Reverse Searing is in our opinion the ONLY way to cook larger cuts or steaks that you plan to serve medium rare / medium. When it is cooked over fire, it is about as good as food can get. This technique is brilliant for thick steaks, butterflied lamb legs, whole ribeye or fillet (beef and venison), and even chicken.
The basic premise of Reverse Searing is that you do the opposite of a traditional fast sear at the beginning and then a slow roast to finish. You instead slowly bring the internal temperature up under a low or indirect heat, rest and then sear to create the colour and char you are after.
Technique
We'll use a tomahawk steak or bone in ribeye as an example (because they are awesome!). Lets say the steak is around 1kg, so 50-60mm thick. Ask your butcher to leave a good length of rib on the meat as it's a great handle.
The basic steak cooking rules apply, so we are going to let our meat come up to room temperature before we start.
There are loads of options when it comes to the slow cooking element of this fire cook. You can drill a hole in the bone and hang it over the fire, raise your Argentinian grill grate or use the top shelf of Ozbraai Camp Braai over an open fire. The point is you are after a reasonably low heat, around 120C or where you can hold your hand for 10+ seconds. Directly above the fire is best as juices and fat will drip into the fire and return to the meat as flavour.
Dry your meat with paper towels and season generously with coarse flaky sea salt (our preference), or your favorite beef rub. You won't need any oil.
As with all fire cooking, there are no timers, you want to cook, turning regularly, until the internal temp hits 50-55C, this should take around 40-60 minutes depending on your fire.
When temp is reached sit the steak aside to rest for at least 10 minutes (wrap in foil if much longer, and even foil then a towel if much much longer).
After resting you want to sear the steak on all sides with very high heat. As crazy as it sounds, directly on hot coals does wonders, just give them a blow to get rid of any loose ash first. You'll be aiming for a very fast sear, maybe 1 min each side. Rest for 5 minutes, and slice to serve.
For an extra touch, you can make up a compound butter with salt, pepper, garlic, and herbs and warm this in a cast iron pot near the fire. Brush / pour this over the steak before and after searing.
Enjoy!
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