On cast iron

For Christmas I got a cast iron skillet to go on my green egg. I’ve been meaning to get one, so that was a nice present. One of the big reasons is that I wanted to see how much yummy crust (i.e. Maillard Reaction ), I could get for meat. My, very well raised, daughter asked for steak (and fixings) for dinner for her birthday. So, I tested it.

The result? The best steak I’ve ever cooked. Here’s how:

  1. Get some good prime steak
  2. Get the steak to room temp ahead of the cook (2hrs or so)
  3. Salt and pepper to taste
  4. Put the cast iron over a direct heat and set the temp to be about 500 or so on the egg. The cast iron will be much hotter. Check out the thermometer reading in the picture. It read 640F
  5. After the egg is stabilized, put a generous amount of oil on the flat side of the cast iron. I used a little over a tablespoon. I also used avocado oil which has a very high smoke temp
  6. Put the steaks on and don’t touch them for about 2 minutes.
  7. Check the underneath real quick and make sure you have that real good sear
  8. If you have the real nice crusty sear, flip it over. If not wait at most one more minute and then flip over.
  9. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. I didn’t get the same sear level, but it was close. It’s really easy to over cook, so I erred on the side of having one side super presentable and the other almost as good. Turns out that was the right choice.
  10. Let rest for about 10 to 15 minutes
  11. Eat the best steak you’ve ever had (or so my very biased, but also very educated family says).
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