Author Topic: Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking  (Read 1692 times)

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Offline Old Dave

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Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking
« Reply #-1 on: February 23, 2017, 04:32:17 PM »
I did this cook today in my Weber Gen 2 Performer Kettle in another one of those middle of the Winter warm and wonderful Spring like days. I think it’s our third day at about 70 degrees.



Trimmed up a couple of steaks that weighed about one pound each and were about 1-1/8” thick and applied two different competition rubs. The top steak has a rub with dill seed in it and is my wife’s favorite and the bottom steak is my favorite and has a little heat in it. Both are very good rubs for competition steaks.



I moved the Slow ‘N Sear as far to the middle of the cooker as it would go and then foiled each side of the unit to force all the intake air up thru the center of the accessory for maximum air flow and heat. I filled a Weber chimney full of all Kingsford Professional  all hardwood charcoal briquets for this cook and lit if off for this cook. I would rather use all lump but I think that SCA and Kingsford will team up again this year and offer the additional “double your contest purse” if you win and I sure can’t pass on this great offer.



My tools for this cook. I decided to try two different methods of cooking the steak in the Weber Kettle to see which one might be the best for the setups I had on hand.



I did the first steak on my standard size Grill Grates after a 15 minute warm up (to 625 degrees) and this took a total of 10 minutes to get it seared up and looking good.



After the first steak was done, I setup the kettle with my cast iron steak grid setup and let it warm up for about 20-25 minutes to my cooking temp of about 500 degrees and this steak took about a minute less to get to my pulling temp of about 136-138 degrees for that perfect finish temp of medium that the SCA rules call for.



You know...I think both of them looked great and would be competitive in a contest.





Both steaks in the presentation box and ready for turn-in.





The results of the cook looked about right on the doneness of warm and pink in the center (medium) and my sear marks on both steaks came out well. For ease of cooking, I thought the steak on the cast iron grid was the easiest to cook. I also found out that I could have used much less fuel (maybe 2/3rd chimney of charcoal) for this type of cook.

I sure feel that a fellow could do quite well with either of these setups and method for cooking a competitive steak in a SCA contest with the Weber Kettle and the Slow ‘N Sear accessory.
Old Dave
Ribs & Bibs Competition Cooking Team

3 Backwoods--3 Big Green Eggs--2 Char-Broils
1 Cobb--1 Original Fast Eddy Pellet Cooker
1 Traeger & 2 Green Mountain Pellet Cookers
1 Genuswine Rotisserie Smoker--2 Hasty Bakes
1 Orion Cooker--6 Webers--Several Homebuilts

Offline abcbarbecue

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Re: Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking
« on: February 24, 2017, 10:39:03 AM »
Dave this is an awesome post.  I'm learning a lot about SCA techniques here.  I'll throw out a couple thoughts and would like to see what others have to say as well as you.

In my experience you don't need to worry with directing airflow, the SnS will get GGs or Cast iron OVER 1,000 F pretty easily just in the corner.  Maybe a Drip 'N Griddle pan would be good though since most folks doing this would have one anyways.  But I wouldn't buy it just for this feature... The SnS really will get the heat up over 1,000 F all by itself with no foil or pan, which means you should be able to hit any searing temp you want.  I say that because everyone I've spoken to sears in the 600 F to 800 F range. 

Once you figure out the right amount of charcoal you can keep the custom GGs we sale at a constant searing temp for a loooooooooong time.  The efficiency of the SnS really kicks in.  We were at the world championship last year (sponsoring a competitor).  They were doing a steak taste test for the crowd.  The guy we were sponsoring likes his grates at 800 F.  We had them at that temp for 90 minutes and the temps held rock solid with very few adjustments from us.  We got through making the demo steaks and the heat was still 800 F...  Left the grill for a half hour while talking to folks... came back to check on it and the grate was still 800 F.  You don't really need to hold temps that long for a steak competition but it's nice to know you can.

While we were there we also noticed a lot of folks cutting out all of the intermuscular fat and then using butcher string to keep the steak together.  Curious who thinks that's a good or bad idea for a steak competition.



