Cook the Perfect Campfire Steak

Cook the Perfect Campfire Steak

There’s an art to searing the ultimate slab of beef when you’re out bush.

“For years I would sift through blogs, recipe books, YouTube videos and magazines looking for campfire cooking ideas,” says Harry Fisher. Eventually, tired of “celebrity presenters making variations of the same pre-packaged, bland camp meals (inevitably on a gas burner)”, Fisher began to adapt proper recipes from proper, world-class chefs.

As natural on screen as he is whipping up a feed, Fisher’s @firetofork ‘adventure cooking’ Instagram page now has more than 42,000 fans. His YouTube page boasts almost 48,000 more. And Fisher himself has a new cookbook, Fire to Fork.

The book marks a departure from the deconstructed croquembouche and polenta foam filled releases of the post-MasterChef world. Boasting sumptuous Australian Outback photography, it’s a root-and-branch guide to preparing Michelin-worthy grub under the stars.

From the basics (cooking gear, knowing your campfires), to surprising delights (a puff pastry apple pie in a jaffle iron), to myth busting (stop cooking your steak at room temperature), Fisher’s dishes would have Heston Blumenthal weeping into his sleeping bag.

Here’s his guide to the perfect steak.

Step 1: 

“For most steaks, where you will need to get the internal temperature to at least 45°C, you are best to use a method called reverse searing. This is where the steak is cooked slowly to begin with, then quickly at the end. There are many ways to do this, but they all involve offsetting the meat from the heat. It could be as simple as leaving the steak in a wok near the fire for half an hour, or as elaborate as the tripod you can see on the cover of this book.

When reverse searing a thick steak, the key is to regularly check the internal temperature with a meat thermometer and take it off when it’s approximately 10°C cooler than you want it to end up.

“The next step is to pat the steak dry with a paper towel and season it generously with cracked pepper and salt flakes or rock salt. This should be the last thing you do before you put it on the grill to sear it.”

Step 2

“Now that your thick, thin or somewhere-in-between steak is nearly done, it’s time to do the most important, but also the easiest bit, the sear. The surface itself doesn’t matter too much here; you can use a cast-iron frypan, a grill basket, a hotplate or simply lay the steak straight on the coals. Whatever you do, it should be scorching hot and should be burning cleanly without too much smoke.

“Sear the steak until it has a nice brown crust all over it—depending on your fire, this can take anywhere from 90 seconds to ten minutes. Ideally, you’re aiming for about two to five minutes of total cook time, depending on the size of the steak. Thick steaks take longer because you need to sear the sides, too.”

For medium rare, sear when the temperature reaches 45-50°C, and pull it off when it hits 55-57°C.

Step 3

Rest the steak, but for no longer than five minutes. The thicker steak, the longer the resting time.

Step 4

Eat, boast, sleep.

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