We went down to the kitchen at Stags Head, where Chef Ollie showed us how he cooks his favourite steak from Butcher Box. No cheffy tricks and nothing you can't do on a charcoal grill at home. Just fire, applewood and a very good piece of beef. Here it is in his own words.
If I'm cooking one steak, this is the one. Thick dry-aged sirloin on the bone, over charcoal, bit of applewood on the fire. Cooking and resting, it's about an hour, and most of that is just waiting.
There are loads of good ways to cook a steak. This is just the way I like it.
The steak: a 900g dry-aged bone-in sirloin
The cut does most of the work for me. Dry-aged sirloin, bone in, around 900g, and thick.
Thickness is the bit I care about. Thick gives you time. You can get a proper crust on the outside and still have loads of room before the middle catches up, so nothing's rushed.
Dry-aged for the flavour, mainly, but it also dries the surface out and a dry surface browns better on the grill. Ask your butcher for a bone-in sirloin at least 4cm thick, dry-aged if they've got it. A bone-in ribeye or a tomahawk is lovely done the same way.
Out of the fridge an hour before
First thing, an hour before I want to cook, the steak comes out of the fridge and sits on the counter.
I just want the chill out of the middle before it goes near the fire. On a piece this size the centre's a long way from the outside, and starting it cold means the outside does all the work. An hour on the counter sorts it.
Leave it uncovered on a rack. If the surface dries out a bit, even better.
Light the charcoal, let it burn down
While that's sitting there, I get the fire going.
I don't cook over flames. I wait until they've died right down and I've got glowing embers under a bit of pale ash. That's the heat I want, fierce and steady and even. Flames are all over the place and they'll put soot on your meat.
Charcoal takes about 30 to 40 minutes to burn down, which is roughly how long the steak needs anyway. Works out nicely.
Applewood on top
Once it's down to embers I chuck a few chunks of applewood on.
Applewood is my one for beef. Light, a bit sweet, sits underneath the meat rather than all over it. Beef takes smoke on quickly so I stay away from the heavy stuff. Cherry is lovely as well, oak if that's what you've got.
It's not a long smoke. Just a bit of something in the background.
Pat it dry, salt it, straight on
Just before it goes on, I pat the steak properly dry with paper towel, then salt it all over with kosher salt. Be generous.
Kosher salt for me, the flakes are big enough to sit on the surface. Fine salt just disappears and it's easy to end up with too much.
Dry first, salt second, both right at the last second. Anything wet on the surface has to boil off before it starts browning, and salt pulls moisture up, so salting it and then leaving it sitting there undoes the drying you've just done. Straight on and it stays dry.
Sear it hard, every side
Fire's at its hottest now, so this is where I go in hard. Keep turning the steak every 30 seconds or so; the fire is so strong you want to make sure you're not burning it. About 4 to 5 minutes in total.
And I mean every side. Stand it up on the bone. Stand it on the fat cap and let that render and colour up. Roll it onto the edges. Everything gets the same hard direct heat until it's deep brown all the way round.
For me the crust is where a load of the flavour is, and on a steak this big you can really commit, there's so much meat underneath that the heat's still got miles to travel. And give the fat cap its couple of minutes. Rendered fat is the best bite on the whole thing.
Over to the cooler side, turn it every 2 minutes
Once I've got the crust all the way round, the steak comes off the direct heat and goes over to a cooler part of the grill, off to the side of the embers.
Now I'm just bringing the middle up gently, turning it every 2 minutes. Turning it that often stops one side getting ahead, and I find it keeps that grey band from forming under the crust.
This is the easy bit. Nothing to do but turn it.
Off at 45°C
Probe thermometer in the thickest part, away from the bone, and it comes off at 45°C.
Sounds low, I know. It works because you've finished it gently, so the outside isn't much hotter than the inside by the time it comes off. There's no big load of heat in the surface waiting to push its way in, so it only climbs a few degrees resting and then it settles. A steak that's been blasted over direct heat the whole way is a different story, that one keeps climbing.
So 45°C off the fire lands at about 47 to 48°C, and that's a proper medium rare steak, which is how I like a dry-aged sirloin. If you like it a bit further on, take it off a few degrees higher rather than leaving it on longer at the end.
These are the temps we follow at the restaurant. Allow ample resting time and expect the temperature to rise by 2 to 3 degrees.
Steak Internal Temperature Chart
|
How you like it |
Take it off at |
Final temperature |
|
Rare |
39°C |
40 to 42°C |
|
Medium Rare |
45°C |
47 to 48°C |
|
Medium |
48°C |
50 to 51°C |
|
Medium Well |
55°C |
57 to 58°C |
|
Well done |
61°C |
63 to 65°C |
These are for a steak finished gently over indirect heat, where it climbs about 2 to 3°C after it comes off. One cooked hard and fast the whole way will keep climbing further, so take that off lower.
Rest it for half the time it cooked
My rule is simple. It rests for half as long as it cooked.
This one was on for about 40 minutes, so it rested for 20. I like that rule because it sorts itself out whatever size the steak is. Big one needs a long rest, small one doesn't, and half the cooking time gets you there either way.
Resting lets everything relax and take the juices back in. Slice it straight off the fire and it all ends up on the board instead of in the steak.
Somewhere warm, on a board or a rack, up on the top rack of the grill or near the fire. Don't wrap it up tight in foil, it steams and softens the crust you've just spent all that time on.
And if you want it hot off the board, put it back over the hot side for about 30 seconds a side just before you slice it. 20 minutes is long enough for the crust to lose its edge, and that quick flash brings the outside straight back up without pushing the middle any further on.
Slice it
Carve the sirloin off the bone in one piece, then slice it across the grain, nice and thick, about 1cm. A bit of rock salt over the cuts and that's it.
That's my favourite steak.
Steak Cooking FAQs: Questions I Get Asked About This One
How long does a 900g steak take on the grill?
This one was about 40 minutes on the grill: 4 to 5 minutes searing in total over direct heat, turning every 30 seconds, then a slower finish over indirect heat until the middle comes up. It changes with the fire and the thickness, which is why I go by temperature and not the clock.
What temperature is a medium rare steak?
47 to 48°C in the middle after resting. We look for a consistent temperature throughout the meat before removing from the heat, we take it off when the steak's reached 45°C consistently throughout. Leave to rest and typically the temperature would rise 2 to 3 degrees upwards.
Should you salt a steak before or after cooking?
Right before it goes on the heat. It's the in between I'd avoid, salting it and then leaving it sitting a few minutes, because the salt pulls moisture back up and then it steams instead of browning.
Why rest a steak?
So the juices settle back into the meat instead of running out on the board. Rest it about half as long as it cooked.
Doesn't it go cold sitting there for 20 minutes?
Not really. A steak that size holds its heat, and it's the crust that cools off rather than the middle. Rest it somewhere warm, and if you want it properly hot to serve, flash it back over the hot side for about 30 seconds a side just before slicing. Warm plates help too.
Why sear first and finish gently, and not the other way round?
Suits me. The fire's at its hottest early on, which is when I want the crust, and then the gentle finish brings the middle up evenly and gives me much more control over where it lands.
What wood goes best with beef?
Applewood is my favourite. Light, slightly sweet, doesn't fight the meat. Cherry and oak are both good too.
Watch Chef Ollie cook this steak in the video above. The dry-aged bone-in sirloin he's using is available from Butcher Box, cut to thickness at our fresh deli counter.