I finally gave up on my smoker and decided to get a new smoker. I went with a bigger model but less tech. Yes, its a cheater electric smoker. My 3rd one. I need more space to cook, I don't need help getting my smoke and temp right. :-)
I've also never used injection for flavor except for pork butt or other big cuts of meat. I decided to give it a try. I developed my own injection. Basically like the other recipes you have out on the internet but I'm putting the rub in the injection and using sirracchi.
Full results not in yet but my son and I think its the best sausage we have ever had.
No sauce. Marinated the meat overnight. Injected the meat. Slow cooked the ribs and chicken. Baste it with a combo of butter and apple juice. Using a combination of Apple, Mesquite, Cherry and Hickory wood.
Smoked some Chicken leg quarters and some St. Louis style ribs yesterday.
I didn't have time to sit and fuss with a traditional smoker, so these were done using the sous vide method, 165 degrees for 14 hours for the ribs (two racks, or the time would've been closer to 12 hours) then 40 minutes on the smoker, and 3.5 hours for the chicken at 160 degrees, smoked for 40 minutes, with some applewood chunks. Would've smoked the corn as well, but mom and the GF aren't fans of smoked corn.
Trick here is to drop the bags of meat into an ice bath for at least an hour after cooking to firm up the flesh. Otherwise if you go directly to the smoker it can be a little mushy sometimes. Then smoke at 250 until the internal temp hits at least 130. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Smoked some Chicken leg quarters and some St. Louis style ribs yesterday.
I didn't have time to sit and fuss with a traditional smoker, so these were done using the sous vide method, 165 degrees for 14 hours for the ribs (two racks, or the time would've been closer to 12 hours) then 40 minutes on the smoker, and 3.5 hours for the chicken at 160 degrees, smoked for 40 minutes, with some applewood chunks. Would've smoked the corn as well, but mom and the GF aren't fans of smoked corn.
Trick here is to drop the bags of meat into an ice bath for at least an hour after cooking to firm up the flesh. Otherwise if you go directly to the smoker it can be a little mushy sometimes. Then smoke at 250 until the internal temp hits at least 130.
Interesting. Does smoke penetrate precooked meat? I have my doubts but I've never tried it. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MTG#10:
Interesting. Does smoke penetrate precooked meat? I have my doubts but I've never tried it.
Short answer: yes, smoke will penetrate cooked meat. It will not produce a smoke ring though.
Caveat: bearing in mind that I've only used the sous vide method for racks of ribs about a half-a-dozen times, my experience so far is that while smoke will penetrate to some degree into cooked meats, it's pretty mild compared to using a traditional wood/charcoal-fired smoker.
The longest I've smoked a rack of ribs after sous vide is about 2.5 hours at around 200 degrees and it imparted a decent smokiness to the meat, but compared to what you can get from traditional smoking, it's about half the smokiness, IMO.
I cheated with these two sets by adding about 15 drops of liquid smoke to the 'marinade' (not a true marinade; just mayo with the liquid smoke stirred in) before brushing it on and sealing in the bags. I use mayo because it doesn't really add any flavor and makes the rub stick to the meat more easily. During cooking it just melts off.
If I were going to go without cheating I would've used about 225 degrees in the smoker and smoked the ribs for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the internal temp got up to 140 degrees max. And I would've used twice the wood chunks to produce as much smoke as possible.
But the true advantage/benefit of sous vide is the relative simplicity (set it/forget it) and the fact that you literally can't over-cook meat. Oh, and that you tend to use less than half the marinade/rub/seasoning that you would traditionally. [Reply]
I smoke first, then bathe, followed by another hour on grill to bark it up.
3-2-1 but longer in the bath. I get consistently great ribs but prefer to cook on smoker 100%. very little wrap time
Originally Posted by Megatron96:
Short answer: yes, smoke will penetrate cooked meat. It will not produce a smoke ring though.
Caveat: bearing in mind that I've only used the sous vide method for racks of ribs about a half-a-dozen times, my experience so far is that while smoke will penetrate to some degree into cooked meats, it's pretty mild compared to using a traditional wood/charcoal-fired smoker.
The longest I've smoked a rack of ribs after sous vide is about 2.5 hours at around 200 degrees and it imparted a decent smokiness to the meat, but compared to what you can get from traditional smoking, it's about half the smokiness, IMO.
I cheated with these two sets by adding about 15 drops of liquid smoke to the 'marinade' (not a true marinade; just mayo with the liquid smoke stirred in) before brushing it on and sealing in the bags. I use mayo because it doesn't really add any flavor and makes the rub stick to the meat more easily. During cooking it just melts off.
If I were going to go without cheating I would've used about 225 degrees in the smoker and smoked the ribs for about 1.5-2 hours, or until the internal temp got up to 140 degrees max. And I would've used twice the wood chunks to produce as much smoke as possible.
But the true advantage/benefit of sous vide is the relative simplicity (set it/forget it) and the fact that you literally can't over-cook meat. Oh, and that you tend to use less than half the marinade/rub/seasoning that you would traditionally.
I wasn’t optimistic, but we had some flank steak in the freezer from forever ago so I decided to give it a run.
The big deal is I hate sandwiches and it was coming up on harvest time so I was hoping to eat some of this instead of snotty ass sandwiches. I fucking hate sandwiches.
Anyway, we (read:me. The wife warned me) were a little overzealous on the pepper. And we overcooked it - which is fine with me. I’d rather have dry jerky than greasy chewy jerky.
When it got down to eating the stuff HOLY FUCKING SHIT IT WAS GOOD. It was way better than I expected and had a ton more flavor than I was expecting. It was really amazing. Since I overdid the pepper I have to have a drink on hand but this stuff is really good. And not too intensive. Trimming that stupid flank steak was the hardest part.
Goddamn this shit was good. I will definitely be doing this again soon. Like right after harvest. Beer I used was Boulevard wheat. Not a dark but did well surprisingly I could pick it out of the flavor profile.
Originally Posted by BryanBusby:
You'll learn soon that it's better to just do a packers
Heh, I've done at least 50 packers...this will actually be the first time I've ever done just a flat. It was an impulse purchase, it looked great behind the butcher's glass, was on sale and I will have plenty of space for it with my beef ribs. [Reply]
Originally Posted by MTG#10:
Heh, I've done at least 50 packers...this will actually be the first time I've ever done just a flat. It was an impulse purchase, it looked great behind the butcher's glass, was on sale and I will have plenty of space for it with my beef ribs.
Just flats are hard to keep from being dry and shitty. I'd inject it to keep it from drying out or something. [Reply]
