Cras

On 02/06/2020 at 22:09, The Hierophant said:

 

 

I wouldn’t totally avoid briquettes. Good quality ones work well, but avoid the ones from a petrol station or diy store. I like Australian Heat Beads. 

 

 

Second this. Heat beads are absolute magic for their consistency of temp and the astonishing longevity of burn.

The only salmonella outbreaks these days are in nuts and salad. 

25. We way overcatered 

We did for this cook, yeah. I do cook hotter though, usually 250.

High heat is worse than low and slow, so you're better off with 'Q than roasting your dinner 

Yeah, if that's something that worries you then cooking over coals/wood is probably not the right choice

Note though - it's nothing to do with high heat/burning like it would be if burnt in the oven. The crust is entirely from the interaction of hot wet smoke and meat.

You shouldn't ever need to do 24 hours, that was down to the smoker not being able to keep a consistently high temp with all the meat that was in there. Normally I'd expect to max out a 4kg pork butt at around 14 hours, same for a 3kg brisket cut. But yeah, even those timings means an overnight is often needed.

The bark on the brisket comes naturally as long as you have a decent amount of smoke during the first few hours. That's with a charcoal/wood smoker, I don't really know how the smoke works on a pellet smoker. Rub on the meat was just salt and plenty of ground black pepper.

Brisket and pork wrapped and the pastrami goes in

The pastrami came out great. Next time I'd give it another 12 hours sous-vide, it could have been more tender. Flavour was great

Really pleased with the brisket. We learned that the smoker is definitely cooler at the top - it took over 20 hours for the brisket to be done, but it was delicious.

Some pictures of this weekend.

Meat arrives - some trimming needed!

Ron the smoker is loaded up with brisket and pork, just before midnight Friday

Morning check, looking good.

On 29/07/2019 at 14:45, stephen129 said:

 

Need pics.

Will do. Lost one of the six pieces of pastrami in the cure, annoyingly - clearly spoiled when I rinsed it off. Still, plenty left.

We're cooking for 25 or so. There's another 9Kg of brisket point destined for burnt ends and a couple of pork butts, too.

Just finished trimming and curing/packing 10Kg of brisket flat for pastrami - a week in the fridge and then onto the smoker next weekend. Quite nervous about this one

Middle. The temp spiked at the back a bit, we're redoing the heat shield for better coverage

8 hours ago, Oracle said:

7 pound brisket, I wonder how much that will cost from my butcher. How many people did that feed?

 

Did you use a particular rub? I was thinking paprika, brown sugar, some chilli powder etc

Ahem...three of us.

We went full texan - just salt and pepper for the rub, oak for the smoke, and played country music.

Yeah 120 is about right. That was the point end of a packer cut brisket, about 3.3 kilos untrimmed. I prefer the point because I like it fattier, the flat end is leaner.

We ended up taking it hotter than I've done before, up to 208 internal, which was definitely the right choice even if it meant it came out a bit late.

@Adrock I've always separated because I find the flat and the point come to temperature at different times.

Hell yeah brisket

Deeply sad. I think it was my favourite ever restaurant. In disagreement with others I thought the new (newer anyway, it's been years!) site was a vast improvement over the soho place.

A couple of friends and I took a few days off work, watched seminal foodie film Chef, then made Cubanos.

We used the Binging With Babish recipe except we smoked the pork for eight hours instead of doing it in the oven

https://www.bingingwithbabish.com/recipes/2017/3/28/cubanos-inspired-by-chef?rq=cubano

And Chef John's recipe for the bread

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/256967/chef-johns-cuban-bread/

There's a brine, a marinade, and a smoke. Should it take two days to make sandwiches? Probably not. Am I glad we made two day Cubano sandwiches? Bloody right.

On 05/06/2018 at 07:41, schmojo said:

Or sugar or mustard powder?

 

I suppose it depends if you're looking for dry ribs or ribs you'll be covering in sauce later.

No, but like I said, it's just 'a rub' I like, not holding it up as any kind of traditional standard. I don't actually like any sweetness in rubs or sauce, even on pork. I always leave sugar out of rubs and go for a mustard/vinegar sauce.

1 hour ago, Mrs Horribleman said:

What do I need to smoke things properly in my kamado? I've got lump wood charcoal, but what's good for actually smoking? 

 

Also, any good rub recipes?

I do a really simple 1:1:1 paprika, cumin, garlic powder.

Good slug of marsala, a knob of butter, and a dollop of sour cream in the pan with that lot and you'd have had a cracking sauce to go with it.

Important notice. The newish McDonalds touch ordering things let you customise your order. I may have had a sextuple sausage and egg muffin on Monday. Sadly you can't add more cheese, it's on/off only.

10 hours ago, Jonny5 said:

@Cras sorry missed this. It wasn't the fat on top, but the veins of fat running through the middle that I was talking about. I think a little longer would have reduced them and left the meat super tender. 

I'm really surprised. 5-6 hours at 225-250 is usually perfect for me for short ribs. Any idea what temp you pulled them off at?

10 hours ago, Jonny5 said:

I found some beef short ribs in the supermarket yesterday and did them with a small piece of pork belly for my parents. 6 or so hours in the smoker and an hour resting in the warming oven and they came out looking great. Sadly I didn't get any pics. 

 

Not sure actually like beef ribs mind, they were super tender but had a slight gelatinous texture. Not sure if I needed to do them a bit longer to render more of the fat, but everyone else said they were nice so it might just be me.

 

The super cheap and cheerful bit of pork was great though, really nice bark and smoky colouration. 

Did you take the silverskin off the top of the rib? If you don't, cooking it will just turn it into a chewy jelly slab that'll never render down.