First tomohawk steak, did I do ok?

It looks pretty damn good to me, but I have a small rant about tomahawk steaks in general.

I get that they're a premium cut of meat, they're a big fat slap of ribeye, but they're also a novelty cut, the big ol' handle of bone hanging off of it doesn't really serve any purpose except being big and showy. The tomahawk steak is kind of all about ridiculous excess.

And I'm not knocking that, I love goofy, showy, ostentatious, kitschy shit. I'd even say that it's kind of my thing.

And I think when you serve one like this, take it off the bone, slice it up, and serve it on a plate, that kind of removes some of the fun factor.

I have a friend of a friend who is kind of ridiculously wealthy and likes to throw very elaborate parties. One such occasion was a "viking feast" (the historical accuracy of this is dubious at best) where the only foods served are meats and bread, no plates, the only utensils allowed are knives and your hands.

There was a lot of meat. A whole lamb roasted over the fire, a whole massive salmon, many chickens, probably more than I'm forgetting, but most relevant to this, enough tomahawk steaks for everyone who wanted one to have their own.

And that I think is the environment where the tomahawk steak really shines. It's the perfect "walking around" steak, it's got a big fucking handle of bone built into it. It's like the turkey leg you're almost required to get at the Renaissance faire on steroids.

It's staying true to it being a high-end steak, this was a special event, not something that happens every year and we're celebrating, but it's also leaning into the sheer novelty of the steak. It's goofy and it's supposed to be, and it's not trying to pretend otherwise.

As an aside, another friend and I managed to wrangle a standing invitation to return to this when he throws one (it occurs when the local team plays the Vikings in the playoffs) because we're both burly bearded dudes with no interest in football, so we pretty much stood outside by the fire all night drinking from horns we brought ourselves, and host was stoked to have "actual vikings" there.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.

Crust looks good, "smoke ring" looks good. Meat appears to be medium rare, I'm not a big steak guy, but my wife is. Did you temp it? How did it taste?

What temperature did you use for the reverse sear?

In any case, it looks fine. How’s the taste? That’s what’s important.

You blew it