In time for Labor Day weekend, Zeph Shepard, owner of Proletariat Butchery in Southeast Portland, has some hot takes on how to host a backyard barbecue.
Shepard is, after all, the man behind one of the most sought-after, burgers in the city. (It’s available the last Friday of the month – see you there!)
A good grill can be as simple as placing a metal grill from your oven over some cinderblocks. Shepard grills over a hardwood fire, though we’ll save his tips on that for a time when there isn’t a burn ban.
🌡️ Don’t buy expensive equipment — but one purchase is worth it:
- A digital thermometer. “Having technology is a great resource in some capacities, i.e. when you want to pull a steak for medium rare, you want to pull it at like 110, 115 degrees.”
🥩 Don’t worry about where you get your meat as much as the cut.
- Steak needs to be 1 1/2 inches to 2 1/4 inches — “if you want good crust and good texture on your steak.” Thinner cuts can dry out before they’re sufficiently done on the outside.
🧂 Don’t go light on the salt before you cook it.
- “You put a ton of salt on it; way, way, way, way, way, way more than you're anticipating.”
- Don’t add the pepper till after it’s cooked.
🔪 Cut the fat in a cross-hatch pattern.
- “Another quick cheat is to buy a cheap little utility knife and you can set the depth of the little razor blade [around an eighth of an inch] — and then you won't accidentally go all the way through the steak.”
🧑🍳 Cook fat-side-down.
- “You do the fat cap over low medium heat — indirect, no flames. And you want the fat to start to look translucent. So it goes from like, white solid fat until it starts to get translucent and semi-soft. And then the fat cap will be medium-brown.”
🔥 “Crank up the fire.”
- The last step of grilling involves high heat with the steak directly on the flames.
🧈 Don’t finish with butter.
- “The downfall of that is dairy butter will have a good amount of water content in it. So when you're finishing, we're trying to cook off all this water.” Instead, he recommends his own product, butcher's butter, which is made from animal fat.
🥦 For your vegetarian friends and as a side dish, grill vegetables: Broccoli, zucchini, and cabbage are options.
- You can make a sauce (think: chimichurri, romesco, or arugula pesto) to go on the veggies — and the steak too.
