4
REVERSE SEARING
between the low-heat smoking and high-heat searing,
you can serve it hot off the grill. Best of all, it enables
to smoke the one cut of beef most people would
never dare cook in a smoker: steak.
So why not use it for all steaks all the time? The
truth is that most steaks (especially if they're thinner
than 1/2 inches) taste better and have better texture
cooked over a hot fire. There’s an energy—dare I even
say violence?—in exposing raw red meat to blazing
embers, and that energy comes through in the taste.
Perhaps that’s why all the great steak cultures on
Planet Barbecue—Italy, Spain, and Argentina, for
example—grill over fires of hot wood embers.
In this book you'll find recipes for reverse-seared
strip steak, tri-tip, and beef tenderloin. The dark crust,
the uniformly and perfectly cooked center, and the
unexpected smoke flavor will make any carnivore's
heart beat faster.hen l started smoking meat twenty-five years
ago, no one had heard of reverse searing.
Today, you can hardly browse a barbecue website
without being urged to try it. The process turns the
traditional method of cooking a steak or roast—a hot
sear followed by a slow roast—on its head. You start
by smoking the meat low and slow to an internal
temperature of 100° to 110°F, then you char it over a
hot fire to raise it to the desired doneness, applying
the smoky caramelized crust at the end.
Reverse searing has several advantages: Better
heat control, as you can cook the steak to a
consistent degree of doneness. The meat cooks more
evenly, with no more "bull's-eye'' effect—the dark
crust with a gray-brown ring of meat just beneath
it. fading to pink, and finally the reddish-blue core
characteristic of a really thick steak grilled over
a really hot fire. And because you rest the meatyou.. f t!!!
OHERRY-SMOKED STRIP STEAK
YIELD: Makes 1 really thick
O teak is one cut of beef you don’t normally smoke. It requires a hot fire to (^) steak, enough to serve 2 or 3
w sear the exterior while keeping the inside sanguine and juicy. But there
is a way to smoke a steak low and slow, and if you re foitunate enough to METHOD:^ Reverse^ searing
start with a monster-thick strip or rib eye, this is one of the best methods
I know for bringing its interior to a luscious 135 F medium rare whi e
achieving a sizzling dark crust. You guessed it reverse searing (you slo
smoke the steak first to cook it through, then rest it, then finally sizz
over a hot fire to sear the crust—see box, above).
PREP TIME: 5 minutes
l
SMOKING TIME: 45 minutes
to 1 hour i
GRILLING TIME: 4 to 6 i
minutes
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1
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!BEEF I 83