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Cooking meat outdoors

How should meat be cooked outdoors?


  • Total voters
    45

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Winter and rain wont stop me from braaing on the stoep on sundays, only a few added charge office coffees needed to stuck it out in the cold.

Braai1-2.jpg
 

BPC

Phil Hardcastle (33)
Went for the suckling pig option after my youngest daughter's baptism. Didn't get a photograph but best pork I have ever had. My older daughter, when she first saw the spit, asked whether we were cooking a cat. She later assisted by dragging a chair outside and "supervising" the cooking.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
Recently did a whole slab of pork belly on the BBQ. Rub down with olive oil and salt, then cook with the lid closed for an hour. It was unbelievably good.
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
Paarl, I have a BBQ with a hood on it. When cooking stuff like pork belly, I close the hood (lid) on it and keep the heat in. It's roasting the meat, rather than cooking by contact. Convective heat transfer ;)
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Paarl, I have a BBQ with a hood on it. When cooking stuff like pork belly, I close the hood (lid) on it and keep the heat in. It's roasting the meat, rather than cooking by contact. Convective heat transfer ;)
Next time you put piccies up Boet, want to see that! My fire is way to hot hoods. What wood do you use for this?
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
We could start a whole new thread on the merits of charcoal/wood /gas. :)

Sent from my XT910 using Tapatalk 2
Suppose thats what started this great thread. Gas braaiing is just way to expensive for myself. For me nothing beats a good old fire, not for the braaiing as such, more for the whole ritual of starting it, clean burn the grill, braaiing and the time it give to relax and mix a charge office coffee to go with it all.
 

Sandpit Fan

Nev Cottrell (35)
Suppose thats what started this great thread. Gas braaiing is just way to expensive for myself. For me nothing beats a good old fire, not for the braaiing as such, more for the whole ritual of starting it, clean burn the grill, braaiing and the time it give to relax and mix a charge office coffee to go with it all.

Got that right mate. My only change is beer for the charge office coffees.

Sent from my XT910 using Tapatalk 2
 

The_Brown_Hornet

John Eales (66)
Love a good wood fire, but for the kind of thing I'm describing I like to have a bit of temperature regulation. Gas I find easier for that purpose.

If I'm cooking some steak or snags, then open pit with wood fuel is all good. I did get to experience a good old Saffer braai when I was visiting Jo'burg recently. Friday arvos at our office has a tradition of a few snags and some lager with which to wash it down. It was great fun and the young blokes who put it on are really good lads.
 

stoff

Bill McLean (32)
I have been looking at Weber One-Touch' and their cheaper equivalent's lately. Can anyone tell me what the advantage of the deeper shape of the traditional Weber is over the cheaper versions available?
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
South Africa had national BRAAI day yesterday. Being South African is big as you'd get I started my holiday celebrations on sunday and did it the traditional Boer way in the rain on sunday with lamb chops and ribs.
SAM_0105.jpg


Decided yesterday that I should go the Rainbow Nation way and braai some curry chicken sosaties, pork with peppers and onion sosaties, pork cheese wors, spare rib and chicken wings and leggies (for the Xpats)

SAM_0114.jpg


Ready for the table

SAM_0115.jpg
 

Mank

Ted Thorn (20)
Opinions on butter v oil when cooking steak in a heavy pan?

I've tended to put a few drops of oil on then a knob of butter so that the butter doesnt burn. They cook the steak on it?

Ok, I know this isn't directly on topic of outdoors cooking but since you asked, I've settled on my ideal way of cooking a steak on a pan when stuck indoors. Best ones I've done are cut a least one inch thick ribeye. The reason I prefer ribeye is obviously the marbled fat content, it makes it very hard to go wrong for an amateur cook and is incredibly flavoursome. You also get two cuts of meat on one steak.

