Campfire Reverse Sear Steak

Three beautiful rain swept days camped out on a remote Scottish beach featured this treat.

A generous 1kg Scottish Border Beef T-bone and a curiosity to explore a reverse seared steak using only the campfire to ensure even doneness to the bone.

What is the Reverse Sear Cooking?

Reverse searing is a two part way of cooking meat, first a gradual gentle cook to just underdone internal temperature on the meat delivering an even doneness through out the cut. Next stage is to then sear over a high heat until the desired level of browning is reached. Ultimately we are looking for a beautifully salt crust seared exterior to the meat and a perfectly even doneness within.

This technique lends particularly well to thicker and bone in cuts of meat.

A similar cooking idea is sous vide, where by packeted steaks are submerged in a gentle water bath and brought up to temperature over 2-4 hours, then removed, dried and seared.

The method here uses the warm air of the fire to gradually bring the steak up to temperature, over the 2 hours the seasoned meat and dry air part cure, leaving a perfect dry surface ready for an impressive seared finish.

How to reverse sear a steak on the campfire

Start by generously salting your steak/s and setting then in the grill.

By setting the Firechef Grill in the distant notched roast configuration the T-bone was brought up to 55C internal over a couple of hours (switch at 52 for rare).

Taking on the the ambience of the campfire, the salted exterior part cured and dried by the fire leaving an attack ready surface to sear.

Set the steak in grill to sear position for a couple minutes browning each side until the desired crust is achieved.

Reverse Seared Steak Timing

Depending on your size of fire, feel with you hand a distance to the side of the fire you can comfortably feel the warmth. In this example a small campfire put the steak around 2-3ft away for a couple of hours.

Consider wind direction, smoke, wood types burning and flavours you wish to impart.

Reverse Seared Steak Cuts

Aim for 1 inch plus beef steaks, bone in a bonus; T-bone, Sirloin, Ribeye, Tomahawk

Reverse Seared Steak Internal Temperature

If you have a temperature probe let this guide you, if not we are looking for a tender press and dry part cured exterior pre sear. Below are some internal cooking temperatures for your reference.

With reverse sear method, think slow, get it up to the lower temperature, rest, then when ready for the end action work on a hot sear to build the crust.

This method is very forgiving and essentially after a long reverse sear is perfectly even finish inside the steak.