Blue Cheese Butter Steak, Camp Version
A cast iron steak with a compound butter that gets made at home and rides in the cooler.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 10 oz
- cal / oz
- 78
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 22 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Strip steaks, 1 inch thick | 2 | salted at home the night before |
|---|---|---|
| Unsalted butter | 1/2 cup | softened, for the compound butter |
| Blue cheese crumbles | 4 oz | |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tsp | |
| Vegetable oil | 1 tsp | high smoke point, not olive |
| Salt and coarse black pepper | to taste |
Method
- At home: mash the butter smooth, work in the blue cheese, Worcestershire, a pinch of salt, and a lot of pepper. Roll it into a log in plastic wrap, twist the ends, and freeze it solid.
- In camp, pull the steaks out of the cooler while you build the fire. Twenty minutes off the ice is enough.
- Set the cast iron skillet on the grate over coals, not flame. Let it heat until a drop of water skitters. Wipe the oil across it.
- Pepper both sides of the steaks and lay them in. Two minutes a side, no moving them.
- Slide the skillet to the cooler edge of the grate and cover it loosely with foil. Another four to six minutes for medium rare on a 1-inch steak.
- Pull the steaks onto a plate and cut two coins off the butter log onto each. Rest five minutes before cutting. The butter melts while it rests.
This is a home recipe with an oven step, and the oven is the part that does not travel. The oven exists to finish a thick steak without burning the crust, so camp swaps in the cool side of the grate plus a foil tent. Same idea, radiant heat instead of convection, and it takes about the same time.
The compound butter is home prep on purpose. Creaming butter with cheese in camp is a mess, and a frozen log is easier to carry, portion, and keep cold than a tub. It also keeps the cheese out of the pan, where blue cheese scorches. Salting the steaks the night before dries the surface, which matters more over a fire than a stove because coals run uneven and a wet steak steams.
Packing
The butter log freezes hard and doubles as a small ice block in the cooler. Steaks go in a leakproof bag at the bottom of the cooler, salted the night before so the surface dries and sears instead of steams.
Variations
- Feta or a firm goat cheese if blue is too much; both crumble the same way.
- No skillet, no problem: cook the steaks directly on the grate and add butter coins on the plate.
- Leftover butter is worth carrying. It goes on potatoes, eggs, or a bagel the next morning.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/steaks-with-blue-cheese-butter