Ho ho holy moly today was a fun cooking day. Ribeye roast dry brined then slathered in an herb butter. Smoked until internal temp of 124F°. Then seared in a450F°oven. Served with Bourbon Maple Glazed Bacon Wrapped Carrots, mashed potatoes, demi glacé, and horseradish. Shrimp cocktail on the side. I might be ready for a long winter’s nap. 💤
Nice thick piece of halibut with Italian bread seasoning and the homemade today French Onion Soup. Wild rice side and the Baguette shown in a previous post. A bottle of nice Italian wine too. Flavorful Christmas Eve dinner for the two of us. Alone for the holiday this year, we had the entire family for Thanksgiving, so we deserve the solitude. Leg of lamb tomorrow.
SheilaAnn. Thanks. We were happy with the results. We made it early and cooled it down. After the reheat we noticed that the flavor did improve as sweeter. Maybe like reheating tomato sauce, it's always better.
I've been eyeing this non-traditional Texas chili (relax, there are no beans!) for awhile. It's Meat Church / Matt Pittman's "Over the Top Chili:" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xgzliVfSvMs
It's called Over the Top, not because it is the chili to end all chilies, but that you smoke the meat over the chili base, so the fat and juices will drip down into it and then once the meat is smoked, you break it up and mix it in and continue simmering.
The base comes together rather quickly. In a large smoker-safe pot, soften three diced red onions, an entire head of roasted garlic, and an entire 7 oz can of chipotle chiles in adobe sauce.
You next mix in about 70 ounces of fire-roasted tomatoes. Alas, I goofed. I thought all Muir Glen products were fire-roasted. No, only the 14.5 oz cans are; the 28 oz ones are not. You can see how I easily missed it on the label.
Those non-fire-roasted ones look practically naked.
Still, Muir Glen is a very high quality tomato product so I wasn't too annoyed. Once you mix those in, add five tablespoons of your favorite chili seasoning, a whole jalapeño, and about 2 ounces of Mexican chocolate. I could not find this in time, so I used the next best thing I could find.
Blend that all together and stage in your smoker. Next combine two pounds of beef and one pound of hot breakfast sausage. Matt made this with venison rather than beef, so I opted for ground sirloin to approximate the leanness of the venison. Season everything with a tablespoon of chili seasoning and form in a ball and place over a wire rack that you will then take out to your smoker....
....and realize you have made a bit of an error.
My Chimp is not big enough to fit everything! (OOPS!) Okay, so my ball of meat became more of a flat disc, perhaps pancake!
Not much room here! But, I am going to roll with it.
I let the Chimp go for 3.5 hours at 225 F PRO mode. The meat stalled out on me around 130 F. I also was getting concerned that the disc shape was going to result in the edges getting far more done than the center. I also wanted to have as much time as possible for this meat to simmer in the chili itself. So, I left the pot going along at 225 F and took the meat puck inside, cut it in fourths, and finished it to 160 F at 350 F in the oven.
I then broke apart the meat.....
....and added it back to the chili. I kept this going for another 4.5 hours at 225 F, stirring every hour.
I also did a little bit of an experiment. I tasted the chili every hour. Simmering for a long time does do something. The meat became more velvety, if you will, and yes, the flavors did "meld," as it were.
Here we are after a grand total of nine hours of cooking time.
I plated it up with some fresh cornbread, courtesy of my local HEB.
This was very good and ground meat chilies are usually not my first choice. The chipotle really mellowed over the long cook and really melded exceptionally well with the chocolate. It is a relatively mild chili, which was perfect for my wife (I added a dash of cayenne at the end for mine).
What would I do differently? Actually, ground venison....I might give that a try one of these days. Also, I'd used crushed chipotles rather than whole as some of them didn't fully break down. I also would use actual Mexican chocolate and I might give Matt's commercial Texas chili seasoning a try. And, of course, have all diced tomatoes be fire-roasted.
AND.... I got everything done, the Chimp off and cooled and covered up before, the hailstorm came by.
Looks great and I’ll have to try smoking my chili some time.
Muir Glen does make 28 oz cans of the fire roasted tomatoes, as I bought them at Kroger last week for a big batch of chili I made. Maybe your market doesn’t sell them or you just grabbed the wrong ones… they have fire roasted and regular in both sizes.
If not cooking outdoors, I am cooking on the stovetop with my 14" carbon steel wok, 12" CI skillet, or in the oven with my two Lodge CI pizza pans, or two dutch ovens. I've also got a nifty Lodge carbon steel grill pan that rocks for veggies outdoors.
Today was our big Christmas celebration with kids and grandkids. Tradition is that everyone picks a food - these days meaning they bring it to the gathering.
My son used my grill to make the Wings of Christmas! Korean BBQ and Buffalo…
My contribution was a 6 pound “eye of ribeye” roast after trimming and parting out what started as a 23 pound rib roast. I was initially gonna go SV, but decided to go old school with the kettle and SnS.
Seasoned with more good spices from the Texas meatup!
Here we are tied up and rolling…
Sadly the thick end was running 20 degrees behind the thin end, so when the thin end hit 120, I cut the roast in half and pulled the part that was 120. Once both hit it, I commenced searing.
All in all I was extremely pleased… and it was a hit. Pulled it all at 130, carryover may have taken it to 135. I’ve never had more juice on a cutting board!
