New York Times food writers have advocated cooking directly on hot coals this Fourth of July, but the truly adventurous may want to consider another approach: lava-grilled steak.

The Syracuse University professors Bob Wysocki and Jeff Karson, the leaders of this minimalist technique, say the key is to start with thin-cut steaks, the more marbled the better.

You then find the nearest retrofitted bronze furnace. (Very likely, that is the one the professors have built for themselves in Syracuse as part of the university’s Lava Project. When not cooking dinner with it, Mr. Wysocki, an artist, and Mr. Karson, a geologist, create lava for scientific research and sculptures.)

Here’s their recipe:

1. Preheat the furnace to 2,500 degrees Fahrenheit.
(“It takes a good 24 hours to heat the furnace up,” Mr. Wysocki said.)

2. Add 800 pounds of Wisconsin basaltic gravel in 75-pound batches.

3. Cook for 24 hours.

4. While the lava is cooking, prepare a trough and set your grill over it.

5. Once the lava is thick and smooth, pour it through your trough.

6. If you’re using one-inch or thicker steaks, allow the lava’s rising heat to cook them for one minute per side and then pull them off the grill.

7. Enjoy.

Variations:

.If you’re using 1/2" to 3/4" cuts, sear them for 30 seconds per side and then “rest the steak as soon as you char it, so you trap in all of the fat and juices,”
Mr. Wysocki said.

.For an “unctuous” medium rare steak, Mr. Wysocki recommends waiting about five minutes until the lava “cools down” to 1,000 degrees Fahrenheit (from 2,000 degrees).
Then return the steak to the grill for three to four minutes a side.

.Alternatively, wait until the molten lava hardens into what looks like dirty glass and you can drop the steaks directly on it.

Instructions not clear - burned down house. Pls advise