My husband and dad were weary of me using such an expensive cut of meat like a Porterhouse steak to try Steven Raichlen’s “Caveman Style” grilling technique, but I just had to try it.
The “Caveman” style of grilling meat as introduced by Raichlen on his Primal Grill Show is essentially grilling a steak directly over hot coals. So, you can see why Scott was wary of burning a beautiful Porterhouse!
Grilling directly over the coals gives the steaks a nice char on the outside and also adds a nice smokey flavor.
However, the Caveman style steak turned out beautiful on the outside and inside at a perfect medium rare with a nice char on the outside.
This took less than 10 minutes of actual grilling time and we cooked veggies on a cast iron skillet at the same time thereby cooking the entire “Meal on the Grill”, the only way I do it.
I use my cast iron skillet quite often while grilling meat to do sides and veggies.
What is Porterhouse Steak?
Porterhouse steaks are cut from the rear end of the short loin; so they include more tenderloin steak, along with a large strip steak on the other side of the bone.
When I’m cooking steaks for a special occasion, I like to cook Wagyu Steaks from Snake River Farms, once you go Wagyu- it’s hard to go back!
My dog Haley enjoyed a nice t-bone to chew on after dinner.
Caveman Style Steak
Ingredients
Recommended use: Lump (wood) charcoal
- 2 porterhouse steaks (this will also work with a t-bone steak)
- 1 tblsp spoon olive oil
- 1 tblsp course sea salt
- 1 tblsp fresh ground pepper
- optional: veggies/onions/garlic/olive oil- sliced for sauteeing in a cast iron skillet while steaks cook
Instructions
- Lightly coat the steaks with olive oil and then add generous amounts of salt and pepper. This steak doesn’t need a lot of seasoning, the grill and smoke will season it enough along with its natural taste.
- Prepare a charcoal grill for medium high heat using lump wood charcoal. Let the embers get nice and hot and and ashed over. If the flames are too high, close the lid and let them go down.
- On a nice even bed of coals, put both steaks on top of the coals.
- Let the steak grill for 4 minutes on each side. Once juices start bubbling on the top, it is a good indicator it is time to flip them. They should develop a nice char on each side by laying on the coals.
- When you pull them off, use a marinade brush to dust off the coal/ash.
- While the meat was grilling, I sauteed veggies in a cast iron skillet on the other side of the grill. I use cast iron grill grates which come together in 4 parts which allow me to grill on coals and on the grate at the same time.
- Tent the meat for 10 minutes to let the juices redistribute. Serve with the veggies, bread and a nice glass of wine!
We did this for Scott’s Birthday Dinner last week and it was a hit. I made a homemade blueberry lemon cake that I will be sharing in a future post. I hope you enjoy this back to roots grilling technique!
Notes
I recommend using lump charcoal versus briquettes as lump is just hardwood versus briquettes will leave ash on your meat which you do not want.
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Did you enjoy making Cave Man Style Porterhouse Steaks? Check out these related posts!
Nice job Robyn. We like to grill a porterhouse when we find good ones then I eat the strip and Bev the filet. Never tried the cave man style. I’m cutting up a whole filet for dinner tonight.
Awesome looking dinner. Porterhouse is my favorite cut, though I haven’t tried the caveman method (but I mean to!)
The veggies look great, and those cast iron grates are cool, too!
– Perry
Perry P. Perkins
Author
La Caja China Cooking
La Caja China World
MEAT FIRE GOOD
Happy birthday indeed! Heck, I’d be happy just to get a pair of these beauties unlocked for my bday but to get a whole kick butt meal like this would be even better. Crap I’m having chicken tonight……
Awesome, that would be right up my alley. I like a steak charred on the outside, but not dried out.
Kinda reminds me of the time years ago camping. I dropped the last burger through the grill into the campfire. Since that was MY burger, I went after it and ate it. A little crunchy from the wood ash, but damn good. Of course the previously consumed 6 pack may have influenced that a bit!