gearfarm - Tumblr blog

gearfarm · 3 years

Text

How to usecharcoal smoker

Hey guys, Chef Tony Here - today we’re talking reverse seared tomahawk Ribeye. Now look, I’m a little partial to Ribeye, but this method can totally be applied to any thick cut steak of your choice. Ideal thickness though is an inch and a half and up. For this cookout, I used the Masterbuilt Gravity Series.

This is a really unique grill that I’ve been really wanting to run through the paces for quite some time now. It’s similar to a pellet grill, except it’s fueled by charcoal. You just fill the side chamber with coal, and you’re ready to get the fire lit. Place a couple of starter cubes in the slot that sits right beneath the charcoal chamber.

This allows it to function like a chimney starter. For ignition and cooking on this grill, make sure to remove these air intake slides. This allows the fan to force the hot air from the charcoal chamber into the grill, and regulate the temperature that way.

Once the coal has started to catch, you can shut both hopper doors and dial in your target temperature, which for today will be of two hundred and fifty degrees. This is of course why it’s called a reverse sear, you want to start low and finish high.

While your grill preheats, go ahead and season the steak with some kosher salt and black pepper. With a thick steak like this, you wanna be pretty generous with the seasonings, pat in a nice crust to all sides.

The beauty of the reverse sear method is that it drives a lot of the excess moisture off of the exterior of the steak, which would take a ton of energy during our sear process and cause a fairly large temperature gradient to the steak. And at the end of the day - the other thing is it really just gives you a whole lot more overall control over the doneness temperature of your steak. Once seasoned, coat the steak with some high temperature oil - because of course we will be searing the steak after we smoke it.

Coconut oil, avocado oil, grapeseed oil all excellent choices for this. Once the grill is cruising at 250F, I like to use the upper rack for the low temp portion of the cook - this just gives the rising heat more space to evenly disperse before actually hopping on to our steak. You’ll want to use a meat probe to keep an eye on the internal temperature.

I like my steak on the rare side, so I’ll be cooking to hit the 100F internal temperature. If you like your steak cooked closer to medium, no problem - just let it smoke until it hits about 110F - maybe 115F degrees. This steak took about 45 minutes to hit 100 degree internal temperature.

I wanted to give myself a generous window of sear time - because with this masterbuilt gravity series - what you’ll have to do is sear with the lid down. That’s because the fan that stokes the fire is actually designed to kick off when the lid is up - that way you avoid any unpredictable airflow.

So you can count on the steak’s internal temperature to rise quicker during the sear process, because the lid will be down in between turns. You’ll want to set the steak aside and preheat the grill for searing temperature of 700F degrees. Before the steak hits the grill again, I like to make sure both sides still have a nice coating of oil, simply because oil transfers heat better than surface moisture would. Once the grill is preheated to 700F, it’s time to put a sear on that steak.

You’ll want to sear for a 45 seconds to a minute with the lid down - before cross hatching. Not only is the frenched bone on a tomahawk eye catching - it also serves as a nice handle to grab when you need to turn the steak - just remember to put on some high heat gloves! After a total of 2 minutes on the first side, the steak should be ready to flip.

I’m really impressed by the heat that this thing cranks out- especially when you think about all of that heat coming from the offset side of the firebox - the fan did a great job of blowing enough heat into the cooking chamber for a really nice sear. Same thing on the second side, after a minute of searing with the lid down, it’s time for the final crosshatch.

And after 2 minutes on the second side, you can check the internal temperature with an instant read thermometer - you’re looking for 125F for rare or around 135F for medium. Check out that sear - beautiful! As with any meat you cook - you’ll want to let the steak rest at least 5 minutes before slicing to allow the juices to redistribute.

I like to run my knife down the bone and remove it to make slicing a whole lot easier. I think you’ll find it slides through like butter.. Make sure you slice the steak across the grain like usual - for the absolute most tender cut. This steak came out super tender and juicy - it’s hard to beat the results of a reverse sear with a thick cut like this.

Now as aside, I’ve been reading up on the wonders of this gravity smoker and was really wondering if it was reality or just hype. With each slice of this tomahawk, I’m feeling more assured that it’s a fact.

As far as the taste of that tomahawk itself. Well my vocabulary is just not large enough to describe. But I will take a stab at it - it’s deliciously Awesome Phenomenal Beef candy. That should just about suffice I think, yeah. I hope you guys will give this a shot - and definitely let us know what you’d like to see next.. Cheers!

1 note · View note