OK, I'm going to try a filet over my chimney tomorrow (Sunday) and thought I'd see if anyone has any suggestions before I ruin a nice piece of meat. I'm going to pick-up a hand cut Harris Ranch filet around 3 - 3 1/2 inches thick. I'll probably just brush with olive oil and season with salt, pepper and garlic powder (I might rub with garlic prior to the oil but not sure). When done I'll top with either a gorgonzola butter my butcher sells or I'll make the white truffle butter posted on this site. If you haven't tried the white truffle butter give it a shot, I highly recommend it. I've also been doing a worcestershire butter too that's great on a ribeye but a bit much for a filet.

I'm planning on using RO Lump, now here's a question, how much? I'm thinking 1/2 a chimney should work well. There won't be much fat so I shouldn't have to worry about flare-ups. I purchased a small (about 14.5 inches) Weber replacement grate. It's the bottom grate that the charcoal sits on so I don't have to worry about melting a top grate if the temps get to high. I'm going to place the grate on the chimney right after I light the lump so it's very very hot. Any clue what my grate temp will be?

Plan is to cook for 2 - 3 minutes on each side. Now here's the most important question, where do we think the center will be at this point? Blue, rare, med-rare? I'm thinking blue. I like my steaks anywhere from rare to med-rare. So I'm thinking I'll dump the lump on one side of a kettle, put the grate on and place the steak on the opposite side of the kettle for say 5 minutes (lid on). BTW, I don't use a therm. on my steaks, I rely on the touch method and I'm almost always dead spot on so I'll be using this method to test for doneness.

Probably a lot of work and a lot of typing for a single steak but I've been wanting to try this method for quite some time and for a couple of reasons, 1) I always enjoy Ruth's Chris Steaks and I've heard they sear around 1500 degrees, can't argue with their success or their steaks. 2) Seems like a cool method that is different, would impress and deliver an amazing filet. If it works out I'm going to purchase another chimney (I need one anyway) and another grate and make it a regular part of my entertaining cooking methods. I figure you could probably do 3 filets per chimney.

Anyway, just thought I'd throw this out there and see if anyone has any experience with this method or any advice prior to my ruining a $20 steak. Oh, I'll be serving this with some garlic mashers, asparagus and a great bottle of Cab. - 03 Rubicon Estate Cab., 95 points Wine Enthusiast. Can't wait, sounds YUMMY!!

This message has been edited. Last edited by: LarryR,

I did this a few weeks back, Larry. It came out great! I loaded the chimney about half way with lump and let it burn until the lump was fully lit. My filet was about 1 1/2 inches thick and I think I cooked it for three minutes on each side and ended up with rare. I also did a sesame crusted tuna steak at the same time.

Steak and tuna on the chinmey

The finished product

Hi Ron, thanks for the reply, didn't know if I would get many on this one. Looks great! I hadn't thought about doing Tuna at the same time; since I'm going to have the setup already I think I'll buy some tuna too, great idea.

A couple of questions - 1) Would you have done anything differently? 2) How long did you leave the Tuna on? 3) Since your steak was about 1 1/2 thick and the one I'll be doing is a little thicker it sounds like I'll need to finish over in-direct for rare otherwise I'll end-up with blue, correct? 4) Could the steak have taken any more time over the chimney or would that have burned it? 5) Did you use a standard Weber grate or is that a charcoal grate?

Thanks in advance and again, I love the tuna idea!

Hi Lsrry, Think you have a good plan. I've done the same thing with smaller filets (about 2") to make individual beef Wellingtons. You will need to finish on the kettle. Five minutes or so sounds about right depending on hot your kettle is. I use walnut oil instaed of olive.

I've done Tuna that way too. If I remember right it was only about 30 - 60 seconds a side.

BTW - it's really impressive to do this after sundown so everyone can see the flames from the coals better!

Tom

quote:

Originally posted by LarryR:
A couple of questions - 1) Would you have done anything differently?

2) How long did you leave the Tuna on?

3) Since your steak was about 1 1/2 thick and the one I'll be doing is a little thicker it sounds like I'll need to finish over in-direct for rare otherwise I'll end-up with blue, correct?

4) Could the steak have taken any more time over the chimney or would that have burned it?

5) Did you use a standard Weber grate or is that a charcoal grate?

Thanks in advance and again, I love the tuna idea!

1. I think I slightly over cooked the tuna. I did 60 seconds on a side but carry over took it a little past rare in the middle. I would probably only do 45 seconds or so.

2. See above

3. & 4. If your steak is thicker I would cook it a little longer. I don't think you need to finish it indirect unless you want it to have the rest time. Of course, that depends on how hot your fire is. Mine was plenty hot and the steak wasn't over-charred on the outside. It could have gone another minute or maybe two per side without getting too dark.

5. It was the top grate from my WSM. I didn't even think about he possibility of ruining it

Wow, I never thought about cooking on a chimney before. What kind of temperatures are we talking about here?

Thanks for the tips guys! I think I'm going to have the gasser running at about 375 and transfer the steak to warming rack in the gasser after the chimney for 5 minutes.

I have no clue how hot the temp at the grate will be, I'm guessing about 800 degrees. I've googled to try and find the temp with no luck. If anyone knows please let me know.

