Social Saturday is BBQ Day V3 - How big is your meat?

[Dober4]

Interesting. I'm a high heat guy cooking my steaks on the grill at 600+. Let us know how things turn out!

EDIT: Steaks from a few days ago:

View attachment 783244

Looks amazing, I prefer hot and fast as well when smoking and grilling.

The tenderness of the sous vide can’t be matched, plus my wife doesn’t like too much of a smoky flavor. I guess doing both is best of both worlds plus you still have to sear off the sous vide steaks so you can do both when they are ready.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Sous vide >

 

[MASShole]

I've done a lot of sous vide steaks. I just did true reverse sear NY strips two nights ago, and it beats SV hands down. The dryness of the exterior browns up so much better, and it was fantastic. I did them 225 in the oven for about 1 hour until IT was 120ish. I had my chimney starter roaring, put a grate on it, then put a cast iron pan on that. Sear, butter baste, flip, sear, butter baste, sear the fat cap. Brilliant.

I smoked some wagyu briskets for father's day to sell. Holy shit. I finished two 17 lb Aussia A9 wagyu briskets in 6.5 and 7.5 hours, smoked at 275. Unreal.

 

[Iron Nick]

My mother told me not to speak with elderly men asking about the size of my meat...

 

[milliniar]

I’m doing an experiment to see what I like better, sous vide or reverse seared steak.

Using rib eye cap, salt and pepper for sous vide and salt, pepper and olive oil for the grill.

 

[MASShole]

I’m doing an experiment to see what I like better, sous vide or reverse seared steak.

Using rib eye cap, salt and pepper for sous vide and salt, pepper and olive oil for the grill.

It's been a day. Results?

 

[xHeadx]

Beef fajitas, pork ribeyes & sausage going on the grill soon. Pics to follow once I can get to my PC.

EDIT: pics

 

[Te Huna Matata]

I smoked some wagyu briskets for father's day to sell. Holy shit. I finished two 17 lb Aussia A9 wagyu briskets in 6.5 and 7.5 hours, smoked at 275. Unreal.

Gotta be the amount of fat vs. meat in waygu, right? No way it should finish up that quickly.

 

[davidlemonparty]

I'm pretty much a BBQ rookie but I have just purchased this fella and can't wait to get into it:



It's a Hark Chubby.

http://hark.com.au/hark-units/smoke/hark-chubby-offset-smoker.html

Should arrive in a week or so. I have also got a trailer full of Iron Bark to start burning. Iron bark is a local hardwood species. Scouting around now for some other woods like fruit tree offcuts to stockpile for the future!

So excited to start playing with it. The hardest part is choosing what to try and smoke first?!
I would like something relatively foolproof to start me off on the right foot. Is brisket appropriate or should I try and develop my pit management skill a bit first?

Also looking forward to just high temp charcoal grilling steaks and corn and such in the firebox.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Brisket is the most difficult smoke I've had and an offset is the most difficult smoker to use. So I would NOT smoke a brisket right out of the gate.

Pork spare ribs would be my recommendation. If you don't want to do that then a pork butt.

 

[sleepwalk]

Sherdog doesn't want my camera uploads but I can post my tweets. Made these ribs last week.

 

[davidlemonparty]

Brisket is the most difficult smoke I've had and an offset is the most difficult smoker to use. So I would NOT smoke a brisket right out of the gate.

Pork spare ribs would be my recommendation. If you don't want to do that then a pork butt.

Cool. I like all cuts and animals, not opposed to anything. Big agricultural scene around me so every variety and cut is available luckily.
Are the pork spare ribs particularly forgiving?

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Cool. I like all cuts and animals, not opposed to anything. Big agricultural scene around me so every variety and cut is available luckily.
Are the pork spare ribs particularly forgiving?

Extremely. That's why I suggested it.

 

[Te Huna Matata]

Sherdog doesn't want my camera uploads but I can post my tweets. Made these ribs last week.

