🌋

July 3, 2015 6:04 PM

Grilling with Lava [New York Times]

This July Fourth, we offer an intense, but minimalist way to grill steak. It requires 800 pounds of Wisconsin basaltic gravel heated to 2,000 degrees. New York Times food writers have advocated cooking directly on hot coals this Fourth of July, but the truly adventurous may want to consider another approach: lava-grilled steak. The Syracuse University professors Bob Wysocki and Jeff Karson, the leaders of this minimalist technique, say the key is to start with thin-cut steaks, the more marbled the better. You then find the nearest retrofitted bronze furnace. (Very likely, that is the one the professors have built for themselves in Syracuse as part of the university’s Lava Project. When not cooking dinner with it, Mr. Wysocki, an artist, and Mr. Karson, a geologist, create lava for scientific research and sculptures.)

Recipe:

1. Preheat the furnace to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
(“It takes a good 24 hours to heat the furnace up,” Mr. Wysocki said.)
2. Add 800 pounds of Wisconsin basaltic gravel in 75-pound batches.
3. Cook for 24 hours.
4. While the lava is cooking, prepare a trough and set your grill over it.
5. Once the lava is thick and smooth, pour it through your trough.
6. If you’re using one-inch or thicker steaks, allow the lava’s rising heat to cook them for one minute per side and then pull them off the grill.
7. Enjoy.

posted by Fizz (21 comments total)

Wow, that looked like a really expensive, really macho way to transform good meat into burnt husks of leather. No thank you.
posted by sciatrix at 6:15 PM on July 3, 2015 [8 favorites]

That sizzlin', though... 😋
posted by slater at 6:17 PM on July 3, 2015

no matter how you paleo I man paleo, paleoer than you
posted by thelonius at 6:23 PM on July 3, 2015 [9 favorites]

Mmmmmm...brimstone-y!
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:25 PM on July 3, 2015

I wonder if this process might be improved by the adding of peas.
posted by Fizz at 6:26 PM on July 3, 2015 [18 favorites]

Nah. they just keep falling through the grill.
posted by briank at 6:29 PM on July 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes, there's nothing that improves grilling like toxic fumes.
posted by percor at 6:31 PM on July 3, 2015

Yes, there's nothing that improves grilling like toxic fumes.

percor, that issue is addressed within the linked article:

Flames and smoke will dance around the steaks as they sizzle, but the professors say the steaks are safe to eat because their basic basaltic ingredients don't release any volatile compounds when melted.

posted by Fizz at 6:33 PM on July 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

Somehow it wasn't absurd until they put the hot dogs on.
posted by shakespeherian at 7:14 PM on July 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Previously: Homemade Lava
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 7:15 PM on July 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

See, this it's still totally wussy until err talking about grilling mammoth steaks.
posted by happyroach at 7:51 PM on July 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Krakatoa Rare?
posted by jefflowrey at 8:00 PM on July 3, 2015

Brings back memories of childhood games: THE FLOOR IS LAVA!!!
posted by oneswellfoop at 9:19 PM on July 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

Can I get a poured lava front walk instead of a concrete one?
posted by ctmf at 9:46 PM on July 3, 2015 [6 favorites]

Sure, in Hawaii. Well, not poured lava…
posted by Songdog at 3:24 AM on July 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Can I get a poured lava front walk instead of a concrete one?

The high cost would probably make the process more viable for things like countertops and bathroom fixtures where people are prepared to pay high prices. You would need molds that could take the heat, but otherwise it should be a fairly simple (but extraordinarily energy-intensive) process.
posted by Dip Flash at 4:45 AM on July 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

Can I haz so much money I can piss it away on macho stunt cooking?
posted by theora55 at 7:52 AM on July 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

The original NYTs food section was irritating; not just about grilling steaks straight on the charcoal, but in its entire "let's pretend we're hobos" aspect. This, in contrast, is just dumb.
posted by acrasis at 8:02 AM on July 4, 2015

Pfft. Real foodies know the best flavor comes from waiting for a volcano to erupt and then laying your steaks directly on the pāhoehoe.

Although it wasn't as good as back in the 50s when you could just hang your skirt steak on a line and then wait for the nuclear test (it was best if there were two close together so you could get both sides).
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 9:54 AM on July 4, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm a little mystified by the people here pointing out that this is not a practical way to cook meat/a silly stunt. Uh, no shit?
posted by atoxyl at 4:18 AM on July 5, 2015 [1 favorite]

Are you afraid foodies are going to pick this up for real?
posted by atoxyl at 4:19 AM on July 5, 2015