We had a family BBQ over the weekend. Dad recently got one of those new BBQ's, all stainless steel, with self-igniting burners etc.
Its an absolute joy to cook on. We've been experimenting in recent weeks and BBQ's with the cooking of perfect steak. Now Dad, is a recent convert to medium-rare steak, he used to be pretty strict on the old well-done slab of meat.
We've actually been using a few tools to help us achieve a perfect (or near perfect) result.
- A small digitial timer
- A meat thermometer
The meat thermometer, we use to check the temperature of the inside of the meat - its got a special temperature range for steak/beef.
The digital thermometer is used to keep track of our time between turns.
OK, so we use the grill part of the BBQ, turning 2 burners on. Close the hood of the BBQ, and turn the burners to full-heat. Leave the hood closed for approx 5-7 minutes, the temperature inside the hood as well as thr grill rungs should be nice and hot by this time.
Now, open the hood and reduce the heat to a medium setting, now place the steaks carefully on the grill, close the hood.
Set your timer for 2 minutes. When the 2 minutes is up, open the hood and carefully turn the steaks, close the hood and set the timer for a second 2 minutes.
Depending on the thickness and cut of your steak, this should result in a perfect medium-rare cook. If you prefer a little more well-done, as some female family members do, we left these steaks on for an additional 1-2 minutes. We ttested this with rump steak, T-bone, sirloin about 1-2cm's thick.
Its important, to keep turning to a minimum, unless you want a really well-done steak without the juicyness of medium, medium-rare, medium-well.
