Extra Smokey Steaks?

[jholmgren]

+1 on the paver stones. I keep two of them on my deck, one on either side of my Kamado Joe. Chimney can go on one and if I need to load charcoal, etc. I can grab the grate/heat deflector with my welding gloves and put it safely on the other.

[David Parrish]

OD I suspect he was talking about a gas grill.

[otherdave]

What happened to me, is the juices from the chicken/steak/meat were dripping onto the hot coals, and the coals were smoking like crazy. Also, my heat deflectors were extremely dirty from the leftover juices/oils from previous cooks. When I had the grill hot enough, the heat deflectors were smoking like crazy. It imparted a very distasteful too-smokey of a flavor.

I recommend locating the source of the smoke, and figuring out how to combat that in your next cook. I have to wrap aluminum foil around my heat deflectors so they don't smoke so much. Hopefully you'll get the right solution on the Forum!

scottranda - pardon my ignorance, but what's a heat deflector and what are they used for?

I did have pretty juicy steaks and there was definitely some smoke. Not many flare ups which was nice. I'm guessing the low-n-slow and the juicy searing probably worked together for extreme smoke.

I'm looking forward to cooking with it again this weekend!

[David Parrish]

Galvanized bucket works. A cheap paver stone would work well too and won't be as likely to tip over as your bucket.

[otherdave]

Whoa, thanks so much for all the advice!

David Parrish - I figured it was the low and slow but that was harder to fix than waiting for hotter searing temps

Ernest - I love the idea of a reverse engineered steak

I grill on my back deck and usually light my chimney inside the kettle. If I'm currently low-and-slow'ing a steak, anyone got good tips for lighting that starter? I've used an upturned galvanized bucket in the past and would probably start there unless there's a popular safe method for not lighting the house on fire.

[scottranda]

What happened to me, is the juices from the chicken/steak/meat were dripping onto the hot coals, and the coals were smoking like crazy. Also, my heat deflectors were extremely dirty from the leftover juices/oils from previous cooks. When I had the grill hot enough, the heat deflectors were smoking like crazy. It imparted a very distasteful too-smokey of a flavor.

I recommend locating the source of the smoke, and figuring out how to combat that in your next cook. I have to wrap aluminum foil around my heat deflectors so they don't smoke so much. Hopefully you'll get the right solution on the Forum!

[Ernest]

There's no getting away from lighting a second batch of coals for reverse engineered steak.

[David Parrish]

Welcome Dave! We're glad you're here. I'm 99.9999% sure you got the extra smokey flavor during the low and slow phase of the cook. Unlit charcoal gives off quite a bit of smoke as it lights up. The low and slow directions are really intended for a big hunk of meat that benefits from a whole lot of smoke. For steak I suggest throwing in 20 to 25 briquets into the SnS and getting those lit and ashed over. Cook at 225F. When the steaks reach 80F light your chimney (3/4 full of charcoal). When the steaks hit 115F your chimney charcoal should be ashed over and ready to go. Dump that into the SnS, let it heat up a bit if you like, then sear. Once done searing close the vents and you'll have a lot of charcoal left over for your next cook. In fact, it'll be a lot more charcoal than you had left over using your previous method as the SnS makes very efficient use of the charcoal.

btw I'm with you. I don't like a lot of smoke flavor when it comes to steak.

[otherdave]

Hi All!

I'm new to posting in the AR/Pit forums so I hope this is the right place.

I'm not so new to grilling, but I'm only a year and a half into 2-zone, Amazing Ribs style grilling. I got a Slow n Sear and made ribs (baby back) on it the first few days I had it. They came out amazing and my family agreed that I'm allowed to continue making them

I tried steaks the following week and they were cooked very nicely - good temp (medium & medium-rare) & pink color throughout except for the sear/crust/not-sure-what-to-call-it. However, they had a stronger smokey taste that my usual steaks.

These were NY strips, just over 1" thick. Weber kettle, 22".

My old method: Normal 2-zone cooking as suggested here with a water pan under the steaks. I'd light enough of a chimney, push it to one side and adjust the vents (top wide open, bottom not so much). I'd put the steaks on when the coals were going well and mostly white. This method made some great steaks but the weakest part was the sear. I hated making a second batch of hot coals to put on, so I'd try to pile up the initial coals to get them close to the grate and then sear there. So the steaks were good but the sear was never quite enough unless I prepared more coals.

The recent SnS method: Set it up like the website suggests (light a dozen coals, unlit chimney on top, etc...). I didn't use any wood chunks for this, just the Kingsford briquettes. I got it dialed in to 225 and then put three steaks on. Probably took 25 minutes from there to get to 115 degrees or so. Then I opened up the bottom vents, took the lid off and let the coals get hot. Seared them (which was insanely fun) and served.

The steaks had a smokey flavor that tasted more like charcoal smoke than wood smoke. They were still edible, but it wasn't the flavor I was hoping for.

My (inexperienced) thoughts:

1) The smoke flavor came from the charcoal burning slowly for the half-hour that the steaks were initially cooking due to the unlit coals slowly catching fire etc...

OR 2) they got the smokey flavor during the sear.

When I was getting the coals super-hot for the sear I might not have waiting long enough. The coals got hot starting at the corner where the initial briquettes were and once half of the SnS's coals were hot, I put one steak at a time over the hot section, rotating & moving frequently to get to hotter parts of the grate. Could it be possible that those coals weren't hot enough to sear and I picked up smoke that way since the steaks were very close to the coals?

My plans are to try this again and wait longer before the sear to be sure those coals are entirely crazy hot, but I thought I'd ask the experts here for some advice.

I'm also aware that steaks cooked on a charcoal grill are going to have some smokey flavor (which is desirable) but this was a bit much and definitely not something I'm used to getting.

Thanks for any advice!