But I did end up with about a quart of clarified butter which was slightly beefy, which was cool, until my kitten ate the last ounce of it and thus acquired the nickname 'butterbutt'.

Bourbon Steak I found soulless and hollow. The meat looked great but didn't deliver the flavor...glad I wasn't paying.

My particular take on this is to sloooowly raise the internal temp of a steak to about 95F in a relatively cool oven (say about 225F). Then I finish the sear on an extremely hot surface (I love to use Alton Brown's idea of putting the grill directly on top of a fired up chimney starter. I'm guessing this is much hotter than the average cooktop can get cast iron). I've also used his suggestion for putting cuts like skirt and flank directly on glowing natural hardwood coals (don't try this with your Kingsford stuff, which contains lime). Both methods barely touch the inside of the meat, but give you an almost perfect char.

One of these days I'll try cold smoking a hunk of meat before treating it as described above. Not too much but a little might be nice.