Cooking a steak...and brats

[Alan L.]

After years of cooking steaks on charcoal I find that I have much better luck on the gas grill. I have a Weber Genesis and if you clean out the drip tray and the "flavor bars", the secret is NO flareups! I turn on all 3 burners full blast to get the grill to 550+ and cook 1" ribeyes about 6:45 total with the lid down. The steaks are really turning out great very tasty, juicy medium rare every time, and with beautiful grill marks. I just never could master cooking them on charcoal, battling flareups, moving them around and flipping them more than once and losing the juice....

Like Hank hill says, taste the meat, not the charcoal.....or something like that.

Tried something else with Johnsonville brats too. Put them in a pan with a bottle of beer, onions, and garlic. Cooked them about 35 minutes on the grill, then took them out and put them on the fire and cooked another 20 minutes or so. Wow, they turned out much juicier and tastier than I have ever turned out either on the grill or the smoker.

Later edited....I found that the beer adds much more flavor when you open and pour the contents in the pan.

 

[whistlepig]

I have a Weber grill and they are nice. I also have a smoker. I smoke my steaks for about an hour with hickory wood then finish them off on the Weber grill. Taste of hickory smoked steaks.

 

[ronjhall]

Your grilling plan for steaks sounds like mine. I added a digital thermometer to my grilling tools last year. Steaks turn out the same every time.

 

[polo1665]

I also love my Weber. From rotisserie chicken to turkey burgers, and everything in between. Biggest secret I learned about grilling a steak is to let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes after grilling.

I also boil my brats in beer and use the grill to add some tasty grill marks. Making me hungry thinking about it:licking:

 

[Bird]

Yep, we like the gas grill and use it most frequently for ribeye steaks. I also used to boil the Johnsonville brats in beer and onions before finishing them on the grill (and then putting them back in the beer until ready to eat). However, my wife quit eating brats, and I now buy fully cooked brats from Fischer's Meat Market and just heat one in the microwave now and then.

 

[LD1]

I prefer charcoal.

But the secret there I have found is to cook them "indirectly".

I have one of those large round grillmasters with the chimney. It has 4 removable castiron grates. I only use two of them. Slid all the way to one end of the grill and the charcoal pile at the other end. With no grates over it, it makes it easy to throw on the cherry or apple wood that I like to smoke with.

It takes about 8-10 minutes per side to cook to meduim. (Pink and juicy but no blood). But I LOVE the flavor that either cherry or apple wood adds to the meat. I just take a chunk of firewood and a hatchet and make several long slivers and soak in water. Use about half when I throw the steaks on, and the other half when I flip them. But you have to keep the damper and chimney choked down to allow the wood to smolder and smoke as opposed to just burning up.

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

Y'all done gone and made me hungry...

 

[Kyle_in_Tex]

After years of cooking steaks on charcoal I find that I have much better luck on the gas grill. I have a Weber Genesis and if you clean out the drip tray and the "flavor bars", the secret is NO flareups! I turn on all 3 burners full blast to get the grill to 550+ and cook 1" ribeyes about 6:45 total with the lid down. The steaks are really turning out great very tasty, juicy medium rare every time, and with beautiful grill marks. I just never could master cooking them on charcoal, battling flareups, moving them around and flipping them more than once and losing the juice....

Like Hank hill says, taste the meat, not the charcoal.....or something like that.

Tried something else with Johnsonville brats too. Put them in a pan with a bottle of beer, onions, and garlic. Cooked them about 35 minutes on the grill, then took them out and put them on the fire and cooked another 20 minutes or so. Wow, they turned out much juicier and tastier than I have ever turned out either on the grill or the smoker.

Later edited....I found that the beer adds much more flavor when you open and pour the contents in the pan.

Alan, I'll call you as we are passing through Bugtussle so you can have the steaks ready when we get there!

 

[jinman]

After years of cooking steaks on charcoal I find that I have much better luck on the gas grill. I have a Weber Genesis and if you clean out the drip tray and the "flavor bars", the secret is NO flareups! I turn on all 3 burners full blast to get the grill to 550+ and cook 1" ribeyes about 6:45 total with the lid down. The steaks are really turning out great very tasty, juicy medium rare every time, and with beautiful grill marks. I just never could master cooking them on charcoal, battling flareups, moving them around and flipping them more than once and losing the juice....

Like Hank hill says, taste the meat, not the charcoal.....or something like that.

Alan, I think you and I are on the same schedule. I also have a Weber Genesis that I love. It has the most consistent heat over the entire huge grill surface of any grill I ever had. If I put a steak on the side, middle, or front, the steak cooks the same. It's a joy to use that grill. However, I laughed when you said to keep the drip pan cleaned out. Just last week when I cooked thick rib-eyes for my granddaughter, I got flare-up from the pan. You know, I just used those flares to sear my steak and everyone was thrilled with the lightly charred outside and nice pink medium center. Our steaks were the best I've ever cooked. However, before I cook again, I'm going to clean out that pan. If a flare-up happens while cooking hot dogs, I'll have only short charcoal rods left over.

 

[Bird]

I don't know how others clean the grates, but in the past I've used a wire brush when the grates were cooled, sometimes even took them in the house and scrubbed them in the kitchen sink, etc. However, the instructions with our new Hamilton Beach gas grill recommend cleaning the grates as soon as you finish cooking and turn off the heat. They recommend dipping the wire brush in water, then scrubbing the grate while it's hot, so you have steam cleaning.

I had not thought of that before, but that does get those grates cleaner, and it does it quicker and easier than ever.