I try to make sure I air the steak for as long as possible before hand. I have also come to realise that the old adage of not seasoning early in case you take moisture out of a steak is completely wrong. You want the moisture out, because you don't want to be stewing your steak. So I season with braai salt (which is just a bottle of course salt with some typical South African spices in, couldn't tell you offhand what), and then sometimes I'll experiment. Crushed fresh rosemary and garlic has worked well for me. Anyway, the salt seems to draw moisture to the surface and I keep dabbing it down with an absorbent paper towel. I may season a bit more near the end.

Once ready for cooking, I turn on an oven to about 120C. In the oven I put a medium sized metal lidded container. Then I heat a thick base griddle pan to as hot as I can over the gas stove. Once hot enough, I put a bit of olive oil, and a dollop of butter. It'll melt in 10 seconds, and then I put the steaks in. Cooking time totally depends on thickness, but I like a charred outside so that's why thicker is better. 1 - 2 minutes on each side (I lean towards 1 minute as long as I get enough heat) to properly char the outside. I then pour the contents of the pan - the steak, the butter sauce - into the metal container that was heating in the oven. I add another dollop of butter into the container, cover, and put back into the oven. Leave it for 2-3 minutes to slowly cook a bit more, then take out and rest for another few minutes. The reason for this slow cooking is that I like a rare steak, but I don't like it to be cold inside, and just grilling for a short time often leaves the interior of the steak cold, whereas the oven will warm through without over cooking. The butter sauce collected with the seasoning in the bottom of the container is perfect for a drizzle over the steak.

This seems to get me to my perfect rare/medium rare steaks. The timings of the cooking totally depends on how I feel like eating the steak. The combination of resting, seasoning beforehand, drawing out moisture, charring then slow cooking all work to give me a steak tasting as good or better than any I can get at a restaurant.
 

Torn Hammy

Johnnie Wallace (23)
Ok, I know this isn't directly on topic of outdoors cooking but since you asked, I've settled on my ideal way of cooking a steak on a pan when stuck indoors. Best ones I've done are cut a least one inch thick ribeye. The reason I prefer ribeye is obviously the marbled fat content, it makes it very hard to go wrong for an amateur cook and is incredibly flavoursome. You also get two cuts of meat on one steak.

I try to make sure I air the steak for as long as possible before hand. I have also come to realise that the old adage of not seasoning early in case you take moisture out of a steak is completely wrong. You want the moisture out, because you don't want to be stewing your steak. So I season with braai salt (which is just a bottle of course salt with some typical South African spices in, couldn't tell you offhand what), and then sometimes I'll experiment. Crushed fresh rosemary and garlic has worked well for me. Anyway, the salt seems to draw moisture to the surface and I keep dabbing it down with an absorbent paper towel. I may season a bit more near the end.

Once ready for cooking, I turn on an oven to about 120C. In the oven I put a medium sized metal lidded container. Then I heat a thick base griddle pan to as hot as I can over the gas stove. Once hot enough, I put a bit of olive oil, and a dollop of butter. It'll melt in 10 seconds, and then I put the steaks in. Cooking time totally depends on thickness, but I like a charred outside so that's why thicker is better. 1 - 2 minutes on each side (I lean towards 1 minute as long as I get enough heat) to properly char the outside. I then pour the contents of the pan - the steak, the butter sauce - into the metal container that was heating in the oven. I add another dollop of butter into the container, cover, and put back into the oven. Leave it for 2-3 minutes to slowly cook a bit more, then take out and rest for another few minutes. The reason for this slow cooking is that I like a rare steak, but I don't like it to be cold inside, and just grilling for a short time often leaves the interior of the steak cold, whereas the oven will warm through without over cooking. The butter sauce collected with the seasoning in the bottom of the container is perfect for a drizzle over the steak.

This seems to get me to my perfect rare/medium rare steaks. The timings of the cooking totally depends on how I feel like eating the steak. The combination of resting, seasoning beforehand, drawing out moisture, charring then slow cooking all work to give me a steak tasting as good or better than any I can get at a restaurant.


