Honey-crusted ribeye steaks: You should try this.

It’s been a minute since Faith and I have composed something for our food and cooking parts of the TnF Farms website. When we first got together, Faith was not much of a steak eater. She thought a good steak was a well-done sirloin drowned in A1. Over the years, I have slowly converted her over to more tender and flavorful cuts.

When we were first dating, I took her to a really nice steakhouse and had her try Wagyu steak. She tried to order her steak well done. The waiter said, “No, we cook the steak how it was meant to be done. You will get it medium rare.” She looked over at me with a little nervousness. I gave her a reassuring smile and promised she would like it. That night was the beginning of her conversion away from the shoe leather she used to eat.

I have always loved being a steak eater

So who doesn’t? From when I was a kid, I liked steak. Not pizza, not chips, not candy, not as much as steak… and lots of it. As I have aged, I have tried to have as much steak as I could in my life, as much as the budget allowed. As adults, Faith and I try to have steak at least twice a month, and if you have spent any time on our website reading the stuff we’re cooking, a lot of our meals are centered around steak.

I pride myself on making steaks better than most restaurants, and I can definitely beat the restaurant prices. My steak skills have been polished to the way I like it. But I’m always interested in new things to try and ways of cooking. I recently watched an episode of Guga Foods where Guga marinated an amazing cut of meat in honey and ate it. Guga is truly an inspiration for eating steak. Then one day, I was talking meat with a buddy and I mentioned that very episode. My buddy said he did that all the time, and I really should try honey steaks.

Let’s start cooking

Recently, we discovered a honey store that sells locally sourced honeys. So I have the perfect honey for these ribeyes I scored from the butcher. After a serious slathering of local honey and gently massaging it into the meat, I have these inch-thick ribeyes tucked away in a zipper bag with as much air worked out as possible. Now these steaks spend 24 hours in the refrigerator.

     

It is now the next evening, and the grill is all warmed up. We made bacon this morning, and I just poured the bacon grease on the griddle. The ribeye steaks have had approximately 24 hours in the refrigerator with their honey rub. I pulled them a little early, so they have a little time on the counter to acclimate to room temperature.

     

Some quality time on the griddle

Faith and I are big fans of the sweet and salty taste of things. I’ve been told that the honey taste on the steaks cooks away. But just to be on the safe side, in case we made meat candy, I’m adding a little salt. Faith doesn’t like the spice, so she’s getting some sprinkles of Lawry’s seasoned salt. I love the heat! Let’s do some Creole seasoning with lots of Tony Chachere’s.

   

These steaks are coming along nicely. I have my griddle set to cook the outside perfectly and leave the center with a warm red center. Something to note, these ribeyes are not getting burnt. The honey is creating some crust or char on the ribeyes.

I almost forgot, for this to be a meal, we need to have something else. Unfortunately, to keep this as a dinner for 2 for under $30, I’m going to have to cut some corners. Inflation has really made steak dinners, even at home, a little tough to have on a budget. When you gotta cut corners, you can always skimp on vegetables. This is a $3.00 bag of salad, and after the local honey, we’ll be drinking water with dinner to hit the $30 budget.

Let’s eat!

We’re plated up! I am having the steak with Tony Chachere’s sprinkled on. Faith is enjoying the ribeye covered in Lawry’s seasoned salt. We just barely made the cut for a meal under $30. Remember, you can always skimp on vegetables and drink ice water! Forget the wine, I’m having ribeye, it’s romantic!

So, what about the taste and texture?

We both remarked that the honey taste was pretty much gone. The steaks seemed a bit more tender than usual. However, we did think the crust tasted very reminiscent of marshmallow burnt at a campfire. I’ve told people about our honey steaks, and almost everybody reacted with “burnt marshmallow with steak? Sounds terrible.” It’s actually a pretty unique taste. This is definitely not our favorite way to enjoy ribeyes, but I could see us doing this again in the future.

Want to see some other steak dinners for under $30? Check out my marinated chuck steak that is big on flavor!