I am making the dinner for this Friday night. This is 10 lbs New York Strip cut into 12 steaks for probably 11 people, a bit over an inch thick, I guess about 13-14 ounces each, & I don’t know what I am doing.
They cut up this vaccuum sealed piece yesterday so idk if this will be good until Friday night or if I should freeze or partially freeze them. I have to drive them 7-8 hours to Alabama and cook them when I get there, at an Airbnb with an oven/stove, and a charcoal grill of unknown size. I assume a broiler in the oven, and a fry pan.
I usually put marinade on meat before tossing it in the deep freezer, but idk if you can do that with steaks, or if I need to freeze these. I will have a cooler with ice.
I would be soooo grateful if someone could tell me how they would make 11 steaks as close to the same time as possible, prep and cooking.
And if you are wondering why I’m planning a last minute meal that I don’t know how to cook for my son’s wedding dinner, it’s because I thought my dad would want to be involved so I asked him if he could do maybe veggies on the grill, for a different meal I had planned. We talked multiple times about him knowing how to grill, and he suggested I get steaks. When I called yesterday to tell him that the butcher was able to give me a better deal on these steaks then what I had planned, he told me that he only knows how to make up to 2 steaks at a time in a fry pan on the stovetop. He also told me that he is going to a concert in Texas Thursday night and might not even be there in time for dinner. I can’t afford to just buy my original meal plan bc I spent my money on these. This is pretty much the only thing the wedding couple isn’t paying for themselves, and they are excited for a fancy meal, I didn’t screw this up on purpose.
by Hour_Requirement493
24 Comments
When will you get to the Airbnb? Or more specifically how much prep time do you have?
Without knowing more specifics about size of oven and grill, I think the two options would be to reverse sear and/or Sous vide them.
I wouldn’t freeze them. Keep them cold in a cooler with ice should be sufficient. I wouldn’t freeze marinade on the way down there and then depending on timing get going with cooking or put them in the fridge
Reverse sear. Use a good meat thermometer and nail the temperatures. Pull 10 degrees before done and rest for 5 minutes under tented foil before finishing it. Baste it at the very end with herbed butter. I like garlic and thyme. Flaky kosher salt is your friend. Use a screaming hot pan for the final sear. Plate it over room temperature butter and garnish with fresh chives.
If you want to be extra fancy, you could butter poach to 10 degrees below temp, then sear as above.
Whipped garlic potatoes with cream (top with butter) and asparagus with hollandaise (sprinkle lightly with paprika for color) are the perfect sides.
Serve with either Belle Glos Pinot Noir or a nice Cabernet Sauvignon for some or the ever popular Roscato Sweet red for sweeter tastes.
Kosher Salt liberally 24 hours before cooking and leave them in the fridge uncovered. It gives a bit of the dry aged luxury taste without getting too bleu cheesy.
Invest in a sous vide cooker and container. Salt the steaks and then bag. You can use water displacement rather than a vacuum sealer. For strips, l like 128 degrees, but you can find some easy guides to recommend temperature. Cook for about 2 hours (timing doesn’t matter that much). Remove, pat very dry. Some will recommend chilling briefly at this point but I never have. Season with pepper (garlic powder if you want) and I like to add a little more salt. Pan sear with a little oil until nice and crusty.
One more decision to make – how do you want to serve them? Individual steaks or pre-sliced? You can easily cut them when raw into halves and serve larger pieces.
And don’t marinate steaks.
Skip the marinade when cooking NY strips.
If you can, salt them at least 40 minutes before they hit heat. This will draw out moisture then let it get re-absorbed over the time period, which will season your steak insides and help with crust development. If not at least 40 minutes before, salt *immediately* before applying heat. Sitting with salt between 2 and 40 minutes will hurt your steaks.
Quick and easy method without much prep:
1. Light charcoal grill. Let the coals burn until they’re completely surrounded by white ash. Spread them out evenly over ONE HALF of the grill. Leave the other half CHARCOAL FREE. Leave the lid off the entire time you are searing and only close if it’s stupidly windy and you can’t keep temp up. Close the lid for the final stage.
2. While the coals are getting ashy, remove the steaks from the refrigerator. Let them come to room temp for about 30 minutes before you put them on heat, which is about how long you’ll need after lighting your charcoal.
3. Immediately before putting the steak on the grill, pat them dry with paper towel and then salt them liberally with kosher salt or some other coarse grain salt. DO NOT LET THE STEAKS SIT WITH SALT ON THEM FOR MORE THAN A FEW MINUTES OR YOU WILL LOSE A LOT OF MOISTURE.
4. Put the steaks on the hot side of the grill. Don’t touch them for two minutes. If you want nicely crossed grill marks, rotate lkke 60⁰ after 90 seconds.
5. Flip steaks over, staying on the hot side of the grill. Cook for another 2 minutes to develop crust.
6. Continue to develop crust this way, flipping every two minutes, at least once and up to three times (depends on heat of grill, size of steak, dryness of surface, etc. so time will vary).
7. Once the crust is developed, move the steaks to the COLD SIDE of the grill and use a thermometer to see what the internal temperature is. This is where you will control how done each steak is. 125⁰F for rare, 135 for med rare, 140-145⁰ for medium, 150-155⁰ med well, and 160⁰+ for well done. Cover the grill and let them sit to cook if you want them to be more done. Check temp on the same steak in roughly the same spot using the same probe hole each time. That steak will be taken to the most doneness; remove the others as they are cooked to your guests preference.
If you want your steaks more done, flip them every few minutes to help distribute heat evenly when they finish off on the cold side of the grill. Your steaks should be roughly in the rare to med rare temp range by the time you move them to the cold side of the grill if you follow this method.
