Prime Cuts

After a successful wine dinner last week where we received rave reviews for a center-cut peppercorn filet mignon, Joe now shares his peppercorn rub recipe with you.

Something I have been doing for a while now is a peppercorn crust on my grilled steaks.  Peppercorn crust on a steak is delicious when done properly, but can easily be messed up and overdone.   Most people who have ever bitten down on a large unexpected peppercorn, remember the taste, and wouldn’t ever think of eating a peppercorn crusted steak.  However when applied correctly, a peppercorn crust or rub will mellow during cooking and not overpower the meat, but instead enhance the flavor.

The following recipe is for a basic peppercorn rub which is not overly peppery, or spicy, and is a good starting point for those people who are a little timid about completely covering their steak with spices.

Note: When I make this recipe I grind the peppercorns in an electric spice grinder until they are just a little bit bigger than the holes in a table pepper shaker, about 2x the size of table pepper.  More importantly, I grind the pepper a day or two in advance of when I will be using it to allow it to mellow, as same day fresh pepper tends to be very strong.

Joe’s Peppercorn Rub

Will thoroughly coat 4-6 medium steaks

Ingredients
3 tbsp ground pepper (see Note above)
2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp onion powder

Preparation

• Mix all ingredients thoroughly.

• Place spice mix on a plate or flat surface and spread out to the size of the steaks you will be coating.

• Coat steaks by pressing only the sides which will be in contact with the cooking medium firmly into the spice mix.  There is no need to coat the edges that will not be in contact with the heat.

• Cook steaks to desired temperature.  The cooking process will mellow the pepper flavor and gently infuse it into the steaks.

• If you desire a more powerful peppercorn flavor, use freshly ground peppercorns that are not ground as fine.

• If you desire less peppery flavor, spread the spice mix more thinly on the seasoning plate and do not press the steaks as firmly into the seasoning.

You can make extra ahead of time and store in a tightly sealed jar but only take out as much as you need per cooking, and never return seasoning that has been used on the seasoning plate with raw meat back into the storage jar.

For steaks seasoned with this spice mix I suggest pairing with a bold and boisterous red wine such as Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon.  During our most recent wine dinner, peppercorn crusted filet mignon was paired with Luigi Bosca Single Vineyard D.O.C. Malbec.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Peppercorn Rub Recipe.

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Photo by: shadowfall