How to Grill the orginal Fiorentina Steak
- bbqspark
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Cooking a great classic even on the direct flame of a brazier with a griddle?
We show you how to make Florentine steak using Spolert .
INGREDIENTS
Fiorentina
Salt
PREPARATION
There is a common misconception that grills or braziers with a griddle are not as versatile as grills with a lid, especially for cooking that requires a little more time and lower temperatures.
To dispel this belief, we will show you how you can cook a Florentine steak even on a brazier like the Spolert .
For this demonstration, we'll use two classic Florentine steaks, distinguished by their fillet and sirloin sides. The two steaks have different thicknesses, so we'll need to take some precautions to ensure optimal cooking, depending on the thickness of the meat.
We will cook them in two ways: for one Florentine steak we will use the grill over direct heat and for the other the side plate (or griddle).
The preparation phase is the same for all cooking methods: we score the surface fat on the side to ensure that the meat does not deform during cooking and if we notice excessive thicknesses of fat, we cut them off and save them, because we will use them later.
We then take a cloth and dry the entire surface of each steak, eliminating any moisture released during the vacuum sealing or during the acclimatization phase. Removing this moisture will facilitate a better Maillard reaction, which will help us achieve the right crust that sears the meat.
Using the piece of fat saved from cleaning the steaks, we thoroughly grease the grill and the hot griddle on which we will cook the meat.
If we don't have the piece of fat, we can use a drizzle of oil, spread directly on the Florentines.
Our Spolert brazier has reached operating temperature, heating up both the grill and the griddle. The flames have decreased in height compared to the initial lighting phase, and the embers inside the brazier mouth are dimmer and the fire is softer, essential for properly cooking the Florentine steak that will be placed on the central grill.
The thickest Florentine steak will be the first to be placed on the grill, because given its size, it will take the longest to cook.
Placed on the central grill, press lightly to ensure all the meat adheres well to the grill.
Listening to the sizzling of the fat, we can hear a steady, but not excessive, sound, indicating the right temperature to cook the meat without burning it. The fat dripping onto the coals creates a flame, but the grill is positioned far enough away to prevent the flame from directly reaching the steak.
When the sizzling sound has subsided, the steak is perfectly seared and can be turned over because it will lift off the grill effortlessly.
When rotating it, we position it in a different point of the grill, so as to find a higher temperature.
Seared on the other side as well, the eye steak is very inviting, but given its high thickness, it is not yet cooked properly inside.
To finish cooking, you need to leave it standing on the bone, which will conduct the heat very well inside.
While the thicker Florentine steak is placed on the bone to finish cooking, we can proceed to prepare the thinner steak as well.
As mentioned, we will use the Spolert plank to cook it and after adding some wood to the fire and greasing the plate with fat, we can position it as we did for the previous Florentine steak.
Cauterizations on the dashboard are faster than on the grill, because the contact surface is larger, so we will have to be more careful in following the precautions explained above.
Once cauterized on both sides, we place her upright on the bone.
Cooking is complete when both Florentines have reached a core temperature of 48-50°C (rare). You can, of course, adjust the internal temperature and therefore the degree of doneness, allowing for more or less cooking time.
Cooking is finished, but we need to think about the last fundamental phase before cutting: the rest phase .
During cooking, the juices will have gone from a more viscous to a more liquid state due to the heat. The resting phase simply helps us give the juices time to cool and return to a thicker state, remaining inside the Florentine steak. This prevents all the juiciness from spilling onto the cutting board when cutting, instead of remaining in the meat's fibers.
This step only takes a few minutes, but if you're worried the meat will cool down, you can cover it with aluminum foil or a plate.
The Florentine steak is cut by separating the fillet from the sirloin, sliding the knife following the normal curvature of the T-shaped bone, from one side to the other.
The slice of meat must have a uniform pink color, without any marked gray parts towards the outside and there must not be a "droplet" of flowing blood.
To portion it, it is important to cut the meat at a slight angle with the knife to better cut the fibers and make it even more tender.
We place the first cut steak on a plate, keeping the fillet and sirloin slices separate and position it on the outside of the Spolert plate, to use it as a warm surface while we cut the other Florentine steak.
When serving steaks, we recommend leaving the bone lying in the center of the plate, as it will be essential for distinguishing the fillet slices from the sirloin ones.
Add flake salt and serve as soon as possible!
