Recipes / Meat
T-bone steak with garlic and herb butter
Thick T-bones seared over hot coals, fillet side kept away from the fiercest heat, then topped with a soft garlic and herb butter.
- Prep
- 15 min
- On the fire
- 12 min
- Plan ahead
- 30 minutes for the steaks to lose their chill
- Serves
- 4
- Done at
- 145°F (63°C)
Ingredients
Garlic and herb butter
Method
Cooking on gas?
- Preheat with all burners on high and the lid closed for 10 to 15 minutes, until the lid thermometer reads 260°C (500°F) or more. Brush the grates clean and oil them.
- Cook with the lid open and use the recipe times as a guide, checking with a thermometer.
- Keep one burner off or on low as a cooler zone. If fat flares up, move the food there. Never use water on a gas grill flare-up.
- For a smoky taste, put a handful of wood chips in a smoker box, or a foil parcel pierced with a few holes, over a lit burner while the grill preheats.
- Mash the butter with the garlic, parsley, thyme, lemon zest and salt. Roll it into a log in cling film and chill it until the steaks are done.
- Take the steaks out of the fridge 30 minutes before cooking. Pat them dry and rub them with the oil and pepper.
- Spread the coals so one side of the fire is hot and the edge is a little cooler. The grid should be about 10 cm (4 inches) above the coals.
- Salt the steaks and lay them over the hot coals with the small fillet side of the bone facing the cooler edge.
- Cook for 4 to 5 minutes without moving them, until they lift off the grid easily. Turn and cook another 4 to 5 minutes.
- Stand each steak on its fat edge for 1 minute to render the fat. Move them to the cooler edge if flames flare up.
- Put the steaks on a warm board, place a thick slice of the butter on each and rest for 5 minutes before serving.
Done when: the outside is well browned and a thermometer in the thickest part of the larger side, away from the bone, reads 63°C (145°F) for medium. Take them off a few degrees early if you like them pinker; they keep cooking while they rest.
Tips
- The fillet side is smaller and cooks faster than the sirloin side. Keeping it away from the hottest coals stops it overcooking.
- A porterhouse is a T-bone with a larger piece of fillet. Cook it the same way and add a minute a side.
- The leftover butter keeps for a week in the fridge. Use it on mielies or garlic bread.
The T-bone is a classic of the South African steakhouse and the home braai alike, because one steak gives you both the tender fillet and the firmer, more flavourful sirloin on either side of the bone. It needs nothing more than salt, pepper and hot coals. The garlic butter melts into the meat as it rests. For help judging the heat, see reading your coals.