bad cooking instructions from Flannery

I grilled my first Flannery CA Reserve 16 oz. Rib-eye last night with unfortunate results. It measured 2" on one side, and 1 1/2 on the other, but even the recommendation for the 1 1/2" was 14 minutes, and that seemed ridiculous, so I went with the 9 minute recommendation for a 1 1/4 inch steak (7 and 3, which I know adds up to 10 minutes). I thought that was a lot, too. I would have given my normal Costco Prime about 5 minutes total, 2 1/2 and 2 1/2, but I went with the butcher’s instructions.

I brought the steak to room temperature and preheated my Weber Genesis 3 burned gas grill for 12 minutes. The steaks was very charred on the outside, and a dismal grey throughout the interior. I am mifffed that I wasted $40 on this experiment.

Any suggestions on where I went wrong, if I did?

There is a large amount of information you have left out here, like how hot the grill was and did you use a instant read thermometer to check the steak.

Does not matter how many times I have cooked a steak or type of steak, always use a thermometer.

Yeah you really need to check the temperature with an instant read thermometer, although my cook times are very consistent with the bge with a given dome temperature. I don’t think their recommendations are wrong; I usually cook Flannery hangers for ~8 minutes and ribeye/strip usually take a bit longer at ~400-450 on the bge.

That must be one heck of a hot grill or else you like stuff rare. I usually do 2:00 four times (so 8:00 total) to get perfect grill marks on my Weber genesis. That’s about a perfect medium rare for most Costco steaks.

I do this so often that a lot of days around dinner time my iPhone asks me if I want to set a timer for 2:00. :joy:

Next time reverse sear with a digital thermometer in steak set for temp you want. You couldn’t screw it up if you tried.

I think steak cooking instructions have too many variables to be reliable. Assuming you have experience, which I think everyone here has plenty, follow your own knowledge with your set up and modify a bit according to the product such as shape, thickness, and age.

That said, I agree with Paul. Reverse sear while following the warm up with a fast, accurate thermometer is pretty fool proof. SV is similarly, but I agree with those in the steak porn thread that the results are often a step down from reverse sear.

Since you asked, and with respect, you went wrong by blindly following instructions that were contrary to your own experience, and by not having a sanity check along the way, like a thermometer, or even just the touch test, to see how the meat was coming along. I’ve honestly been cooking most steaks, those I don’t reverse sear, by the touch test for years, and they almost always come out perfectly. I have no idea how long I spend per side. I’m sure it varies.

I don’t think it’s fair to say Bryan gave “bad cooking instructions.” As others have noted, cook times can never be one-size-fits-all, so any instructions have to be taken as guidelines. Recipe/cookbook authors have to generalize to cover everything from top of the line stoves to what’s essentially an Easy Bake Oven, and it’s up to us as cooks to adjust where necessary. Some of my friends who really can’t cook fall into that trap all the time, insisting on following the recipe when it’s clearly not working - stopping the onions after 15 minutes even though they are nothing like caramelized because that’s what the cookbook said, or leaving something in the oven for the full 2 hours without foil on top even if the top is burning. Things like that.

I’m sorry your steak got ruined. It happens sometimes and is always sad. I can certainly understand why you decided to go with the instructions as written - I’ve done it myself many times for recipes over the years. I hope it won’t turn you off to the product, because Flannery beef really is terrific.

Do these steaks have a lot of untrimmed fat?

If I am careless and inattentive, ribeyes on my gas grill sometimes flare up pretty badly and get charred…if left long enough they would be very charred and dismally grey inside.

There is a fool proof method of just leaving a steak on one side until the very first signs of moisture coming out of the top. Then just flip it long enough to get a sear on the other side (45 seconds on a hot grill). Let it rest for 15 mins and you get medium rare every time.

I made 12 oz Flannery ribeye and petite NYS today on the bge. It was about 15 min at 350 then 2 min sear at high temp for perfect medium rare.

This. - Well said.

George

Remember that dry aged steaks have less water mass and therefore a lower specific heat. That means you need less energy to heat them to a given temperature than a steak with higher water content. So take your Costco steak cook time and cut it by 30-50% and you’ll be in the right ballpark.
I overcooked a Flannery early on - I usually do them sous vide now at ~50°C and then sear in a screaming hot cast iron, flipping very frequently. The more often you flip the longer the cook takes, but the more even the meat inside. And if you’re going to the trouble of using sous vide you don’t want to end up with an overcooked steak from the sear!