Dave - Any chance you'll PM me your secret rubs? LOL

Offline muebe

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Re: Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking
« Reply #1 on: February 24, 2017, 03:52:43 PM »
That steak looks soooo good Dave!
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Offline skidog

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Re: Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking
« Reply #2 on: February 24, 2017, 04:34:01 PM »
Both those steaks look excellent. I like that cast iron steak grid.
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Offline Old Dave

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Re: Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking
« Reply #3 on: February 25, 2017, 04:28:42 AM »



While we were there we also noticed a lot of folks cutting out all of the intermuscular fat and then using butcher string to keep the steak together.  Curious who thinks that's a good or bad idea for a steak competition.

Hello Dave,

I would like to comment on your picture first and then get to the balance of your post.

I don’t think a fellow would ever get a piece of steak that looks that lousy at any SCA competition event. In fact, I think the picture is of a chuck steak and not a ribeye. As far as cutting out the fat and stringing it would break the marking rule. Even if you strung it for cooking and then presented it without the string, you would have a very messed up presentation in your box. It would be falling apart. The rules also state that you can only “lightly”  trim a steak before cooking.

In my experience you don't need to worry with directing airflow, the SnS will get GGs or Cast iron OVER 1,000 F pretty easily just in the corner.  Maybe a Drip 'N Griddle pan would be good though since most folks doing this would have one anyways.  But I wouldn't buy it just for this feature... The SnS really will get the heat up over 1,000 F all by itself with no foil or pan, which means you should be able to hit any searing temp you want.  I say that because everyone I've spoken to sears in the 600 F to 800 F range. 

Most of the folks I know and cook with use temperatures quite a bit lower than your experience. I have one friend that is a very good steak cook that cooks at 375 degrees. I really don’t know of anyone that cooks at over 700 degrees but I am sure they are out there. As for cooking in the corner, this old fellow needs all the room he can get and wants his working area right in the middle of the cooker. I also work from both sides of the kettle for my steak cooking.

There is a very fine line between a sear mark and a char or burnt mark on a steak. A char mark if there is enough of them will completely change the flavor or even ruin a competition steak. A fellow just wants to put a light sear marks on his steak and these shouldn’t go over a dark brown color. If they are black, the steak is burnt.

This brings us to using Grill Grates...at about 625 degrees on the cooking surface, the maximum time your steak can be stationary on the Grill Grates without charring or burning is 2-1/2 minutes. At this time, it must be turned or moved. In a perfect world, the steak should be turned about 110 degrees and placed back on the grates on a clean spot that is not being used for the first placement on the grates. With your setup and the small amount of cooking space, a fellow would need to be sure and wipe off and re-oil the area of the first placement when you made this first turn so that when you do turn the steak over, you would again have a clean and oiled cooking area.

Once you figure out the right amount of charcoal you can keep the custom GGs we sale at a constant searing temp for a loooooooooong time.  The efficiency of the SnS really kicks in.  We were at the world championship last year (sponsoring a competitor).  They were doing a steak taste test for the crowd.  The guy we were sponsoring likes his grates at 800 F.  We had them at that temp for 90 minutes and the temps held rock solid with very few adjustments from us.  We got through making the demo steaks and the heat was still 800 F...  Left the grill for a half hour while talking to folks... came back to check on it and the grate was still 800 F.  You don't really need to hold temps that long for a steak competition but it's nice to know you can.

I like to have about 40 minutes at my steak cooking temperature and I can do a pretty good job with my competition steak.

 
Old Dave
Ribs & Bibs Competition Cooking Team

3 Backwoods--3 Big Green Eggs--2 Char-Broils
1 Cobb--1 Original Fast Eddy Pellet Cooker
1 Traeger & 2 Green Mountain Pellet Cookers
1 Genuswine Rotisserie Smoker--2 Hasty Bakes
1 Orion Cooker--6 Webers--Several Homebuilts

Offline abcbarbecue

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Re: Slow 'N Sear / SCA Competition Steak Cooking
« Reply #4 on: February 25, 2017, 07:58:56 AM »
The steak picture was just there to describe intra and intermuscular.