Off-Topic

I should have taken a picture of everything that I had to throw out this morning.

Still mulling over ideas for tomorrow.

Will be doing crabs, beer, and shrimp outdoors tomorrow. Learned something new today, when you get a bushel of crabs, make sure they are right side up. If they are upside down, they will die more quickly.

I run to the Wye River which is 1 and 1/2 hours from my house. The best way to transport the crabs and keep them ALL alive is simple. I use regular bushel baskets with lids, some old towels and ice. Place crabs, right side up in basket and fill to just over 3/4 full. If any are upside down, they will die. Cover the crabs with a damp towel. The damp towel keeps them calm and keeps the moisture in the basket. Dump about 10 lbs. of ice (cubes or chips...not a block) onto the towel and spread evenly. Place the bushel basket lid on and secure with a bungee cord so it doesn't fly off in transport.

I have done this ever since I learned that crabs die in the cooler (they actually drown if covered with a limited amount of water). All they need to to survive out of water is cool and damp environment. Evaporating water (ice) provides both. I have had crabs in bushel baskets like the above description for 6+ hours and no or minimal loss (1 or 2 due to fighting).

Never put them in a cooler with water or let them get upside down. The big ones need to be handled very carefully as they seem to die when handled roughly out of water.

So far I have 2 racks of baby backs and 1 rack of spare ribs for the smoker, and one whole chicken. I'm going to add at least two or three more items to cover all my surface area, and will also make some custom sausages and burgers. Any ideas for other things to smoke (that won't take 14 hours)? I'm thinking maybe beef back ribs or more spares maybe.

Fish smokes at a lower temp than I'll be keeping it at for the chicken and pork though. I'd have to get up at like 7 to do the fish before I toss on the pork and chicken.

What cut of steak is it? I don't often marinate them unless its a tougher cut. Just dry spices and salt/pepper usually

Yea if you spent any money on the steak I probably wouldn't use a marinade. If it's cheap or a cut that needs flavor I'd say all the ingredients listed sound like they'd work.

Just don't cut into it while cooking and let it rest for ~5 minutes after taking it off the heat and you should be fine juice-retention wise. Also, let it sit out a while to get to room temperature before you grill it for more even cooking.

This.

Save your marinade for flank steaks and the like.

Also, if your steaks are about an inch / inch and a half thick, throw it right over the burner on high (or over the hottest coals) and try to get a good sear on one side - probably about 4 minutes depending on how hot your grill gets. Don't fiddle w/ it much. Flip it and do another 4 minutes. This SHOULD get you to medium rare if it's on the thicker range and the heat is strong. Every grill is different though and what you can learn is to know the done-ness by touch. Good test....

This, but let it rest a little longer. 15 mins is my minimum.

Take it out of the fridge 30 mins early so it can come up to room temp. Sprinkle some salt on it when you do this. Make sure its dry at this point.

After the 30 mins, add pepper, any other dry spices you want to add. Grill to desired doneness, rest for 15 mins before cutting into it.

Edit: was quoting aschaefe, but we are all basically saying the same thing

A trick I learned with NY Strip steaks (at least when cooking inside, doesn't really matter when grilling outside over direct heat), is to cook on high heat on its side, the side where the strip of fat is located, for a minute or two to render out some of that fat, then flip it 90 degrees and cook it on each of its sides normally. That way you are cooking it in its own fat, and it renders out some of the fat you'd probably end up picking around once it was done anyways.

Yeah, but I'll be home from work around 530, and I'll have roughly 20 hours at least until I start cooking it. I figure that will be plenty of time.

You go boy. I'm working on some marinades now.