Slow 'N Sear / Competition Steak Cooking

I did this cook today in my Weber Gen 2 Performer Kettle in another one of those middle of the Winter warm and wonderful Spring like days. I think it’s our third day at about 70 degrees. 

Trimmed up a couple of steaks that weighed about one pound each and were about 1-1/8” thick and applied two different competition rubs. The top steak has a rub with dill seed in it and is my wife’s favorite and the bottom steak is my favorite and has a little heat in it. Both are very good rubs for competition steaks. 

I moved the Slow ‘N Sear as far to the middle of the cooker as it would go and then foiled each side of the unit to force all the intake air up thru the center of the accessory for maximum air flow and heat. I filled a Weber chimney full of all Kingsford Professional  all hardwood charcoal briquets for this cook and lit if off for this cook. I would rather use all lump but I think that SCA and Kingsford will team up again this year and offer the additional “double your contest purse” if you win and I sure can’t pass on this great offer. 

My tools for this cook. I decided to try two different methods of cooking the steak in the Weber Kettle to see which one might be the best for the setups I had on hand. 

I did the first steak on my standard size Grill Grates after a 15 minute warm up (to 625 degrees) and this took a total of 10 minutes to get it seared up and looking good. 

After the first steak was done, I setup the kettle with my cast iron steak grid setup and let it warm up for about 20-25 minutes to my cooking temp of about 500 degrees and this steak took about a minute less to get to my pulling temp of about 136-138 degrees for that perfect finish temp of medium that the SCA rules call for. 

You know...I think both of them looked great and would be competitive in a contest. 

Both steaks in the presentation box and ready for turn-in. 

The results of the cook looked about right on the doneness of warm and pink in the center (medium) and my sear marks on both steaks came out well. For ease of cooking, I thought the steak on the cast iron grid was the easiest to cook. I also found out that I could have used much less fuel (maybe 2/3rd chimney of charcoal) for this type of cook. 

I sure feel that a fellow could do quite well with either of these setups and method for cooking a competitive steak in a SCA contest with the Weber Kettle and the Slow ‘N Sear accessory. 

SCA Competition Steak Contest / Cobb Grill

I finally got to cook in a competition steak contest last weekend at the Praise the Lard event in Murphysboro, Illinois. This is a large event which includes a KCBS BBQ Contest, a MBN BBQ Contest, and a SCA Steak Contest. The contest is held at Mike Millls and family 17th. Street Barbeque Restaurant and property. 

This is a four day event with many different contests within the larger contests. 

The steak contest was on Friday so we left Coatesville, In. about 3:30am and got over to the contest site about 8:15 am and got our little area setup for the cook. Must of took all of 20 minutes. 

The other half of Ribs & Bibs Cooking Team and my great friend Mike Zinkan who claims to be the Indiana State Micro-Wave Champion. 

Went to the cooks meeting at noon and picked out our two steaks and one of which looked pretty good. I am sure the steaks were select grade as the marbling didn’t look very good to me. I have been practicing with choice steaks so I figured these might be a little more difficult to cook. 

About an hour before turn-in, started my fire, trimmed up the steak and added my rubs, waited for the fire to get ready and the steaks to warm up, and then got the cook started. 

The steaks were about 1-1/8” thick and took slightly over 9 minutes to cook on my 640 degree Cobb Grill with Grill Grates. The picture shows the steak ready to come off the grill.

This is our steak entry and it placed 15th out of 49 competition steak teams. The steak scored high in presentation, high in doneness, medium in taste, and low in texture. I would assume that it must have been tough to chew. 

I guess my steak cooking skills could use some improvement and more practice will be in order over the Winter months. I was still satisfied with my first competition steak cook and plan to do more next year especially if we get more events in the Midwest.

Competition Steak Cook Off / Mo Money

There is an upcoming “Praise the Lard” SCA competition steak cooking contest in Murpheysboro, Illinois in September and it sure looks good to me. Along with the low entry fee of just $100 dollars and that includes the meat as well, and a nice prize fund of $2600 dollars with $1000 for the winner, it has even gotten better!

SCA and Kingsford have teamed up for the “Kingsford Challenge” which will double the winners prize if you are using the Kingsford Professional Briquets. On top of that, Grill Grates will pay the top placing team using their product an additional $500 dollars for their effort.

Sure seems like a bargain to me...heck, if a fellow gets lucky and wins this event, he could collect as much as $2500 dollars for his $100 dollar entry fee which like I said even includes the meat. Nice prize for a 2-3 hour event.

Since I am signed up for this event, I need to change my charcoal from lump over the the Kingsford Professional Briquets to qualify for the larger prize. I have done so with my Weber Jumbo Joe and have worked out the correct amount for the temperature I want for steak and now need to work out the correct amount on my Cobb Grill as I plan to use it in one of these events.



I tried 20 briquets for this first try and am hoping for a cooking temperature of 620-650 measured on top of the Grill Grates for my steak cooking.



Steak ready to go on the cooker after a one hour warm-up with the rub applied.



Just nailed it...after a 25 minute warmup on my Grill Grates, I had a temp of 650 degrees which is perfect for my method with the steak.



To fill out my cook, I also did three of my homemade 1/3 pound pork burgers on the back side of the Grill Grates.



The results of the cook.





Now, I do like steak but not near as much as one of my 1/3rd pound pork burgers on a slider bun. Added some lettuce, a slice of onion and tomato and then a nice amount of horsey sauce and I enjoyed a very nice 2 bib meal. The steak can wait...