How to cook excellent steaks at home – at 800° C
Apparently it all started at the Peter Luger Steakhouse in New York, and then inspired an invention in Germany
Two years ago I was in New York. The (currently not so) royal wedding was all over the TV channels, but I wasn't interested. What I wanted was a good steak.
A friend of mine recommended the Peter Luger Steakhouse, so I called them. "Table for two", I said. "Sure thing! You can have one. In July," they said. This was May. The Peter Luger Steakhouse appeared to be quite popular. We went to M. Wells instead, as they had tables that were available in May.
Before you ask: the steaks were phenomenal (albeit quite expensive, but hey, that's New York!).
However, another guy from Germany seems to have made it to Peter Luger. He was so impressed with their steaks, he decided to find a way to recreate them at home. The secret? They cook the steaks at 800° C, which results in a nice crust and extremely tender meat.
So this guy went ahead and created a gas-powered device that makes 800°C, and that you can use at home. The Beefer was born and went on sale. Other companies copied it and now these devices are pretty much everywhere. And they are cheap – really cheap. Recently I saw a promotional offer for 39.99 Euros. They have various names, but basically they're all the same thing.
I got mine last year as a birthday present. It's called the Bull Burner and luckily it doesn't burn bulls. It cooks steaks to perfection. All you need is a propane gas bottle like the one you'd use for a normal gas grill. A piezo igniter is built in so you just start it and let it heat up. It doesn't take long, maybe 2-3 minutes. I even bought a laser thermometer to make sure it's 800°. It is.
Don't put your hand inside unless you don't need it any longer.
Put an ovenproof dish onto the top of the device and put some butter into it. Also put some butter into the tray at the bottom of the device. If you want, you can add some herbs and/or garlic to the butter, that will add to the flavour.
Now you're ready to cook some serious steaks. Put them on the grid and insert it at the uppermost level. Some testing is required to find the perfect duration. With my device, it's around 75 seconds on each side.
Argentinian tenderloin this time.
Put the steaks onto the tray at the bottom once they have a nice crust on both sides. They should cook in the tray while you prepare the next round of steaks on the grid. Then move the meat from the bottom tray to the ovenproof dish on top of the device. The steaks can rest there without getting cold.
Getting there...
Here's the result. Sides: oven potatoes and mushrooms fried with onions in butter with some creme frâiche added later in the process. It was rather good.
No caption needed...
Are these devices available in your country? If so, I can only recommend them, so if someone asks you what your Christmas gift should be...
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Comments (8)
Great post. I still say fire cooked is the best.
Thanks Doug! Actually this is fire cooked with the fire coming from above, not from below.
Oh ok. I misunderstood.
Cool! It seems it is tricky to leave the meat medium raw 🤔. I think my dad would like to have this 😁.
You need to experiment a bit with the duration of both phases (on the grid, in the tray) but once you get it, it's going to be unbelievably good!
Very cool! Thanks for telling us about it.