Advice on cooking double thick cowboy steak

[BBQPhil]

Ordered 5 pound double thick cowboy steak with bone-in from SRF when it was on sale recently: Should I cook like a prime rib roast (350 degree on pellet grill) and then sear all around? Or is there a better technique?

[Steve R.]

Do you have a sous vide device? That would be great for this application.

[Steve B]

That thick of a cut I always go more in the neighborhood of 225* until an IT of around 135* than sear it off. Which is how I cook a prime rib.

[SheilaAnn]

BBQPhil if you do sous vide, wrap the bone area with plastic wrap, not bone paper. Bone paper is gross is sous vide. The plastic won’t melt and it will prevent a possible puncture. If no sous vide, reverse sear. Says me.

and +1 what SteveB said

[SheilaAnn]

I realize I read and responded too quickly. Whenever I do a thicker cut, I go to 120-125 and thus saving room for the searing portion of our program. I agree with SteveB about 225*F grill/smoker.

[hoovarmin]

SheilaAnn Steve B Just curious, cause I've been asked to cook one similar to the one BBQ PHIL is going to cook, why 135 and not a lower temp to stay in the med rare range?

[Donw]

Good question. I thought the same too. I start searing at a lower temp so I can glide into the medium rare range.

[Steve B]

hoovarmin and Donw I have found with a cut this thick when you sear it, which I don’t sear to get a heavy crust so it’s a quick sear, the IT doesn’t seem to get affected very much. Meaning there’s not a lot of carry over temp to work it’s way into the center.

[Old Glory]

I like to reverse sear on pellet grill @225 to 118-120 then sear. My target finished temp is 130-135.

I always worry about carry over so I pull before my finished target temp.

[Donw]

To each their own but I’m still with Old Glory. Even forgetting any searing that 135 internal is still going to carry on cooking even if it is just sitting on the counter, and then there is that pesky 1st Law of Thermodynamics to contend with. Whatever, it will be delicious.

[Old Glory]

Steve B For thinner steaks I tend to flip, flip, flip over direct heat. For thicker steaks 2-4 inches I reverse sear. For roasts I use a higher heat and just roast at 350. There is more than one way to do things do what works for you.

[Steve B]

Absolutely Old Glory Don’t fix what ain’t broke.

[bmillin]

Maybe take it up to your desired IT, Then let it cool off a bit before searing?

[FireMan]

I’ve been experimenting with a “front” sear & flippin & flippin & flippin. I salt em just before cookin, wanting no brining effect. Then, somewhere in my final flips I pepper em.
PS. Right over hot coals or a hot CI skillet. No lo n’ slo fer me. This here is a steak & a cowboy one at that. So eat it like a cowboy not a family roast, fine dining style I say, yessir.

[texastweeter]

Extra rare too. I knew you had good taste

[shify]

Yup - agree with your thought that treating it like a prime rib and reverse searing on your preferred device is a great approach.

I would aim for a lower cook of around 250-275 but if you have had success at 350, go for it. As far as the final sear, that steak is pretty thick thick so I would cook to your final temp and go ahead with the sear. A ~2 min sear would not really impact the final internal temp of a steak that thick

[hoovarmin]

Seems like maybe we are comparing apples and oranges just a bit. There's a big difference between bringing a hunk of meat to temp in a sous vide and in an oven (grill). My understanding is that you are not going to have carry over from sous vide, but you will with an oven or grill. Is my understanding incorrect?

[DaveD]

That's how I reckon it is too. With sous vide you go to exactly target temp, and not one bit more. The amount of heat available is only enough to bring it to target, whereas an oven will have a lot more available.

[shify]

No carry over in a SV as you are cooking at your final temp, so nowhere to go.
Whereas in an oven/grill you are cooking at a much higher temp, so the outside is hotter than the inside and that results in carry over effect.

Edit: This is the same reason why if you reverse sear at a low temp, you also don't have a lot of carryover cooking compared to blasting it in a hot oven

[Steve B]

BBQPhil Curious. Did you cook that steak yet? And how did you cook it? How did it turn out?

[BBQPhil]

Haven't yet. I'm in the "thinking about it stage!" I love prime ribs\, so I think I'll start it out on my Yoder at 250F until the interior is about 130-135 and then sear it over hardwood coals. Trying to do ot as a steak seems risky to get the interior uniformly cooked. And SousVide would be the first time for such a large piece of meat and too risky. Anyway, that's my cirrent thinking based on all of the helpful comments.

[BBQPhil]

Thanks for all the great advice. I decided to cook this double thick cowboy steak this evening using my BGE with its deflector at 350F and using Jealous Devil hardwood. I used 2 probes and a FireBoard to measure the center and one-third in. Cooked to 125F center probe and 115F other probe. (My wife likes medium/I like medium rare). Took 2 3/4 hrs. Then opened all vents to raise the temperature and cooked for another 5-7 minues to singe the outside as the flames licked all around the roast. Let sit 15 minutes. Roast was seasoned with salt and Carne Crosta. Results were excellent. Tasted just like a prime rib with some smokey flavoring.

[SheilaAnn]

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

[jfmorris]

Looks great! And, I was gonna say, this looks just like the prime ribs on sale at Publix, except the bones stick out a little further. That was a roast, not a steak in other words!

[Jerod Broussard]

They might as well just call that a "Bone-In Prime Rib ROAST."

[BBQPhil]

That's exactly what I was thinking.