Grilled Ribeye Steaks and an Ode To The Big Texan Steak Ranch and the 72-oz Steak Challenge

Hello and welcome back to The Stone Soup Cook–so glad you’re here!

Today, I’m continuing my series on California Cuisine. Grilling was an important technique in such groundbreaking restaurants as Chez Panisse and Spago, both of which boasted large wood-fired ovens right in their restaurants and grilled all manner of things: meats, seafood, vegetables and even pizzas.

I am going to be featuring grilled meats for another week before I pivot to grilled vegetables and pizzas.

Today, I’m featuring grilled ribeye steaks, which is not a cut that I have worked much with. My go-to cut is the filet. But, my butcher was out of filets last week when I visited and recommended the ribeyes, which did look awesome. Ribeyes are known for their bold, rich flavor due to the amount of fat surrounding the cut, which provides flavor and helps to retain juiciness. I was not disappointed in his recommendation.

But first, a story from my childhood:

In my hometown in Texas, there was a Big Texan Steak Ranch. It offered (and still does, by the way) what’s known as the 72-oz steak challenge. What’s the challenge? Eating an entire 72oz steak, plus baked potato, shrimp cocktail, salad, bread and, of course, that 72oz steak. It’s $72.00 if you aren’t able to eat it in one hour, or free if you eat it all–and they mean ALL of it. The whole meal–baked potato, shrimp cocktail and all. Yikes. And to date, more than 10,000 folks have managed to do this. Buried in the rules is an admonition that if you get sick, you lose, but they do provide a handy barf bucket for your…ummm…illness. Double yikes.

Legends of people attempting to conquer this challenge abounded, but I never knew anyone who was actually able to do it. It was actually one of the nicer restaurants in town–we never went to it–too expensive! I did not remember the part about having to eat the ENTIRE meal–I thought it was only the steak. I remember thinking: “ok, if I were to try to do it, I wouldn’t fill up on salad or bread, I’d just tackle the steak,” but them’s not the rules! Ha! I also didn’t realize that if you got sick, you lost the challenge. So much for the vomitoriums of ancient Rome, right?

But I digress.

Let’s get back to the ribeye:

I grilled my ribeyes on my new Big Green Egg. But first, I tenderized them with lime juice and a generous amount of Kosher salt. My ribeyes were about an inch thick and I tenderized for 3-4 hours in the fridge and then took them out for an hour while the grill pre-heated. I sprinkled them with a little lemon-pepper and grilled them for a total of eight minutes, flipping them every two minutes for even grilling. They came out a perfect medium, which is the way we like them. I would grill them a minute or two less for medium-rare. We used a combination of the regular FOGO lump charcoal and added a piece of mesquite smoking wood and a chunk of pecan smoking wood. Let me just tell you–I have had steaks that were a little more tender, but the flavor was extraordinary–rich, meaty, smoky–it was just the perfect bite. I’m going to try the wood smoke technique on filets, but honestly–this ribeye was so good, I may not go back.

I hope you enjoy these grilled ribeye steaks with a nice, big cabernet sauvignon, some hasselback potatoes and asparagus or a beautiful arugula and seasonal fruit salad: