CALF_News_February_March_2020

35 CALF News • February | March 2020 • www.calfnews.net GRILL H O T O F F T H E A C A L F N E W S B B Q P A R T Y TO ACHIEVE THE PERFECT STEAK T This column is not for those who are sure they know how to grill a steak. For those of you who have spent years perfecting your technique and timing on your personal grill, serving the perfect steak is the height of your skill. Those folks, who I admire, can stop reading now. This is for those who are willing to admit they need help, those who are willing to try something new to improve their techniques and, most of all, those who own a small beer cooler. By Brad Geiger Contributing Editor Let me explain. There are a few things we can all agree on. A good, grilled steak is a pleasure to indulge in. It’s well sea- soned but still tastes of beef, not sauce; it’s a perfect medium-rare red (ok some of you might disagree there, but no lover of beef wants a good steak overdone and dry); and it has an outside that’s crusty but not burned. There are many of us steak lovers who, despite years of trying, still mess it up. I was raised by the publisher of this fine publication to adore and admire good meat, well cooked. Unfortunately, my grilling did not live up to that standard. Then I was made aware of a strange technique that cooks with hot water. No, we are not talking boiled meat, but a steak (or chop or even chicken breast) heated to temperature by hot water, then finished on a hot grill. The fancy name for this process is called “sous vide” – French for “under vacuum.” But it is really just hot water, and for a medium-rare steak, the water only needs to be 135 degrees – most of us have that straight from the tap. Be sure to get the water temperature right. If you need to heat the water, that is the only thing a microwave is good for when dealing with steak. Pick a decent steak, at least one-half- inch thick. This actually works on cheaper cuts, but a good New York strip is perfect for this example. Salt the steak well; remember, it is hard to over salt a steak, and most of us under season. Now we get to the complex pieces of equipment you need – a ziplock bag and a small cooler. You want the classic small lunch cooler that has a tight-fitting lid. The kind of ziplock bag is less important. Fill the cooler with 135- degree water, a bit hotter if you like your steak more medium. Put the salted steak in the bag and seal it MOST of the way. Slowly submerge the bag and steak to force the air out of the bag. When the air is out, seal the bag the rest of the way and close the cooler lid tightly. Now we wait – for at least an hour. That seems long, but then you have time to bake your potatoes, drink a good wine or beer and preheat your grill. If you are the obsessive type, or your cooler does not seal well, check the temperature of your water in 30 minutes and put in some more hot water if it’s too cool. Now, here is the great part. You don’t need to get obsessive about the cook- ing time. If the steak sits longer than an hour, IT CANNOT OVER COOK. The amazing thing is that the steak can only get as hot as the water, so it can sit for two or supposedly even four hours. Having baked your potato and sipped your drink, you now want a screaming hot grill. You can do this step in a cast iron pan as well, but this is a grilling column, so get your grill very, very hot. Remove the steak from the cooler and dry it well. If you want more seasoning, add it now, but remember that anything with too many herbs will burn. Place the steak on the hottest part of the grill. This is not to cook the steak, because the water already cooked it. You are just searing the outside for that lovely char – so don’t walk away. How long this will take depends on the grill, but about two minutes per side is plenty. Let the steak rest for a few minutes and then enjoy. Your reward? A steak that is the perfect temperature all the way through. You know that way a steak cooked on a grill has different doneness from the outside in? This steak does not have that. The outside is crisp and the inside is medium rare all the way through. You will likely find it’s the juiciest steak you have ever had outside the finest restaurants. As I said, the technique will work with a pork chop, and sous vide may actually be the only way to cook a chicken breast on the grill and keep it from getting dry. However, start with the steak. Might as well do the best first. 