The only descriptor the local bone heads can relate to. While they are all grabbing the T-bones (often with some of the tenderloin removed) I'm grabbing those weird looking Porterhouse steaks.
It's been a good summer for steaks here. The high enders are regularly on sale for $6/lb and this week NY strip is $5/lb. Life can be tough. :rant:

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When my folks came to this area ages ago they found the most awesome butcher who had the best porterhouse steaks in the universe. A small, old fashioned butcher shop, The guy used to cut the steaks on the block right in front of you. No gimmicks. No fads. Just good quality meats, good old world butchering, and, the greatest steaks which I will never forget.

Its long gone now. The old butcher shop has long closed down. And the very spot where ol Mike stood and cut the steaks now stands a bunch of clueless yuppies who wouldn't know a quality Porterhouse from a McDonalds burger.. Yes, the place where the butcher shop once stood is now a trendy yuppie bar. Nothing is sacred anymore ;)

Two steaks in one. It's almost done too!

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Originally Posted by ki4itv

Two steaks in one. It's almost done too!

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Funny—I was gonna say "it's overcooked..."

Believe me, it didn't get much more done than what you see. Just some grill marks is all.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by kc7jty

http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/1948/1000101u.jpg

This entire region is so culinarily dead you can't buy a "Porterhouse" steak here. They are all called T-bone. The only descriptor the local bone heads can relate to. While they are all grabbing the T-bones (often with some of the tenderloin removed) I'm grabbing those weird looking Porterhouse steaks.
It's been a good summer for steaks here. The high enders are regularly on sale for $6/lb and this week NY strip is $5/lb. Life can be tough. :rant:

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Now your talking!!! I love grilling, BBQ and cooking and love steaks even more :)

But please tell me thats not the best you have available to you, If so then i feel your pain, It's Kinda hard to judge from the picture but to me that cut looks to be low end grade maybe USDA select with little if any marbling. Don't get me wrong I don't always do premium cuts myself but every once in a while I like to pick up some high grade USDA choice or prime Ribeyes and trek them on a ceramic BBQ... Of course the true art of BBQ is taking a junk cut of meat and making it taste like a high dollar premium cut...

i did a quick search and found a picture of a steak I grilled. I think this was a USDA Choice++ that was on sale for $8.00 a pound. I can tell by the grill marks that it was one that was grilled at between 750 and 850 degrees on one of my ceramic BBQ's. It's a process thats called trekking and it produces a phenomenally good steak. Probably far better then anything you could ever get in a restaurant.

The process is simple. First you need a BBQ that's capable of very hot inferred temperatures. We are talking no flame temperatures between 750 and 850. Keep in mind that in ceramics the actual grill temps will be closer to a 1100 degrees. By the way you probably can't do this on normal propane BBQ's...

Anyhow once the coals are glowing without visible flame and grill hits the target temp its time to throw the steak on. Now depending on the thickness of the steak we let it sear for about 2 min a side at between 750 and 1100 degrees. I usually pull the steak when the internal temp reaches 90 degrees and place the steak in a sealed container. By the way the steak really should be about an 1.5 to 2+ inches thick to do this properly as thinner cuts will cook to fast at such high temps. At a dome temp of 750 (grate temp of 1100) Your typical 3/4 inch thick grocery store steak will be thoroughly overly cooked in less then about 1 min each side.

Anyhow now that we have pulled the steak we wait, This is the rest stage and it's very important because this is where the natural enzymes breakdown the tough collagen into flavorful proteins and where the flavors concentrate. The steak will be ready to go back on the BBQ when the internal temp peaks and then begins to drop again. It will usually climb 10 degrees to about 100 internal and when it drops to 99 its ready to go back on the grill. The actual pull temp is not critical. You can pull at 100 and let rest to 110 before you throw it back on. Now keep in mind that your cooking over extremely high temps and the difference between a perfectly seared steak and a burned steak can be a matter of seconds so don't burn the steak.

If your not a very experienced griller then you should probably have an accurate commercial meat thermometer such as a Therma pen to do this but a seasoned griller should easily be able to wing it. In the mean time while the steak is in the rest period its time to bring the temp of the BBQ down to about 350-400. When the rest period is over throw the steak back on the grill a few more min a side and indirectly and cook to desired doneness.

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I hate well done and prefer my steaks very rare. This steaks even though it looks well has only been grilled to about 125. By the way be forewarned asking for steak sauce or cooking a good steak above 135 around here is considered sacrilege :)

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Heres a picture of a new Grill Pod being brought up to searing temps for the first time. I let her sit at 750 for several hours. With 750 dome temp the measured grate temps were closer to 1100 degrees which almost instantly burns off any seasoning present on cast iron. For this reason I have a special very heavy cast iron grate thats only used for searing steaks.