I'm going to pickup a couple pieces of tuna tomorrow morning to sear as well. I think it's going to be a great success/trial run.

Tom, I love the idea of doing it at night! I'm planning on doing this again over the holidays for visiting family, they'll be very impressed

I didn't measure the temp at the grate so I'm going with Darn Hot

800 degrees sound about right to me. It gave the steak a nice sear.

OK, I just finished my cook and I've got to say I was very impressed with the results.

Here are the particulars; 3" filet, rubbed with garlic, brushed with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic powder. Let it come to room temp. I filled my chimney about 2/3 of the way full with RO Lump, lit and put my grate on top of my chimney. Let the RO burn until all lump was glowing and there were no flames. Someone was asking about temps. I'll second Ron, damn hot!

Placed my filet on grate and heard and unbelievable sizzle, unlike any sear I've ever done. Three minutes later I turned, three minutes later I removed and placed in my Genesis at about 375 for 5 minutes. Put her on a plate, put two slices of truffle butter on her, covered with foil for about 5 minutes. Perfect rare to med-rare with an incredible sear. It was an awesome steak and when cooking filets for one or two I think this will be my method of choice. However, when cooking for larger groups (over four) I don't think it will be practical. Also, I don't think you could do anything other than two filets this way. If you were doing two ribeyes, T-Bones etc. there's no way they'd fit on the grate . . . I mean they'd fit over the grate, just not over the chimney/heat. I'll be purchasing a 2nd chimney and another 14.5" grate for cooking over 2 chimneys at the same time.

Oh, my fish market didn't have any sushi grade tuna in this morning so I didn't do the tuna.

Bottom-line, if you're looking for a high heat sear for steaks and a different way to cook your steaks that will look cool to you guests, I recommend this method.

Larry, I am glad you enjoyed the filet over the chimney. I have been using the chimney for years for doing small cooks for myself (I have never tried lump though).

Next time add some chunks of wood, even though it's a relative short cook, you will get some flavor from the wood.

Since it's getting cold (low 50's) and it has been raining lately, don't forget you can always finish up the meat in the oven as opposed to the gasser.

Erik

I use a cast iron grill from a gasser to cook smaller meat pieces over the chimney just as you did.


John

I'm glad it came out well, Larry! Sorry about the tuna! Do you have a Fresh Market store near you? Ours always has sashimi grade Ahi in the case.

This is another GREAT idea from this board. Thanks, all

Ron, yea they usually have sushi/sashimi grade tuna but his supplier had an error in his order the day I was there. I'll do it next time.

Erik, yea it's getting a little cold at night. Haven't tried a overnight smoke at 50 degrees before, does it make much of a difference in your burn time? I use clay saucer mod.

Be stingy with the smoke wood on filet. I did this over the weekend and the salt crust of the filet soaked up WAY too much smoke, and I only used a couple of small chips.

Tried it for the first time tonight with a 2 inch, 8+ oz filet. Excellent results! With only a small amount of persuasion, the side burner grill of my gasser fits perfectly over the chimney. ½ chimney of R.O. lump. About 2.5 minutes on each side (first brought to room temp, salt (let rest – thanks Kevin), then pepper and a bit of other spices, EVOO to coat). Indirect took about 10 min (gasser). The taste of a hard char (but not burnt) cannot be understated.

I'm not a big fan of smoke on filets, however, my next steak on the chimney is going to be a thick cut ribeye which for my taste can take a bit of smoke. That with a bit of the worcestershire compound butter should be great!

I'm thinking wood chips vs. a chunk, no?

Weekend won't come soon enough!

Its amazing how reading the posts on this forum can make me hungry even after I just ate. I gotta try this. I've done the tuna before after I saw it on a Good Eats epsiode and that turned out awesome. Never thought of filet. DUH!

And by the way Larry. Do you have a recipe for that worcestershire butter? Am I being dense or is that all it is? Worcestershire sauce & butter?

Here you go, it's very tasty (from a previous post of mine):

I'm huge fan of Worcestershire sauce, so much in-fact that I doubled the Worcestershire syrup portion of this recipe. Your taste may vary.

Here's the recipe with a couple of slight changes on my part:
1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 tablespoon chives chopped (not in original recipe)
1/2 tablespoon thyme chopped (not in original recipe)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Combine Worcestershire sauce and sugar in small nonstick saucepan over medium-high heat. Bring to a boil, then lower heat and cook at a bare simmer for about 10 minutes, or until mixture is syrupy. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.

Place butter, chives and thyme in bowl of a food processor fitted with metal blade. Add 2 tablespoons of cooled Worcestershire syrup and process until well-blended.

Place large piece of plastic wrap on counter top. Using rubber spatula, scrape butter mixture into center of plastic wrap. Wrap plastic up and over butter to enclose it. Roll butter into cylinder, twisting ends together to seal. Place in refrigerator for at least 1 hour to firm up before cutting into slices. (The butter may also be wrapped in freezer wrap, labeled and frozen for up to 3 months.)

If you try it let me know what you think.

Original Recipe Credit - The Union Tribune/SignOnSanDiego.com - http://wine.signonsandiego.com/pages/story.php?StoryID=130

I love worcestershire sauce too! I buy it in bulk from BJ's Wholesale. I'm going to do some ribeye's this weekend. Can't wait!