Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of one of our dearest friends. Earlier in the week, we told her we would prepare whatever she liked, and on Friday, asked for the "Big Meat", the name we gave to a massive bone-in ribeye at a restaurant we all used to frequent years ago.
I decided I wanted to try Adam Perry Lang's prep and cooking technique that the video for this forum won't seem to allow me to post, but if you do a Google search for "Rooftop Grilling with Adam Perry Lang", you'll see the exact video I'm referring to. Watch the video first, before you proceed with the rest of my post, if you would.
For convenience, I decided to go with a boneless roast, and happened to find a fine USDA Prime specimen that weighed in at just under 3 lbs:
I then took a heavy wooden rolling pin and proceeded to give it a first class pounding. I was surprised at how quickly it flattened from a nearly four inch thick roast to about 2.5 inches thick. After that, I applied a wet rub of olive oil, lots of fresh garlic, a bit of fresh rosemary, dijon mustard, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper. Here it is with the wet rub fully applied:
The meat went into a sealable plastic bag so the wet rub would work its magic.
Later that day, we headed over to our friends place with meat and party favors in hand. The only charcoal grill they have is a Weber OTS, which would be more than adequate for how I planned to cook this beast.
The first thing I did when I got there was to season the meat. I used a compound rub consisting of the following, applied in order:
Lawry's seasoned salt
Oakridge Carne Crosta
Cattleman's Coffee Steak rub
I like the flavor profile of these for large cuts of beef. They also help give the meat a wonderful, savory "crust" at the end when the meat gets seared direct over hot coals. Here it is fully coated and seasoned:
I let the meat sit for about an hour so the rub would set, then fired up a large chimney starter full of coals. When the coals were ready, I dumped them over some leftover coals off to one side for an indirect setup:
The only smoking wood they had was hickory, so added a nice piece of the hickory and put the meat on:
At that point, I put the lid on the kettle and sat back to enjoy a cold one. About 15 minutes later I flipped the meat:
Another 30 or so minutes later, this is how it looked:
When the beef was reading about 125 or so, I moved it over to the hot side of the grill so I could put a nice sear on both sides:
Here it is after I pulled it:
I let it rest for about 10 minutes before carving. I didn't take any further pics as there was a lot going on, but given the fact that I was working with a knife that was compromised due to lack of a working edge, and really had to work it with a sharpening steel, the meat cut like warm butter. I cut it into thin slices and dinner was served. It was off the charts, and probably one of the finest beef I've ever consumed - it was almost melt-in-your mouth, it was so tender. Everyone else agreed, so I'm going to do this again soon.
A couple of thoughts:
I obviously deviated from APL with the kind of seasoning I used, as well as the fact that I didn't use an herb brush or serve the beef with a board sauce. I'm not completely sold on the latter two techniques, though at some point, I should probably give them a try just to see what I think. What intrigued me most was his technique of pounding the meat which flattens it out, which increases the surface area of the meat. This clearly helped the fat render much more easily, not to mention the tenderization resulting from the pounding, so I'm a total believer in this now.
I didn't have the time or bandwidth to document this cook with my DSLR, hence the just ok Iphone pictures, but I will definitely do that next time for sure.
I decided I wanted to try Adam Perry Lang's prep and cooking technique that the video for this forum won't seem to allow me to post, but if you do a Google search for "Rooftop Grilling with Adam Perry Lang", you'll see the exact video I'm referring to. Watch the video first, before you proceed with the rest of my post, if you would.
For convenience, I decided to go with a boneless roast, and happened to find a fine USDA Prime specimen that weighed in at just under 3 lbs:
I then took a heavy wooden rolling pin and proceeded to give it a first class pounding. I was surprised at how quickly it flattened from a nearly four inch thick roast to about 2.5 inches thick. After that, I applied a wet rub of olive oil, lots of fresh garlic, a bit of fresh rosemary, dijon mustard, sea salt, and fresh cracked pepper. Here it is with the wet rub fully applied:
The meat went into a sealable plastic bag so the wet rub would work its magic.
Later that day, we headed over to our friends place with meat and party favors in hand. The only charcoal grill they have is a Weber OTS, which would be more than adequate for how I planned to cook this beast.
The first thing I did when I got there was to season the meat. I used a compound rub consisting of the following, applied in order:
Lawry's seasoned salt
Oakridge Carne Crosta
Cattleman's Coffee Steak rub
I like the flavor profile of these for large cuts of beef. They also help give the meat a wonderful, savory "crust" at the end when the meat gets seared direct over hot coals. Here it is fully coated and seasoned:
I let the meat sit for about an hour so the rub would set, then fired up a large chimney starter full of coals. When the coals were ready, I dumped them over some leftover coals off to one side for an indirect setup:
The only smoking wood they had was hickory, so added a nice piece of the hickory and put the meat on:
At that point, I put the lid on the kettle and sat back to enjoy a cold one. About 15 minutes later I flipped the meat:
Another 30 or so minutes later, this is how it looked:
When the beef was reading about 125 or so, I moved it over to the hot side of the grill so I could put a nice sear on both sides:
Here it is after I pulled it:
I let it rest for about 10 minutes before carving. I didn't take any further pics as there was a lot going on, but given the fact that I was working with a knife that was compromised due to lack of a working edge, and really had to work it with a sharpening steel, the meat cut like warm butter. I cut it into thin slices and dinner was served. It was off the charts, and probably one of the finest beef I've ever consumed - it was almost melt-in-your mouth, it was so tender. Everyone else agreed, so I'm going to do this again soon.
A couple of thoughts:
I obviously deviated from APL with the kind of seasoning I used, as well as the fact that I didn't use an herb brush or serve the beef with a board sauce. I'm not completely sold on the latter two techniques, though at some point, I should probably give them a try just to see what I think. What intrigued me most was his technique of pounding the meat which flattens it out, which increases the surface area of the meat. This clearly helped the fat render much more easily, not to mention the tenderization resulting from the pounding, so I'm a total believer in this now.
I didn't have the time or bandwidth to document this cook with my DSLR, hence the just ok Iphone pictures, but I will definitely do that next time for sure.
