So I made a NY strip on my 22" kettle tonight. I did the slow and sear, but I overshot medium rare by a few degrees. I dry brined for about two hours ahead of time. I peppered the steak when it was time to sear.
Here's where things got strange: I threw some hickory chips on the charcoal during the indirect part of the cook. When the steak was done, it had some very obvious ham flavors.
So here's what I learned:
1. Skip the wood.
2. Apparently you can make beef taste like ham.
Started this tasty craziness in 2018.
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Home is the Seattle area...
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I prefer beef, especially steak, with little to no wood smoke, the charcoal is enough. I tend to agree with MBMorgan though that your ham taste might be more from burned pepper or rub than from wood smoke.
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I’d blame the brine I think, it is weird, I always let them rest on the counter, season, then slam em on top of the coals though, too scared to try another way
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I cook eat s lot of choice chuck roast steaks 2 to2 1/2†thick if I don’t dry brine them at least 5 hrs they will be tough at medium rare temps, dry brineing makes all the difference in the world on tougher cuts of meats. But a good Ribeye can get by with salting at cook which I will do if Crunched for time 🤓
I’m betting it was the hickory. Hickory tends to make everything taste like bacon. I typically use oak for beef. I regularly dry brine beef and it doesn’t make it taste like ham.
I haven't experience ham flavor, but I dry-brine regularly and have learned to be very sparing with hickory chips, doubly so with the leaner cuts of meat. I've ended up eating a tree limb; not pleasant! So I'll vote for the hickory culprit. Pecan's a more forgiving substitute for me.
Don't short-time brine. That leaves a residual saltiness. Brine like you mean it - overnight. That gives enough time for electrolysis to do it's thing. IMHO
I also, like others above, do not use hickory on beef unless it's a long cook, like brisket (then I'll use a competition mix for complexity). But I do use mesquite, and love it for shorter beef smoke then sear sessions. We had porterhouse like that 2-3 days ago, and it was SO tender. I can't remember, but I don't think any pepper was involved. Personal taste I suppose, but if you brine overnight and use KBB & mesquite, adding pepper is a bit of an insult to the taste profile you're getting rewarded with for you're efforts.
John "JR"
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I would guess that it was some thing to do with the wood you threw on the fire. Especially if the wood was not put right on the fire. All kinds of weird flavors can develop if the wood chips smolder. But who really knows at this point? The meat has been eaten! LOL
Retired, living in Western Mass. Enjoy music, cooking and my family.
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Well, I'll let you know in about 3 hours. ribeye in SV bath as I type this. DB'ed for about 2 hours. When it hits 130, shock it, on the CI for the sear. I'll be using vegtable oil reference that thread. pepper it. And an old fashion russet bake potato. However, wrote down avocado oil on my shopping list. By reading that thread, I now really know how much I don't know. It's a lot.
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