The Continuous Reverse Sear Thread!

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s2k9k

AMNPS Test Group
Original poster
Sep 8, 2011
11,324
182
SEUSA
I have been doing a Reverse Sear on my Steaks for awhile now and try to do one at least once a week and I don't want to start a new thread every time I smoke one so I thought I would start this for all of us to participate in and enjoy. I welcome everyone who loves a Reverse Sear to post in this thread. It doesn't even have to be a Steak, anything you smoke low and finish on a very hot grill will fit right in. Just one rule, if you post Q-view then tell us your methods and techniques to include equipment used, wood types, temperatures, ect. We can all learn from each other to try new things and perfect our Reverse Sear!

I think one of the best things I have learned to do with my smoker is the Reverse Sear. These have been the best Steaks I have ever had though I have never had a real dry-aged steak or a sous-vide and would love to taste them sometime. After doing several of these I have my technique dialed in for my taste. I find a Steak that is at least 1 1/2" thick, I don't think this would work too good with a thin Steak and I sprinkle a little Spicy Montreal Steak Seasoning on it.I use a GOSM Widebody with an External Fire Box (EFB) mod so that I can use an AMNPS. I also use a CharBroil 4 burner gas grill. I heat my smoker to 215* and get the AMNPS ready, I fill a little less than 1 row with Pitmaster's Choice Pellets and light both ends. Since the Steak is only going to get less than an hour of smoke I want to put a lot to it. I like a lot of smoke and since I think I'm immune to it now I can pour it to it. I smoke at 215* between 45 minutes and 1 hour, depends on the Steak.  After about 30 minutes I fire up the grill on high taking it to 500*+. When the Steak reaches 110* IT I throw it on the grill for 1 minute 20 seconds per side. I will rotate it at about 30 seconds just to give it a good cross-hatched look to it. I like my steak right between rare and med-rare and this method gets it right where I love it every time.  

I stopped at the store today and they had Filet Mignon on sale for $2/lb less than the T-bones and Strips so I picked out 2 nice looking ones and they weighed in right at 18oz.

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Here's a 27oz T-Bone I did awhile back. It didn't look that big in the butcher case until she threw it on the scale but it was the best looking steak they had. I thought I would just eat half of it and have the other half for lunch the next day but it was soooo goooood I couldn't stop eating and all of a sudden it was gone:

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OK now it's your turn, show me what you got and tell me how you did it so I can take what I think is perfect and make it even better!
 
Hey, great thread idea!

I've been working on this for years and am glad to see more and more people showing interest.

S2K9K, I'll share my experiences and if you're interested will post some pics tomorrow when I get off work...

I buy ribeye by the slab, dry age for two weeks, cut, vacuu-seal, and then sous vide/pasturize to lock in that (what I consider) perfect 2 week dry age.  At this point, depending on frige temp I can store the individual steaks for a month or so.

When I want a steak, I remove from vacuu-seal pouch, apply rub, smoke at 250* for 30-40 min (flipping at about 90-95*) aiming for an IT of about 215* or so at which point I remove and place on my custom red neck engineered searing station consisting of a louisiana cajun turkey fryer with high flow regulator which will heat the cast iron skillet I place on it to a balmy 1000*.  I sear about 30s on side one and about 10s side two and am left with a perfect med rare steak...every time.
 
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Hey, great thread idea!

I've been working on this for years and am glad to see more and more people showing interest.

S2K9K, I'll share my experiences and if you're interested will post some picks tomorrow when I get off work...

I buy ribeye by the slab, dry age for two weeks, cut, vacuu-seal, and then sous vide/pasturize to lock in that (what I consider) perfect 2 week dry age.  At this point, depending on frige temp I can store the individual steaks for a month or so.

When I want a steak, I remove from vacuu-seal pouch, apply rub, smoke at 250* for 30-40 min (flipping at about 90-95*) aiming for an IT of about 215* or so at which point I remove and place on my custom red neck engineered searing station consisting of a louisiana cajun turkey fryer with high flow regulator which will heat the cast iron skillet I place on it to a balmy 1000*.  I sear about 30s on side one and about 10s side two and am left with a perfect med rare steak...every time.
I would love to see some pics!

