Short Loin – Campfire New York Strip

I’m outside the Mt. Whitney trail trailhead. It’s a small campsite for trail hikers only, with a maximum one night stay Tomorrow, I go up.

Tonight, we eat. Steaks, NY Strip, over campfire.

I’ve grilled NY Strip before. Tonight, however, there are considerably more variables, so I’m counting this as a distinct application.

First, no oil. We’re camping, for Juniper’s sake. I don’t ordinarily tote Canola in my kit.

Second, salt and pepper changes. They don’t make camp kosher salt, unfortunately. So it’s generic granulated and pre-ground pepper.

That said, let’s dance.

Charcoal into a chimney starter. I want to make sure I have a sharp, hot center in the fire, without having to futz around with finicky firewood (alliteration!).

The coals take the better part of an hour to get going, because we’re camping at 85oo feet. There’s no air up here.

note: it's light.

When the coals are up, we throw foil-wrapped potatoes in, because they’re gonna take a while.

Granulated salt, but only a little. This stuff dissolves quickly, because it has less surface area than kosher granules. I don’t want to turn dinner into a salt lick.  A little pepper, but not too nuts.

When the potatoes are close, we ring them with firewood and light the kindling. We have a low, smouldering fire in about ten minutes.

Steaks.

The hot center coals do their job, and we rotate the meat between high heat in the center, and lower heat over the wood on the outside.

Note: It's dark.

You can never have too many photos of grilled meat.

Result?

Success, all in all. Nice medium rare, with one steak slightly rarer than the others. Happy happy.

The end products were slightly different than my previous experiment at home over gas. Without my kosher and pepper, the steaks didn’t ever really develop a deep mahogany crust like they did before. Also, I’m sure the lack of oil inhibited browning somewhat, leading to a paler surface.

Still, they were wonderful. Something about eating in a pine forest at elevation, with a mountain stream gurgling thirty feet away makes a meal remarkable, regardless of the technical details of the cooking process. Great way to start a hike.

However, my camp spork was completely inadequate.

*Special thanks to Zac, Uriah, and Natalie for the additional photographic help.

Short Loin – Grilled New York Strip

Ben and I just got back from Oroville. Good trip. If you have the means and inclination, I highly recommend it.

I’m beat up from the feet up, and I have a lot to do. First things first, though – food. I’ve been waiting for this.

Scenario: You have four hundred and twenty five pounds of premium grass-fed beef chilling in an iron box in your backyard.  Without exaggeration, you can have for dinner any damn beast piece your fluttery little heart desires. What’s it gonna be?

I’m a Kansas kid with Kansas tastes. Also, not a lot of time. Let’s roll up on some KC Strip.

Alright, technically it isn’t a KC strip, it’s a New York strip. KC usually has part of a bone attached. But it’s the same muscle. It’s off the short loin primal, just behind the ribs. It’s about the size of my hand, fingers outstretched. One thing I’m noticing with this grass-fed action – the meat seems to be a slightly darker red than the grain-fed beef I’m used to. That, or this could by attributed to my unhealthy affection for Cocoa Puffs.

Short loin doesn’t do a whole lot of work keeping the beast upright, so there isn’t much connective tissue there. It’s fairly tender, yet flavorful and lovely. No connective tissue to break down equals high, dry heat. It’s flavorful, so let’s not impede on the goodness.

I fire up the grill. While it’s coming up to speed, I prep the piece. Salt, pepper, and a little canola oil. No use camouflaging the flavor here, strip is a sincerely quality cut. I rub a little canola on my hands, rub the steaks (too much oil, and it’ll drip and cause flare-ups), salt, pepper, done. Walk away.

Grill’s at 450. Close enough for jazz. My guideline says three minutes per side, each side grilled twice, for a total of twelve minutes over the heat. Grass-fed beef is supposed to be leaner and quicker-cooking than grain-fed, so I shoot for two minutes per, total 8. Can’t un-cook things.

My meat thermometer recently died a horrible death, so we’re doing this oldschool. Finger test.

mid-grill

My three minute calculation was for rare. Two minutes per side and eight total minutes later, I’m looking at medium. It really does cook faster than grain-fed.

the inaugural meal

Next time I’m shooting for medium rare at 1:30 per side, 6 minutes total.

Rest, sides, and plating.

I did something right in a past life. Paired it with steamed corn, roasted broccoli with Parmesan and panko, and some home-baked potato-caraway bread my wife baked while I was gallivanting in NorCal, and we ate like kings.

But how was it?

Quite frankly, it was stupid good. Everyone at the table gasped and then fell silent when they tasted their steak. Ben and I ate at a high-end steakhouse the night before we brought this home, and this piece compared very favorably with the meal we had in the restaurant. Rich and flavorful, yet lean. I’ll willingly attribute any shortcomings to my cooking skills. I’ve never cooked grass-fed before. Cut me some slack.

Food porn? Don’t mind if I do:

steaky goodness

the plate

corn

roasted broccoli and parm

My wife bakes. I'm lucky.

In a word – holy bouncing buddha, batman. This is some quality cow.

It’s gonna be a very good year.