Hope everyone had a great Christmas and your New Year is off to a good start. My holidays were great, lots of good food, and spending time with family and friends. I spent the whole month cooking, every weekend or day off I had something on the smoker. I smoked pork butts, tenderloins and turkey breasts, but the highlight of my grilling extravaganza was the cowboy cut rib eyes that I cooked on Christmas day.
 |
| Cowboy Cut Rib Eye, Merry Christmas to Me! |
Since I could not find Cowboy cut steaks in the store, I decided to cut my own. I started with a big ol’, choice grade, bone-in prime rib and then, with a sharp knife, I cut the rack into steaks by slicing between the bones. The results are a big thick bone-in rib eye steak, about 1 ½ -2 inches thick. To season these amazing beef slabs, I mixed up an Ancho Coffee Rub that is currently in beta testing.
 |
| Cutting steaks, just slice between the bones. |
Since these were uber-thick steaks I decided to employ the reverse sear technique. I started by cooking the steaks over indirect heat at 225-250F until the internal temp hit 115F, which took about 20 minutes. I pulled steaks off the grill and let them rest while I set up the BGE for direct cooking. Once the egg was up to 500-550F I put the steaks back on and seared them for 2-3 minutes on each side. The internal temp when they came off the grill was 127F and when I served them they were a medium rare 135F.
 |
| Searing the steaks after the slow cook. |
I’ve tried the reverse sear several times, but have had mixed results. This time it worked. The steak was a perfect medium rare all the way through with just a thin edge of sear. This beef beast was the best of both worlds, the rich flavor of prime rib and the tasty char of a steak. When I first slapped this bad boy down on the plate I thought it was going to be too big, but it wasn’t. Once I cut into it and started eating I could not stop, I ate the whole freaking thing. The Ancho Coffee rub was fantastic, just a few more tweaks and I’ll be bottling this up for everyone to enjoy. This steak will go down in history as one the greatest Christmas steaks ever.
Those are some thick slabs o' beef, dude!
After doing a lot of reverse sears, my general thoughts are I like reverse sear for NY Strips, fillet and rib roasts.
For ribeye (regular sized), I had mixed results. I THINK what it is that I sometimes don't like is the fat between the ribeye and spinalis dorsi (the cap) doesn't render consistently when reverse searing a ribeye. Does that kind of match what you have found?
I've had mixed results in general with the reverse sear when cooking steaks. I don't know my steaks were too thin or I wasn't paying attention, but the steaks were a little over cooked.
Personally, I like to sear the steak first then lower the heat and let it finish cooking. Find it easier to hit the target temperature. I really like the T-Rex Method on the BGE.
I like my coffee and I like rubs, but never the twain have met. I know, that's a horrible sentence.
Point is, as much as I like coffee the drink, I've never much cared for it in a sauce, or rub. Granted, I've only tried a very few sauces with coffee, and I don't think I've ever had a rub with coffee added.
If anyone can pull it off, that'd be you Kirk. Good luck with the beta testing.
OMG! Those look delicious. I'll wager there are never empty places at your table. This is my first visit to your blog, so Itook some time to browse through your earlier posts. I'm so glad I did that. I really enjoyed the time I spent here and I'll definitely be back. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary