My Decade Steak

Yesterday I completed my 10th year of teaching.  To celebrate a decade of teaching, I wanted a large piece of cow.  I selected the Dry-Rubbed Porterhouse With Barbecue Steak Sauce on page 103.  After receiving some minor heckling from The Bride about the price of my piece of beef, I set about my business.

The first thing to do was to create the rub.  Long story short: Weber strikes again.  This rub was really nice, and a pleasant surprise.  It wasn't quite Southwest in flavor, but it was close.  I'm starting to really like the freshly ground mustard and black pepper combination that keeps appearing in the many rubs listed in The Guide.  Once again, I used my dedicated spice grinder and shaker to apply the rub.

While the coals were readying themselves, the sauce needed preparation.  Overall, I'm not a fan of using a steak sauce.  In fact, I'm pretty much of the opinion that if you need a steak sauce (except the French au pouvoir sauce), you messed up your steak.  The Bride knows that it's a bad sign at a restaurant when I reach for the steak sauce.  However, in the spirit of following the recipe, I went ahead with creating the sauce.  Upon finishing it, my initial taste test revealed that this sauce was a little on the sweet side, but still had a nice tang to it. 

Once the coals were ready, it was searing time!  This used fair amount of direct heat, but the finishing touch was the indirect heat so that the rub did not burn, which is a key element as I seriously dislike "blackened" meat.

After adding some herbed potatoes and cucumber salad, the plating was complete.

Sweet Baby Jesus, I love porterhouse steaks.  I began with the side that has the filet...t'was like butter.  I've had filet mignon before, but never one that came attached to a bone.  The rub played off of the delicateness of the filet beautifully, and the sauce was not needed.  At most I could only place a small dab on each piece of steak.  Like I said, if you need a steak sauce you made a mistake in the first place.  The strip side was also cooked magnificently.  Its texture appreciated the sauce a little more, but again, I thought that it was just fine without it.  The Bride enjoyed some modest thievery from both sides of the bone.  The sauce did have a nice application, though...it worked rather well with the potatoes. 

Teaching a decade...truly worthy of a silly meal.  This fit the bill.