Tyrannosaurus T Bone
One the great joys of South African life is the braai (bbq). A convenient complement to that is the fact that beef prices are mouth watering. The monster T bone prepared here cost about £8 whereas in London it would be more than three times that. And so it was with pecuniary delight and sweet nostalgia that my oldest friend, Guy Standley, and I took this beast to the braai. I followed 5 steps: dry age, grill, bake/smoke, rest, serve.
Ingredients:
Steak:
1.5 kg T bone steak (dry aged)
Salt
150g butter
30g rosemary
Anchovy butter sauce:
6 anchovies (tinned or jarred)
200g butter
1 tsp smoked paprika
Lemon juice
Salt
Pepper
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce
Fresh herbs (e.g. parsely, chives, basil, majoram)
1. Dry Age
Supermarket meat often comes wrapped in plastic and ages in the bag (wet ageing). Dry ageing involves resting the meat in a fridge, uncovered or covered in a porous cloth. The dry ageing develops a lovely dark, dry outside and a steak which both tastes and crisps up better than the wet aged steak does. The flavour comes from moisture loss which means the steak is less "watered down" and the bacteria that also tenderise the meat (as with cheese the bacteria add flavour). It's really easy to do. Just open your vacuum packed steak, pat dry with paper towel and leave in a fridge for a couple days to a week (I think you can push this but probably best to do some research before hand).
2. Grill
Take the steak out of the fridge and salt. I follow my brothers method of cooking a steak like this on a Weber. This involves crisping the exterior over a medium / high heat then move the steak to an area of the braai with less heat and baste with butter and rosemary on each side (turning every few minutes). Once basted in this way smoke/bake by closing the lid. The
Crisp the fat
Sear each side
3. Bake, baste & smoke
Apply the butter and rosemary. Flip over and do the same for the other side.
Baste
Once the butter has melted, move the steak to a part of the grill with less coals and cover with the lid (with vent open). Baking helps to cook the meat to the appropriate doneness at a lower temperature.
Bake
This last part will give it a great smokey flavour (add a little wet wood or wood chips to your charcoal for more smoke).
Smoke
The hardest part about cooking steak is gauging doneness. You want the steak to be about as soft as the thumb muscle in your hand when you touch your thumb to your forefinger. Alternatively, tech up and get a meat thermometer. The internal temperature should be 50 (rare), 55 (meduim-rare) or 60 (meduim) degrees Celsius. Anything more than that and you've blown it.
Done?
4. Rest
Rest the meat, covered in tin foil for at least 10 minutes. Why? It keeps the steak juicy. If you slash the steak open straight off the grill the moisture inside will gush out. If you let it rest for 10 minutes or more the temperature falls and the meat fibers can absorb more liquid than they can if they are at a high temperature (when they're more constricted). See this excellent post for further explanation and a test.
After a 10 minute rest
5. Sauce & serve
You don't need sauce. In fact, the steak had a gorgeous smokey flavour without anything and was pleasingly moist. However, I'm partial to anchovies and my desire to try anchovy butter with steak overcame me. Just combine all the ingredients in a blender and sauce away. We served the steak on a roll alongside some beef dripping roast potatoes.
Serve!
