Grilling Dry-aged Ribeye

[cletts]

So the grocery store recently introduced their own dry-aged beef, and I took the plunge today and picked up some dry-aged ribeye! I'm a little nervous about cooking them since they were a little pricey - don't want to screw it up.

I'm going for medium-rare and they're about 3/4-to-1-inch thick and I want to do it on the gas grill.

Wanted to serve it with a herbed butter or something like that, so wasn't sure if I should put any sort of dry rub on it first or instead just some oil and salt.

Any ideas? Experience?

Thanks!

[cletts]

Interesting butter discussion :) Maybe I'll try one with and one without to do a comparison. Shall report back after dinner tonight.

[ipsedixit]

Just salt. And some cracked pepper before serving.

Butter? Really? Why ruin such a lovely cut of beef with butter ...

[twyst]

The "secret" to a lot of high end steakhouses is the tiny bit of butter they drizzle on after cooking. You obviously dont drown your steak in it, but just a smidgen works magic. Try it before you scoff at the idea. More of the super premium big name steakhouses do this than you know. Peter Luger has been renowned for generations because of this trick.

[ipsedixit]

I have, and hate it.

It's one reason I avoid Ruth's Chris like the plague.

[twyst]

Ruths Chris drowns their steaks in butter, thats not what Im talking about doing. Im talking about more peter luger or craft steak style, where you wont even know its had a little butter aded to it unless you really look for it. Less is more, but it makes a huge difference.

[ipsedixit]

Trust me. I know. And I hate it. I hate butter in all foods, except baked goods.

[tommy]

If you hate butter in all foods then your question "why ruin such a lovely cut of beef with butter" seems odd and silly.

[kaleokahu]

Hi, ipse:

Excuse my impertinence, but ruination by butter? A self-refuting impossibility, I say. An a priori synthetic lie. The ultimate anti-tautology. An Olympian oxymoron.

Many wish to be buried, others cremated. I intend to be poelled.

BTW, I suppose you also think there is some food that cannot be improved by bacon?

Obviously, :P,
Kaleo

[ipsedixit]

I've never been a fan of butter. A personal failing I suppose.

Except for baking, I would never use it. And even in baking it's usually reserved for things like pie crusts and certain types of cookies. Butter cookies? P'shaw.

But going back to the OP. For steaks -- esp. a rich and marbled cut like ribeye -- butter is simply extraneous and will fight the natural, deep-flavors that you look for in a dry-aged beef.

[kaleokahu]

Hi, ipse:

Hmmm, can't say I agree or disagree without waffling (rimshot!) over the *quantity* of butter. Personally, I use it on steaks mostly for the visuality of it, and so am very sparing. But it seems to me that any amount of any fat other than that barked on or marbled into the beef, in the searing skillet or on the OP's grate, is also going to be "fighting" the flavor.

And do you always eschew saucing dry-aged steaks? Hard to do much of that without "Vitamin B"!

Cheers,
Kaleo

[ipsedixit]

Never sauce a steak, unless we're talking cuts like skirt and chimichurri.

[kaleokahu]

Hi, ipse:

OK, so you're a steak Puritan, that's cool. I'm that way from time to time. Othertimes I enjoy a green peppercorn sauce on a Spencer. TEHO.

Aloha,
Kaleo

[ipsedixit]

Here's an off-topic tangent.

In college, I dated a person who worked in one those national steakhouse chains (not Ruth's Chris where the the words "steak" "butter" and "soaked" follow one another).

My friend insisted that the kitchen would often doctor up certain not-up-to-snuff cuts of beef -- everything was supposed to be Prime, but sometimes you'd get cuts that were just below Prime, call it somewhere between Choice and Prime -- and the kitchen would simply doctor it up by drizzling some butter on it.

I have no first-hand knowledge of that, but I will say, if you have a truly Prime grade cut of beef that's been dry-aged, the only thing you need to is fire to make a good meal. Utensils might even be optional at that point.

[tommy]

Thousands of people who enjoy Luger disagree with you.

Butter "fights" the flavor of steak? LOL!

[Veggo]

I have never had the privilege of grilling a dry aged rib eye, but in my experience with grilling some steaks and especially swordfish is that judicious application of a little melted butter while grilling induces a few friendly, short lasting flares that help with the outside finish, and adds only a hint of flavor to the end product.

[kaleokahu]

Hi, ipse:

I think what you're describing here is a steakhouse adding a little butter to improve the perceived quality of the steak. As if that's a bad thing, or somehow loses its medicinal effect with meat graded prime. Maybe they "doctored up" their meat with salt and pepper, too? How far do we take this--is a fire even necessary?

Could it be that "soaked" is a tad hyperbolic? I mean, we're not talking about larding a chuck steak with pounds of butter, are we? I'm not; if I could get it to melt and spread it evenly, a half-pat of butter for both sides would be the most I'd ever want.

But you've given me an idea... I sometimes marinate a steak in a vacuum chamber with oil/wine/herbs/etc. I'm going to try using only clarified morel garlic butter just to see what a soaked steak is like.

Aloha,
Kaleo

[ipsedixit]

Ruth's Chris definitely "soaks" their steak in butter. No hyperbole.

Michael Mina (he of Bourbon Steakhouse) butter poaches (a la sous-vide) his steaks before grilling.

[twyst]

Salt and pepper is all they need, then put a little pat of butter on them as they rest and let them melt over the steak.