Most will say overcooked. I personally don't have an issue but many will.

 

[xHeadx]

Most will say overcooked. I personally don't have an issue but many will.

Funny that way isn't it? Not sure why falling off the bone is bad vs stay on with a bite. I'd grub those ribs.

 

[davidlemonparty]

Extremely. That's why I suggested it.

Nice man, thanks, I'll take a look at the butcher next week.

 

[usmctanker242]

Cool. I like all cuts and animals, not opposed to anything. Big agricultural scene around me so every variety and cut is available luckily.
Are the pork spare ribs particularly forgiving?

First cook on new cooker = Pork Butt. Pork Butts are super well marbled so they can stand up to high heat changes, they are easy to cook, and even when cooked "wrong" they still have a lot of very good meat. It's also a "long cook" type of meat, like a brisket, so you'll get a lot of good experience out of the cook.

Congrats on the new cooker and I recommend spending a few hours running the smoker "dry" with no meat. Get your fire management down, learn how your wood creates and replenishes the coal bed, and try to see the swing of temperatures. I can't stress it enough but keeping that coal bed is what's going to give you the best results when running a stickburner. I've never used Iron Bark so I have no idea how it burns, or how well it "coals up," so you'll need to do some tests with it and see how it goes. Better to do this when you don't have food on the cooker, so if you have issues you won't be potentially bathing the meat in shitty smoke.

I'm going to link this video about fire management because it's very good and explains how to maintain a fire, what to do if your wood won't catch on fire, etc..

 

[usmctanker242]

Funny that way isn't it? Not sure why falling off the bone is bad vs stay on with a bite. I'd grub those ribs.

Falling off the bone can lead to a mushy texture which not everyone finds appealing. When I do ribs for my food truck I try to get them almost perfectly tender like I would for a KCBS competition. When I first opened everyone wanted "falling off the bone" and I was giving them "just a bit of bite," but now everyone wants "just a bit of bite" as there's more texture, and it's a better "mouth feel" when done properly. People had never had ribs with a bit of texture, so all they knew was "fall off the bone." I showed them something different and I've converted just about every one of my rib customers to "just a bit of bite."

 

[sleepwalk]

Most will say overcooked. I personally don't have an issue but many will.

Falling off the bone can lead to a mushy texture which not everyone finds appealing. When I do ribs for my food truck I try to get them almost perfectly tender like I would for a KCBS competition. When I first opened everyone wanted "falling off the bone" and I was giving them "just a bit of bite," but now everyone wants "just a bit of bite" as there's more texture, and it's a better "mouth feel" when done properly. People had never had ribs with a bit of texture, so all they knew was "fall off the bone." I showed them something different and I've converted just about every one of my rib customers to "just a bit of bite."

Yeah. This is happening more frequently since I started wrapping them at 165°. I'll probably wrap them earlier (135°) in the future.

 

[usmctanker242]

Yeah. This is happening more frequently since I started wrapping them at 165°. I'll probably wrap them earlier (135°) in the future.

I wrap at 165-170 because you want to get some bark formation and smoke on the meat. If you wrap too early when the bark hasn't set then you'll get a mushy layer of seasoning rather than bark. To get that "bit of a bite" texture you'll want to pull the ribs out of the cooker a bit earlier than if you were going for "fall off the bone." I use a Thermoworks Pop digital thermometer to test for tenderness and temperature, and I get the probe right down there in the meat between the bones. Usually 195-200 is perfect for "a bit of bite" and then I let them rest, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, drain the liquids, and wrap them and put them in the hot box. This allows for the meat to cool a bit to stop the cooking process, and removing the liquid stops the meat from over-cooking and getting mushy.

When I'm cooking for myself I usually do ribs 275° for 4 hours with no wrapping...mind you I'm talking about spare ribs that I've trimmed down to a St. Louis cut. That 4 hours just about nails the head on tenderness everytime, but I use the probe and check for tenderness and keep them on the cooker if they are still a bit tight.