Sounds good, and that steak looks crunchy, the best way to go. The Porterhouse in my photo was purchased at Safeway. It's not choice but Safeway's meat is close to choice and often better tasting than some "choice" beef at other stores.
When I said high enders I meant Porterhouse, T bone, NY steak, and rib (preferably small end). The local supermarket here sells only Choice beef.

I grilled it over birchwood that I hand cut from local trees and burned down to the coals before placing the meat on. I can't afford $800 for a ceramic bbq.

Back to my spaghetti al uovo then....;)

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Originally Posted by kc7jty

Sounds good, and that steak looks crunchy, the best way to go. The Porterhouse in my photo was purchased at Safeway. It's not choice but Safeway's meat is close to choice and often better tasting than some "choice" beef at other stores.

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At one time our local Safeway's were probably one of the worst places to buy beef. They had a very limited selection and the quality was poor. Then about 5 years ago that all changed and today our local Safeway has some surprisingly good beef. Now their fish on the other hand leaves a lot to be desired.

Needless to say we don't buy our sea food at Safeway. Anyhow talking about sea food how about some oysters and a shot. (sorry for the poor quality it was a camera phone)
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When I said high enders I meant Porterhouse, T bone, NY steak, and rib (preferably small end). The local supermarket here sells only Choice beef.

I grilled it over birchwood that I hand cut from local trees and burned down to the coals before placing the meat on. I can't afford $800 for a ceramic bbq.

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I don't think I've ever grilled or BBQ'ed over birchwod but it sounds really good!! Hey any steak grilled over real wood coals is going to be hell of a lot better then anything grilled over propane or kingsford regardless of the cost of the grill :)

Much like you I can't afford nor can I justify spending $800 on a ceramic. The cost of ceramic BBQ's is insane. BGE really milks the market and has driven prices of ceramics much higher then they should be. Nonetheless I always wanted one so I built one. I built my first ceramic BBQ out of refractory cement and to be quite honest it worked really well. Heck over the years I've grilled, BBqes and smoked meats over lots of strange contraptions from large clay flowerpots to old freezers converted into electric smokers and they all worked well.

Anyhow one day I really got lucky and found a fantastic deal on a brand new Ceramic BBQ. I picked it brand new in the box for whopping $150 from the widow of the man who imported them. It was the last one and was missing some nuts and bolts and the hinge bands were the wrong size so I had to cut them down, re bend, and drill them which took a few hours..

Attachment 4427
Anyhow heres what she looks like after I finished building her. It took a few days to source all the hardware and like I said the two main steel bands were the wrong size. They were for the XL version and were about 4 inches to big. I had to cut them down re-bend, re drill and finally paint them with stove paint. It sounds like more work then it really was. Of course the fact that I have a well equipment metal shop makes jobs like this a lot easer. Of course this job only required an angle grinder, hand drill and a vice. To bad too, I was looking for a good excuse to fire up the horizontal metal cutting band saw ;)

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Yup!! shes a virgin, But not for long :)

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These things are amazingly efficient. The fuel in that small stainless steel bowl is enough to fire this thing up to 750 degrees for an hour or so and 450 degrees for 5 hours. Two bowls like that will run this BBQ for well over 24 hours at 230 degrees for doing pulled pork or brisket which is more then enough time.

The heat retention of these ceramic BBQ is amazing. Even when the internal temps reach 750 degrees the outside temps never gets much above 350. I can bake 3 or 4 loaves
of bread with the fuel pictured and still have enough fuel left over to bake a lasagna and then roast a chicken.. Just like using a wood burning hearth oven. You first bring her up to 550+ and bake your breads when the temps drop into the 400s you bake your lasagna and when it drops to 350 roast your chicken...

Attachment 4430

And here she is all loaded up with Charcoal, and waiting to be fired up for the first time.

Anyhow if you've made it this far, then thanks for taking the time to read my post. Like I said I love grilling and cooking in general and can talk about it all day so my posts can get kinda long..

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Originally Posted by kc7jty

Sounds good, and that steak looks crunchy, the best way to go. The Porterhouse in my photo was purchased at Safeway. It's not choice but Safeway's meat is close to choice and often better tasting than some "choice" beef at other stores.
When I said high enders I meant Porterhouse, T bone, NY steak, and rib (preferably small end). The local supermarket here sells only Choice beef.

I grilled it over birchwood that I hand cut from local trees and burned down to the coals before placing the meat on. I can't afford $800 for a ceramic bbq.

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Better off using the wood.