Remove from heat, season with pepper or Montreal or whatever immediately, and allow to rest for at least 5 minutes before serving.
Garlic powder, salt, pepper and oil on the steaks. The 8 hour trip is long but even chilled in a cooler is fine. You can freeze them too and marinade them if you’d like. It sounds like you already know the deal. If you keep them out for a couple hours to get to room temp, each will cook on high in 3-4 minutes per side. Maybe less. Same if you’d grill them. You already know what’s up man! You got this!
Please don’t marinade them. No Bueno. Salt well ahead of time(dry drine) and rest, and black pepper. That’s all you need.
I bet one of the 11 guests will be happy to help. Ask around.
Boil them now, freeze them after cooking, then thaw and enjoy later.
On top of the other comments for seasonings, might I suggest a sauce for these? Au poivre, red wine reduction, demi glace, mushroom sauce?
Boil em in milk. Serve with a chilled jelly bean puree and a glass of capri sun.
I’d reverse sear them. Look up the method, but the general idea is that you put them in an oven at its lowest possible temp (say 170-180F) for 60-90 minutes until they hit the doneness you want. Then you remove them from the oven, wait a bit to cool them down, and sear them on something hot (like a grill, or pan).
It’s pretty easy to do 6 steaks that way, as you can sear them 1-2 at a time. It’s fairly foolproof regarding doneness, as long as you have a meat thermometer. And if your son isn’t there when the steaks come out of the oven, that’s fine – just sear his when he gets in.
Make sure you provide enough glasses of water so that whatever guests prefer their steaks sloppy they have that option.
The only answer is sous vide. Cook then SV, leave them sealed, chill them, sear them on site and serve.
No marinade! Personally, I would season them with keg spice or similar and then I would crank the grill up to max temp. Grill them until they have a good crust but still rare in the center.
Pat dry, salt, pepper, granulated or powdered garlic on all sides. Let steaks rest at room temp for around 30 minutes before cooking.
The easiest way to cook them (imo) is charcoal grill. High and direct heat, 2 1/2 – 3 minutes, rotate steak 90° for another 2 1/2 – 3 minutes, flip steaks and repeat. Steaks should be around 115°-125° afterwards. I usually dress it with a little butter and thyme while it rests for 10 minutes (resting period should bring internal temp another 10° to a medium doneness).
If someone wants it more cooked than that, then they can nuke it. I will not kill a steak twice. Lol
Ok, here is what I would do at this point(wish you would have asked BEFORE cutting them up, but here we are).
Now/Today….Season with salt, pepper garlic….however much salt you THINK you need, double it….you want them coated in salt
Leave in the fridge, uncovered(this will season your meat throughout, tenderize it some, as well as concentrate the flavors…will also enable you to get a better sear later)
Tomorrow…..place steaks on a cookie sheet with roasting rack(I use a stainless cooling rack-or maybe I use the roasting rack for cookies 🤔)…if you do not have one, or just want to do something different, make a bed of garlic & rosemary, use that as your “rack”(sometimes I prefer this method, adds extra flavor, you will want ~4-8 cloves under each steak at a minimum, spread out…heck, I’ve covered the entire pan before….the point is to avoid having your meat sit in its own juices)
Put in the oven at 225 until steaks are 115-120 degrees(this will be rare)
Vacuum seal & freeze(if you used garlic/rosemary, you can seal this in with your steaks)
At the wedding, bring a cast iron skillet, just in case.
Heat the grill to screaming hot with your grate closest to the coals as you can get(if it is adjustable)
Assuming the steaks are thawed at this point, you will do the following….
~2min per side rare
~4min per side med-rare
~6min per side med
However be sure to bring your thermometer since this can vary a bit based on temp of thr grill, airflow, changes to ambient temps, etc
Bring your thermometer
Temps are as follows
Extra Rare-120
Rare-125
Med-rare-130
Med-140
For strip steaks you dont want to go beyond medium unless your guests insist
Med-well-150
Well-160+
Good luck & enjoy the wedding 😁
P.S. I did catering for years & based upon what youre working with, this is 100% what I would do if I was catering the event
Buy a couple extra and practice. 350-400 degree grill, 2 mins per side until done.
Crockpot, low, 12 hrs. Shred. Serve with refried beers, salsa and tortillas
Next time you volunteer to cook, cook something you know how to cook.
If you don’t know how to cook steaks, I would skip the fancy shit on the actual steak itself and focus on temps. Buy a meat thermometer or a few. Get the grill hot. Other people are going to hate what I have to say…but practice making a few great sauces…chimmichuri and anything horseradish or mushroom are my faves. For the steaks, rub soy sauce on them about an hour before grilling and grind freshly ground pepper. (Soy sauce will add salt better than actual salt will and it helps crust/carmelize) cook time should be four minutes each side with the lid on. The salt and rendered fat should do the flavor work and you just have to worry about the temp/cook. But obviously check with a meat thermometer and use the extra one to cut/check. Some parts of a grill get hotter than others…watch for that. I’d make some garlic rosemary smashed potatoes to go with them for the prep work instead of trying to do something super complicated.
I would just cook them in a Sous-Vide now for 4-12 hours at 131°F then put them immediately into an ice bath.
You can keep them in the refrigerator/cooler till you’re ready to cook. All you’ll have to do is sear them on a griddle or grill and bathe them in garlic butter for a few minutes
season steaks, put oven to 300 put steaks in for 20-30 min, sear on hot grill for 2 min each side
Dry brine, reverse sear or sous vide as suggested in other comments to desired doneness, slice and service.
Congrats on your son’s marriage!
Can you buy 11 steaks at a steakhouse cooked to rare then reheat to med rare for dinner service? 😆