(Made the maple bourbon glaze yesterday using the Hey Grill Hey recipe) Wife made cheesy taters and carrots while I did the 13lb double smoked ham from the free side. Started cooking at 0728 were eating at 1:20 (I think I threw the ham in my cold smoker to hold at about 12:30 and then 15 minutes before serving put the glaze on and in the MAK at 500)
Smokin-It 3D
Weber Kettle with an SNS
Masterbuilt kettle that I call the $30 wonder grill
Bullet by Bull Grills gasser
Anova WiFi sous vide machine
Thermoworks Thermapen and Chef Alarm
Bought a choice peeled beef tenderloin from Costco 3 weeks ago. Then I watched a Chubbs Beef Wellington video and thought, why not?
well this was a journey. Smoked it first until it hit 110° then put it in a freezer vac for 2 days. Then I gradually made the rest. I finished it in the oven at our lake house.
lots of learning curves here and I will make this again. It was delicious. No leftovers! If you think brisket is hard then try this. I also did a prime ribeye, just in case.
> Weber Genesis EP-330
> Grilla Grills Original Grilla (OG) pellet smoker with Alpha/Connect
> Grilla Grills Pellet Pizza Oven
> Pit Barrel Cooker (gone to a new home)
> WeberQ 2000 (on "loan" to a relative (I'll never see it again))
> Old Smokey Electric (for chickens mostly - when it's too nasty out
to fiddle with a more capable cooker)
> Luhr Jensen Little Chief Electric - Top Loader circa 1990 (smoked fish & jerky)
> Thermoworks Smoke
> 3 Thermoworks Chef Alarms
> Thermoworks Thermapen One
> Thermoworks Thermapen Classic
> Thermoworks Thermopop
> Thermoworks Square DOT
> Thermoworks IR-GUN-S
> Joule Turbo Sous Vide Circulator
> Searzall torch
> BBQ Guru Rib Ring
> WÜSTHOF, Dalstrong, and Buck knives
> Paprika App on Mac and iOS
So, thanks to my Secret Santa (SS), I had a bunch of mighty fine-looking Nebraska Piedmontese Beef to choose from for Xmas dinner:
We decided that New York Strip steak was the way to go:
Here's one ... seasoned, and ready for the grill:
After 8-10 minutes of "human rotisserie" time on a screaming hot grill ... flipping and rotating every 60 seconds until reaching 125F(ish) IT:
Then sliced and served:
Still not sure who my SS was (although I've got suspicions (YOU know who you are)) ... but DANG ... this was some of the finest tasting beef I've ever had ...
Baked chicken thighs, string beans with potatoes (I call them "diner green beans",) cornbread dressing and a pumpkin pie-cake thingy for dessert (too doughy, needs a recipe adjustment).
It wasn't a spectacular looking meal, but it was pretty good. I didn't bother to style the plate for the image.
22” Blue Weber Kettle with SnS insert
Kamado Joe Jr with Kick Ash Basket
Char-Broil Smartchef Tru Infrared Gasser
Anovo Hot Tub Time Machine with Custom Hot Tub
Carolyn I’m in Chicago right now. When I get home, I will copy it for you. It’s from TK’s Ad Hoc restaurant. So yeah, it’s a little time consuming. But worth it. And why I only make it once a year!
Just me and my lovely bride for the holiday, and she claimed the role of leading the charge for our prime rib roast beast, so I took the supporting role.
Got this here Angus Choice 3-bone roast from Wild Fork, weighing in at 7.75lb/3.5kg. Dry brined it for 48 hours, then it got slathered with a compound butter with S&P, garlic powder, thyme, and rosemary. Into the oven at 250/120 with two temp probes, one in the center of the thickest part and another where the cut narrowed by about half, just to see how much higher the temp would end up there when the core got to its IT because I was curious.
Game plan was pull it when the core reached 118/48, and let rest tented in foil while my lovely bride upped the oven to 400/200 to bake a Yorkshire pudding in a CI skillet (about 30 min), then crank the oven to 500/260 and put the roast back in for 5-10 minutes for the final crust, with service immediately. Spoiler alert: carried over waaaaaay more than expected...
After dry brining:
Slather'd:
After almost exactly four hours, core reached 118/48 and out she came.
By this time, the narrower section had reached 147/64, and to our dismay, just sitting on the counter the core carried over all the way to 139/59!! By then the narrower section was at 156/69. Fortunately, the final crust step did not further elevate the temps in either spot. Check it out (I did not measure the oven temp during the sear, so the oven profile ends when the first step finished):
Meanwhile, my lovely bride's Yorkshire:
And the roast after the crust/sear step:
I made us some twice-baked taters using a few strips of bacon I smoked in the morning for lunchtime BLTs, some minced sweet onion (store was out of green onion), sour cream, cheese, and half & half, plus a red wine reduction sauce using a '21 Frei Brothers Sonoma cabernet, some sous vide bag juice from a chuck roast lunchmeat cook, a dollop of smoked wagyu tallow, some minced garlic and Italian seasoning, and a third of a stick of unsalted butter. Reduced by about 50%, strained solids, added the drippings from the oven pan, and a splash of half & half to finish. Super delicious!!
Not surprisingly, the meat is a lot more done than we were aiming for. But incredibly delicious and very tender for all that. The Yorkshire was not bad for a first try, but a bit too egg-forward. And we had some asparagus spears to go with and the rest of the cab to wash it down A very satisfying holiday feast despite the process escape.
Before the reduction sauce...
...aaaaaaaaand SCENE.
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