Coffee Steak

Coffee steak? Actual coffee grounds on a steak? Coffee on a steak? Coffee rub?  I know most people when thinking of grilling a steak are not thinking of coffee rub or even as a drink to have with it. It sounds a little nuts, but trust me, it’s outstanding.

What is Teres Major Steak

First off, I want to point out what cut of steak that is. It’s a teres major. What is a teres major steak?  Other than awesome?  It’s from a little used muscle in the shoulder of the cow and is the second most tender cut of beef other than the tenderloin.  If you are familiar with the flat iron, which is also extremely tender, you will know that the flat iron is a steak comprised of two muscles combined by some connective tissue. One of those muscles is the teres minor which sits right next to the teres major.

Other Names

Not only is the teres major extremely tender, it’s also cheap compared to rib eye, strip and much cheaper than filet. Every now and again, your local grocer might carry it under the name petite tender or shoulder tender, but for the most part, they won’t have any idea what you’re talking about, and they are usually prepackaged which is just fine.

Your best bet is to go to a full service butcher shop, although you better get there before my dad does. When he goes, he buys them out.  I think he’s at a rate of about once a week in terms of grilling these bad boys. He has good reason to, it may be my favorite steak, it’s that good. I go into the teres major a little more here.

Now let’s get to the recipe for coffee steak.

Coffee Steak Ingredients:

• 4 steaks (you don’t have to use teres major for this)
• 1/2 cup finely ground coffee** (I used a decaf hazelnut blend that I ground myself at my local grocery store. Decaf is not a necessity.)
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp white pepper
• Salt to coat the steaks

***Pro Tip ~ I recommend double grinding the coffee on the finest grind setting until it is powder otherwise it can be gritty***

That’s not a teres major steak.  It is a wonderful piece of salmon. I was just as leery as you are about making a steak with coffee on it.  I thought there would be a 50/50 chance it would be any good.  The first night I made it, I put it on the tiniest filet you’ve ever seen to see if it was any good.  It was outstanding and thus website worthy. The next night, I decided to try it on a salmon filet and take some pics of the ingredients. The third night, I made the steak you will see below for dad to try.

Prior to grilling, combine all the ingredients except the teres major and the salt.

I did this ever so appropriately in a coffee cup:

Coat each side of the steak with coarse salt and then cover with the rub and let it come to room temperature:

Here’s a picture of the teres major covered with the rub next to two other teres majors that were getting a coating of jerk that night:

How to Grill Coffee Steak

This is my standard method for grilling a steak. While the steaks are coming up to room temp, I set up the grill for two zone grilling with an incredibly hot fire on one side and nothing on the other:

The coffee steak goes over the hot side of the grill for about 90 seconds to sear. Then I rotated it 45 degrees and seared another 90 seconds, flipped and repeated. Finally, I put on the side of the grill with no heat and the lid put on to bake the steak to desired doneness.  

Times vary depending on the heat of the fire.

I want to warn you that with the brown sugar in the rub, the teres major can blacken a bit:

That looks like it’s more charcoal than steak, but it’s fine.  Trust me. Although, in the future, I think I might go with turbinado sugar instead.

After it bakes on the side with no heat for a few minutes, it was pulled and allowed to rest:

Notice how thick it is?  The teres major does something very cool. It puffs up as it cooks.  By the time you pull it from the grill, it will be almost twice as thick as it was when you put it on.

Sliced coffee steak:

And here’s an extra money shot of a piece right before dad devoured it:

Bonus – Coffee Salmon

And this rub is excellent on salmon as well.  Here are a couple shots I took when I put it on salmon:

Coffee Steak or Coffee Salmon Summary

The only thing I would’ve done differently with the salmon is that I would’ve put it on a maple plank next time. I think the maple smoke and coffee would make for a dynamite combo. Either way, I’m a big fan of coffee steak or salmon. I’ll be grilling these again very soon. In fact, I made a whole step by step recipe with the salmon. 

If you have any questions, feel free to leave them below or shoot me an email.

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Recipe Card:

Print Recipe

Coffee Steak

Coffee Steak - The primary ingredient of this recipe is coffee grounds. It sounds crazy, but was so good that I put it on salmon too and it was amazing on fish

Prep Time5 minutes mins

Cook Time15 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Entree, Main Course, Steak

Cuisine: American, American Fare, Steak

Keyword: Bistro Steak, Cedar Plank Salmon, Coffee, Coffee Rub, Coffee Rubbed Salmon, Coffee Salmon, Coffee Seasoning, Coffee Steak, Grill Steak, Grilled Steak, Steak, Teres Major, Teres Major Steak

Servings: 2 People

Ingredients

• 4 steaks (you don't have to use teres major for this)
• ½ cup finely ground coffee** (I used a decaf hazelnut blend that I ground myself at my local grocery store. Decaf is not a necessity.)
• ¼ cup brown sugar
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 1 tsp white pepper
• coarse salt to coat the steaks

Instructions

• Combine all the ingredients except the steak and the salt
• Coat each side of the steak with coarse salt and then cover with the rub and let it come to room temperature
• While the steaks are coming up to room temp, I set up the grill for two zone grilling with an incredibly hot fire on one side and nothing on the other
• The coffee steaks go over the hot side of the grill for about 90 seconds to sear, are rotated 45 degrees and seared another 90 seconds, flipped and repeated.
• Put on the side of the grill with no heat and the lid put on to bake the steak to desired doneness.
• Times vary depending on the heat of the fire
• Bake for approximately 4 minutes for medium rare, 8 minutes for medium, 12 for medium well and 16 for well done.

Scott Thomas

Scott Thomas, the Original Grillin’ Fool, was sent off to college with a suitcase and a grill where he overcooked, undercooked and burned every piece of meat he could find. After thousands of failures, and quite a few successes, nearly two decades later he started a website to show step by step, picture by picture, foolproof instructions on how to make great things out of doors so that others don’t have to repeat the mistakes he’s made on the grill.

See Full Bio

BBQ Grilling

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This article was initially published on: January 8, 2012