A 42oz Bone-In Ribeye with Soy Au Jus
current situation: 42 oz with soy au jus
Forty-two ounces. One steak, and it is not for one person unless it is that kind of night.
A steak this thick cannot be cooked in a pan from raw. The outside is carbon long before the middle is warm. It gets the reverse sear: two hours in a very low oven until the whole thing is evenly pink at 120°F, then ninety seconds a side in a screaming dry pan for the crust. The result is what you see — a continuous brown face from edge to edge, and no grey band under it.
The eggs are not a garnish. Three peeled boiled eggs beside a steak is protein next to protein, and it is exactly the kind of thing I put on a plate because it makes sense rather than because it looks right.
- Feeds
- 2
- Hands-on
- 20 minutes
- In the oven
- About 2 hours
- Sear
- 90 seconds a side
What you need
The steak
- 1 bone-in ribeye, 42 oz, at least 2 1/2 inches thick
- 2 tbsp coarse kosher salt — the day before
- 2 tbsp coarse cracked black pepper — at the sear, not before
- 1 tbsp beef tallow or neutral oil
The soy au jus
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1/4 cup soy sauce
- 2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 4 cloves garlic, smashed
- 1 tsp black peppercorns
- 2 tbsp cold butter
Beside it
- 3 eggs, boiled 9 minutes and peeled
- A cold Sapporo
How it goes
1 — Salt it a day ahead, uncovered in the fridge
Coarse salt all over, on a rack, uncovered, 24 hours. The salt draws moisture out and then the meat takes it back seasoned — and the surface ends up bone dry, which is the only way to get a crust like that.
2 — Pepper comes later
Black pepper burns and turns bitter over the length of a sear this hot. It goes on in the last minute, not now.
3 — Low oven until 120°F inside
225°F, on a rack, probe in the thickest part away from the bone. Somewhere between an hour and a half and two and a half hours depending on the steak. Go by the number, never by the clock.
4 — Rest it before the sear, not after
Ten minutes out of the oven. This is backwards from how everyone learns it and it is right for a reverse sear: the juices settle first, then the crust goes on last and stays dry and crisp.
5 — Make the jus in the meantime
Stock, soy, Worcestershire, garlic and peppercorns reduced by a third, strained, and the cold butter whisked in off the heat. Dark, glossy, salty — more a dipping sauce than a gravy.
6 — A dry pan, as hot as it goes
Cast iron over the highest heat for five full minutes, then a spoon of tallow and the steak straight in. Ninety seconds, flip, ninety seconds, then the fat edge held against the pan with tongs for thirty.
pro tip — Open a window and turn off the smoke alarm first. A pan this hot is not negotiable and it will fill the kitchen.
7 — Pepper, rest five, carve off the bone
Coarse pepper over the hot crust. Five minutes on the board. Cut the whole eye off the bone in one piece, then slice across it about half an inch thick.
8 — Plate it with the eggs and the bowl
Steak taking up most of the plate, the three peeled eggs beside it, jus in its own bowl so it stays hot and nothing on the plate goes soggy.
Forty-two ounces and a Sapporo. Current situation. LFG.