Forced air "grill"

J

joedhiggins

Joined
May 31, 2016
Messages
485
Gents,

I know this is kind of a weird place for this, but I am planning out a built-in grill/smoker in my backyard, and was considering putting an extremely high heat burner into the mix somewhere.

I do a lot of sous vide cooking and generally sear with a big propane torch, but I have noticed that the bigger torch I use the better the sear. Essentially, it seems that to the limit of my ability to test, more heat over a shorter time gives the best results. You achieve that 'perfect' crust while overcooking the thinnest but of underlying meat.

Now, I am probably overthinking this, but I have extra blowers and the like lying around, so my question is, has anyone used a forge burner to sear meat? If so, how were your results? I am hesitant to do it in my forge as I am guessing that the refractories aren't particularly good for human consumption. If I built this burner into the grill, I would probably go with a small overhead burner blowing onto a 1/2" seel plate surface.

Plan would be: light the burner, slide in the meat for 10-20 seconds (or whatever it takes) per side, heat directly from the burner, turn the whole thing off. Not planning on using indirect heat from the steel plate (though I have cooked steak like that in the past and had decent results).

Any thoughts? "You are a dumbass" is perfectly acceptable.
 
The Hilton restaurant in Daytona Beach cooks their steaks in a 1800 deg oven. They are perfect.
 
When I have time, I will probably set up a non permanent version of this with a spare burner and see how well it works. If I get it all up and running in a finalized way, I will post some pics.
 
I cook steak in my heat treating oven occasionally. I would do it more but the wife refuses to partake. This steak had about 3/16" of crust. I havent done it enough to dial it in yet. To the upper left of the steak is a piece of chicken.

z8Eq404.jpg
 
Interesting Idea, I think some of the small smokers are doing searing burners for just this and some of the good steak places use a high output salamander to cook steaks which would be what you are talking about. I do most of my steaks in a smoker at 160 until they are getting close to rare. Then I have my small webber grill full of lump with a cast iron griddle on top and I sear on that at the end. I use way to much charcoal just for a sear and have thought about those infrared burners for a sear. But a steak on a forge ..... mmmm
 
I made a reverse sear plate for my grill. Grill slats on one side and solid plate on the other. It works ok. But now I'm thinking I should just throw a piece of 1" plate on the turkey fryer, get that thing stupid hot, just for searing pre-sous vide.

Between dry aging Umai bags and all the options we have today from sous-vide to smokers steak has never been so good at home. :D I should raise another steer.
 
a variation on the theme. saw a tv cooking show where they heated stone slab in a grill, removed stone to table, then you cook sliced meat as you go. you could heat a 12" square 1" thick piece of granite countertop scrap to 1200F or so without damaging it, cook by the piece or whole steak.
 
When doing Kobe/wagyu I turn the grill to HIGH and let it sit closed for 30 minutes. It gets around 600F. I open quickly, set in the steaks, and close fast. I leave it for 1 minute, flip quickly for 1 more minute, and pull it out to rest for 3-5 minutes. I get perfect rare and it is tender, moist, and full of wagyu butter.

I have done 2.5" thick filet mignon the same way.
If you cook Kobe slower or cooler it will be dry and ruined. The fat is like butter diffused through the meat. It will melt out at 200F, so if you don't have the grill/oven VERY hot to sear the meat shut immediately, it all runs out the bottom and you wasted a $200 steak.

I have to wear HT gauntlets to do the above. I pull the grill off the lower deck and set out in the yard far away from everything flammable. Once, I had it on the deck about 6 feet from the house and the siding partially melted.

For my 70th birthday dinner ( 18 months away) I plan on importing an aged Kobe tenderloin for about $2500. I would butcher it into 3" filets and fix a dinner for six
This will be a once in a lifetime dinner and we will pull out all the stops. My buddy will provide the wines, champagne, and cigars. I will do the meal. It may even get covered by the local news and/or paper.

I have thought of using the HT oven to do it in. Good to hear I am not the only crazy chef around.
 
DanF said:
Beautiful steak, but what's that green stuff?
Click to expand...
What my wife makes me eat.......at least no cauli-rice was portrayed in that pic........

But some onion and jalapeño straws would have been tasty
 
LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top