Classic, quick, easy, tasty steak cooked in minutes
Sirloin steak is quick and easy to cook in the Alfa wood fired oven. Legend has it that King James 1 of England knighted the piece of meat at Hoghton Tower in Lancashire as it was an outstanding piece of meat; however there is no evidence to support this. The most likely explanation of its name is that it derives from the Old French with ‘sur’ meaning above and ‘longe’ meaning loin.
The steak we cooked was sourced from a family butcher where the meat has provenance. It is just going to be seasoned with some sea salt as the pepper could burn in the intense heat of the oven. Richard Holden, top UK BBQ chef, will show you just how easy it is to produce dinner from the Alfa 4 pizze.
It is important to pre-heat the oven to the correct temperature then the steak will cook quickly and give you that band of crispy browned fat down the side. Pre-heat to 225c (437F) by lighting the logs in the centre of the oven then moving to one side when you are ready to cook. Place some logs on the opposite side of the oven to the fire, this ensures that when you need to add more fuel the temperature doesn’t drop too much, as the logs are already quite hot. The logs we have used today are kiln dried alder; kiln dried hard wood should always be used as it burns longer and hotter than the soft wood, which can also give off nasty resinous smoke.
Place the steak straight onto the ceramic tiles with the fat closest to the fire. Turn over about halfway through the cook, for medium rare it should only take 3 – 4 minutes either side.
Temperatures for steak
- Rare: 43 - 49C (110 – 120F)
- Med/rare: 54 - 57C (130 - 135F)
- Med: 57 - 63C (135 - 145F)
- Well: 68C+ (155F+)
