Bistecca alla Fiorentina T-Bone

Ingredients

• 1 (minimum 800 g, minimum 4 cm thick) Chianina T-bone steak, must include both fillet and strip; brought to room temperature 2 hours before grilling
• to finish coarse sea salt, applied only at service
• to finish best Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil, drizzled at service

Method

1. 1
   Remove the steak from refrigeration 2 hours before grilling and leave uncovered at room temperature. The meat must be fully tempered to the core before it meets the grill; a cold centre cannot reach bleu temperature in the time the exterior takes to crust.
2. 2
   Prepare an oak charcoal fire and allow it to burn down to glowing embers with no open flame. The grate should be set close to the embers so that dry radiant heat is intense. Flame contact chars the exterior before the interior can temper and is not permitted.
3. 3
   Lay the steak flat on the grate. Grill 3 minutes on the first side without moving it. The side facing up should still look raw; the underside, when lifted briefly, should show a deep, dark-mahogany crust with defined grill marks. This crust — not a grey band — is the sign to turn.
4. 4
   Turn once and grill 3 minutes on the second side. This is where the dish lives or dies: the interior must not exceed 52 °C. At this moment the steak's exterior is fully crusted and deeply charred while the interior remains blue-rare — any longer and the Chianina's rare-temperature tenderness is lost and cannot be recovered.
5. 5
   Stand the steak upright on its bone edge and hold or prop it in place for a final 3 minutes. The fat seam along the bone renders and the bone itself conducts gentle heat into the surrounding meat. The rendered fat will glisten and the bone edge will colour; the steak should stand without collapsing.
6. 6
   Remove from the heat and rest on the bone for 5 minutes. The internal temperature will rise 3–4 °C during rest; this carry-over must be accounted for when pulling from the grill. The exterior crust will remain firm to the touch; pressing the thickest part of the fillet should yield with minimal resistance.
7. 7
   At service, season with coarse sea salt and drizzle with best Tuscan extra-virgin olive oil. Slice against the grain, parallel to the bone, sharing from the central cut outward. No sauce, no butter, no further addition. The salt should glint visibly on the crust and the interior should be deep red to the bone.