Do Tomahawk steaks make any sense?

The visuals are great, and it is good to cook on the bone. Compare to a normal bone in rib steak, are there any benefits for buying a Tomahawk apart from the visual?

Not IMO.

I also don’t think cooking on the bone for steaks adds any flavor. It can change the heat transfer and insulation dynamics of the cook.

Short answer: No

Long answer: Definitely nope. The longer bone is also a pain in the ass to properly fit onto a grill or in a cast iron pan.

You pay full meat price for a hunk of bone you can’t eat

To either a dog or restaurant owner, yes.

…but it looks cool on Instagram

This was my thought as well

Ummm, it’s the most manliest and Americaniest of steaks! Of course you wouldn’t understand Mark.

Looks cool for certain presentations, and for me helps ensure I keep it med/med rare. also like chewing some of the flavorful scraps from off the bone.

But fully agree it is less cost effective and not a must have by any stretch.

Also they’re usually too thick… for me, if a steak is thicker than 1.5" or so, you get the wrong ratio of rare/med rare insides to crusty outsides.

Just have to cook it correctly; it’s not hard to get edge to edge with a good crust on any steak regardless of thickness.

It’s not that I’m cooking my steaks incorrectly, it’s that I don’t like having 2" of rare/med-rare/whatever interior meat. The ratio of interior meat to crust is wrong for my taste.

Very apropos as I’m cooking up my first with friends next week. Become a tradition to have one carnivore’s delight dinner on our family getaway trips, feels like a fun time to give it a go.
For those that have cooked them before, any recommendations on cooking technique? Not confident we will have a grill at the AirBnB that we can do too much with, so I was leaning towards starting at low temp in the oven to about 125 then searing on the grill to finish.

Exactly how I would do if no grill available. However, 125 out of oven and then a sear would yield a steak too well done IMO. 115 would be better. for a rare-medium-rare finish.

Also, I slightly disagree and feel the bone does add some flavor to the surrounding meat.

Perfect, thanks!

This is how I did a Flannery Jorge cut last week. Salted about an hour before cooking, in the oven on a wire rack above the pan, cooked till 115 this to the super hot grill. If no grill, do the same, except take it out of the oven and then turn on the broiler to sear off.

I don’t care if a bone sticks out–but a thick prime bone-in ribeye steak is great on a charcoal grill. Make sure you add a copious amount of sea salt 24 hours before cooking–as they are harder to season. Bring it to room temperature before putting it on a grill. Add enough pepper like you were trying to get a bark on brisket. Don’t flip it but cook it until 123-5. Spoon some butter over it and let it rest. It takes so long, you get more of a smokey/bbq flavor than just a normal steak.

Agree with Dale that this is the way to go, but pull around 115 and let that rest a bit before searing.