For our close family friend Dr. Ruby, cooking steak was a meditative and ritualistic act. As a child visiting the Ruby family’s country house, about an hour north of the New York City borough of Manhattan, I’d watch him stand over an enormous porterhouse on the charcoal grill, icy martini in one hand, tongs in the other, staring at his watch.
Every 60 seconds, he’d sip his cocktail, then flip his steak. Sip, flip. Sip, flip. On and on until the glass was empty and the meat cooked to perfection: rare in the center, charred on the outside and dripping with salty, smoky, brawny juices.
When I grew up and started grilling in my own backyard, I tried this frequent-flipping method. But whereas Ruby was placid, I am antsy. I’m not of the nature to stand in one place for upward of 10 minutes while my thick bone-in steak sears, especially when there’s corn to shuck, tomatoes to slice, tables to set.
So I’ve adopted another technique that I think works just as well but unchains me from the grill: using indirect heat.
The idea is to build a fire on only one side of the grill, leaving the other side bare. I sear the meat on both sides over the hot fire, then move it over to the unlit side to finish cooking more leisurely. This method is suited to thick bone-in steaks, at least an inch and a half thick, which can sometimes burn before they’re completely done next to the bone. The indirect heat helps cook things move evenly and gently but without sacrificing the char.
Ruby was a steak purist who eschewed anything on his steak but salt and pepper (and maybe some melted butter à la Peter Luger). It’s a stance that deserves the utmost respect, one that I adhere to when I’ve sourced the finest dry-aged beef.
But for less distinguished hunks of meat, or when I just want to mix things up a bit, I’ll take advantage of the steak’s stint on the unlit side of the grill to throw on some crumbled blue cheese, letting it melt while the beef finishes cooking.
Ruby would not approve of the blue cheese (and if you don’t, either, you can skip it). But he’d probably be pretty happy with the cooking method, at least — with an icy martini in one hand and a forkful of juicy rare meat in the other.
Grilled Bone-In Rib-Eye Steaks With Blue Cheese
4 servings
Ingredients
2 (1 1/2-inch-thick) bone-in rib-eye steaks, about 1 1/4 pounds each
2 teaspoons coarse kosher salt
Black pepper, as needed
Extra-virgin olive oil, as needed
2 ounces creamy blue cheese, such as Jasper Hill Bayley Hazen Blue
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons finely chopped chives
Hot sauce, as needed
Preparation
1. Season steaks with salt and pepper at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour before you plan to cook them. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let stand at room temperature.
2. Heat grill to high. If using a charcoal grill, mound coals to one side, allowing for an area of indirect heat. If using a gas grill, turn on only a few of the burners and leave the rest off for indirect heat.
3. Lightly oil steaks. Place on the hottest part of the grill. Cook, covered, until they develop a golden-brown crust, 2 to 3 minutes per side. Move steaks to indirect heat and crumble cheese over the top; cover and continue cooking 2 to 5 minutes longer, depending on desired doneness. (Pull the meat at 125 degrees for rare.)
4. Transfer steaks to a cutting board to rest, loosely covered with foil, for 10 minutes. While steaks rest, stir together butter, chives and hot sauce. Pour over steak before serving.
And to Drink ... You already know you want red wine with a thick rib-eye, but which one? With this fatty cut I would lean to more robust choices. Many Americans will reach first for a California cabernet sauvignon, and it's a great choice as long as it's not overly jammy. Brunello di Montalcino and other sturdy sangiovese wines are great with steak, as are richer northern Rhone wines like Hermitage and Cornas. You may consider a younger Gevrey-Chambertin or a good Oregon pinot noir, and if you prefer expressively fruity wines, now's the time for a structured Argentine malbec. Somewhere there's a steak eater who drinks only white: I recommend a rich, dry Austrian riesling, like a Wachau smaragd. Intrepid wine lovers can experiment with oloroso sherry. — ERIC ASIMOV
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