That's a great sounding process, I don't think I'm anywhere ready for something like that but would love to taste it!

(I hope you meant 115*)
 
I am a huge fan of the reverse sear as well. I'm guessing he meant to say an IT of 115* instead of 225* as well. But hey if you like your meat to be like shoe leather more power to you.
biggrin.gif
 
eek! 

Sorry about that...yes 115* sounds much better ;)

I'll put up the pics tomorrow afternoon...

(of course I've left off most of the little details you learn along the way like dab away moisture before sear, apply salt and refined oil etc...)
 
Sorry I'm a couple of days late, here are those pics I promised. 

Here is the dry aged beef...it's an old pic, when I was trying to figure out the perfect 'age' for my tastes...so every few days I'd slice off a slab...

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Here is a plate of cut two week aged beef...

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...trimmed...

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...vacuu-packed...

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...in the sous vide supreme...

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...my sear station...minus the cast iron skillet...

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...and a couple pics of the end result--perfect medium rare may be difficult to appreciate, I think the red plate threw the color balance off a little...?

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I know...a little tangential to the reverse sear topic, but I hope you enjoy...
 
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Thanks SSC! That looks wonderful!!! I would love to try that, maybe some day I'll get the nerve (and knowledge) to try it!
 
Thanks very much for the information. I'm going to try these this weekend and I'll post some pictures for you to see. I'm new at all of this so I hope it turns out well.  Thanks again!
 
Hey SupercenterChef,

Can you explain that sous vide process?

I would love to understand exactly how you do that and I bet I am not alone.

Thanks,
 
I'm excited.  Doing my first reverse sear tonight on my MES.

I had a nice NY strip in the fridge, so I seasoned it with the same seasoning I have been using for years.


First I coat that baby in good olive oil then I sprinkle on kosher salt, granulated onion, granulated garlic, and some fresh ground pepper.

Then I put the steak in a sealable container and pour on some worchestershire sauce, close it up and put it in the fridge for about an hour.


I will continue to post as this progresses.  I am basically following the information you guys posted on the SMF Continuous Reverse Sear Thread. No one has ever steered me wrong here.

More to come....
 
You are going to love it! Low and slow in the smoker and watch the IT as it gets close then get that grill as hot as you can and remember it doesn't take long on the grill. 

Looking forward to the finish!
 
You were right Dave!!!!  Love it. 

So I put this baby on the MES.  Notice the onion that the pit probe is poking through.  This will come in handy later...


Just like everyone said, I left it in the smoker for about 45 minutes or so, until the IT reached 110*.

During that time I got the grill going in the side yard.


I put the steak on the grill and seared on both sides for about 45 seconds each.



My son helped....


Looks beautiful.

I allowed the meat to rest for about 5 minutes then cut into it...PERFECTION - med. rare just the way we like it!!!!

One steak feeds all three of us, me, Steph, and Trevor.


Not the best cut of meat, but delicious all the same!!!

My plate...remember that smoked onion?  There it is with some saute'd mushrooms.  Also had a side salad.


Steph wanted her steak in with her salad.


Everything turned out great.

My only complaint...not enough smoke.

I did not want to fire up the WSM so I used the new MES with some mesquite chips.  Luckily, I have already ordered my A-MAZE-N smoker, so the next time I will be sure to get plenty of smoke.

Thanks everyone for checking out my q-view and for the wonderful assistance.

If you like the q-view be sure to click on that green thumb and give me some 
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.

Thanks again,
 
Hey Bill, that looks Wonderful! I'm happy it came out Perfect! Great write up and Q-view! You'll never want to eat a steak any other way now! I hope you got some Pitmaster's Choice pellets with that AMNPS, they are the best and you are going to love the AMNPS!
 
I am a big fan of the reverse sear... Here's a steak I did a week or so ago. 

I use a BGE, cook indirect in the 230* range over Humphrey's lump charcoal and either hickory or cherry. 


Take it to internal of about 125* ~ an hour or so.. 


Take it off and open the Egg up - probably in the 450 - 500* range.. 

Sear about 2 minutes/side


Let it rest for about 10 minutes. 


Dig in!

 
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Are you sure that's a steak and not a whole rib roast? That thing is huge!!! Looks really Awesome!! Great job!
 
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