cold smoke

dba1954 - My SOP for steaks is something similar to what you're thinking about, but I wouldn't call it cold smoking. I pre-heat the smoker at 180F to get the smoke going, insert the steaks, and cook to an internal temp of 90F-95F. Remove and sear to finish on a very hot grill or saute pan for usually no more than 1 minute per side for medium rare. Keep a Thermapen or something similar close by as the internal temp moves pretty fast at this stage. Foil and rest for 5-10 minutes, then enjoy.

I don't have a baffle but have double wrapped the lowest grate with HD foil in the past for cold smoking. Tried it with steaks once with no discernible difference in results.

I did a search for you, it's always a good place to start:

Search on "smoke steak" in Beef Forum

I 'smoke' steaks all the time and although I have the cold smoke baffle, I don't use it for steaks.

My SOP is to smoke steaks to about 125 in the smoker and then not do anything else. But taking them to 110 and then searing on a grill would be another way to do it. We like our steaks rare and don't get much added flavor from grilling, so we don't do it.

I do something similar to dls' method. Smoke first then throw them onto a very hot grill looking to get some sear on the steaks.

For us, we get enough smoke we don't do our steaks. In actuality I never found enough 'flavor' added by the smoke.

If it works for you, certainly keep doing it or give it a try.

For us, we did about 10 larger ribeyes last night on the Charbroiler and the family ALL said... (again) never will we eat steaks out. The CB gives it a nice crust and some wood smoke directly.

Hmmmm. I find the Cookshack Elite adds a wonderful smoke flavor and the grill adding a very nice finish to a steak. I can see how you feel about the Charbroiler. Heat and flavor all at once. Certainly, a simpler process also.