I've been doing a lot of mixing sous vide and my kettle lately and I really, really enjoy the combination—especially when dealing with meats like sausages, burgers, and even poultry that would normally require being cooked to a higher temp. My general cook looks like this:
1. Sous-vide to desired temperature (this usually is only an hour or two in the bath since I'm not working with tough meats yet).
2. Remove, dry, cool. (I don't necessarily cool it a lot, just enough that I can pop it in the kettle and get 30 - 60 minutes of smoke in somewhere between 225 and 350 depending on the time needed and the meat I'm using.)
3. Smoke for 30 - 60 minutes on the indirect side of the grill.
4. Remove, pat dry, (salt now if I'm dealing with ground meat), spice, and sometimes oil (like butter on burgers).
5. Sear.
I'm using three different cooking techniques to do three different things.
The sous vide gets me safe meat that's cooked as far as it needs to be. It's generally very juicy.
The short smoking gets me... smoke. (I've found that I lose very little moisture here in terms of drippings or evaporation here.)
The sear gets me a crust.
This combination works really well for certain things. It's king for burgers. It's also excellent for poultry—especially breasts. I think it'd be extra work with no real gain on steaks, but I haven't really tried.
Anyway, this is a lot of almost unnecessary lead up to the original point of this post. I recently got the Slow'N Sear griddle/drip pan. I love that thing. I can't say enough nice about it.
Recently I've been doing my browning on the griddle rather than over the grill. While the temperature isn't as high (you're not supposed to go warp 10 since it can warp) you're getting better heat transfer overall from conduction rather than convection. My question really boils down to this:
What do I actually get using the grill over the griddle? The "cold grill" method—which for the record, is awesome—specifically avoids overdoing conduction on the grill in order to make sure browning is even. Seems like the griddle is the opposite approach with the same goal: even browning through even conduction. The max temperature isn't as high but the transfer method is more efficient.
Obviously, I get smoke aspect. This is why even someone who grills the occasional dry burger at a summer cookout still likes it. However, how much extra smoke flavor am I really picking up if my burgers have been smoking for 30-40 minutes already? Other than smoke (and having to fight flames), is there a good reason to go grill over griddle (even if it sounds a little heretical)? I have made some very, very fine steaks sous-vide + cast iron skillet. I wonder if a low'n slow/smoke in the kettle steak finished on cast iron would be hugely different tasting than the the cold grill method. After all, the primary goal of the sear portion is crust and browning.
I would have never even considered this if not for the comments in Meathead about how most of the best burgers were done over a griddle rather than an open flame.
So, in short, if I've already got smoke, what does grilling actually do for me that a griddle doesn't? Is there more happening than just browning on the sear step that I should care about if the meat has already soaked up smoke?
1. Sous-vide to desired temperature (this usually is only an hour or two in the bath since I'm not working with tough meats yet).
2. Remove, dry, cool. (I don't necessarily cool it a lot, just enough that I can pop it in the kettle and get 30 - 60 minutes of smoke in somewhere between 225 and 350 depending on the time needed and the meat I'm using.)
3. Smoke for 30 - 60 minutes on the indirect side of the grill.
4. Remove, pat dry, (salt now if I'm dealing with ground meat), spice, and sometimes oil (like butter on burgers).
5. Sear.
I'm using three different cooking techniques to do three different things.
The sous vide gets me safe meat that's cooked as far as it needs to be. It's generally very juicy.
The short smoking gets me... smoke. (I've found that I lose very little moisture here in terms of drippings or evaporation here.)
The sear gets me a crust.
This combination works really well for certain things. It's king for burgers. It's also excellent for poultry—especially breasts. I think it'd be extra work with no real gain on steaks, but I haven't really tried.
Anyway, this is a lot of almost unnecessary lead up to the original point of this post. I recently got the Slow'N Sear griddle/drip pan. I love that thing. I can't say enough nice about it.
Recently I've been doing my browning on the griddle rather than over the grill. While the temperature isn't as high (you're not supposed to go warp 10 since it can warp) you're getting better heat transfer overall from conduction rather than convection. My question really boils down to this:
What do I actually get using the grill over the griddle? The "cold grill" method—which for the record, is awesome—specifically avoids overdoing conduction on the grill in order to make sure browning is even. Seems like the griddle is the opposite approach with the same goal: even browning through even conduction. The max temperature isn't as high but the transfer method is more efficient.
Obviously, I get smoke aspect. This is why even someone who grills the occasional dry burger at a summer cookout still likes it. However, how much extra smoke flavor am I really picking up if my burgers have been smoking for 30-40 minutes already? Other than smoke (and having to fight flames), is there a good reason to go grill over griddle (even if it sounds a little heretical)? I have made some very, very fine steaks sous-vide + cast iron skillet. I wonder if a low'n slow/smoke in the kettle steak finished on cast iron would be hugely different tasting than the the cold grill method. After all, the primary goal of the sear portion is crust and browning.
I would have never even considered this if not for the comments in Meathead about how most of the best burgers were done over a griddle rather than an open flame.
So, in short, if I've already got smoke, what does grilling actually do for me that a griddle doesn't? Is there more happening than just browning on the sear step that I should care about if the meat has already soaked up smoke?
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