The cooking process takes out up to 25% of the moisture in your steak, so I don't understand your desire to draw out more prior to cooking. Stewing and not searing is a function of the temperature of the pan you place the meat in and the amount of liquid oil or butter used.

By placing the butter and oil on your griddle you get an immediate drop in surface temperature and then when you add the meat another drop in temperature and therefore more stewing and less searing going on.

My method is to melt some butter in the microwave. No oil because I want my meat to brown quickly and butter has a much lower burning temperature than oil. Once the butter is melted, I then add a generous amount of salt and pepper, and then throw the room temperature meat in this butter coating well. Like you, Mank, I have a very hot dry griddle onto which I throw the butter coated steak. Expect a lot of smoke and steam. The meat will brown and caramelise very quickly and then I throw it in the oven to finish to the required doneness on a plate or tray.

This is also a fantastic way to cook a thicker fillet of fish. In Cajun cooking the taditional 'Blackened Redfish' is cooked on a griddle that has been heated on a high hotplate for 30 minutes. Dipped in butter and about 15 spices the fish is blackened on the white hot griddle for 20-30 seconds on each side and then thrown in the oven for a minuteor two (depending on thicknes). Try it with some Blue Eye Cod, it will be beautifully moist and firm.
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
Ok, I know this isn't directly on topic of outdoors cooking but since you asked, I've settled on my ideal way of cooking a steak on a pan when stuck indoors. Best ones I've done are cut a least one inch thick ribeye. The reason I prefer ribeye is obviously the marbled fat content, it makes it very hard to go wrong for an amateur cook and is incredibly flavoursome. You also get two cuts of meat on one steak.

I try to make sure I air the steak for as long as possible before hand. I have also come to realise that the old adage of not seasoning early in case you take moisture out of a steak is completely wrong. You want the moisture out, because you don't want to be stewing your steak. So I season with braai salt (which is just a bottle of course salt with some typical South African spices in, couldn't tell you offhand what), and then sometimes I'll experiment. Crushed fresh rosemary and garlic has worked well for me. Anyway, the salt seems to draw moisture to the surface and I keep dabbing it down with an absorbent paper towel. I may season a bit more near the end.

Once ready for cooking, I turn on an oven to about 120C. In the oven I put a medium sized metal lidded container. Then I heat a thick base griddle pan to as hot as I can over the gas stove. Once hot enough, I put a bit of olive oil, and a dollop of butter. It'll melt in 10 seconds, and then I put the steaks in. Cooking time totally depends on thickness, but I like a charred outside so that's why thicker is better. 1 - 2 minutes on each side (I lean towards 1 minute as long as I get enough heat) to properly char the outside. I then pour the contents of the pan - the steak, the butter sauce - into the metal container that was heating in the oven. I add another dollop of butter into the container, cover, and put back into the oven. Leave it for 2-3 minutes to slowly cook a bit more, then take out and rest for another few minutes. The reason for this slow cooking is that I like a rare steak, but I don't like it to be cold inside, and just grilling for a short time often leaves the interior of the steak cold, whereas the oven will warm through without over cooking. The butter sauce collected with the seasoning in the bottom of the container is perfect for a drizzle over the steak.

This seems to get me to my perfect rare/medium rare steaks. The timings of the cooking totally depends on how I feel like eating the steak. The combination of resting, seasoning beforehand, drawing out moisture, charring then slow cooking all work to give me a steak tasting as good or better than any I can get at a restaurant.
Boet honestly, TBone is made for braaiing (the closer the bone, the sweeter the meat or in afrikaans "|tussen die bene sit die lekkerste vleis). Just make a fire and braai it. My whole family wont order steak from any steakhouse, they know who can do it best.
 

PaarlBok

Rod McCall (65)
What do yo order at a steakhouse if not steak?
Spare Ribs, Pizza, Chicken Snitzel, Chicken Cordon Blue, Beef and Chicken hamburgers, charge office coffee, Irish coffee, cheese cake with ice cream, crumbed mush rooms, prawns, chicken wings and breasts, exct
 
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