For my family's Christmas dinner this year, everyone requested ribeye steaks. There will be six of us. And while I'm comfortable cooking a couple steaks for my wife and I, I've never done six before.
I plan to slow smoke the steaks on my WSM 22, but how do I sear six steaks at once?
When I cook a couple for my wife and I, I usually use a charcoal chimney or an iron skillet. But since I'm doing six at once, I though about using my Blackstone 22" griddle for searing.
Is the Blackstone big enough for you to rotate positions. You could even sear one side, pull them off to allow the BS to recover, and sear the other side.
If you are smoking them first, the sear should only take a 1-2 minutes. No reason you couldn’t do it in two shifts without any impact (can’t comment on the Blackstone). I like to rest my steaks off the smoke on a wire rack for a few minutes pre-sear as an extra precaution against over cooking anyway.
Can always pour some hot butter on top of the steaks as you serve them to re-heat/crisp the first batch of seared steaks (fat flash) if you are concerned about the timing
I did about 10 -2 inch thick new Yorks reverse seared B and B charchoal and post oak chunks all at the same time.
Its a circus but they raved about them.
Sns kettle.
Last edited by PNWsmoke; December 7, 2022, 05:50 PM.
Reason: @Allon like this
Load the kettle up and let her burn. If you have two chimneys get them both rolling, dump them in, let her sit a bit with the bottom vents wide open and Bobs your uncle. If you only have one chimney then lay a bed of unlit charcoal in the bottom, pour the lit chimney over them and leave it wide open for 10 mins or so and do the deed.
I think the Blackstone should do a fine job of searing those steaks after indirect cooking with charcoal! After a sous-vide cook of steaks for a bunch of folks a few years back, I seared them all on the flats of grillgrates on my Weber gas grill, and everyone was happy. Did them all at 131, then flipped on the gas grill until they were at each persons desired doneness. It was quick. That was before I had my Camp Chef flat top. Today I would do that on the flat top for sure. Just get it to 400F or so, and I am wondering if you need to oil to prevent sticking?
Like CHNeal said, load up the kettle and sear them on that. A couple chimneys of charcoal should give you plenty of heat to sear 6 ribeyes. Flip them often and move them around a bit in case there are any super hot spots or cooler spots near the edges but it should easily do the trick.
The Blackstone won't have any trouble with that. It'll literally take like 3 minutes. Get it 450 or so, then 10 seconds before you throw your steaks on, crank the burners. Throw 'em on, put a weight on them or press flatten them lightly. Give them 30 seconds. Then, flip them all, do the same for about 45-60 seconds. Done.
The crust you get is amazing. If you want to throw down some butter or oil, this works great, though butter will begin to smoke and burn above 400. Using a little canola or avocado oil at those temps is probably a little better.
<edit> I should add, you won't drop the temp of your griddle top significantly, even with 6 steaks, because these are already up to temp. They're not cold meat, they're warm meat. I would pull them a little earlier than you think you should, if you want MR on a steak, pull it at -118-120 or so before this sear method. If you want medium, pull at 125, for MW, pull at 135-137 and then sear.
For well done, it doesn't matter, just throw it in the trash anyways.
I'm with CHNeal and JoeSousa - fire up that kettle and let it rip. Best searing tool there is. And you can easily fit 6 steaks on it with room to spare.
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