Recipe & pairing | Luke Powell's (Quality Meats) Perfect Grilled Steak

Whether you're a beginner, expert or somewhere in between, Luke Powell’s “Quality Meats” (available now!) is your essential companion for grilling, roasting, smoking and curing. From small plates, sandwiches and smoked briskets, to more ambitious undertakings like homemade sausages and charcuterie - plus foolproof how-tos, like this method for the perfect grilled steak. And as a bonus here, our tips for the perfect pairing too.

Pairing tip: "A classic for a reason, Margaret River or Coonawarra cabernet sauvignon has everything I would want here; juicy plush fruit, robust tannins, and enough mouthwatering acidity to match the succulent cut sizzling away over the heat (I prefer a ribeye). Other big, full-bodied reds also have two thumbs up from me  - think malbec, or grenache, shiraz, mataro (GSM, if you can’t pick between). Merlot is a great shout too, if you’re looking for something slightly more svelte in body. Whichever you decide from these options, it’ll be delicious - but check out our full guide to pairing steak by cut, if you're after something nuanced." - Nick

Try this with:

Cabernet Sauvignon 2017 – Black Market Deal #47941

The 2017 vintage had it's challenges, but this wine and this producer bucked the trend entirely. This is a masterfully crafted, elegant-yet-powerful (thanks to that slightly higher ABV), age worthy Cab. We can't get enough of it (literally, we bought everything we could get our hands on and it won't be enough). Varietal in all the right ways; long, herbed, a touch twiggy, a lot brambly. Where it steps outside the mould a little, though, is in the density of the fruit. It borrows somewhat from the powerful fruit profiles of Coonawarra, but it doesn't shed its Margaret River finesse in doing so.

B by Fonbadet Bordeaux AOC 2019

When you start getting insanely high Decanter scores (97pts!) and enough gold to satisfy even the most bling-obsessed person you know, then you’d assume you’re dealing with some incredibly expensive Bordeaux. Guess you’d be wrong in this instance. Not on the quality of course, but on the price. This might be our best Bordeaux deal ever. We don’t need to go into too much detail on the wine. We’ll let the Decanter review below do the heavy lifting: “Beautifully aromatic, with lovely, lifted floral notes, fresh raspberry and cassis, then to a supple palate dressed with dark chocolate, red pepper and delicious pure fruit. Light on its feet but bursting with flavour!” We’ll just say ‘ditto’ to that.

Grilled Steak

Good steak is a luxury. I much prefer to cook steak only occasionally, sourcing the nest I can from the butcher. That way, it keeps its value as a cut built around excitement and anticipation. My absolute favourite steak is rib-eye. If you’re more of a fillet or sirloin person, you may find this cut tastes fattier due to its high level of intramuscular fat, but I prefer it – it adds juiciness and brings different textures. You can cook sirloin following the same method, although I recommend trying to get it on the bone: cooking steak on the bone adds flavour, and it just looks better on the plate. It pays to get a fairly large piece of steak, as I’ve suggested here. Anything less, and it’s hard to develop a nice crust before the inside begins to overcook. Plan to cook your steak gently and slowly, and you’ll be rewarded.

SERVES 2–4 

• 1 kg (2 lb 4 oz) rib-eye steak 

• Olive oil, for drizzling 

• Flaky salt

1. Remove the steak from the fridge and leave it to temper for at least an hour before cooking. 

2. Light a charcoal grill or barbecue and let it burn down to a steady bed of white, glowing coals, hot enough that you can only hold your hand close for a couple of seconds. It would also be good to have one area with less embers and another with no coals so that you can slow things down or move the steak away from the flames if things get out of hand. Set a wire rack above the coals. 

3. Rub a little olive oil all over the steak to coat, then season it liberally with flaky salt. Season harder than you think, because a lot of salt will fall o during cooking and with meat this thick, you won’t risk overseasoning. 

4. Place the steak on the rack above the coals. Rearrange the coals if needed, positioning the meat so it can cook slowly. Gently cook the steak, flipping it every few minutes to evenly distribute the heat, and monitoring the temperature with a probe thermometer. 

5. When the steak is around 10–12°C (20°F) below your desired doneness (see page 124), start working on developing the crust: lower the rack closer to the coals and rearrange the coals to form more of a hot zone. Continue to turn the steak occasionally, allowing a nice crust to form. When the steak is 5°C (10°F) below your desired doneness, remove it from the heat and leave it to rest. The residual heat will continue to cook the meat as it rests and carry it to the desired temperature. 

6. To carve the steak, stand it on a chopping board with the bone pointing up, then carefully run a knife between the bone and the meat. Lay the meat flat on the board and, with your knife at a 45-degree angle, cut the steak into 1 cm (1 ⁄2 in) slices. Try to keep the slices in formation for serving by sliding the knife underneath the whole lot and transferring them to a warm plate. Gently season with salt between each slice.

Degrees of doneness for beef, lamb and pork 

• Bleu: 45°C (113°F) 

• Rare: 50°C (122°F) 

• Medium–rare: 55°C (131°F) 

• Medium: 60°C (140°F) 

• Medium–well: 65°C (149°F) 

• Well-done: 70°C (158°F) 

Keep in mind that when you’re grilling or roasting, the residual heat continues to cook the item even after it’s taken o­ff the heat. This means you’ll need to pull it out­ when it’s a few degrees shy of where you want it to be. You can always cook something more if it’s under, but you can’t go back if it’s over.

Images and text from Quality Meats by Luke Powell, photography by Alicia Taylor. Murdoch Books RRP $55.00.